The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines

The Secret Rescue is a very disappointing read and not to be recommended for anyone who enjoys reading about WW2. The story of 13 nurses, 13 medics, and 4 flight crew crash-landing in Albania and spending 52 days wandering around the Albanian countryside, trying to find a way back to Italy, is hardly heroic. In fact, it is an embarrassing tale of a group of people who are completely untrained by the US military to be able to make decisions or cope with any situation other than helping to evacuate wounded soldiers to hospitals.The group knows nothing about survival training or the politics and military reality of the region they are operating and living in. When they crash-land in Albania they leave behind first-aid kits, K rations, and other items that could be helpful to them in the plane. That is just the first of many poor decisions this group makes. They follow the partisans/natives blindly wherever they are led, and whatever they are asked to do, because they are incapable of thinking clearly or helping themselves.They have compasses and have an idea of where they are and need to go, but they still give themselves over to self-seeking partisans. It is like a game of “keystone cops” as the partisans lead them on a winding trail up and down mountain ridges and through villages and never get anywhere closer to the shoreline that will be able to get them back to Italy. The stranded Americans know they aren’t going in the right direction, but still follow blindly rather than do anything that could be helpful to their situation. Finally, they encounter British officers who will eventually lead them to the shoreline and the waiting rescue boats. It is not a story that is heroic, and I can understand why the military would want to keep this story a secret. The nurses, flight crew, and medics probably didn’t want to talk about because it is such an embarrassing tale.In addition, we learn that the nurses are treated basically as “date material” for the officers on the base where they are stationed (much to the delight of the nurses). The author describes their lives as one of “dinner and dates”, with the occasional job of transporting wounded soldiers to hospitals. The nurses are considered officers and are living in “Italian Villas”. Meanwhile, the medics, who are enlisted men, are living in very minimalistic barracks.It would be interesting to learn what the medics thought about the situation. It is actually hard to read how poorly the medics are treated. Even though the 13 medics, 13 nurses, and 4 flight crew are all stranded in Albania and enduring the same experiences, the medics are treated as sub-standard by the nurses, flight crew, and British officers. The medics are always told to sleep in completely different spaces, houses, and even villages than the nurses and flight crew and what they endure is nightmarish. They are given almost no food, no money, no shoes or materials, and are never told what is happening.The nurses and flight crew are given much better lodging, food, money, and importantly, information. One example can be found on page 178. The British officers invite the nurses to “Eat a meal of chicken, drink wine and raki, make toasts, and dance to records on a phonograph”. The nurses are able to bath and see Italian movies and go to Church services. At exactly this same moment, the medics were crammed together in a single room without any blankets. They were given a meal of small scraps of meat and some broth. It is hard to understand this kind of sub-standard treatment.The Americans were all enduring the same situation of being trapped behind enemy lines. But, the nurses, flight crew, and British officers keep themselves separate from the medics and have far better lodging, food, and treatment. I actually found this offensive and it made it hard to sympathize with the nurses and flight crew. None of the “officers” who were flight crew or nurses managed to take leadership of the group and help with the rescue. Instead they just followed the partisans blindly even though they knew they were being taken in the wrong direction.Furthermore, it is difficult to sympathize with the nurses, in general, when we learn they are continuing to wear makeup all through their ordeal. They stop before going into villages to re-apply makeup (page 149-150) in case they meet British officers.The story of the stranded nurses, medics, and flight crew is meant to show the reader all the deprivations they endured. However, what is the most obvious is what the Albanian people endure. Their story is far more compelling, because in the end, no one is there to rescue them. They have to stay and live in Albania, a county ruled by murderous Germans and torn apart by a senseless civil war. The Albanians have so little food, that when they feed the stranded Americans, it means they eat nothing that day. They have so little, but they share it with the Americans. Never, at any time in the book, does the reader get a sense that the stranded Americans appreciate what is being done for them. They are repulsed by the lifestyle of the desperately poor Albanians and distrustful of the villagers and the partisans. There is no “bonding” with the natives or the partisans, such as what would surely be shown if this story was made into a movie.The author also goes to pains to describe the British and American efforts to train and equip the partisans. The goal was to train the partisans (Albanian resistance-soldiers) to fight the Germans. To this end, The British and U.S. send men to train and equip and gather information. Many tons of supplies are dropped in an effort to feed, cloth, supply, and arm the resistance leaders. Some of these supplies get to the partisans, but a lot of it is confiscated by the Germans. Instead of fighting the Germans, the partisans use the training, weapons, and supplies to fight each other. They form into two groups – the Partisans and the BKs and they kill each other, as well as anyone else who gets in the way. It is all completely pointless and another reason the military probably didn’t want this story told. A useless and costly effort that does more harm than good.To sum up this book, the "rescue" of the stranded medics, nurses, and flight crew, became a ridiculous trek through the Albanian countryside as the Americans followed blindly behind partisans who had other objectives than seeing the Americans get back to Italy. The treatment of the medics by the nurses, flight crew, and British officers was merciless and decidedly un-democratic and un-American, leaving a bad taste in the mouth.Finally, the American and British undercover operations in Albania only lead to more hardship and death for the Albanian people as it trained and equipped bloodthirsty men who fought each other, instead of the Germans. Nothing about what happened in Albania is anything I wanted to know when I started this book. It is not a “feel good” story about a heroic rescue in WWII. It is only about people making bad decisions, treating each other horribly, and the complete poverty of the Albanian villagers. I am sorry I picked this book and if I could return it and get my money back, I would.

I have known of this event for most of my life because my Aunt Lois (Watson) McKenzie was one of the nurses on the flight which crashed in Albania.Cate Lineberry has written a remarkably book. Well researched and detailed, the book is a pleasure to read. Her style is gripping and enjoyable, while filling in many of the specific details of the ordeal which the group of survivors overcame. Whether the reader is a student of history, or just someone interested in a little known adventure of World War II, this is a great book for adding to the lore of that remarkable generation.The survivors of the crash were for the most part Army nurses and medics with little or no training in survival behind enemy lines. The geography, language and culture of Albania made that place probably one of the most challenging locations in Europe for the group to try to travel through and to survive. Throw in the ever present threat of discovery by German soldiers, and you have quite a tale of heroism and perseverance for the survivors to just deal with getting through each day.This book was a joy for me to read. I highly recommend it to anyone who may be interested in learning more about the people who served in World War II.

Fascinating subject. Unfortunately, the book only narrowly avoids a two-star rating because of the writing. It reads as if written for junior high students while some parts also read like one of those term papers where the student copies text from an encyclopedia.I only finished because I wanted to see what happened and how the group managed to survive. In regard to the three nurses who were separated from the rest of the group. I do think the story might have benefited from having their journey interwoven into the other group's story instead of a quick summary at the end.One of the nurses wrote a memoir entitled "Albanian Escape" which I am eager to read, especially in the hope that is more enjoyable than "The Secret Rescue".

This is a gripping and incredible story of thirty Americans, whose struggle to survive in Albania in 1943 after the plane in which they were traveling crashed. The group of medics, nurses and flight crew set out for a more or less routine flight as emergency evacuation personnel when they found themselves in an unimaginable situation.Their survival in frigid winter temperatures without adequate food, clothing or supplies would be sufficient. Yet they walked hundreds and hundreds of miles crisscrossing mountains in snow in shoes that were literally falling apart. Had it not been for the help of partisans, peasants and British officers, there is little chance any would have survived.The saga offers insight into Albanian culture and a little known segment of WWII history.

I'm always amazed at what ordinary people can do in the face of the most difficult circumstances. This story of the escape/rescue of a downed medical evacuation team from within WWII Albania is filled with so many acts of courage and perseverance I wanted to hand out medals to everyone, Americans, British and Albanians alike! It is told in almost dizzying detail, mostly due to the convoluted route the team had to take, and it is hard to track with all the movements they made. (Keep a map handy!) The author did very well to piece this together into a cohesive, engaging story. Some of the crew have written their own memoirs which I'll try to find. Grateful for the medical evac units, the men and women who served and sacrificed, the author's years of work to gather this information before these dear Veterans are all gone and those across the sea who sacrificed so much. A worthy tribute.

I'm still reading the book so I might increase the number of stars given, but these are my initial thoughts:I thought the beginning was a bit laboured, with possibly too much detail on the setting up of the medic programme. However, when we get to the real story, it is very well written, and I particularly like the description of winter in Albania and encounters with partisans. It was quite a shock to read that the Allies were ready to use mustard gas if the Germans used it first and the blowing up of the ship containing the gas on a Luftwaffe raid on Bari.Also the author has a good knowledge of the senior Brits of the SOE.In short, I'm enjoying the book