MP3 CD Format The astonishing, never-before-told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II—when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines... During a bombing campaign, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian villagers risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers, and for months the airmen lived in hiding, waiting for rescue. In 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip—without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the rescue planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back—without getting shot down themselves. Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time. The Forgotten 500 is the breathtaking, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II. "Evoking the rescuees' successive desperation, wild hope, and joy, and their gratitude to the Serbians who risked their lives to help, Freeman produces a breathtaking popular account." -- "Booklist" A master storyteller-- "Doug Stanton, bestselling author of In Harm's Way" Gregory A. Freeman is an award-winning writer with over twenty-five years in journalism. He has won more than a dozen awards for his writing, including the coveted 2001 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Excellence from the Society of Professional Journalists. He received his degree from the University of Georgia in Athens and has worked for the Associated Press in Atlanta. He has since become a freelance writer and continues to write for a number of publications, including Readers Digest , Rolling Stone , World War II , American History . He is the author of Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It. He lives in Roswell, Georgia.