Goodbye, Liberty Belle

the long version

In 1944, B-24 pilot Jim Merritt, returning to his base in Italy from a mission over Vienna, nursed his flak-damaged bomber as far as Axis-occupied Croatia before bailing out. Aided by Tito’s partisans, for the next 49 days he and his crew made their way through enemy lines to safety. Forty-two years later his son reconstructed those events and returned with his dad to the crash site and a reunion with his rescuers. “Goodbye, Liberty Belle is the dramatic re-creation of that walk to freedom [and] draws moving portraits of young men on both sides of the battlefield caught up in the tragedy of World War II.” — People magazine [“Goodbye Liberty Belle”] involves a network of themes that usually occur in a novel: the nurture of old memories, the grasp of long-forgotten friendships, the dawning of understanding between father and son. ... This grandly complex tale is handled expertly by Merritt the younger. “Goodbye, Liberty Belle” is a war story, sort of, but has enough facets to gleam brightly whichever way you look at it. — Edward Parks, Smithsonian magazine