An Epic Story of Survival and a
Modern Quest
for Lost Heroes of World War II
The New York Times bestselling author of Lost in Shangri-La
*Best
Book of the Month for April 2013 – Amazon*
*Best
Book of the Month for April 2013 – Barnes and Noble*
*Indie
Next Pick for April 2013 – Independent Booksellers Association*
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“Zuckoff’s
gripping narrative unfolds with immediacy and verve as men in fetid snow caves
and sputtering aircraft pit their dogged camaraderie and desperate,
white-knuckle improvisations against the fury of an Arctic winter.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred
review)
“An . . . exciting account involving characters of enormous courage and
stamina.”
— Kirkus Reviews
“In a time when far too many television ‘reality’ shows
reflect nothing back at us but narcissism and the celebration of me, me, and
more me, it is refreshing indeed to read this masterfully told tale of great
personal sacrifice in the service of others; FROZEN IN TIME is rigorously researched, beautifully told, and
absolutely compelling from start to finish, a true adventure story that takes
us deeply into the heart of what it means to serve a cause higher than oneself.
Mitch Zuckoff has done it again!”
— Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog
“Once again, Mitchell Zuckoff has uncovered a thrilling historical tale and
told it masterfully. Seamlessly interweaving the past and the present, FROZEN IN TIME is one of those epic
adventure stories that will hold you
in its grip from beginning to end.”
— David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
“Mitchell Zuckoff has done it again—he’s found another amazing World War II
story that everyone else somehow missed. Much like his acclaimed Lost in Shangri-La, this is a story
about brave aviators fighting for their lives in a back-theater of the war.
Only this time Zuckoff isn’t just chronicling the adventure—he’s part of it. FROZEN IN TIME is a beautifully-written
war yarn, but at its heart, it’s a non-fiction mystery—the tale of a group of
heroes
united in a desire to solve a riddle buried in the Arctic
ice.”
— Hampton Sides, author of Ghost
Soldiers and Hellhound on His Trail
“You would think that all the World War II stories have been told by now. But
Mitchell Zuckoff has a remarkable knack for finding new ones, and he has done
it again, with a gripping, moving tale, suspensefully told—whose final act
takes place today.”
— Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and
Rebellion, 1914-1918
FROZEN IN TIME, by
acclaimed author Mitchell Zuckoff, is an exceptional book. Just as he did in
the bestselling Lost in Shangri-La,
Zuckoff has uncovered a forgotten story from World War II, this time bringing
readers to Greenland’s Ice Cap, the scene of three military plane crashes and a
harrowing mission to rescue the survivors--some of whom spent 148 days of an
unforgiving Arctic winter living in the tail section of their broken plane.
Zuckoff is a maestro, simultaneously telling the story of these men, as close to boyhood
as to manhood, as well as the story of those who, seventy years later,
dedicated themselves to retrieving the heroes left behind.
On November 5, 1942, a U.S. cargo plane on a
routine flight slammed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, the B-17
assigned to the search-and-rescue mission became lost in a blinding storm and
also crashed. Miraculously, all nine men on the B-17 survived. With the weather
worsening, the U.S. military launched a daring rescue mission, sending a
Grumman Duck amphibious plane to find the men. After picking up one member of
the B-17 crew, the Duck flew into a severe storm, and the plane and the three
men aboard vanished.
Full of evocative detail, FROZEN IN TIME brings this
extraordinary ordeal vividly into focus, taking readers to the most inhumane
place on earth, where temperatures routinely reach 40 degrees
below zero and where the wind is so devastating that glacial dust can scratch
glass and blind unprotected eyes. For nearly five months, the surviving men from
the B-17 crash struggled to stay alive and sane while they waited for rescue. They blew on
each other's faces when their eyelids froze together, rubbed each other's limbs
to keep blood flowing, and shared their last crumbs of rations to keep from
starving. One young navigator’s feet literally froze inside his boots and
another lost all of his fingernails to frostbite making it painful to touch
anything. They used large cans of dog food –meant for the sled dogs that never
came to save them –as pillows, and passed endless hours playing word games and
naming all the capitals, islands and every other geographical feature they
could think of. All the while, search and supply pilots flew countless flights
through storms and lost horizons to drop food and supplies while the stranded waited
and waited for a half-mad rescue effort that rewrote the annals of Arctic
flight.
But that is only part of the story that unfolds
in FROZEN IN TIME. While recounting the historical tale,
Zuckoff weaves in the modern story of the U.S. Coast Guard and North South
Polar Inc., led by an indefatigable dreamer named Lou Sapienza. Sapienza spent
years trying to find the crash site of the Coast Guard Duck whose
crew perished while attempting to rescue the downed soldiers. In August of 2012,
nearly seventy years after the crash, Sapienza and a crew that included Zuckoff,
travelled to Greenland and located the plane some 40 feet below the ice
surface.
Drawing on intensive research and a firsthand
account of the dramatic and dangerous 2012 expedition, FROZEN IN TIME is a breathtaking blend of mystery,
adventure, heroism, and survival. It is also a poignant reminder of the
sacrifices of our military personnel and their families—and a tribute to the
important, perilous, and often overlooked work of the US Coast Guard.
About Greenland in World War II
At
more than sixteen hundred miles north to south and eight hundred miles across,
Greenland is a strange and enormous place. Its coastline, jagged with fjords
that can cut more than ninety miles inland, is longer than the circumference of
the earth at the equator. Much of Greenland is covered with ice, two miles deep
in places. And, with just fifty eight thousand residents, it boasts the lowest
population density of any country or independent territory. To put that in
perspective: if Manhattan had the same population density as Greenland its
residency would be two.
Claimed
by the Danish monarchy in the early 18th century, Greenland was
mostly an afterthought until 1940 when Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and
American leaders suddenly looked with fear at the gigantic island so close to
North America. In 1941 the United States reached an agreement with Denmark’s
government-in-exile to protect Greenland by building U.S. airbases and military
installations on the island. Not only did this provide a buffer for the States,
but it also gave us control of Greenland’s weather stations –and whoever
controlled the weather stations there would know what the weather would be like
in Europe the next day—critical information for the planning of air raids and
other military maneuvers.
About the 2012 Mission to
Locate the Remains of the Grumman Duck
Just before Mitchell Zuckoff left for Greenland on a
trip that would become a key part of his new book FROZEN IN TIME (Harper; on
sale April 23), he sent the completed parts of the manuscript to his agent,
Richard Abate, with instructions that if he didn't return home alive Richard
should figure out a way to get the book finished and published. After spending
months researching this strange and enormous place, Mitch knew the
dangers--perhaps all too well: temperature so low unprotected eyes can freeze
shut from blinking, wind so strong that blowing glacier dust can cut glass, and
terrain laced with hidden crevasses hundreds of feet deep. Richard urged him to
consider staying behind but Mitch wouldn’t hear of it.
Just as he did in the
bestselling Lost in Shangri-La (2011), in FROZEN IN TIME Zuckoff
has uncovered a forgotten true story from World War II, this time bringing
readers to Greenland’s Ice Cap, the scene of three military plane crashes and a
harrowing mission to rescue the survivors--some of whom wound up spending 148
days of an unforgiving Arctic winter living in ice caves and the tail
section of their broken B-17 bomber. The last plane to disappear was a Grumman
Duck amphibious Coast Guard plane that was sent out to rescue those already
stranded. Flying into a blizzard, the Duck's crew was able to save two of the
icebound men but on their second run they crashed and were never heard from
again. When the mission to Greenland began, pilot John Pritchard Jr. and
radioman Benjamin Bottoms were the only members of the Coast Guard still M.I.A.
from World War II.
In 2011, while deep in the
research for FROZEN IN TIME, Zuckoff heard about Lou Sapienza, CEO of
North South Polar Inc., a team of explorers,
scientists and field specialists who take on the most difficult recovery
missions located in the most challenging environments on earth. Lou, a character in the truest sense of the
word, had made it his mission to go to Greenland and recover the bodies of
Pritchard and Bottoms; soon after their first meeting, Zuckoff was determined
to go with him.
In the months leading up
to the August 2012 Greenland expedition, Zuckoff invested thousands of dollars
from his own pocket into the project. By then, he had grown close to the
relatives of Pritchard and Bottoms, and he also knew that the expedition was a key
part of finishing FROZEN IN TIME. It started with a $15,000.00 loan in
January, but by May that number had multiplied at a frightening rate.
Determined to keep the mission from cratering, Zuckoff borrowed from his
daughter’s college fund and gave Lou his credit card number. In addition
to his role as “bank,” Zuckoff also helped
navigate the often fractious relations between North South Polar and the Coast
Guard, whose support was essential.
Finally, on
August 21, 2012, Mitch, Lou and their team left for the ice cap. After a
harrowing helicopter ride to the Koge Bay glacier, the real work began. For almost two weeks, the
seventeen-member expedition team worked upwards of fifteen hours a day using
state-of-the-art radar to locate the remains of the Grumman Duck, now entombed
some 40 feet below the surface of the glacier. When a
potential spot was located, the crew used a large and heavy machine called a
Hotsy to melt holes in the ice. Then they dropped a video camera into each hole
hoping to find some sign of the plane’s remnants. Attempt after attempt
returned no signs of the Grumman Duck. As time
was running out and they were becoming more desperate, Mitch went onto the open glacier without safety ropes, not wanting
to be slowed down. He clutched an ice ax, poised to save himself if the ice
gave way.
At the very end of the trip, with a storm
bearing down and an emergency evacuation under way, Mitch and just one other
crew member nicknamed WeeGee remained on the glacier and continued their work.
With his wife and daughters weighing heavily on his mind, it occurred to Mitch
that he had joined Lou in the world of windmill-tilting dreamers who don’t know
when to quit. Was this an invitation for Greenland to swallow him whole? Then,
literally at the last minute, something miraculous happened. On their
final attempt, Mitch and WeeGee dropped the video camera down that very last
hole, and there it was. The Duck Hunt was over.
Praise for Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell
Zuckoff
“A truly incredible
adventure.”
—New York Times Book
Review
“In
his compelling new book, Lost in Shangri-La, Mitchell Zuckoff has uncovered,
and vividly reconstructed, such an astonishing tale. . . . The book has an
immediacy born of extensive reporting. . . . From this abundant material,
Zuckoff is able to glimpse events from alternate vantage points, and skillfully
builds narrative tension and deft character portraits. He has a sharp eye for
the revealing detail. . . . Zuckoff has pulled off a remarkable feat — and
held the reader
firmly in the grip.”
— David Grann, Washington
Post
“A riveting tale in the hands of a good
storyteller. . . . The incidents and people themselves make
this a riveting story, but they would not be so alive to the reader had the
author not made such skillful use of sources, including, after 60-plus years,
interviews with Walter and other aged participants in the adventure. Lost in
Shangri-La is the most thrilling book, fiction or nonfiction, that I have
read since I can’t remember when.”
— Seattle Times
“[A] grippingly
cinematic account. . . . A remarkable cast of
characters. . . . A.”
— Entertainment
Weekly
“This is an absorbing adventure right out of the Saturday-morning
serials. . . . Lost in Shangri-La deserves a spot on
the shelf of Greatest Generation nonfiction. It puts the reader smack into the
jungle. ”
— Cleveland Plain
Dealer
“Zuckoff transforms impressive research into a deft narrative that brings the
saga of the survivors to life. His access to journal accounts, letters, photos,
military records, and interviews with the eyewitnesses allows for an almost
hour-by-hour account of the crash and rescue, along with vivid portraits of his
main subjects.”
— Publishers
Weekly (starred review)
“A lost world, man-eating tribesmen, lush and impenetrable jungles, stranded
American fliers (one of them a dame with great gams, for heaven’s sake),
a startling rescue mission. And then, an unread diary and a single survivor
living quietly half a century later in Oregon, still remembered by the
jungle-men of New Guinea. This is a true story made in heaven for a writer as
talented as Mitchell Zuckoff.
Whew—what an utterly
compelling and deeply satisfying read!”
— Simon Winchester
“Mitchell Zuckoff has found one of the great untold yarns of World War II. In
the bold tradition of The Lost City of Z and other well-crafted armchair
adventures, Lost in Shangri-La takes us on a breathless descent through
forbidding jungles
into the heart of the Stone Age.”
— Hampton Sides, bestselling author of Ghost Soldiers
“Polished, fast-paced and immensely readable—ready for the big screen.”
— Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
Mitchell Zuckoff is
the author of Lost in Shangri-La, a New York Times bestseller
and winner of the Winship/PEN New England Award. His previous books include
Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, and Ponzi’s Scheme: The True
Story of a Financial Legend. He has written for national and regional
publications and is a former special projects reporter for the Boston Globe,
where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative reporting. He is a
professor of journalism at Boston University.
