52 pages • 1 hour read
Gregory A. FreemanThe Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary: “An All-American Team”
This brief chapter describes several ways in which the British appear to sabotage Operation Halyard. For political reasons, British agents at Bari are also involved in the operation: Musulin’s team is ordered to execute the rescue mission without altering Allied policy toward the warring parties in Yugoslavia. Multiple attempts to fly into Yugoslavia fail for reasons such as bad weather and antiaircraft fire, but Musulin begins to suspect that the British are working against his team. On one attempt, the British pilot flies to the wrong coordinates. Musulin then notices that the British crew includes one of Tito’s Partisans. On the fifth and final attempt, the British pilot once again flies Musulin’s team to the wrong location. Musulin finally demands an all-American crew, and Vujnovich agrees.
Chapter 13 Summary: “SOS…Waiting for Rescue”
In Pranjane, having received no word of an Allied rescue operation, Richard Felman decides that the airmen must take a calculated risk and send a message to Bari. Thomas Oliver works with a group of airmen, including radio operators, to devise a slang-filled code that the Germans cannot decipher. Letters in the code correspond to information that only those stationed in Bari could know: an Officers’ Club bartender’s place of birth, for instance. Allied officials decode the messages, which allows both sides—the rescuers and the stranded—to coordinate plans. Meanwhile, 17-year-old Nick Petrovich, one of 10,000 Chetnik troops in the immediate area, stands guard at Pranjane. Like the other Chetiks, Petrovich regularly carries out missions designed to harass Nazi forces. Petrovich also has orders from Mihailovich to protect the Americans at all costs: Mihailovich threatens to execute any Chetnik soldier who fails in this duty.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Sure to Be a Rough Landing”
Musulin’s team fails to arrive in Pranjane as scheduled on July 31, 1944, leaving many of the airmen worried. Two nights later, however, the airmen hear a C-47 approaching. Felman lights flares to guide the pilot and the agents, who make the jump from only 800 feet to ensure accuracy and avoid detection by the Germans. Chetnik troops and villagers alike welcome their returning friend, Musulin, who informs them that he is there only to retrieve the airmen and that the Allies persist in their anti-Mihailovich policy. Musulin finds that the number of airmen needing rescue has grown from 100 to at least 250. Villagers celebrate Musulin’s return with plum brandy and music. General Mihailovich makes an appearance at the celebration, leaving Jibilian “in awe of the already legendary general” (206). Musulin confers with Felman on the operation’s logistics while Jibilian radios Bari.
On the morning after the team’s arrival, Musulin begins directing work on the construction of a makeshift airstrip. He knows that C-47 pilots require at least 700 yards to land, and the finished airstrip will not exceed that length by much. Hundreds of Chetnik soldiers and villagers help with the construction, which they carry on with very few tools and while heeding occasional warnings to take cover to conceal themselves from the Luftwaffe. On August 8, less than a week after the OSS agents arrive, Jibilian radios Bari that all is ready and that evacuations may begin the following night.
Chapters 12-14 Analysis
After 11 chapters of buildup, backstories, and big-picture context, Operation Halyard begins. Some familiar obstacles linger: The lack of British cooperation verges on sabotage. The Nazi menace looms in the skies, as Chetniks and airmen take cover from the Luftwaffe. On the whole, however, Freeman uses these relatively brief chapters to show that the rescue mission, thanks to the efforts of OSS, airmen, and villagers, is underway.
The coded messages to Bari introduce a new element. For most of the book, the fate of the airmen lies in the hands of their Chetnik protectors. Aside from Felman, who arrives at Pranjane and then accompanies the Chetniks on sabotage missions, the airmen can do little more than wait. Mihailovich manages to get messages out of the country, and rumors of the airmen gathered at Pranjane reach the Yugoslavian embassy in Washington, DC, where Mirjana reports them to her husband. In all of this, however, the airmen themselves have no part. Thomas Oliver’s work on the coded messages, therefore, allows the airmen to communicate with US agents in Bari, confirm the rumors, and coordinate the rescue. Likewise, Musulin’s arrival signals another phase in the operation, an opportunity for the airmen to control their own fate, at least to some degree, by constructing an airstrip. Chetnik assistance in building that airstrip adds another layer to the story of their commitment to helping the Americans.
Freeman notes that on the night Musulin, Rajacich, and Jibilian parachute into Yugoslavia, “the village erupted into jubilant celebration with plum brandy and music, capped by a visit from Mihailovich himself” (206). The manner in which Freeman describes this visit mirrors Mihailovich’s understated dignity. Jibilian found Mihailovich “as down to earth as anyone he had ever met” (206). A photograph from Vujnovich’s collection shows Mihailovich laughing and smoking a cigarette with OSS agent Nick Lalich. Mihailovich makes only a few appearances in the narrative; most first-hand observations about him come from Jibilian.
