A desperate air war was fought over Romania in World War II as the Allies tried to knock out Hitler's oil supply. By August 1944, more than 1,100 American airman were held in Romanian POW camps. It was then that the Soviets launched their invasion of Romania and the country's young monarch, King Michael, staged a coup d'etat that deposed the country's iron fisted pro-Nazi dictator, Ian Antonescu. For the American POWs, King Michael's Coup triggered a race against time. While the Romanians and Germans fought each other in the streets of Bucharest, the Red Army raced across the plains of Romania, bearing down on the POW camps. If the POWs could not find a way out of the country immediately, they faced the prospect of death or continued imprisonment at the hands of the Nazis or the all too real possibility of disappearing into the Siberian gulags of their erstwhile ally, Joseph Stalin. Unable to establish radio contact with the 15th Air Force in Italy, the POWs hatched a desperate plan. To pull it off, they would need the help of Romania's leading fighter ace, Constantin "Bazu" Cantacuzino. Last Flight of the Gustav is the story of the daring rescue of those stranded fliers, and of the courageous men who pulled it off.
