The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-occupied France

Description

Arthur Meyerowitz was on his second air mission over France when he was shot down in 1943. He was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as Harmful Lil' Armful who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground. After fleeing the wreck, Meyerowitz knocked on the door of an isolated farmhouse, whose owners hastily took him in. Fortunately, his hosts not only despised the Nazis but had a tight connection to the French resistance group Morhange and its founder, Marcel Taillandier. Meyerowitz and Taillandier formed an improbable bond as the resistance leader arranged for Meyerowitz's transfers among safe houses in southern France, shielding him from the Gestapo. Based on recently declassified material, exclusive personal interviews and extensive research into the French Resistance, The Lost Airman tells the tense and riveting story of Meyerowitz's trying months in Toulouse - masquerading as a deaf mute and working with downed British pilot Richard Frank Warren Cleaver to evade the Nazis - and of his hair-raising journey to freedom involving a perilous trek over the Pyrenees and a voyage aboard a fishing skiff with U-boats lurking below and Luftwaffe fighters looming above. The Lost Airman is a never-before-told, fascinating story of spycraft and a true account of endurance, perseverance and escape during the Second World War.

Seth Meyerowitz, the grandson of US Air Force Staff Sergeant Arthur Meyerowitz, is a web entrepreneur and the president of a global online marketing company. After travelling the US speaking on behalf of Google for its Get Your Business Online program, his web and marketing savvy allowed him to unearth the declassified saga of his grandfather. Peter F. Stevens is an editor, journalist, and author of eleven books.

The Lost Airman tells the suspenseful story of a truly remarkable American, shot down over enemy occupied territory in WW2, who amazingly managed to stay a step ahead of the Nazis for over six months and get back home. A terrific, thrilling tale you won't want to miss * Alex Kershaw, bestselling author of Avenue of Spies and The Liberator * The Lost Airman is a deeply researched, finely wrought gem. The story of Sgt. Arthur Meyerowitz's harrowing struggle to escape from Nazi-infested France across the snow-bound Pyrenees to Spain will haunt you long after you've put this riveting book down. The courage, quick wits, and sheer guts displayed by Meyerowitz and the men and women of the French Resistance who gambled their lives to help him are simply extraordinary. * Jack Cheevers, author of Act of War *