Olympic distance runner and war veteran Louis Zamperini dies aged 97
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Version 0 of 1. Louis Zamperini, an Olympic distance runner and second world war veteran who survived on a raft in the Pacific after his bomber crashed, then endured two years in Japanese prison camps, has died aged 97. Zamperini competed in the 5,000 metres at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, finishing eighth and catching attention by running the final lap in 56 seconds. But he was better known as the subject of Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling book Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, which is now being made into a movie directed by Angelina Jolie. In the second world war, Zamperini was a bombardier on a US Army Air Forces bomber that crashed in the Pacific Ocean during a reconnaissance mission. He and one of the other surviving crew members drifted for 47 days on a raft in shark-infested waters before being captured by Japanese forces. He then spent more than two years as a prisoner of war, surviving torture. |