Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
Greenland is kinda hard to miss:
On November 5, 1942, a US cargo plane 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 board survived, and the US military launched a daring rescue operation. But after picking up one man, the Grumman Duck amphibious plane flew into a severe storm and vanished.
Frozen in Time tells the story of these crashes and the fate of the survivors, bringing vividly to life their battle to endure 148 days of the brutal Arctic winter, until an expedition headed by famed Arctic explorer Bernt Balchen brought them to safety. Mitchell Zuckoff takes the reader deep into the most hostile environment on earth, through hurricane-force winds, vicious blizzards, and subzero temperatures.
Moving forward to today, he recounts the efforts of the Coast Guard and North South Polar Inc. – led by indefatigable dreamer Lou Sapienza – who worked for years to solve the mystery of the Duck’s last flight and recover the remains of its crew.
A breathtaking blend of mystery and adventure Mitchell Zuckoff's Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II is also a poignant reminder of the sacrifices of our military personnel and a tribute to the everyday heroism of the US Coast Guard.
Alright, I know Greenland is technically part of Denmark, but it's so big I decided it deserved its own book. I got really exciting, thinking this would take me on an epic journey. Well, it took me on many...interesting...journeys.
I did highlight passages and such, but I don't feel like going through it that way. But if you don't want spoilers, you probably shouldn't read this post.
SO. It's WWII, and there are some outposts on Greenland. Location wise it's smart, mother nature wise it isn't. One plane crashes, because they're in the middle of ice and glacier land. Naturally they want to rescue these guys. So, so, so many times. To summarize, they sent multiple planes and dog sleds and motorsleds and make many attempts. But they seem to have forgotten THEY'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF ICE AND GLACIER LAND. So most of the attempts don't go well. There are other crashes and deaths in the attempted rescue. Seriously, if it wasn't lives on the line it would have been a comedy of errors.
This sounds bad, but it reminded me of the classic trolley problem. Obviously they wanted to save the pilots, but there kept being more crashes and lives lost and resources used. In the middle of WWII. And I just wondered what lengths they were willing to go to with all the odds stacked against them, and the need for those men, planes, and supplies to be used for the war.
THEN. In the 2010s, this guy decides he wants to go on an expedition to find the first crashed plane and the dead bodies. He ropes in the author of the book and maxes out Mitchell's credit cards. At one point he asks Mitchell if he'll put his house up against a loan for this. What the actual fuck?! HE AGREED. The loan didn't end up going through, but holy hell. There's no way I would agree to that.
So they go on their expedition and of course nothing works out. Until they're being pulled out of Greenland because of terrible weather. And then they miraculously find plane parts under the ice.
And that's the end of the book. SO UNSATISFYING. I don't have any complaints about how the book was written, it was very well written. Really just the story was kind of a mess. The moral of the story is you shouldn't fuck with mother nature.
