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 3-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 3 Summary: “Counting Parachutes”
Chapter 3 describes the doomed flights that forced Tony Orsini and Robert Wilson, both navigators, to bail out of their damaged bombers.
Upon reaching Ploesti, Orsini’s B-24 takes a hit from German antiaircraft fire and makes it back across the Yugoslav border before the crew is forced to bail. Orsini recalls that the “surreal” and “unsettling” silence of the parachute-descent from high altitude “caused him to vomit on the way down” (29).
Wilson endures a more tragic experience. On July 15, 1944, a direct hit from German antiaircraft fire damages his aircraft’s fuel tank and leaves the crewmen standing in several inches of gasoline. To ease the load on the rapidly descending bomber, the crewmen toss out everything nonessential. Another B-17 stays close to ensure that everyone on Wilson’s bomber bails out in safety. Wilson and everyone else on board the damaged B-17 bail out in time, but the men in the undamaged B-17 cannot see them through the clouds and do not pull away in time. Both B-17s crash into a mountain, killing all 10 men on board the second bomber. Wilson and the others witness the crash as they parachute to the ground.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Americanski?”
Chapter 4 continues the stories of Musgrove, Orsini, and Wilson while introducing three more downed US airmen: Mike McKool, Thomas Oliver, and Richard Felman, all of whom are rescued by the Chetnik forces of General Draza Mihailovich.
When Musgrove reaches the ground, he is surprised to find that the Serbian women and children he meets are not afraid of him; in fact, they motion for Musgrove to follow them. When they reach the village, a burly Chetnik man welcomes Musgrove into his home. After dinner, a Nazi officer arrives and stalks through the home in search of the downed airman, but the Chetnik man has hidden Musgrove under a bed in a back bedroom.
Orsini, who breaks his clavicle after crashing into a tree, receives similar treatment when he and one of his fellow airmen are welcomed by enthusiastic Chetniks with shouts of “Americanski!” When Wilson lands near a farm, a group of locals greets him while “a burly man in heavy woolen clothes” (46) asks Wilson if he is American or English and then embraces the downed airman upon learning that he is American. A girl hands Wilson a cask full of plum brandy. Soon, Wilson is reunited with other downed US airmen, including seven of his fellow B-17 crew members, all rescued and protected by the Chetniks.
When B-17 gunner Mike McKool crashes on July 4, 1944, nearly two dozen villagers greet him with kisses on the cheek before two Chetnik soldiers whisk him away into the woods, evading Nazi pursuers for the next six hours. On May 6, 1944, B-24 pilot Thomas Oliver nearly lands in the middle of an outdoor family lunch, but several family members grab Oliver, guide him safely to the ground, and welcome him with hugs and kisses before two more soldiers arrive to protect him. Finally, Richard Felman, another B-24 pilot, receives the same warm welcome from Chetnik villagers when he bails out of his doomed bomber after being shot in the leg in July 1944.
Freeman describes Felman’s experience in more detail than that of McKool or Oliver. After carrying Felman to a nearby village, the Chetniks treat him to plum brandy and cheers. Someone bandages his wounded leg, and an older man invites Felman into the village church and prays with him. Then, Felman meets a Chetnik colonel who serves under General Mihailovich. From the colonel’s wife, who speaks English, Felman learns that Mihailovich has ordered his men to “protect the Americans at all costs” (54-55). Felman also learns that he will receive a bodyguard. Villagers recover the body of one of Felman’s crewmates, a gunner who went down with the bomber, and hold a funeral.
Back home in the United States, Tony Orsini’s mother, an Italian immigrant who speaks no English, receives a Western Union telegram informing her that her son is missing in action. A neighbor translates the telegram.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Journey to Somewhere”
Chapter 5 follows Wilson, McKool, Oliver, and Felman on their respective journeys to Pranjane, where they are protected by Mihailovich’s forces and eventually rescued during Operation Halyard.
Wilson meets an English-speaking Chetnik who once worked in a steel mill in Gary, Indiana. Wilson and several of his American companions take a refreshing dip in a river, but a German officer spots them, and the Chetniks rush the Americans to safety.
McKool learns from a Chetnik officer that the Germans have taken 20 villagers hostage and are demanding that the Chetniks turn over the Americans. McKool wonders if the Americans should surrender themselves, but the officer says it will not stop the Germans from killing. An elderly woman sobs, kisses McKool’s hand, and holds onto it as long as she can. The Chetnik officer explains that many have lost sons to the war, and the sobbing woman sees McKool as her own son.
Oliver’s journey includes a somber funeral for two American airmen killed in action, a ceremony presided over by a Serbian Orthodox priest and attended by locals. In one village, Oliver and two of his crewmates catch the attention of three beautiful young women who invite the Americans to spend the night with them, but Chetnik soldiers raise the alarm that the Nazis once again are approaching. Finally, Oliver and the others arrive at Pranjane.
Felman, who also has reached Pranjane, now joins Mihailovich’s troops on sabotage missions. By 1944, the Chetniks have learned how to conceal their involvement in the sabotage to prevent the Germans from taking revenge against innocent civilians. One day, while Felman and his Chetnik compatriots are in a tavern, a Nazi officer enters. Felman invites the officer to join him, and his companions, who think Felman ill-advised and who are (like Felman) disgusted by the Nazis’ presence. Afterward, Felman passes through a smoldering Serb village and discovers that the Nazis burned it after killing all the villagers in retribution for the Chetniks’ failure to turn over the Americans.
Chapters 3-5 Analysis
Each man’s harrowing return flight from Ploesti is an important part of the story. Once the airmen reach the ground in Chapter 4, it becomes clear that the villagers and Chetnik forces regard the Americans as heroes, “brave warriors who were risking their lives to help them beat back the German invaders” (54). To emphasize the mission’s danger and the airmen’s bravery, Freeman devotes several chapters to describing the risks associated with the bombing runs over Ploesti. He also explains why the Ploesti locals welcome the Americans so warmly: By 1944, the people of Yugoslavia well understood the Nazis’ ruthlessness, so they know the US soldiers who have come to help liberate them are doing so at peril to their own lives.
Nazi brutality constitutes a major theme in these chapters. It is a looming, omnipresent threat, and it highlights the most important aspect of the story: Chetnik loyalty and love for Americans. The Americans received help from locals who had spent three years resisting the Nazis. Even knowing the Nazis’ ruthlessness, however, Chetnik soldiers and Serbian villagers nonetheless risked everything, including their own friends and families, to protect the Americans. When McKool and Felman tried to surrender themselves in order to protect villagers, one Chetnik officer explained to Felman, “We have learned that it is better to live with one leg than to spend your life on your knees” (78).
Freeman presents the villagers’ joy upon meeting the Americans as a counterpoint to the Nazis’ brutality. This highlights not only the Chetniks’ gratitude but also their deep humanity. The Americans and Chetniks share experiences that transcend language barriers, such as Wilson’s refreshing dip in the river; Oliver’s delight in meeting beautiful Serbian girls; Felman’s prayer with the old man in the village. These instances represent connections that can happen when people are genuinely kind to each other and show that such kindness exists even in wartime.
Finally, Freeman introduces one of the book’s most sinister elements: the Allied intelligence briefings. Orsini receives his pre-flight briefing at the beginning of Chapter 3 while Musgrove recalls his briefing while on the ground in Yugoslavia. Both were told to avoid the Chetniks, whom the Allies consider Nazi collaborators. This incorrect information, deliberately falsified by Soviet moles in the American and British intelligence agencies, plays a significant role as the story unfolds.
