REVIEW: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff
I admit that Lost in Shangri-La caught by attention because of Shangri-La in the title. That is what Camp David used to be called and I live near there. However, once I read that cover copy that it was a survival story and rescue mission I was intrigued. Near the end of WWII, a plane took off from a U.S. Army camp in New Guinea. It carried two dozen people and was supposed to be flying on sightseeing trip and giving the soldiers and WACs aboard a little rest and relaxation. That was until the plane crashed in the jungle high in the mountains. Five people survived initially, though two of them died within a day. The remaining three survivors had various injuries, but they managed a three-day hike with nothing to eat but Charms candy. (This fact probably sticks Read more…
Secret message found on pigeon skeleton
Imagine getting a coded message from World War II delivered around 70 years too late. More than 250,000 pigeons were used during the war to deliver messages. The pigeons even had their own arm of the military called the National Pigeon Service. David Martin of England found what is probably the last carrier pigeon message from the war. It was attached to the skeleton of the pigeon that Martin found in a chimney that he was renovating. “Theories suggest the bird was making its way from behind enemy lines, perhaps from Nazi occupied France during the D Day invasions heading toward Bletchley Park which was Britain’s main decryption establishment during World War II,” according to the ABC News report. “Others say the bird likely got lost, disorientated in bad weather or was simply exhausted after its trip across the English Read more…
How a British bomber sunk Washington crossing the Delaware
Since George Washington crossed the Delaware River in 1776 and bombers didn’t make their appearance until the 20 Century, you might be a little confused by my headline to this post. Never fear. An explanation will follow, but a little background first. Washington Crossing the Delaware is an iconic painting of a crucial event in American history. When Washington and his Continental Army crossed the river on Christmas Day in 1776 and captured the Hessian troops in New Jersey, it marked a turning point in the war. Up until that point the fledging United States had lost all of its battles against Great Britain. The success of the sneak attack set the U.S. on the road to winning the war of Independence. Emanuel Leutze immortalized the event in his 1850 painting. The painting, which can be seen in its full Read more…
The Sands of Time Reveal Plane After 70 Years
I wrote about a lost plane that had been found in Alaska after 60 years last month. Now I’ve come across another story of a lost plane. In the 1960’s movie Flight of the Phoenix, James Stewart plays a pilot whose plane crashes in the Sahara in a storm. He then must find a way to get his passengers to safety before they die of thirst or from desert bandits. He eventually does get them to safety. Though the pilot of an American-made Curtiss Kittyhawk P-40 that crashed in desert 70 years ago apparently survived his crash, he may not have been as lucky as Stewart. A Polish oil company worker, Jakub Perka, recently found the nearly intact plane while exploring a remote area of the Western Desert in Egypt about 200 miles from the nearest town. “Perhaps low on Read more…
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