Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A downed B-17 bombardier's unfinished World War II memoir and a box of letters from the French girl who saved him sets a veteran's daughter on a journey, sixty-five years later, to craft their intersecting stories--a true WWII tale of danger, courage, love, and escape Susan Tate Ankeny was sorting through the belongings of her late father--a World War II bombardier who had bailed from a burning B-17 over Nazi-occupied France in 1944--when she found two boxes. One contained her dad's Air Force uniform, and the other an unfinished memoir, stacks of envelopes, black-and-white photographs, mission reports, dog tags, and the fake identity cards he used in his escape. Ankeny spent more than a decade from that moment tracking down letter writers, their loved ones, and anyone who had played a role in her father's story, culminating in a trip to France where she retraced his path with the same people who had guided him more than sixty years ago.
A remarkable hero emerged--Godelieve Van Laere--just a teenaged girl when she saved the fallen Lieutenant Dean Tate, risking her life and forging a friendship that would last into a new century.
The result is an amazing, multifaceted World War II tale--perhaps one of the last of its kind to be enriched by an author's interviews with participants. It traces the transformation of a small-town American boy into a bombardier, the thrill and chaos of an air war, and the horror of bailing from a flaming aircraft over enemy territory. It distinguishes the actions of a little-known French resistance network for Allied airmen known as Shelburne. And it shines a light on the courage and cunning of a young woman who put her life on the line to save another's.
Synopsis
- Forgotten Piece of the French Resistance: through dogged research and remarkable interviews, the author brings to life a little-known French resistance network for Allied airmen known as Shelburne
- Women in History: the story of Godelieve Van Laere, just a teenager during the War, operating against the Nazi occupiers is a powerful addition to today's movement of celebrating women's important roles in history
- Author's Connections To Military and Veterans Organizations: she is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Oregon 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Forces Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d'Aviateurs Alli s
- Intersecting Lives: Dean Tate's induction, training, bombing raids, shootdown, and escape are interwoven with Godelieve Van Laere's youth in France, her family's role in the Resistance, her aid to the fallen bombardier, and her lifelong correspondence and friendship with him
- Inside a B-17 Bomber: riveting, heart-pounding portrayal of how the crew of a B-17 worked together
- Among the Last of Its Kind: the author not only interviewed her WWII veteran father and his fellow airmen before they died, but also interviewed the girl who served in the French Resistance and her associates. Such opportunities to interview living participants of these two parts of World War II may now be gone forever. There are fewer than 10 French Resistance members alive today.
- Veterans Day: we will publish in the lead-up to Veterans Day 2020 for positive media hits
- The Proven Sales Track of WWII Survival, Rescue, and Escape Books: 2019's Escape from Paris and No Surrender, and a number of classics, including Unbroken
- Magnificent Photo Program: 8 pages of b&w photos