This 1945 short film details the rescue of C-47 plane crash survivors in remote New Guinea. In 2011 a book about the incident by Mitchell Zuckoff was published: “Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II.” The book and the film detail the story of the U.S. military airplane called “The Gremlin Special”, which crashed on May 13, 1945 in Netherlands New Guinea, and the subsequent rescue of the survivors. Because the incident involved a female WAC Corporal lost in the jungle with “savages”, the public became keenly interested in following the story. It was written about in the November 1945 issue of Reader’s Digest magazine, and many other press channels. The airplane started from Hollandia in Netherlands New Guinea (at the time part of Netherlands Indies, nowadays Indonesia) as a pleasure flight over a remote valley in New Guinea with 24 passengers, but only three people survived the crash: WAC corporal Margaret Hastings, sergeant Kenneth Decker and lieutenant John McCollom. They were later rescued by paratroopers who carried them out in gliders.

The name “Shangri-La” was given by the press, lifted from the 1933 novel Lost Horizon. The “Gremlin” in the plane’s name was borrowed from the myth of Gremlins, which are often associated to mishaps and mechanical troubles of airplanes.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com