Coffin Corner Boys cover art

Coffin Corner Boys

Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Coffin Corner Boys

By: Carole Engle Avriett, Captain George W. Starks
Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

As a young band of brothers flies over German-occupied France, they come under heavy fire. Their B-17 is shot down and the airmen - stumbling through fields and villages - scatter across Europe. Some struggled to flee for safety. Others were captured immediately and imprisoned. Now, for the first time, their incredible story of grit, survival, and reunion is told.

In 1944, George Starks was just a 19-year-old kid from Florida when he and his high school buddies enlisted in the US military. They wanted to join the action of WWII. George was assigned to the 92nd Bomb Group, in which the median age was 22, and on his crew's first bombing mission together received the most vulnerable spot of a B-17 mission configuration: low squadron, low group, flying number six in the bomber-box formation. Airmen called George's position the "Coffin Corner" because here exposure was most likely to draw hostile fire. Sure enough, George's plane was shot down by a German Fw 190, and he jumped at 25,000 feet for the "first and only time", as he tells the story. He landed near Vitry-en-Perthois to begin a 300-mile trek through the dangers of war-torn France towards the freedom of neutral Switzerland. Through waist-deep snow, seering exhaustion, and close encounters with Nazis, George repeated to himself the mantra "just one more day". He battled to keep walking. His comrades were scattered all across Europe and experienced places as formidable as German POW camps and as hospitable as Spain, each crew member always wondering about the fate of the others.

After the war, George made two vows: he would never lose touch with his men again and one day would attempt to thank those who had risked their lives to save his. Despite passage of time and demands of career and family, he accomplished both. He reunited with his crew and then 25 years later, returned to France to locate as many as he could of the brave souls who had helped him evade the enemy.

Join George as he retraces his steps to freedom and discover the amazing stories of sacrifice and survival and how 10 young American boys plus their French helpers became heroes.

©2018 Carole Engle Avriett (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Air Forces Armed Forces Military Military & War World World War II War Veteran US Air Force

Listeners also enjoyed...

Under the Cover of Light cover art
CodeName Snake: The Evil We Kill cover art
Survivor's Game cover art
Project 9: The Birth of the Air Commandos in World War II cover art
Rather Die Fighting cover art
A Red Boyhood cover art
Never Call Me a Hero cover art
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler cover art
Gladys Aylward: The Adventure of a Lifetime cover art
We Hope for Better Things cover art
The Book of Harlan cover art
Courage & Defiance: Stories of Spies, Saboteurs, and Survivors in World War II Denmark (Scholastic Focus) cover art
Six Years in the Hanoi Hilton cover art
Indestructible cover art
Escape from Stalag Luft III cover art
Band of Brothers cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
I have enjoyed this listen, very interesting and well read, kept me listening throughout :)

Good listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

An incredible and moving account of these young mens traumatic experiences,
well written and narrated.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Lovely story and worth a listen if you like your World War stories. Young soldiers and the people who help them 👏👏👏

World War 2 stories

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Fully recommend to everyone to listen to this true life account, what an adventure, something never to be forgotten

Absolutely Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I enjoyed this so much that I stayed up half of the night to listen to it right through to the end. It is acreate example of the couragecand perseverance of ordinary people in the face of great hardship and danger.

A really enjoyable book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I searched for 'Patrick Lawlor' narration and this superb book came up. Narration was brilliant as always from Mr Lawlor. The story is breathtaking, exciting and moving. I'm looking forward to forgetting enough to enjoy listening again!

Excellent story and narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Interesting story, one which makes you quite gripped to the narrative all the way through

Great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Am truly sorry I just couldn't get into this story. I can't put a finger on why!

Just a struggle.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.