2024 the best books about history review

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The astonishing, never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II—when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia.

“An amazing, riveting tale of unsung heroes who went above and beyond.”—James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers

During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planes—without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back—without getting shot down themselves.
 
Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time ever. The Forgotten 500 is the gripping, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dutton Caliber; Reprint edition (September 2, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0451224957
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0451224958
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.1 x 0.75 x 8.91 inches
Reviewer: Uncle Al 54
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Easy read, interesting history (again, something "they" never told us about in school!)
Review: The smooth flowing narrative follows a story that we should all be aware of. The facts explain what happened, how it happened, the main characters involved, and the sequelae after the fact. Hardly a textbook, it is moving and engaging and reveals a story that every American, and for all that, every Brit, too, should be aware of. If not for one young lady whose letter to her husband piqued him so much that he investigated it and kicked off a series of events, the rescue outlined in this book would never have happened, and further, that despite the best efforts of the British (who'd a thunk?) to quash the rescue, the Americans pulled it off anyway. A thrilling and engaging read, I'd recommend this book to all history buffs, OSS buffs, WWII buffs and students of inquiry. Well written, easy narrative, and well put together.

Reviewer: NolaCollector
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent WWII story.
Review: Great piece of WWII history

Reviewer: Rick Spell
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Saving Soldiers
Review: A little known controversial part of WWII when the Allies went to save downed airmen but other parts of the Allies felt the country's political environment meant we should support others. How do you save airmen lives when there is a battle on whether we should be there? Brave men forced to wait but there are some soldiers willing to pay the price to do what is right. a very good book of an unknown story.

Reviewer: LadyLuck
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A must read
Review: This book was so eye opening. Especially in this day when heroes are being forgotten and lines blurred between patriotism and cultism. This book illuminates the darkness in America during WWll and the BRAVERY and HEROISM of men who are devoted to their Brothers in Arms, and the generosity of the poorest of poor Allies who risked everything including their very lives to protect downed American pilots, sharing their meager food supply and hiding these heroes from terrible enemy. These native Yugoslavians who we had promised to protect and defend but were leaning away from for political reasons. Unfortunately, we learn there were men in our Government who made a decision midway through the war to abandon these pilots and left the villagers nearly helpless to an up-and-coming dictator, Tito. BUT these HEROIC five hundred did their best to survive and those who defied the government to rescue our fallen aviators. They all tried to help the poorest and most beaten down of their saviors LONG after the war ended.

Reviewer: Debra L. Haley
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: outstanding balance of conveying facts and telling a story
Review: I learned so much from reading this book. I was captured by the audacity of the rescue mission. I was intrigued by the decades of politics that failed to recognize true leadership and sacrifice. But most of all the love of the Serbians who protected downed Americans at a very high personal cost was heart wrenching.

Reviewer: Michael N Vanatta
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: a staunch friend of the United States hated the Nazis and wanted to free his country from ...
Review: The Forgotten 500ByGregory A. FreemanEvery once in a while you discover a book that envelopes your emotions and you wonder how those events could happen. This is one of those stories, a true story.During WWII one of the Nazis’ main sources of fuel was an oil refinery in Ploesti, Romania. The Allied Powers made it their mission to destroy this refinery by sending countless missions from Brindisi, Italy, over Yugoslavia to Ploesti to bomb the facility. In the course of these missions, many B24 bombers were shot down and hundreds of Allied flyers (mostly Americans) were stranded behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia, a country that most did not know the language or customs.At that time in Yugoslavia there were two ruling factions. Draza Mihailovich, a staunch friend of the United States hated the Nazis and wanted to free his country from their grasp. Josip Broz Tito, a communist and ally of Russia also hated the Nazis, wanted to get rid of them and, interestingly enough, the two men hated each other. You had a dramatic triad, Mihailovich and Tito, each commanding thousands of soldiers fighting each other for control of Yugoslavia and each fighting the Nazis, their common enemy.Flyers would parachute into Yugoslavia, not having any idea how they would be received by the populace and wondering if they would be turned over to the Nazis. Much to their surprise and relief villagers would welcome them, hide them in their homes and share their meager supply of food. These villagers would risk their lives guiding them through the mountains of Yugoslavia to the troops of Mihailovich. English speaking Yugoslavians were few and far between and most communication was with gestures and pantomime.After days and, sometimes weeks, the group would reach Pranjane, Yugoslavia and be united with other flyers. This was Mihailovich’s accumulation point and ended up holding approximately 500 airmen. They would spend months with nothing to occupy their time and no communication with the allies.During this time, on a political front, Mihailovich was falling out of favor with the British because of the machinations of a Russian mole named James Klugman placed high in British intelligence. This had the effect of spoiling his relationship with the Americans, as well, though totally unfair. The few Americans who had spent time with Mihailovich behind enemy lines and had made it back knew the truth and were a small group trying to salvage the relationship and put together a rescue for the downed flyers.After several failed attempts to land an initial team at Pranjane to help prepare for the rescue as a combined British and American effort, the Americans decided to go it alone because of their belief of British sabotage. The Americans were able to land the team and, using the men there, built a runway in the mountainous region with hand tools which was no small effort. C-47 cargo planes were the ones chosen for the exfiltration and required a landing strip of 700 feet. The one built was exactly 700 feet with trees and mountains all around it. There was no room for error.Considering the fact that each plane only would hold 12 passengers and held just enough fuel to make the round trip from Brindisi to Pranjane, it is no small miracle that between August 9, 1944 and December 28, 1944, the Americans rescued over 500 airmen, 345 of them Americans with no fatalities. This, despite the fact they were flying over enemy territory in slow planes, easy targets for German Messerschmitt fighters.The trumped up case of Mihailovich collaborating with the enemy got worse because of Klugman and other communists in the ranks and he was cut off from the United States. Despite this, he remained a friend to the end and saw to it the airmen were protected at Pranjane through the entire operation.Not much longer the war ended and Tito gained control of Yugoslavia. He still hated Mihailovich and had him executed. Though Mihailovich was a friend to the very end, we aided in his execution and the eventual Communist control of Yugoslavia. Not our finest moment in history.Winston Churchill was later quoted saying that his handling of Yugoslavia was his biggest mistake of the war.In 1997 declassified British papers confirmed the Klugman/Mihailovich story and the truth was official. Mihailovich deserved much better.Sixty years after this travesty on May 9, 2005 the Legion of Merit was presented to Gordana Mihailovich for the actions of her father for the United States in WWII,In writing a review, it can be hard to decide what to include and not to include. It is a review, after all, not the book itself. Gregory Freeman has so much in this book that is not in this review and does a great job in telling this story that every American should hear. I appreciate him writing it.

Reviewer: Paula
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An eye opener
Review: Someone who should know recently told me, "war is part of life." Considering his circumstances I felt both humbled and quieted. This book did the same for me. A part of the WW2 story I'd never heard of, has been written with clarity and compassion; not sappy, just intelligent, relatable, and honest. There's no preaching here, nor is there an attempt to shame the reader into oblivion for things they can do nothing about. Yet, I was left with a poignant reminder to take "news" with a sense of care, and try to do good, whatever the circumstances are. The author of The Forgotten 500 has obviously done a lot of research...and follow up! I admire him for both. The story is absolutely compelling! Who knew that governments collude, lie, and seek to silence! sic I highly recommend a read...and thank the author for his considerable effort to honor some of those who have gone before us.

Reviewer: Maria F.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Started to read book at Airbnb we rented. Happy that Amazon had it.

Reviewer: J. Clark
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I bought this for my Mother for her birthday. She loves books and especially about the wars. She was extremely impressed with this one and said it was brilliant.

Reviewer: flyingdutchman
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Il libro descrive una storia interessante, probabilmento poco nota al grande pubblica (compresa me stesso).Invece la scrittura è poco appassionante, non riesce a coinvolgere il lettore, a mio parere.

Reviewer: mivhk
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: J'ai découvert un événement peu/pas connu. L'attitude des alliés vis à vis des partisans ou résistants yougoslaves est survolée mais n'est pas le but du livre. En revanche les mouvements de soutien au départ des Etats Unis dans l'immédiate après guerre est une découverte. Mais il reste encore tant de choses à découvrir sur cette époque. Anecdotique.

Reviewer: deshpande, cv
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A true saga of the peopole who have been forgotten, but who can forget their sacrifice and contribution they made to the humanity! A gripping saga from the first page to last.