On a May day in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber plane went down into the Pacific Ocean and vanished, leaving only a spray of junk and a trail of oil, petrol, and blood. But out of thin air and water, a face came out. It was the plane’s bombardier, a teen lieutenant,who was fighting to a Carling float and drawing himself aboard. This is the beginning of the most exceptional odysseys of the Second World War.