The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II
Judith M. Heimann
Language: English
Pages: 213
ISBN: 2:00109074
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
N ovember 1944: Army airmen set out in a B-24 bomber on what should have been an easy mission off the Borneo coast. Instead they found themselves unexpectedly facing a Japanese fleet—and were shot down. When they cut themselves loose from their parachutes, they were scattered across the island’s mountainous interior. Then a group of loincloth-wearing natives silently materialized out of the jungle. Would these Dayak tribesmen turn the starving airmen over to the hostile Japanese occupiers? Or would the Dayaks risk vicious reprisals to get the airmen safely home? The tribal leaders’ unprecedented decision led to a desperate game of hide-and-seek, and, ultimately, the return of a long-renounced ritual: head-hunting.
A cinematic survival story that features a bamboo airstrip built on a rice paddy, a mad British major, and a blowpipe-wielding army that helped destroy one of the last Japanese strongholds, The Airmen and the Headhunters is a gripping, you-are-there journey into the remote world and forgotten heroism of the Dayaks.
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First had seen him, but now, thanks to some Palmolive soap from Tom's flight kit, the baby's skin was smooth. It warmed Tom's heart to see the baby reaching out to him. Tom had taught swimming at a YMCA, though never to anyone so young as little Tom, and he would bring the baby along in his arms and play with him in the water if there seemed to be no danger of the Japanese or their henchmen coming by. There were no signs yet of anyone nosing around looking for Tom, though Kibung said he had.
Very hard to maneuver on land. It was slow to respond and hard to steer, making takeoff an especially tense moment. A fully loaded B-24 couldn't get into the air without full power or a long runway. John Nelson saw what happened when two of these planes did not make it and grimly concluded that "raw gasoline and sea water are a lethal combination." Their only accident occurred during the week on Neumfoor. Charlie Burnette, their perennially airsick tail gunner who liked to make things in his.
Earlobes earrings carved out of the scarlet-and-yellow crest of a hornbill bird or from the ivory-colored, curved fangs of a clouded leopard. A few men also had brass rings in their lower earlobes. Meanwhile, the women stood and formed a long line. Some were bare breasted above dark bark-cloth skirts that covered them from the waist to ankle. Others wore a Javanese kebayak (tight-fitting long-sleeved bodice) or a Western-style blouse, while still others wore a bib woven from pineapple fiber.
Headhunting would be permitted, provided the heads were Japanese. The Kelabit, ex-headhunters like their Lun Dayeh cousins across the border, were eager to accept the major's invitation. Like the Lun Dayeh, the Kelabit were delighted to be able to return to the sacred raids of their songs and stories, even if only against Japanese. By the second evening, the makings of an even greater feast were assembled in the Bario longhouse. After dark, the Dayaks began dispensing more food, music and.
Reuben, [>] Iban, [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>] Illerich, (Cpl.) Dan, [>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>] airlifted out, [>] background and character, [>]–[>], [>] bails out, [>]–[>] helps build airstrip, [>] meets Dayaks, [>]–[>], [>] at "Polecat Gulch," [>], [>], [>]–[>] as radio operator, [>], [>], [>], [>], [>], [>]–[>], [>]–[>], [>], [>], [>], [>] receives B.E.M., [>] and survival, [>]–[>], [>], [>] after the war, [>]–[>], [>] Japanese Allied.