Lost in Shangri-la :A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff.

Lost in Shangri-la: a True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff, 384 pages.
This account of the rescue of two Army Air Corp servicemen and one WAC from a remote mountainous area of New Guinea during the waning days of the war provides an interesting story that does not quite live up to the hyperbole in the title. After a C-47 transport plane crashes into a mountainside during a sight-seeing flight over an inaccessible valley in New Guinea, four survivors must hope that the air crews at the base on the other side of the mountains can find them before they all succumb to their wounds, starvation, jungle-type infections, or the supposed dietary habits of the locals. Once they are located by the US Army, someone has to figure out a way to get them out. The Army discards the possibility of using sea-planes, despite newspaper stories from several years back that told of an expedition to the area using sea-planes. The method of extraction the Army chose was cooler, riskier, and a bit unnecessary. An interesting story that could have been told in a shorter book.