Bill Bogdonavich is a bombardier in the Army Air Force during World War II. He is on the run from the Germans after being shot down over Yugoslavia. Drew Carlton is a pilot. He is training C-47 pilots in Texas. He would rather be overseas. “Red Burning Sky,” a novel by Tom Young, brings the two together. It is an unlikely meeting in an unusual location.
Bogdonavich is one of nearly 500 Allied aviators trapped in Yugoslavia after being shot down in 1944. They are being sheltered by Chetnik guerrillas while seeking to avoid the Nazis, the pro-Nazi Black Chetniks, and Tito’s Communist partisans. A three-sided war rages among the guerrilla groups and the Nazis. The downed airmen are becoming too numerous to hide and impossible to smuggle out by sea.
