Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II

This propulsive account from journalist and historian Henderson (Bridge to the Sun) spotlights Allied aviators and spies who were part of a top-secret operation to disable and disrupt Nazi defenses ahead of the D-Day invasion. Code-named Carpetbagger, the plan was for American B-24 Liberators to “fly low and slow in the dead of night to parachute spies and supplies” into France to aid local French resistance cells. Not until the 1990s were the wartime records of the Carpetbaggers declassified; here, Henderson draws on his own research and interviews to further detail the workings of the operation. A superb storyteller, he populates his account with personal stories that underscore the treacherous nature of the task. For the flyers, it meant piloting their bulky B-24s by moonlight over the English Channel and locating drop zones that were nothing “but patches of ground” lit with lamps “in a dark countryside”; decreasing speed to just above stalling in order to make the drop; and evading antiaircraft fire and fighter planes. Henderson’s most intriguing stories are of the female secret agents who parachuted into France, like Nancy Wake and Violette Szabo, and of Bombardier 1st Lt. “Johnny” Mead, who bailed from his burning B-24 and eventually became a commander of the resistance. Novelistic and enlightening, this will captivate WWII buffs. (Nov.)