I am so happy a book like this exists.
Tom Wilber documents a search for a B-24 bomber which disappeared on a training mission in the northeast U.S. during World War II. There is something so visceral about this story which had me captivated from the first page. It might be the veteran in me, or the fact that these men were so overlooked for so long, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Wilber was doing God’s work by taking the time to put this together. There are so many World War II books churned out every year, but this is something new, and the men of Getaway Gertie deserve to be remembered.
Wilber recounts how the crew took off from Massachusetts and are caught in a snowstorm which runs them hopelessly off course. Ultimately, the plane disappears somewhere over Lake Ontario…or at least that’s what is thought.
Admittedly, the story of Getaway Gertie does not have a lot to it. Wilber does his best to fill in the reader on as much as he can while also showing how training accidents were more deadly than the actual war. He also recounts the people who searched tirelessly and those who strangely didn’t try all that hard to solve the puzzle of where the plane went down. I think Wilber takes the reader on very worthwhile tangents, but I also understand readers who just want the basics. In any case, I think this is a must read for everyone. The lost men deserve their story known.
(This book was provided as a review copy by Cornell University Press.)
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