Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II

Written by Mitchell Zuckoff

Narrated by Mitchell Zuckoff

#1 New York Times bestseller!

Frozen in Time is a gripping true story of survival, bravery, and honor in the vast Arctic wilderness during World War II, from the author of New York Times bestseller Lost in Shangri-La.

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Apr 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9780062249852

Mitchell Zuckoff

Mitchell Zuckoff is the Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Narrative Studies at Boston University. He covered 9/11 for the Boston Globe and wrote the lead news story on the day of the attacks. Zuckoff is the author of seven previous works of nonfiction, including the number one New York Times bestseller 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, which became the basis of the Paramount Pictures movie of the same name. His earlier books also include the New York Times bestsellers Lost in Shangri-La and Frozen in Time. As a member of the Boston Globe Spotlight Team, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting and the winner of numerous national awards. He lives outside Boston.

Reviews for Frozen in Time

[azilaabdullah · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

good?

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff. This was an excellent read! In 1942 a cargo plane slammed into the Greenland icecap and 3 successive rescue attempts were made with 3 more crashes. Why was Greenland important in 1942? German Nazi submarines. The real life saga centers around the many rescue attempts, most of which were unsuccessful. The history and the survival stories are mixed with the modern day attempt to uncover the "Duck" and repatriate the bodies. Although this is a non-fiction it read like a thriller novel and kept me on the edge of my seat. 391 pages 5 stars

[Nadine Baker · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was a well written story. Very real and I felt like a knew all the brave men. Thanks for the time and effort that was put in to telling this story.

[Karen Watts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. Well written and fast paced. Amazing true story. A+

[tess_w · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff. This was an excellent read! In 1942 a cargo plane slammed into the Greenland icecap and 3 successive rescue attempts were made with 3 more crashes. Why was Greenland important in 1942? German Nazi submarines. The real life saga centers around the many rescue attempts, most of which were unsuccessful. The history and the survival stories are mixed with the modern day attempt to uncover the "Duck" and repatriate the bodies. Although this is a non-fiction it read like a thriller novel and kept me on the edge of my seat. 391 pages 5 stars

[Roger Beshears · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent read, very compelling. It was very difficult to put down

[toric90 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a really interesting story and suspenseful, especially if you hadn’t heard of this event before. Picked this up for the #buzzwordathon for March 2021 because it had “time” in the title, and I do not regret it!

[untraveller · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting in the sense I’m heading to Greenland in August....but only in that sense. Poorly written and, like so much of what the government does, a colossal cluster. Three personal GPS devices and nobody remembered to change the datum? One of those was a “specialist” from an agency I previously worked for. And, nobody could work a Trimble? Egads!!!! NYT thriller material, but otherwise not worth my time.

[bnbookgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

#unreadshelfproject2019. An amazing read about several rescue missions to Greenland to either save our fallen heroes, or recover their remains and bring them home. The book is written from two time periods. The time of the crashes during WWII and present day. I enjoyed getting to know the men trapped on the ice and reading their story of survival. They are all heroes. Reading about the rescuers was also interesting. They seem to come from such varied backgrounds. They too, are heroes. A face paced read accompanied by several great photos.

[startwithgivens · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was definitely a 3.5 for me. I enjoyed it as I always enjoy Zuckoff's story telling. However, I felt like I was repetitive. Certain chapters, while obviously moving the story forward, has the same kind of structure and tone that made paying attention difficult. I would recommend this book (and Zuckoff)!

[nkmunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 bcs I wish the audio version was an updated edition that included the 2013 expedition as well - I think that's only on the blog ? regardless, what a story! and one that shows the two bet human sides of many a coin : patience & daring, hope & resignation, etc

[setnahkt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well written search and rescue plus aviation archaeology story. In November 1942 a C-53 went down over Greenland. Search planes were sent out; one of those, a B-17 with nine crew on board, also crashed. A Grumman Duck floatplane from the coastguard cutter Northland found the B-17, landed on the ice, picked up two crewmen, brought them back to the Northland, then set out again to pick up some more but went down on the return trip with two Coast Guardsmen and a B-17 crewman. An overland sledge party from an Army base set out, reached the B-17, and started back with some of the crewmen; one of the B-17 crew and one of the Army sledgers were lost in crevasses and the surviving sledgers set up camp and waited rather than risk more crevasses. Finally a Navy PBY landed on the ice, picked everybody up, and made it back. Final score – All five C-53 crewman lost (that crash site was never located), two Coast Guardsmen lost (the crash site was seen from the air but no attempt was made to recover anybody as it was assumed the crash was not survivable); two B-17 crew lost (one in the Duck crash and one in a crevasse) and one Army sledger lost in a crevasse. One of the B-17 survivors lost both legs at the knee from frostbite. The stories of the various survivors and rescuers are as inspiring as they come; ordinary people in extraordinary circumstance. The most surprising thing here – and author Mitchell Zuckoff doesn’t stress it – is how poorly prepared the AAF was to face Greenland conditions. The B-17 crew had no cold weather gear, no sleeping bags, no extra rations, no arctic weather training, yet were sent out on repeated search flights.
The story alternates the various Army, Coast Guard, and Navy exploits in 1942 and 1943 with the 2012 efforts of an American adventurer, Lou Sapienza, to recover the remains of the Duck. Sapienza had some previous experience in recovering aircraft lost in the Arctic; he got one of a whole flight of P-38s out from under the ice. The Coast Guard had an interest; there were three WWII Coastguardsmen missing in action; one had died in a Japanese POW camp and was deemed unrecoverable; the other two were John Pritchard Jr. and Benjamin Bottoms, the pilot and radioman of the Duck. The Coast Guard was therefore persuaded to loan Sapienza a C-130 to transport him and his crew to Greenland when he claimed he could locate and recover the Duck and the remains of the crew and passenger. Sapienza and his team (which included author Zuckoff) unfortunately come off just as poorly prepared as the WWII AAF. Their clothing was adequate, but their search and recovery equipment – or, rather, their use of it – was not. In particular, they had a set of state-of-the-art GPS receivers, but nobody knew how to use them, and a magnetometer, but nobody knew how to use that either. Their search was based on Coast Guard personal GPS equipment, a team member’s tentative understanding of the magnetometer, and a ground-penetrating radar (at least the operator of that was familiar with the equipment). Their plan was to use 1940’s hand drawn maps of the Duck crash site (which was now assumed to be under many feet of ice), get a signal from the ground-penetrating radar and/or magnetometer, melt down to the wreck with a steam gun, confirm identification with a downhole camera, and come back next year to actually recover it. As is typical of these sorts of stories, on their last day on the ice they got a promising signal, melted down, and photographed something that they and the Coast Guard agreed was part of the Duck. That’s where this book ends in 2012.
Alas, it hasn’t come off. It’s hard to tell exactly what happened from the web, but apparently the Duck’s location was lost after the 2012 mission and another group is trying to locate the wreck again.
A quick and exciting read; the alternating time line keeps things interesting and Zuckoff manages to keep things exciting even though everybody knows what happened. Photographs of participants and scenery from both 1942 and 2012. Could use one modern map; there are historic maps but nothing that shows the 2012 expedition’s location (although perhaps that’s deliberate; Sapienza’s group might have worried about another team jumping their claim and the Coast Guard had already expressed concerns about relic hunters).

[creighley_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A gripping true story of survival, bravery, and honor in the Arctic wilderness during WWII. On Nov. 5, 1942, a cargo plane crashed into the Greenland Ice Cap. Four days later, a rescue plane carrying nine men also crashed. Miraculously, all survived. This is the story of the brave and dedicated men who tried (and often failed) to keep these men supplied and eventually rescued them. It is also the contemporary story of the extreme difficulties and overwhelming odds of recovering the bodies and plane of three Coast Guard men who died trying to save the original nine survivors.

[dougcornelius_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A tremendous story of survival during WWII and exploration of today. A plane crashed in WWII in the frigid, glacial reaches of Greenland. It's rescue plane crashes and then a second rescue plane crashes. The book covers their story of bravery and survival. At the same time it adds in a current day search for those lost planes.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

From Book Cover:

In Nov. 1942 a U.S. cargo plane crashed into the Greenland ice cap, the B-17 sent on the search-and-rescue mission got caught in a storm and also crashed, miraculously all nine men aboard survived. A second rescue operation was launched, but the plane, the Grumman Duck, flew into a storm and vanished. The survivors of the B-17 spent 148 days fighting to stay alive while waiting for rescue by famed explorer Bernt Balchen. Then in 2012 the U.S. Coast Guard and North South Polar mount an expedition to solve the mystery of the vanished plane and recover the remains of the lost plane's crew.

My Thoughts:

Frozen in Time is a compelling account of survival in one of the remotest corners of the world. The time is the early days of America's involvement in World War II and the place is Greenland. The author, Mitchell Zuckoff, gives us the background of the purpose of being there and the challenges that accompany that purpose. Within a relatively short number of pages, we encounter a US airplane that has crash-landed well into the barren and frozen tundra of Greenland. The 9 or so crew members are a long ways from rescue. You have to remember that this was 73 years in the past. There are great efforts and greater failures and the story of these men is the story that will hold your attention. This book is the account of a great adventure and as you know...adventures don't always turn out the way you want. I couldn't even imagine 1 day in this environment let alone 148. I found this a terrific story about courage and dedication of those who served during World War II in capacities other than combat. I will admit that if I had not needed a book set during this time period for a challenge I probably would never had read this book but having done so I recommend this book. It's a great testament of the sacrifices made by all who served in uniform. I give it 4 stars.

[yukon92 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

somehow was not half as interesting as I thought it would be!

[marshapetry · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good book. Nicely juxtaposed versions of current day and WWII era activities although the current day explanations dragged somewhat. They became a little tedious listening to the author's opinions of the guys trying to get money; I suppose money is a big deal to the plane-finders but it got a little old since the money-begging didn't mesh with the historical version. The WWII historical pieces were interesting, however, and worth the read to hear that story.

[labdaddy4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an excellent story of a small slice of WWII history that most have no knowledge of in today's world. The description of the hardships endured by the survivors of an military aircraft crash on a Greenland glacier are stark and difficult to imagine. The bravery and fortitude of this handful of men is heroic.Just as inspirational is the story (in alternate chapters) of the efforts of a combined team to discover the location of one of the crashed rescue planes from 1942 as well as recover the remains of it's crew. The dedication, bravery, and sacrifices of this team of scientists, military, and adventurers is inspirational - and all after a span of 70 years after the incident in Greenland in 1942.

[mrlzbth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book! It's a fast and easy read, but the survival story at its heart is extremely compelling and emotionally affecting (I teared up more than once). It's amazing to read about the conditions the WWII plane crash survivors were thrust into and to imagine what it would be like to be stuck in a frozen hell day after day. It's also amazing to read about the determined rescuers who repeatedly risked their own lives to try to bring the lost soldiers home.

The modern-day story of the attempt to locate the wreckage of one of the planes involved is a little less compelling, especially as the resolution is not exactly what a reader would ideally hope for. (Trying not to be spoiler-y!) I'll definitely be checking out Zuckoff's website to see if there are further developments in the future...but still, overall I thought this was a great book and one I would definitely recommend to both history buffs and fans of survival stories!

[slug9000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fast-paced, gripping, non-fiction read. I loved it for so many reasons. First, I had no idea about the role that Greenland played in World War II, so I had of course never heard of this story. I knew very little about Greenland going into this book, and the author did an excellent job painting a clear picture of the country's unforgiving climate and lethal terrain. Second, this book has all the hallmarks of a fictional suspense novel, but the fact that it is non-fiction served as a somewhat grim reminder that the truth really is stranger than fiction. The tragedies that befell these soldiers were so awful and so numerous as to be almost unbelievable. The descriptions of the day-to-day life of the soldiers trapped on the glacier were vivid and fascinating (albeit often sad) to read, and I found myself thinking about them when I wasn't reading the book. The historical account of the plane crashes and the rescue efforts make up the bulk of this book, but a fairly significant portion of the book is dedicated to a 2012 effort to locate a Grumman Duck plane that crashed as part of the rescue effort. The tale of this expedition is interspersed throughout the book, but I did not have difficulty following the narrative. I was less frond of these sections, but I still highly recommend this book.

[phyllisharrison · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An interesting subject, the crash of three WWII planes in Greenland and the attempts to rescue the survivors. Unfortunately the writing reads like a magazine article with too many adjectives like "handsome", square-jawed", etc. What does this have to do with the story? I get that the author was trying to develop characters, but although he gave it his best effort, I could not keep track of the names, of who crashed in what plane, or if they were stranded rescuers. A cast of characters was provided, but it was a lot of trouble to go back and forth as I was learning to use the e-book. It did not help that the author insisted on jumping from past to present in alternating chapters, from the rescue efforts of the men during the war to the recovery of the aircraft in modern times. I liked the photos, but when the last man was rescued during WWII, I gave up on reading the rest of the book, which may be why the author tried to introduce the drama of the modern day search for the aircraft early on, to keep us reading. I would have been more involved to the end in a linear (time-wise) story, toss out the tabloid-type adjectives and just get on with the two stories. That said, we all owe Mitchell Zuckoff a huge debt for having taken on the enormous task of collecting facts and writing about not one, but two, amazing historical events.

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well written and taught narrative, Zuckoff uses a braided narrative technique for both a modern and historical story in alternating chapters, culminating when the trails finally meet. Although writing about survival in the Arctic has been done so many times, he keeps it fresh. I'd normally give it 3.5 stars because there was a lot of trivial filler by way of extensive biographical details for every single person mentioned, but the book is different things to different people, it's meant to be more than just infotainment, it's a monument to the soldiers and their families and the Coast Guard. Further, Zuckoff is more than an archivist retelling a story from history, he is an active participant and thus elevates the book (somewhat) to a legitimate first-person account. He did the same with Lost in Shangri-La, rescuing history before it dies and also becoming part of the history.

[satxreader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't know exactly what to expect from this book, but it turned out to be fantastic. Grabs you and reels you in like a thriller, but it's totally factual. Based on this one, I'm looking forward to reading his "Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II". An amazing story of incredible courage and selflessness.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Subtitled: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War IIMitchell Zuckoff's name might already be familiar to you - he's also the author of a previous best seller - Lost in Shangri-La. Zuckoff again revisits World War II history, recounting the fate of the men on a US military cargo plane that crashed in November 1942 on the inhospitable shores of Greenland. And that of the men on the rescue B17 plane - that also crashed. And unbelievably, the third rescue plane, the Grumman Duck, that managed to pick up one survivor - and disappeared. It sounds like a movie plot and improbable that three planes could crash or disappear. What's even more unbelievable is the will of the crash survivors to survive the dead of winter in frozen Greenland. Zuckoff takes this factual piece of history and makes it 'real' and personal by inserting many, many details. Where did he get his information? There are survivors to this miraculous tale and Zuckoff follows them all the way through to the present. But, there are those whose bodies have never been recovered. And that's where the present day story kicks in. Between the US Coast Guard and North South Polar Inc. (a group, who as one of their mandates, tries to bring home the bodies of US servicemen) a mission is mounted to find the lost Duck and the men aboard. Zuckoff accompanies this mission to Greenland. Cutting between past and present Zuckoff brings to life this phenomenal story. I could feel the cold seep into my bone as the men were stranded yet another day. And the desperation of those determined to save them. I chose to listen to Frozen in Time. Zuckoff himself reads the book. I love hearing an author share his words - it just seems to give every sentence more weight. He has an excellent reading voice, expressive and easy to listen to. Listen to an excerpt of Frozen in Time. Frozen in Time is a testament to the human spirit. Highly recommended.

[doingdewey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

During WWII, planes routinely used Greenland as a staging point to get from the US to Europe. From this story, it seems as though planes almost as routinely ended up crashing due to the wind and poor visibility! In Frozen In Time, a B-17 participating in a search and rescue mission crash lands with all men on board miraculously surviving the crash. A Gruman Duck amphibious plane which is part of a daring rescue mission crashes as well and since none of the men on board survived, the plane is never retrieved. Frozen In Time tells both the story of the many daring rescue attempts necessary to retrieve the men aboard the B-17 and the modern day story of the hunt for the lost Duck.

After reading Mitchell Zuckoff’s Lost in Shangri-La, I jumped at the chance to review another one of his true stories about a daring rescue and Frozen In Time didn’t disappoint. The book was clearly very well researched. The personal details the author had collected about everyone involved made me feel deeply invested in their survival. The precise details shared about every aspect of the rescue mission served as a reminder that this was a true story, as did the amazing black-and-white pictures included throughout.

A few parts were a little hard to follow. Sometimes details about several different people were given in consecutive paragraphs. This could become both boring and hard to keep track of, but a great “cast of characters” section in the back helped me remember all the different people involved. It also would have helped to have specific dates at the beginning of each chapter instead of just month and year. However, these were very minor flaws and I spent most of the book deeply engaged, wondering if the Duck would be found and if the men on the B-17 would ever be rescued. The author does an amazing job of conveying the fact that this was a true story with stunningly heroic people involved. I would highly recommend it to fans of narrative non-fiction or incredible adventure stories.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mitchell Zuckoff writes fascinating true adventure stories. I first discovered him though his book Lost in Shangri-La about a WWII plane that crashed into a remote and nearly inaccessible valley in Dutch New Guinea, what the survivors endured, and the daring rescue to pull them out. He brings the same story-telling skills and ability to take the reader into the moment in his newest work of non-fiction about another rescue mission, Frozen in Time. Greenland, that misnamed island of glaciers, snow, and ice, perpetually white and forbidding, might have been far from the fighting in WWII but it was deemed a strategic outpost to the Allied war effort. By planting bases on it, there was a place to re-fuel planes on their way from the US to Europe and it gave the powers that be some meteorological insight into the weather that was soon to swirl its way into Europe and onto the soldiers on the ground. But the massive island's variable weather, unpredictable blizzards, and harsh climate made it incredibly treacherous to fly over and throughout the course of the war, quite a number of planes crashed onto its glacial interior. One plane, a C-53, carrying five US military personnel made a forced landing on Greenland and the crew miraculously survived the crash. But their radio contact with base didn't last long enough for their location to be fixed and so the rescue missions that were mounted to discover them not only had to contend with the frustrations of terrible weather grounding planes for days at a time but also with finding one relatively small plane in a vast, blank land. But looking for a needle in a haystack was just the first of the problems about to beset the rescue mission. A B-17 bomber, diverted from delivery in Europe, was pressed into service looking for the downed C-53 and its crew. But it too flew into disorienting conditions pilots called "flying in milk" and crashed onto the island in the midst of a crevasse-riddled glacier. Amazingly, the nine men on board the B-17 also survived. But now there were two separate crews of 14 men stranded on the ice in one of the most inhospitable places on the planet and fighting for their survival. Zuckoff captures the immediacy of the danger that the men on the ice faced, from their lack of provisions and cold weather survival gear to the danger of frostbite and exposure. He captures the frustration of command at the inability to find a way to safely remove these would be rescuers now in peril themselves. And he follows the planning and determination of a pilot and his navigator on a Coast Guard cutter patrolling the seas off of Greenland as they prepare to risk their own lives to save the men in the B-17 by flying their small Grumman Duck, an amphibious biplane, to the crash site to pluck the men two by two off the ice. Alternating with the historical chapters of the increasingly frantic determination to rescue the weakened and suffering men from the B-17, Zuckoff weaves in current day chapters about the quest to locate the Grumman Duck, also tragically lost on the unforgiving glaciers of Greenland with her crew of two fearless men and one of the B-17 survivors. He captures the larger than life, forever optimistic personalities who spearheaded the years of research into the fate and location of the little amphibious biplane and her passengers, lobbied government agencies for their support, and by hook or crook and on a showstring managed to assemble the people and the money to make the trek to Greenland to try and physically locate the final resting place of the Duck. Zuckoff has written a completely gripping, compelling tale. He's captured the terror and helplessness of the downed men and those valiantly searching for them. He's drawn visceral pictures of the aching cold and desperation they felt as the days mounted without their discovery and that they continued to feel even after their discovery as more time passed while the powers that be tried to figure out a way to pluck them from the ice without endangering more lives. The reader truly feels the ways in which they were at the complete mercy of nature and their own psyches. Pulled from journals, declassified documents, interviews with survivors' families, maps, and interviews, Zuckoff stays true to the story as reproduced publically, honoring the survivors' and participants' versions of events, never speculating on what cannot be known. The story of the men and the several attempts to rescue them is compelling. The modern day narrative about the expedition to find the Duck and her three missing men is interesting and provides closure to the sixty year old tale but isn't quite as enthralling as the historic events. This is a tale of heroes and determination, an overwhelming perseverence in the face of danger, and the unthinkable but constant threat of failure. World War II buffs will certainly appreciate it but other armchair travelers will also find themselves captivated by the hellish Greenland winter, the dire circumstances of the men, and the terrible or wonderful consequences that befell every man who dared to go out to try and save his fellows even in the face of overwhelming risk.