Audiobook11 hours
Beyond the Call: The True Story of One World War II Pilot's Covert Mission to Rescue POWs on the Eastern Front
Written by Lee Trimble and Jeremy Dronfield
Narrated by Donald Corren
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Near the end of World War II, thousands of Allied ex-POWs were abandoned to wander the war-torn Eastern Front. With no food, shelter, or supplies, they were an army of dying men. The Red Army had pushed the Nazis out of Russia. As they advanced across Poland, the prison camps of the Third Reich were discovered and liberated. In defiance of humanity, the freed Allied prisoners were discarded without aid. The Soviets viewed POWs as cowards, and regarded all refugees as potential spies or partisans. The United States repeatedly offered to help recover their POWs, but were refused. With relations between the allies strained, a plan was conceived for an undercover rescue mission. In total secrecy, the OSS chose an obscure American air force detachment stationed at a Ukrainian airfield; it would provide the base and the cover for the operation. The man they picked to undertake it was veteran 8th Air Force bomber pilot Captain Robert Trimble. With little covert training, already scarred by the trials of combat, Trimble took the mission. He would survive by wit, courage, and a determination to do some good in a terrible war. Alone he faced up to the terrifying Soviet secret police, saving hundreds of lives. At the same time he battled to come to terms with the trauma of war and find his own way home to his wife and child. One ordinary man. One extraordinary mission. A thousand lives at stake. This is the compelling, inspiring true story of an American hero who laid his life on the line to bring his fellow men home to safety and freedom.
Related to Beyond the Call
Related audiobooks
Whatever It Took: An American Paratrooper’s Extraordinary Memoir of Escape, Survival, and Heroism in the Last Days of World War II Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lightning Down: A World War II Story of Survival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man Who Broke into Auschwitz: A True Story of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Save the Last Bullet: Memoir of a Boy Soldier in Hitler's Army Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Boy in the Woods: A True Story of Survival During the Second World War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmakers: A Powerful WW2 Story of Brotherhood, Survival, and Hope Amid the Holocaust Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Survivors Club: The True Story of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Surrender: A Father, a Son, and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism That Continues to Live on Today Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behind the Fireplace: Memoirs of a Girl Working in the Dutch Resistance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War Journal of Major Damon 'Rocky' Gause Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Do the Birds Still Sing in Hell? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor's True Story of Auschwitz Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Luck of the Draw: My Story of the Air War in Europe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Mother's War: The Incredible True Story of How a Resistance Member Survived Three Concentration Camps Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Storm on Our Shores: One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Save my Children: An Astonishing Tale of Survival and its Unlikely Hero Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi Occupied France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tap Code: The Epic Survival Tale of a Vietnam POW and the Secret Code That Changed Everything Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Volunteer: One Man, an Underground Army, and the Secret Mission to Destroy Auschwitz Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Battle for Hell's Island: How a Small Band of Carrier Dive-Bombers Helped Save Guadalcanal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Irena's Children: The Extraordinary Story of the Woman Who Saved 2,500 Children from the Warsaw Ghetto Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Escape Artists: A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Break of the Great War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inseparable: The Hess Twins' Holocaust Journey through Bergen-Belsen to America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Founding Mothers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Beyond the Call
Rating: 4.4565216521739135 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
23 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This true story of the behind the lines heroism of an Air Force Captain called to an unfamiliar and highly dangerous duty made for a good read. This historical fiction accounting of the strained relationship between the US and the USSR demonstrates exactly what it was that made us so different from the Soviets: respect for life.
I found the book interesting, engaging, enlightening and an altogether good read. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a powerful story that only came to light because of a son's persistent questions towards the end of the father's life. The Russian's disdain of their own, though well known, is always shocking.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If you only ever read one book on WW2 - read this one. This book should be a film. The bravery of one man Captain Robert Trimble has been immortalised by his son in the incredible read. Read it - you won't want to put it down.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As the Red Army advanced across Poland in 1945, thousands of freed Allied POWs – viewed by the Soviets as cowards or potential spies – were abandoned to wander the war-torn Eastern Front.In total secrecy, the OSS – wartime forerunner to the CIA – conceived an undercover mission to rescue them. The man they picked to undertake it was veteran Eighth Air Force bomber pilot Captain Robert Trimble.With little covert training, Trimble survived by wit, courage, and a determination to do some good in a terrible war. Alone, he faced up to the terrifying Soviet secret police and saved hundreds of lives, fighting his own battle against the trauma of war while finding his way home to his wife and child.Based on hours of testimony from his father, Beyond the Call is written by Trimble’s son and by British historian Jeremy Dronfield. It is a filmic, inspiring story of a hitherto unknown true hero.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond The Call concerns an aspect of WWII that is not well known. In the final months of the war, an American airbase was established in Ukraine(!) from which technicians would travel to Poland and Ukraine to salvage downed American airplanes and rescue pilots who had ditched while on bombing runs from bases in England. Reasonable enough, but some of these salvage crews were acting as covert operatives under the auspices of the OSS, their mission to rescue thousands of American POWs freed from German prison camps who had been left by the Soviets to wonder around Eastern Europe without food or shelter. Now, it doesn't make sense the Soviets would mistreat their allies former POWs, but they did for reasons explained in the book. And it doesn't make sense that American covert operatives were traveling around Russia during the war rescuing other Americans on the run from KGB, but there it was. It foreshadowed the Cold War and growing hostility between the USSR and the west. This is a first hand account that reads like a thriller with one foot in WWII and the other in the Cold War.