RIP "Unbroken" war hero Louis Zamperini

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Only three of the 11 men onboard survived the crash and another died before Zamperini and 2nd Lt. Russell Phillips were captured by a Japanese patrol ship in the Marshall Islands.

"We were in constant, horrible fear," Zamperini told The Times in 2002. "Sometimes [a shark] would put its head right up on the raft and look at us. We'd whack them on the nose with the paddles."


Zamperini and Phillips survived on rain water and whatever fish they could catch. They endured strafing by Japanese planes. And they kept their wits with mental exercises that included Zamperini narrating the preparation of an elaborate meal, listing each ingredient. "When the imaginary meal was prepared, the men would devour every crumb, describing every mouthful," Hillenbrand recounted in "Unbroken."

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