"The Forgotten 500 " Topic

"My latest reading is Gregory Freeman's 'The Forgotten 500'. This is the story of Operation Halyard the largest rescue of allied aircrew in WW2. Over 500 airmen were airlifted out of the hills of Nazi occupied Yugoslavia in August 1944

By any standard it is a remarkable story. When the allies captured southern Italy it gave them a number of bases to more effectively target the main Axis oilfields in Romania. Before that it was a long flight from North Africa, infamously undertaken on 1 August 1943 by Liberator bombers. I recommend James Dugan and Carroll Stewart's book 'Ploesti' for the details of that astonishing raid.

Inevitably a large number of bombers didn't make it back to Italy and many crash landed or aircrew bailed out in Yugoslavia. This story deals with those who landed in the hills of Serbia controlled by the Royalist Chetniks, commanded by General Draza Mihailovich. The airmen who landed in this area were supported by Serbian villagers, who generously cared for them as best their own meagre food supplies enabled. The Chetniks gathered most of the airmen together around their headquarters at Pranjane…."

Full review here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I read it about 2 years ago and thought it was a good read. Did not know about that aspect of WWII until I read the book. One of the lasting memories I have from the book was how the communists had infiltrated the British Military Intelligence service. There was a relatively senior British officer who was hindering efforts to bring back the 500. Many of the 500 knew of a non-communist Yugoslav leader (forgot his name). But he was a rival to Tito and was unfortunately executed by the communists.

Poor guy….

Amicalement
Armand