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

by Richard Starks and Miriam Murcutt

• ISBN13: 9781592285723
• ISBN10: 1592285724
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-08-01
• Publisher: Lyons Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

MIRIAM MURCUTT and RICHARD STARKS have traveled extensively in some of the more remote parts of the world. Among their many expeditions is a walk with pilgrims around the koras of Tibet's greatest monasteries and a trek that followed as much as possible the route taken by the lost airmen of Tibet. They live in Boulder, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
The Forgotten Theater	p. 1
Hitting the Silk	p. 15
India or China?	p. 29
No Shangri-la	p. 39
The Last Blank on the Map	p. 47
A Wholly Erroneous Conclusion	p. 57
Political Quagmire	p. 67
Gokar-la!	p. 77
"This Desolate Lhasa"	p. 87
A Chinese Welcome	p. 97
Gin and Lime?	p. 107
Double Bill	p. 117
R.S.V.P.	p. 129
The Last Word	p. 137
Christmas Eve	p. 147
Dead Men Walking	p. 159
Afterword	p. 171
Notes	p. 181
Bibliography	p. 207
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The storm when it hit was wholly unexpected. From Kumming, Crozier had turned the plane onto a course of tw-eight-zero--almost due west--and for nearly an hour had flown through clear, open skies with the earth unrolling smoothly beneath him. For any pilot flying the Hump, this was as good: no real weight in the hold, good visibility in all directions, the serrated peaks of the Santsung Range still a long way ahead. Even so, Crozier couldn't relax. The tension of flying lay deep within him. It was always there, in the tautness across his shoulders and his neck. On the flight deck aound him there was little in the way of conversation, just a few jokey remarks tossed back and forth over the intercom. Most crews liked to keep it that way. Light and impersonal. They didn't want to invest time and emotion in men they might not see again, men who might soon be dead.

---

Excerpted from Lost in Tibet: The Untold Story of Five American Airmen, a Doomed Plane, and the Will to Survive by Miriam Murcutt, Richard Starks
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.