Indestructible: One Man's Rescue Mission That Changed the Course of WWII

Indestructible tells the story of Paul Irving "Pappy" Gunn, an American naval aviator who fought to rescue his family from Japanese imprisonment during World War II. From his youth spent in knife fights and smuggling runs through his early days as a pioneering aviator, Pappy operated by his own rules. After marrying a Southern woman named Polly, he became an entrepreneur whose engineering skills helped establish one of Asia's first airlines. When war reached the Philippines, Pappy was drafted into MacArthur's air force. While on a top-secret mission to Australia, the Japanese captured his wife and four children. Separated from his family, Pappy undertook increasingly desperate rescue missions, even after being shot down twice. During his three-year quest to find his family, Pappy became instrumental in transforming American air warfare. Working outside official channels, he modified bombers and invented new weapons that enabled the U.S. Army Air Force to overcome earlier defeats by the Japanese. His innovations proved decisive during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, one of the war's most significant American victories. The narrative follows Pappy from the Pacific skies through the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines, including one of the war's most notorious prison camps.