Among the headhunters
Subtitle: an extraordinary World War II story of survival in the Burmese jungle
By: Robert Lyman
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9780306824678
Subjects: Naga (South Asian people); Jungle warfare; American Aerial operations; World War, 1939-1945; History
Description: "Flying the notorious "Hump" route between India and China in 1943, a twin engine Curtiss-Wright C-46 plane suffered engine failure and crashed over the mountainous, remote border country. Among the passengers and crew were celebrated CBS journalist Eric Sevareid, a Soviet double-agent posing as an OSS operative, and General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell's personal political adviser. Against the odds, all but one of the twenty-one people on the doomed aircraft survived. But they fell from the frying pan into the fire. Disentangling themselves from their chutes the shocked survivors discovered that they had arrived in wild country dominated by a tribe with a reason to hate white men. The Nagas were notorious headhunters who routinely practiced slavery and human sacrifice, their specialty being the removal of enemy heads. And Japanese soldiers lay close by too, with their own brand of a special hatred for American flyers. Among the Headhunters is the first-ever account of this incredible true World War II story of the adventures of these men among the Naga warriors, their sustenance from the air by the USAAF, and ultimate rescue by a military expedition. In this meeting two very different worlds collided, American and Naga. The young, exuberant apostles of the vast industrial democracy of the United States came face-to-face with an ancient race determined to preserve their local power, based on head-hunting and slaving traditions"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 242-246) and index.
Table of contents: title: Dumbastapur; title: Burmese days; title: Banzai!; title: The crash; title: Vinegar Joe; title: The passengers; title: Dr. Sevareid, I presume?; title: Taming the Nagas; title: The 1936 punitive expedition; title: The battle of Pangsha; title: Return to Mokokchung; title: Eric and the headhunters; title: Mongsen; title: The sahib of Mokokchung; title: The long walk home; title: Return to Chabua; title: Blackie's gang.