Originally posted by CardiacCoug
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I finally finished Lost in Shangra-La - good summer read. It is the story of the rescue of 3 survivors of a crash in the New Guinea Mountains just before the end of WWII. The area the crash occured was about 150 miles from the Hollandia support bases in a "unexplored" valley high up in the mountains - about 5000 ft surrounded by 10-13000 ft mountains. The valley was some 100 miles long. Some airmen found this valley in late 1944 while looking for places for airstrips and as far as they knew no one of European decent had ever visited the valley. They were wrong, but that is a nother story. The military nicknamed it Shangra-La after the book "Lost Horizons", because it looked like an untouched paradise. Eventually they started flying sighting flights up there. They would drop into the valley and fly the length of it at 200 -300 ft, incidentally scaring the natives. One sunday in May 1945, a sightseeing C-47 flight with 23 people, including 9 WACs, aboard ended up flying into some clouds with rocks in them. 18 people were killed immediately. Of the 5 surviors two died shorty after the crash. Two of the three that were left, including the one WAC survior where injured. They were spotted from the air - a minor miracle in itself and a rescue team of Philipino EMs with a Cacuasion officer, including a couple of medics was parachuted in and when the surviors had healed sufficently they were extracted using a very unusual technique.
In some ways this is the coming of age story of the commander of the rescue team. When the author was researching the book, he talked to some of the natives who were around at the time or the children of the tribal leaders and knew the stories. I found the contrast of their thoughts and memories of those events with those of the Americans was one of the better parts of the book.
I would recommed it.
currently reading
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Thereby-Hangs-Tale-Jeffrey-Archer/dp/0312539533/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1311001051&sr=1-3"]Amazon.com: And Thereby Hangs a Tale (9780312539535): Jeffrey Archer: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VWNBeh8YL.@@AMEPARAM@@51VWNBeh8YL[/ame]
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