The Airmen and the Headhunters
Subtitle: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II
Publisher: Harcourt
Published: October 8, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780151014347
Subjects: World history: Second World War; Second World War, 1939-1945; Biography And Autobiography; World War II - East Asia; History; History - Military / War; History - U.S.; Military; East Asia, Far East; Asia - India & South Asia; Military - Aviation; Military - United States; Military - World War II; United States - 20th Century; History / United States / 20th Century; Personal Memoirs; Aerial operations, American; Airmen; Biography; Borneo; Search and rescue operations; United States; World War, 1939-1945
Description: 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.