Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II

(Hardback)

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The untold history of a top-secret operation in the run-up to D-Day in which American flyers and Allied spies carried out some of the most daring cloak-and-dagger operations of World War II.

In 1943, the OSSprecursor to the CIAcame up with a plan to increase its support to the French resistance forces that were fighting the Nazis. To start, the OSS recruited some of the best American bomber pilots and crews to a secret airfield twenty miles west of London and briefed them on the intended mission. Given a choice to stay or leave, every airman volunteered for what became known as Operation Carpetbagger.

Their dangerous plan called for a new kind of flying: taking their B-24 Liberator bombers in the middle of the night across the English Channel and down to extremely low altitudes in Nazi-occupied France to find drop zones in dark fields. On the ground, resistance members waited to receive steel containers filled with everything from rifles and hand grenades to medicine and bicycle tires. Some nights, the flyers also dropped Allied secret agents by parachute to assist the French partisans.

Though their story remained classified for more than fifty years, the Carpetbaggers ultimately received a Presidential Unit Citation from the US military, which declared: it is safe to say that no group of this size has made a greater contribution to the war effort. Along with other members of the wartime OSS, they were also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Based on exclusive research and interviews, the definitive story of these heroic flyersand of the brave secret agents and resistance leaders they aidedcan now be told. Written in Bruce Hendersons spellbinding (USA TODAY) prose, Midnight Flyboys is an astonishing tale of patriotism, courage, and sacrifice.

Reviews

Prize-winning historian Bruce Henderson brings the little-known story of the Carpetbaggers vividly to life by focusing not only on the bomber pilots and their crews, but also on the secret agentsmen and womenwho parachuted from those planes into Nazi-occupied France in the months before and after D-Day. Their harrowing adventures constitute a tense, gripping narrative."
CRAIG L. SYMONDS, author of Annapolis Goes to War and World War II at Sea

As a military pilot who flew four-engine aircraft,I'm in awe of these intrepid aviators and their crews. Henderson perfectly captures their remarkable flying abilities; every detail rings true. A moving and gripping read."
MICHELLE JOHNSON, Lieutenant General USAF (Retired)

"An exciting recounting of one of the most secretive and dangerous operations of World War II.
COLIN D. HEATON, author of The Star of Africa and Above the Reich

Author Bio

Bruce Henderson is the #1New York Timesbestselling author of more than twenty nonfiction books, includingSons and Soldiers,Bridge to the Sun, andRescue at LosBaos.An award-winning journalistandauthor, Hendersonhas taughtat USC School of Journalism and Stanford University.He lives in Menlo Park, California.Visit his website: BruceHendersonBooks.com.