num_pages: 293
description: Taking off from England on March 16 1944 young Lt. George Starks and the nine-man crew of his Flying Fortress were assigned to the coffin corner the most exposed position in the bomber formation headed for Germany. They never got there. Shot down over Nazi-occupied France the airmen bailed out one by one scattered across the countryside. Miraculously all ten survived but as they discarded their parachutes in the farmland of Champagne their wartime odyssey was only beginning.Alone with a broken foot and a 20mm shell fragment in his thigh twenty-year-old Starks set out on an incredible 300-mile trek to Switzerland making his way with the help of ordinary men and women who often put themselves in great danger on his behalf. Six weeks later on the verge of giving up Starks found himself in the hands of a heroic member of the French Resistancehe calls him the bravest man Ive ever knownwho got him safely across the heavily guarded border.Similar ordeals awaited the other nine crewmen who faced injury betrayal cap-tivity hunger and depression. It was nothing short of miraculous that all ten came home at the end of the war.George Starks emerged from his ordeal with two passionsto stay in touch with his crew whatever the obstacles and to return to France to find and thank the brave souls to whom he owed his life. His enduring loyalty enabled him to do both.
language: English
title: Coffin Corner Boys: One Bomber, Ten Men, and Their Harrowing Escape from Nazi-Occupied France
publisher: Regnery History