Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive [Hardcover]

Miriam Murcutt (Author), Richard Starks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

Set against the majestic yet unforgiving Himalayan landscape of World War II Tibet-an unknown and tightly sealed land deeply suspicious of foreigners--LOST IN TIBET recounts the taut adventure of five American airmen facing the greatest challenge of their young lives. Hundreds of miles off course and running low on fuel, the airmen bail out of their foundering plane over what they thought was India. Instead, they parachute into the high Himalayan ridges of a Tibet riven with political intrigue and pressed tightly between Westerners involved in a war they didn't understand and Chinese who threatened their very existence. Surviving the parachute drop from the plane was only the airmen's first challenge, and perhaps their easiest. Impeccably researched and well paced, LOST IN TIBET tells the previously untold story of the group's struggle to escape back to the relative safety of their base in India.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1943, five American airmen were returning in a C-87 cargo plane over the "Hump," a treacherous supply route across the Himalayas that pilots flew round the clock to equip Chinese allies against the Japanese during WWII. Despite reports of fair weather, a ferocious storm blew the plane hundreds of miles off course, forcing the crew to parachute into the remote mountains of Tibet just before the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. The men were first held as prisoner-guests in the forbidden city of Lhasa; later, their trek back to India was hampered not only by the impenetrable terrain and mysterious culture they encountered, but by a larger international intrigue over Tibet’s independence. The battle over dominance of the region between Britain and China, then, turns a story of military courage and grit into one of political intrigue. As Britain and China clashed, Tibet found itself controlled by a child leader (the Dalai Lama, the country’s spiritual and political leader, was only eight years old) and in an increasingly vulnerable situation during the war. Determined to remain autonomous despite the mounting political maelstrom, the Tibetans saw the airmen’s unexpected fall from the sky as an opportunity to win the American government to the cause of their independence, while the British originally looked at them as spies. Authors Starks and Murcutt absorbingly recount the political conquest of Tibet through the story of these five young men’s unwitting embroilment in an international incident and their extraordinary journey home. B&w photo insert not seen by PW.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

To support China's efforts against the Japanese in World War II, American forces flew supplies from India to China over the Himalayas. "Flying the hump" was extremely dangerous, but such missions were considered vital to the Allies' efforts. In December 1943, a plane with five American airmen was blown off course and ran out of fuel over Tibet. All successfully bailed out and were reunited on the ground, but because of Tibet's extreme isolation, their return was not certain. Injuries and language difficulties were compounded by the vast cultural differences. The airmen were eventually transported to Lhasa, where the British consul provided support. Political turmoil and impending bad weather forced the men to travel out of Tibet by mule over treacherous terrain. This is a fine story of courage and diplomacy that presents invaluable information on a little-known theater of WWII and insight into the Tibet-China political situation. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1St Edition edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592285724
• ISBN-13: 978-1592285723
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,758,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Untold story of WWII U S airmen, September 28, 2004

By 

Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive (Hardcover)

In 1943 during WWII, five U.S. airmen flying the "Hump" between Burma and the U.S. ally Nationalist China were blown off course into Tibet in a storm and bailed out of their plane before it crashed. After an arduous trek across the forbidding Tibetan mountainous terrain, they arrived in the capital of Lhasa--only to find themselves at the center of precarious international affairs. The Chinese were trying to take over Tibet. Since the U. S. was an ally of China in the war against Japan, the Tibetans could not believe that the American airmen were not somehow involved with China's hostile aims toward their country. The Chinese were concerned that the airmen would be witnesses to their actions taken to occupy Tibet even while the U. S. government was trying to keep the Chinese movements from becoming widely known. The authors tell this complex, engaging tale clearly, skillfully keeping its different elements in balance while keeping a focus on the plight of the airmen resented by both Tibet and China and dealt with at arm's length by the U. S. until they made their timely overland escape to India with the aid of British citizens in the region who were acting as surrogates for the American government. The authors, both journalists, recount the full story of this little-known episode of WWII that has heretofore received only passing attention. From their travels to mountainous areas of Asia, they bring a special sense of the five airmen's struggles to survive in the Tibetan terrain at the beginning and again at the end of their incredible story.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lost in Tibet, September 1, 2004

By 

William L. Korstad (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive (Hardcover)

This book grabs your attention at several levels. First off, it's a top-notch survival story about five WWII airmen whose aircraft, blown off-course, crashes in the mountains of forbidden Tibet. The story describes how the men manage to survive - only to find themselves placed under house arrest by suspicious Tibetan authorities, leaving them to an uncertain fate. Once you think they're about to gain their freedom, the politics change and they're forced to race against time to escape back to civilization making an equally arduous winter trek across the Tibetan plateau.

It reminds one of Shackleton's adventures, but with Kafka overtones and no water. Intertwined with the adventure is the war-time political intrigue surrounding the battle for Tibet between sometimes friends sometimes adversaries, China, Britain and the United States; perhaps the last vestiges of the Great Game so well described by Peter Hopkirk in his famous book on the subject.

Throughout the book you're continually amazed at the fortitude and adaptability of these five very ordinary, young Americans and their struggle to adapt to an alien culture completely unknown to the outside world. Of equal interest is the post script which follows the men into later life showing how this harrowing adventure stamped a lasting imprint on their character.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding adventure!, October 16, 2004

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive (Hardcover)

Rebeccasreads highly recommends LOST IN TIBET as a fascinating recollection of a WWII drama when five American airmen were flying their C87 over The Hump, got blown off course & had to bail out onto The Roof of the World.

In 1943, Robert Crozier, Harold McCallum, Kenneth Spencer, John Huffman & William Perram were out of fuel & lost in the clouds & the Himalayas. With no time for their parachutes to open the five airmen landed in the snow on the same mountain, all but one within hailing distance. After sleeping the night in their niches, they made their way down to a settlement in the valley where they were received by the village leader & met their first Tibetans, who were fascinated by these men who fell from the sky.

Summoned to Lhasa by the Tibetan government, the five airmen, following their guides & riding little ponies, trekked up & down mountains to The Forbidden City where they met with unrelenting hostility from the citizens, a feast by the Chinese mission commander, & eventually, the sanctuary of the British delegation.

How they got back to India, how they were received in America, what happened in Tibet after they left, an Afterword about the five American airmen, & the key players who helped them, plus a Notes section round out a tale very well told.

Could not put LOST IN TIBET down! Unique & engrossing, ably told by two passionate mountain travelers with a host of cultural & historic details.