On Tuesday, March 5, the Vernon County Historical Society will welcome local author John Armbruster to talk about his book, Tailspin. The program will begin at 7PM at the Vernon County History Center.
In November 1943, in the skies over Nazi Germany, a wounded American tail gunner, Gene Moran [of Soldiers Grove], lay in the severed tail of his Flying Fortress bomber. The mangled wreckage plunged four miles toward German soil. His parachute shredded by enemy fire, Gene awaited the inevitable.
The cartwheeling tail section slammed into a forest and dumped Gene onto the cold ground. He was alive! Gene fell four miles without a parachute and survived. But his ordeal had just begun. In the next seventeen months, Gene would endure some of the worst episodes of the American prisoner of war experience in occupied Europe, including the infamous “Hell Ship” and the European Death March.
Tailspin chronicles Gene’s unbelievable World War II survival saga. It also shows an elderly man finally coming to terms with the cruelties of a war that would haunt his entire life.
Armbruster earned degrees in journalism and education, and has taught history and government courses to middle and high school students. Join us on March 5 as we hear this incredible tale of loss and recovery.