The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II

This is an amazing story told in a riveting, narrative style that makes it a compelling read for a variety of readers. While interested in history, my wife normally finds non-fiction books tedious to get through--but she blew through this book in no time and felt it was one of the best she had ever read. I can't do much better than that when it comes to a recommendation. Great for anyone interested in the Second World War, particularly the less-talked-about theater of the Mediterranean and the partisan situation in Yugoslavia.

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.

Very interesting story. But the writing was a bit ponderous. The middle of the book moves really slowly, and there's a ton of information that could have been covered in 20% of the time.

So for very compelling and engaging!

The Forgotten 500 By Gregory A. Freeman Every 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.

I had heard of the small groups of airmen who were rescued from behind the lines in Yugoslavia during WW2, mostly from WEB Griffin’s historical novels, but not 500! A great story, heard through the words of the rescued airmen. Reads like a novel. Hard to put down. I highly recommend!

This is yet another amazing true story of the hardships of war. I had heard about Serbs and Croats long after WWII was over but couldn’t tell anyone much about them. Now though I have a better understanding of the two as it pertains to this time period. This story is very well written and I was hooked from the beginning. It is also very sad how the Yugoslavian people gave so much of themselves to save downed pilots, mostly American with a handful of Brits and others thrown in. They gave what little food they had to the airmen and in some cases their own beds. At great risk to themselves if the Germans caught them. It was death to the entire village. The two Yugoslav opposition leaders, Tito the communist, supported by both Britain and Americans because his followers killed more Germans regardless of the risk to his own people and General Mihailovich who protected all the airmen while doing his best to protect his own people. If you are a student of this era you should enjoy this book. It is well worth reading. We’ll researched and hard to put down. Also the British suck as well as our own State Department. Some things never change.

It's both a thrilling adventure and a depressing look into British and American duplicity and stupidity in dealing with Stalin at the end of WWII. During late days of WWII Yugoslavia was occupied by the Germans but two bands of "patriots" occupied much of the countryside. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of Allied airmen had crash landed or bailed out over Yugoslavia. About 500 were being protected by General Mihailovich and his patriots. Civilians faced death or torture if the Germans even suspected that someone in the village had assisted the airmen to evade capture. Opposing Mihailovich were both the Germans and Gen Tito. With the war nearing its end the Soviets were looking to assure their control over Eastern Europe at the end of the war. Tito was their guy. Unfortunately British intelligence, foreign service and Churchill's staff were heavily infiltrated with Communists. Only many years after WW2 would the extent of the infiltration become evident with the defection of Burgess, McClean and Philby to the USSR. The evidence against others was overwhelming. In the US there situation was the same with Roosevelt's staff and State Dept filled with Russian agents and sympathizers including Alger Hiss. A plot was hatched by Stalin to discredit Mihailovich by accusing him of collaborating with the Germans. If he could be removed the USSR would gain control of Yugoslavia. After many attempts to contact the allies, an improvised code was used to send a message to an Army Air Force group that would be able to decode it. The message informed the Americans that there were several hundred US airmen, injured and near starvation, under the care of Mihailovich. It was not that he was denying food to the Americans but rather that there was no food for anyone. Decoded the message created a real problem for the communists in the Churchill and US governments. They had been accusing Mihailovich of delivering American airmen to the Germans but in fact he was trying to save far more than the allies thought existed. The book details the betrayals in the attempts to get team into hookup with the Americans. The author believes that British intelligence attempted to sabotage the effort but it's very possible that both British and American traitors were involved. After several efforts an all American effort resulted in success in getting agents on the ground with Mihailovich's forces. However, they were instructed to promise nothing, offer no help and just get the airmen out. The operation was a success but Mihailovich was betrayed by the allies and left to a terrible fate. This is a great book and should open eyes to an important part of American history that's not taught in our schools. Operation Halyard as this was called was matched with other operations designed to assure Soviet control at the end of the war. Secret Betrayal details the little known tragedy associated with Operation Keelhaul and related operations which delivered to several million patriots and former German POW's into Soviet hands to assure Russian control of Eastern Europe and their own territory. It included those who had fought on our side during the war as part of the governments in exile. The lucky ones were exterminated as they were passed into Russian control or committed suicide on the way , the unfortunates went to the Gulags, a near certain death sentence but far worse than death by a bullet.