Devil at my heels: a heroic Olympian's astonishing story of survival as a Japanese POW in World War II
Biography, War and military biography
Human-narrated audio
Summary
A youthful troublemaker, a world-class NCAA miler, a 1936 Olympian, a WWII bombardier: Louis Zamperini had a fuller life than most. But on May 27, 1943, it all changed when his B-24 crashed into the Pacific Ocean, leaving Louis and… two other survivors drifting on a raft for forty-seven days and two thousand miles, waiting in vain to be rescued. When they finally reached land, they were captured by the Japanese. Louis spent the next two years as a prisoner of war--tortured and humiliated, routinely beaten, starved and forced into slave labour--while the Army Air Corps declared him dead and sent official condolences to his family. On his return home, memories of the war haunted him and nearly destroyed his marriage, until a spiritual rebirth transformed him. 2011.