Shot Down: B-17 Pilot Howard Snyder’s 7-Month Escape | Steve Snyder at Eagle Academy

Author and World War II historian Steve Snyder shares the remarkable true story behind his award-winning book SHOT DOWN: The True Story of Pilot Howard Snyder and the Crew of the B-17 Susan Ruth.

On February 8, 1944, Steve’s father, First Lieutenant Howard Snyder, was piloting the B-17 Flying Fortress Susan Ruth on a bombing mission over Europe when the aircraft was attacked and shot down.

What followed was an extraordinary seven-month journey behind enemy lines.

Steve tells the story of the Susan Ruth and its crew, Howard’s efforts to evade German capture, the courageous Belgian civilians and Resistance members who risked their lives to hide and protect him, and his eventual involvement with the French Resistance before returning to Allied forces.

Steve also shares the fascinating story of Hans Berger, the German Luftwaffe pilot involved in the attack on the Susan Ruth, whom Steve later located and personally met decades after the war.

Through photographs, wartime records, firsthand accounts, and his father’s own story, Steve preserves not only the experiences of one B-17 crew, but the courage of the ordinary people who risked everything to help Allied airmen survive in occupied Europe.

Learn more about Steve Snyder and SHOT DOWN at SteveSnyderAuthor.com.