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Lost in Shangri-la
May 2025: Strong Women
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Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchel Zuckhoff 5 stars
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I really enjoyed this too! What an amazing story!
I loved this story- something I did not know about, and those types of books are my favorites! Zuckhoff is a favorite non-fiction author of mine. Glad you enjoyed it, Sue
I liked this as well. I remember feeling on the edge of my seat even though, I knew they would be rescued.
I think I would like this. I loved The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II which was about the way indigenous tribal people helped a group of airmen who parachuted into Borneo when their plane was shot down.
My review HERE
Side note- this is the modern name and is the western half of the island of New Guinea. The eastern half is Paupau New Guinea. The name at the time of this story was Dutch New Guinea.
On a flight over the interior of the island near the end of WWII, a plane with 24 passengers and crew went down, leaving only 3 survivors. At this point in time, the interior of New Guinea had been virtually unvisited by westerners due to the terrain - high mountains, almost impenetrable jungle, and cannibalistic indigenous people.
The book tells the harrowing tale of those three survivors and the crew of paratroopers and pilots who came to rescue them. Two of the survivors, a Women's Amry Corp corporal, an Army sergeant were seriously injured. The third survivor was an army lieutenant who was miraculously uninjured.
They hiked down a mountain with increasingly septic wounds, eventually developing gangrene in the humid, jungle conditions. They encountered and were ultimately befriended by local tribes, although the interactions remained guarded on both sides.
The author went back to find these same tribes to hear their side of the story - some of the people he spoke to were children at the time of the crash. He weaves the native point of view into the whole.
Note for the Strong Women tag: One of the main characters in the overall story was Margaret Hastings, the WAC corporal who survived the crash. The author tells of her strength in the face of injury, shock and loss. And beyond the incidents described here, joining the Army as a female at that time in history was still difficult. It took an act of Congress to establish the WACs and there were many who were opposed.