The airmen and the headhunters : a true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II

Resource Information

The work The airmen and the headhunters : a true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Grosse Pointe Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The airmen and the headhunters : a true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II

Title remainder

a true story of lost soldiers, heroic tribesmen and the unlikeliest rescue of World War II

Statement of responsibility

Judith M. Heimann

Creator

• Heimann, Judith M

Subject

• Dayak (Indonesian people)
• United States, Army Air Forces | Bomb Group, 5th | Squadron, 23rd -- History
• Airmen -- United States -- Biography
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Search and rescue operations -- Borneo
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Aerial operations, American

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

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

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

940.54/25983

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps
• plates

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography