Midnight Flyboys of the OSS in World War II

Описание: Historian Bruce Henderson joins us to discuss Operation Carpetbagger, a secret war in Europe in World War II that is subject of his new book, Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II.

In Midnight Flyboys, Bruce delivers a masterful, richly detailed chronicle of that secret war. Beginning in 1943, the precursor to the CIA — the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) — recruited volunteer crews from American bomber squadrons and assembled them at a hidden airfield just west of London. Given the choice to stay with conventional bombing duties or sign up for an entirely different kind of mission, these flyers volunteered.

Under codename Operation Carpetbagger, these men flew heavy B-24 Liberators across the English Channel, not to bomb enemy targets, but to fly low over pitch-black countryside, in the dead of night, hoping to pick out faint ground signals marking drop zones. Into those dark fields they dropped steel containers filled with rifles, ammunition, grenades, medicine, even bicycles, the essentials of insurgent warfare. On many nights, they also parachuted Allied secret agents into the maquis strongholds of Nazi-occupied France.

For decades the story remained classified. But as Henderson shows, the Carpetbaggers and the agents they supported played a vital role in preparing the ground for the Normandy invasion and the liberation that followed. Those who served eventually earned the highest military honors: a Presidential Unit Citation for the bomber crews, and later a Congressional Gold Medal for OSS personnel.

What makes Midnight Flyboys particularly powerful are its vivid portraits of the men and women behind the missions: the bomber crews risking night after night, the secret agents dropped into unknown danger, and the members of the French Resistance who awaited them. Critics have praised the book’s clarity and narrative power. A starred review in Library Journal calls it “immersing readers in the peril and heroism of covert World War II missions,” noting Henderson’s ability to “simplify complex military operations without losing emotional depth or detail.”

We are honored to present this story with Bruce Henderson, live on our VBC Greatest Generation Live — Thursday, January 8 at 7:00 pm ET. Join us!

We’re grateful to UPMC for Life for sponsoring this event!