A classic of survival during World War II when an Air Force airman is the sole survivor of a shot down B-17 over New Georgia, an island in the South Pacific which is also the site of Rabaul, the largest Japanese military base in the Southwest Pacific. Crippled in one ankle and with shrapnel in the other, then Master Sergeant Manuel lands in the sea, and gets ashore on a island where 70,000 Japanese soldiers await him. This puts reality survival shows on the Discovery channel to shame...this is the real deal. Manual relies on his own wits, his experience is a former guide in the Maine woods, and his owns courage to complete a nine-month term of survival, rescued finally...along with detailed observations and locations of defense installations and Rabaul itself. Not to be missed. ( )

As told by Lt. Gordon Manuel to Quentin Reynolds