Title: The Forgotten 500
Author: Gregory A. Freeman
Original Copyright : 2007
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ( fascinating )
Back-Cover Description
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Here is the astonishing never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II -- When the OSS set out to recover more than five hundred airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia
During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planes--without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back without getting shot down themselves.
Suppressed for more than half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time ever. The Forgotten 500 is the gripping behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II.
My Thoughts
Shortly after the beginning of World War II, the royal family of Yugoslavia was forced to flee the country when the Nazi's took over in 1941. The resistance movement which rallied together to fight this invasion fractured into two parties quickly afterwards. The Pro-Royal Serbs under the guidance of General Milhailovich (the Chetnik's), and the Pro-Communist ( Partisans) under General Tito already looked past the German occupation to the new post-war government. By the middle of the war, the two sides took to fighting each other just as much as the Germans.
The Forgotten 500 is a fascinating view into the logistical nightmare of a daring rescue mission to bring home hundreds of airmen in Nazi occupied mountainous terrain of politically unstable Yugoslavia.
The book is roughly divided into four main parts. The beginning section gives the personal stories of several of the airmen who chose to fly a slow, behemoth of a plane across enemy territory. It was interesting to learn what motivated and drove them to become pilots, tail gunners or the most dangerous of them all, the ball turret gunner. These brave men along with hundreds of others were tasked with bombing a major oil field in Romania and couldn't quite make it home.
The second part tells the stories of the airmen post-bailout in the mountains of the what is now Serbia. The Chetniks saw the American soldiers as liberators and welcomed them with open arms. They did everything they could to protect them, often at the risk of their own lives. This section also outlines the back-story of the OSS, the predecessors to the CIA, and the people responsible for Operation Halyard. One of the more interesting stories in this section is about the OSS officer who was the son of Yugoslavian immigrants; he was responsible for organizing the rescue mission. For those who may decide to read this book, I won't spoil his interesting and serendipitous journey into the OSS, but I will tell you that someone who has that many close calls and chance meetings must be living right.
The third section goes into details about not only the Chetnik/Partisan conflict, but of the politics of allied British and American forces working "together" in the area fighting the Germans. This was by far the most intriguing section of the book. The British were technically the lead force fighting the Germans in Yugoslavia. The Americans were helping where they could but got their direction from good man Churchill. The problem with this was that there was a communist double agent feeding the British misinformation. The double-agent was saying that Milhailovich was secretly aiding the Germans and the Allies needed to support General Tito to make any progress in the area. A rescue couldn't be attempted without British consent and they did everything they could to stall and hinder the mission as they saw it as aiding the enemy.
The final section is the aftermath of the rescue. The troops were told to keep quiet about the rescue mission just in case any future rescues needed to be performed. However, when the war did end, the American soldiers were directed to not openly acknowledge the support given by Mihailovich for fear of upsetting the newly communist Yugoslavia, which was supported by the Russians. Shortly thereafter, Mihailovich was executed for war crimes. The role Mihailovich played in the resistance movement is still a contentious issue today and the many of the same dividing lines drawn in the sand during World War II were still fighting through the war in the Balkans during the 1990's which ended with the creation of Bosnia-Herzogovinia, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro.
The Forgotten 500 was very well written and thoroughly researched book which I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in non-fiction accounts of World-War II or military covert operations.
The Forgotten 500 is a fascinating view into the logistical nightmare of a daring rescue mission to bring home hundreds of airmen in Nazi occupied mountainous terrain of politically unstable Yugoslavia.
The book is roughly divided into four main parts. The beginning section gives the personal stories of several of the airmen who chose to fly a slow, behemoth of a plane across enemy territory. It was interesting to learn what motivated and drove them to become pilots, tail gunners or the most dangerous of them all, the ball turret gunner. These brave men along with hundreds of others were tasked with bombing a major oil field in Romania and couldn't quite make it home.
The second part tells the stories of the airmen post-bailout in the mountains of the what is now Serbia. The Chetniks saw the American soldiers as liberators and welcomed them with open arms. They did everything they could to protect them, often at the risk of their own lives. This section also outlines the back-story of the OSS, the predecessors to the CIA, and the people responsible for Operation Halyard. One of the more interesting stories in this section is about the OSS officer who was the son of Yugoslavian immigrants; he was responsible for organizing the rescue mission. For those who may decide to read this book, I won't spoil his interesting and serendipitous journey into the OSS, but I will tell you that someone who has that many close calls and chance meetings must be living right.
The third section goes into details about not only the Chetnik/Partisan conflict, but of the politics of allied British and American forces working "together" in the area fighting the Germans. This was by far the most intriguing section of the book. The British were technically the lead force fighting the Germans in Yugoslavia. The Americans were helping where they could but got their direction from good man Churchill. The problem with this was that there was a communist double agent feeding the British misinformation. The double-agent was saying that Milhailovich was secretly aiding the Germans and the Allies needed to support General Tito to make any progress in the area. A rescue couldn't be attempted without British consent and they did everything they could to stall and hinder the mission as they saw it as aiding the enemy.
The final section is the aftermath of the rescue. The troops were told to keep quiet about the rescue mission just in case any future rescues needed to be performed. However, when the war did end, the American soldiers were directed to not openly acknowledge the support given by Mihailovich for fear of upsetting the newly communist Yugoslavia, which was supported by the Russians. Shortly thereafter, Mihailovich was executed for war crimes. The role Mihailovich played in the resistance movement is still a contentious issue today and the many of the same dividing lines drawn in the sand during World War II were still fighting through the war in the Balkans during the 1990's which ended with the creation of Bosnia-Herzogovinia, Serbia, Croatia, and Montenegro.
The Forgotten 500 was very well written and thoroughly researched book which I would recommend to anyone who has an interest in non-fiction accounts of World-War II or military covert operations.
Sounds really interesting; and also interesting that you added a non-fiction book to your list. Did you like the change? prefer the fact over fiction? Or, was it a one-off diversion?
ReplyDeleteI'm also intrigued by Mihailovich's role - I didn't know his past was so entwined with ours during the war. However, I shouldn't be surprised as this happened so often (we befriend someone who supports our fight against an enemy but then later this friend turns into a monster).
Thanks for the post!
Hi Tina,
ReplyDeleteThis is the second non-fiction book I've read this year. The first one was "The Professor and the Madman" which was about the creation of the O.E.D.
This particular book was loaned to me by Smith. One of his good friends was one of the airmen rescued and his picture is in it.