Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 136

significant audience. This is the case with 81 Days
Below Zero.
Within this excellent volume, author Brian
Murphy (with assistance from his wife Toula
Vlahou) details the incredible story of Leon Crane.
Crane was part of a five-man, B-24 Liberator crew
that crashed in Alaska while conducting a test flight
days before Christmas in 1943. He was the sole survivor, going on to survive an amazing eighty-one days
in brutal conditions before his rescue.
The telling of Crane’s story is a challenge for
any wouldbe writer.
Throughout
his life, Crane
was very
reluctant to
discuss his
experience.
Consequently,
there is a not
a great deal
of archived
material
available. The
challenge is
even more
difficult because Crane
died in 2002; thus, the possibility of interviewing
Crane was not available.
So how did Murphy meet the challenge and fill
in the blanks? He made significant use of accessible
resources. Those include an unedited transcript of
an interview with Crane, a 1944 story written by
Crane, and a videotaped oral history from the late
1990s. Murphy combined those with interviews of
family members and friends to provide himself with
an understanding of Crane’s ordeal and of the man
himself. He then utilized this information to extrapolate on parts of the story that may have been missing
or needed expansion.
Throughout the pages of 81 Days Below Zero, two
things are emphasized for the readers. First, the ability of Crane to overcome what Murphy labels as the
“enemies” of survival, which include pain, cold, thirst
(which was not an issue), hunger, fatigue, boredom,
134

and loneliness. Second, the unbelievable strokes of
luck that aided Crane tremendously in defeating the
aforementioned enemies. Some of those opportune
breaks will literally have readers shaking their heads
in astonishment.
An interesting aspect of 81 Days Below Zero is
Murphy’s decision to interweave many other stories
within the story in his book. In particular, the author
inserts several chapters within the volume detailing
the efforts decades later to search the wreckage site.
This discussion and his shift into other areas may
not be appealing to some readers who sought a book
solely focused on Crane’s “81 days.” For others, this
may be appreciated background information that aids
in telling the entire story.
81 Days Below Zero is a book that should grip the
preponderance of readers. Murphy crafted a volume
that is superbly written, thoroughly researched, and
is unique within this popular genre. Crane’s incredible story of survival deserves to be known by a far
greater audience. That is why 81 Days Below Zero is
such a valuable contribution.

Lt. Col. Rick Baillergeon, U.S. Army, Retired,
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

THE UNSUBSTANTIAL AIR: American
Fliers in the First World War

Samuel Hynes, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, New York,
2014, 322 pages

S

amuel Hynes’s latest work covers a subset of
World War I history previously neglected,
a discussion of who America’s first combat
aviators were and how they undertook their combat
roles. Hynes is a World War II Marine pilot who has
previously written about his own combat experiences
as well as another book detailing soldiers’ accounts of
twentieth-century wars. He is a masterful storyteller
who engages the reader from page one.
Using various first-hand aviator accounts to
family and friends, Hynes artfully and seamlessly
transformed disparate accounts into an awe-inspiring
narrative that brings the reader from pilot training
through the World War I front lines. The use of
the author’s personal knowledge regarding military
May-June 2016  MILITARY REVIEW