Operation Halyard, a remarkable but historically obscured World War II rescue mission detailed in Gregory A. Freeman’s book, The Forgotten 500. In 1944, over 500 Allied airmen were trapped in Nazi-occupied Serbia after their planes were downed during European bombing runs. The extraction was made possible by Serbian villagers and Chetnik resistance forces, who hid the soldiers from German patrols and constructed a manual airstrip to facilitate a secret evacuation. Despite the massive scale and success of the OSS-coordinated airlifts, the mission remained largely unrecognized for years due to the complex post-war political landscape in Yugoslavia. Ultimately, the sources highlight the extraordinary bravery and selflessness of local civilians who risked execution to ensure the safe return of foreign servicemen.