Operation Overflight cover art

Operation Overflight

A Memoir of the U-2 Incident

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Operation Overflight

By: Francis Gary Powers, Curt Gentry
Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is a central character in the movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks. In his classic 1970 memoir, Powers reveals the full story behind what happened in the most sensational espionage case in Cold War history. After his U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down, Powers was captured on May 1, 1960 and endured 61 days of rigorous interrogation by the KGB, a public trial, a conviction for espionage, and the start of a 10-year sentence. After nearly two years, the US government obtained his release from prison in a dramatic exchange for convicted Soviet spy Rudolph Abel.

The narrative is a tremendously exciting suspense story about a man who was labeled a traitor by many of his countrymen but who emerged a Cold War hero.

©1970, 2015 Frances Gary Powers (P)2015 Random House Audio 20th Century Air Forces Armed Forces Engineering Military Military & War Military Science Modern Russia Espionage Aviation War Memoir Soviet Union US Air Force Imperial Japan Cold War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Concorde cover art
Typhoon cover art
Vulcan Boys cover art
Flying the SR-71 Blackbird cover art
Blind Man's Bluff cover art
Thunder Below! cover art
Into the Bright Sunshine cover art
The Hundred Years' War: A Captivating Guide to One of the Most Notable Conflicts of the Middle Ages and in European History and the Life of Joan of Arc cover art
The Flying Tigers cover art
The Palest Ink cover art
My Sixty Years on the Plains cover art
Spies in the Family cover art
The Longest Rescue cover art
Indestructible cover art
Our First Civil War cover art
Wanderlust cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
This is a truly excellent book for anyone interested in the history of the cold war even though it is but a small chapter.
It is another example of how the political wheelers and dealers of the state will shift their blame on to the people it has shackled by regulation, so they cannot fight back, even when those very people are the most patriotic members of that society.

A small but world changing episode of the cold war.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is an extraordinary account of the incident and clarifies many of the key issues. Powers was clearly a highly respected and accomplished pilot and an honourable man, yet political pressures tarnished his name, to my mind, unnecessarily.

This is a moving and beautifully written book by a highly talented man.

Probably one of the most important memoirs of the Cold War

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a very interesting story of the incident from the man that was there in the thick of it all. I think gary was not treated well by his government or the agency he worked for. really enjoyed this.

Overflight

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.