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Author Heimann, Judith M.

Title The airmen and the headhunters : a true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II / Judith M. Heimann.

Imprint Orlando, Fla. : Harcourt, c2007.

Copies

Location Call No. OPAC Message Status
 Pittsburg 2nd Fl Non-Fiction  940.5425 Hei    ---  Available
Edition 1st ed.
Description 289 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [273]-279) and index.
Summary November 1944: Army airmen set out in a B-24 bomber on what should have been an easy mission off the Borneo coast. Instead they found themselves facing a Japanese fleet--and were shot down. When they cut themselves loose from their parachutes, they were scattered across the island's mountainous interior. Then a group of loincloth-wearing natives silently materialized out of the jungle. Would these Dayak tribesmen turn the starving airmen over to the Japanese occupiers? Or would the Dayaks risk vicious reprisals to get the airmen safely home? The tribal leaders' unprecedented decision led to a desperate game of hide-and-seek, and, ultimately, the return of a long-renounced ritual: head-hunting. This survival story features a bamboo airstrip built on a rice paddy, a mad British major, and a blowpipe-wielding army that helped destroy one of the last Japanese strongholds.--From publisher description.
Subject United States. Army Air Forces. Bomb Group, 5th. Squadron, 23rd -- History.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Search and rescue operations -- Borneo.
World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American.
Airmen -- United States -- Biography.
Dayak (Bornean people)
ISBN 9780151014347
0151014345

 
    
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