The Airmen and the Headhunters

Description:

November 1944: Army airmen set out in a B-24 bomber on what should have been an easy mission off the Borneo coast. Instead they found themselves facing a Japanese fleet--and were shot down. When they cut themselves loose from their parachutes, they were scattered across the island's mountainous interior. Then a group of loincloth-wearing natives silently materialized out of the jungle. Would these Dayak tribesmen turn the starving airmen over to the Japanese occupiers? Or would the Dayaks risk vicious reprisals to get the airmen safely home? The tribal leaders' unprecedented decision led to a desperate game of hide-and-seek, and, ultimately, the return of a long-renounced ritual: head-hunting. This survival story features a bamboo airstrip built on a rice paddy, a mad British major, and a blowpipe-wielding army that helped destroy one of the last Japanese strongholds.--From publisher description.

subjects: United States. Army Air Forces. Bomb Group, 5th Squadron, 23rd,  Dayak (Indonesian people),  United States,  Airmen,  Search and rescue operations,  World War, 1939-1945,  American Aerial operations,  Biography,  History,  Dayak (Bornean people),  United States. Army Air Forces. Bomb Group, 5th. Squadron, 23rd,  World war, 1939-1945, aerial operations, american,  World war, 1939-1945, borneo,  United states, army air forces,  Air pilots, biography

Places: Borneo,  United States