His story is set to be brought to life in the upcoming series 'Masters of the Air', where he will be the basis of a character played by Jonas Moore. 'It lasted only four months – four months, however, in which were compressed many of the most exciting, and all of the most frightening and life-threatening, experiences I have known in my entire life,' Murphy recalled.
Originally from Atlanta, he landed in England in June, determined to stave off the advancing Nazi invasion that had already reached most of Europe and North Africa.īy the time Murphy and the nine others crammed inside the tin-can bomber alongside him were shot down in October, he had witnessed some of the bloodiest fighting in military history. Murphy was a member of the 100th Bomb Group, one of five B-17 bomb groups sent to England in the spring of 1943 to form the new 4th Bomber Wing. 'Our family’s goal is to keep Frank’s memory and that of his fellow men alive and pass on the greatness to the next generation.' 'My grandfather once told me he spent the rest of his life walking with ghosts but looking back with pride,' she said, in the foreword co-written with her mother, Elizabeth Murphy, and with the support of her grandmother, Ann Murphy.Ĭhloe added that she felt a sense of duty to her grandfather to re-issue the memoir, which was only written as a record for family and friends before she realized it was 'a story worth telling'. 'And I know a good story when I see one.' 'He took ten years to write this book' she told.
Now, more than 77 years later, his granddaughter, CNN entertainment correspondent Chloe Melas, is retelling the story, as both a tribute to her heroic grandfather and a reminder of the terrible events endured by so many. After being held captive for nearly two years in a prisoner-of-war camp following 'trials by fire on a scale unprecedented in aerial warfare', Second World War bomber Frank Murphy couldn't believe he lived to tell the tale.Īs a navigator on the US Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, the then-22-year-old was shot down while flying over Nazi Germany, where he was sent to the infamous Stalag Luft III - a prisoner of war camp depicted in the 1963 hit The Great Escape.įor 22 months, Murphy battled freezing conditions, near-starvation and petrifying ordeals, before his eventual liberation on April 29, 1945.Īfter returning home, he recalled his time behind enemy lines in a harrowing memoir, 'Luck of the Draw'.
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