Crash of the Heavens The Untold Story of the Only Military Mission to Rescue Europe's Jews During World War II by Douglas Century

In the decades before the Second World War, thousands of young Jewish men and women left the antisemitism of Europe for British-controlled Palestine. By 1942, they then began receiving reports of unimaginable horrors- of the liquidation of the ghettos, of industrialised killing centres in Poland, of the plan to exterminate all of Europe's Jews.

The Yishuv - the Jewish community in British Palestine - needed to act. Striking a deal with British Intelligence in 1943, they trained a cadre of volunteer Jewish emigres to parachute behind enemy lines on a dual mission- assisting thousands of downed Allied airmen to escape and to rescue as many Jewish citizens as possible from the death camps.

At the centre of this story is the extraordinary Hannah Senesh, a legendary poet-soldier, and her courageous female colleagues, who, armed with only their intelligence and humanity, underwent training as commandos, radio operators and parachutists - then, in early 1944, courageously jumped behind enemy lines. Captured in her native Hungary, Senesh refused to give up any information even while suffering months of gruesome torture.

Thrilling and inspiring, Crash of the Heavens is one of the great untold stories of the Second World War.


'What a story! This book is a magnificent masterwork, and you won't be able to put it down.'
-Colonel Jack Jacobs, US Army (retired), Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, author of If Not Now, When?

'Hannah Senesh isn't just a hero. She's a reminder of what happens when Jews stop running and start fighting. Crash of the Heavens captures the essence of that moment - when young volunteers, men and women, parachuted into the heart of Nazi Europe not as victims but as warriors.'
-Aaron Cohen, author of Brotherhood of Warriors

Praise for No Surrender-
'A fascinating war story ... a you-are-there portrait of the horrors of war and the incredible effect one selfless person can have on hundreds.'
-Kirkus Reviews

ISBN: 9781761380877