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Biography & Autobiography.
History.
Military.
Nonfiction.
HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER ā?¢ ā??The greatest World War II story never toldā? (Esquire)ā??an enthralling account of the heroic mission to rescue the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying… (more)
In Ghost Soldiers, author Hampton Sides tells not only the story of the rescue of the last prisoners of the Bataan Death March, but of the men involved- the battle for Bataan that was lost by the American's, the surrender, the march itself, and the imprisonment. Sides weaves the story of this epic rescue with an engrossing narrative of how it all came to be. He uses personal accounts as spoken/written by the actual participants to paint a vivid story of three years of hell in this Japanese POW camp. He pulls no punches when it comes to discussing/describing the life of these men. As you read, you become acquainted with many of the individuals whose lives were irrevocably changed during this time.
Sides tells what is known not only of the POW's, Rangers, and Philippine scouts, but also of some of the Japanese involved, and (for me) he tells the story of a woman I had never heard of- a woman who had the. code name of Side Pockets. Claire Fisher was an American living in Manilla when the Japanese took over. Through a series of events described in the book she became a life saving espionage agent who not only passed information she got from the Japanese to the Americans, but also was able to secret lifesaving food and drugs to the camp for the benefit of the POW's.
This book is a must read for anyone with any interest at all in the Pacific Theater WWII experience. I don't see it as just a story of this one episode but as an overview of what the fighters in the Pacific Theater were against. ( )
A really interesting , if more than a little, disturbing account. War tends to bring out the extremes people are capable of, bith good and bad, and this book illustartes that very clearly ( )
Well-written, breath-holding, stomach-churning, laughs, and tears fill the pages of [Ghost Soldiers] by Hampton Sides. It is the story of just over 100 soldiers, including members of the 6th Rangers, trekked through the rice paddies and fields to free the 513 POWs at the Cabanatuan Camp in the Philippines with little time to plan and no time to spare before the prisoners would be put to death by the departing Japanese. The book combines moment by moment movements of the rescuers, events transpiring in the camp, and individual cameos of the people involved - Japanese and American, prisoner and liberators. ( )
This book tells of the relatively unknown heroic rescue by US Army Rangers of Allied prisoners of the Japanese in the Philippines during WWII. The author covers not only the rescue itself, but also related information, such as the surreptitious provision of much-needed supplies needed to offset the brutally negligent treatment of the prisoners. The perspective alternates between the prisoners and the rescuers, at first jumping forward and backward by several years, which may be off-putting to some readers. I thought it was informative, but it was difficult for me to read about the atrocities, which were described in graphic detail. I had read In the Kingdom of Ice by this author, which was outstanding, so I think that l may have had unrealistic expectations for this one. ( )
Let us not speak of them; but look, and pass on. Dante's Inferno
[ followed by list of prisoners held at Cabanatuan at time of Ranger raid ]
Dedication
To my Mother, for her grace and equanamity, and for teaching me to keep my eyes open
...
And to the mothers and wives of the men of Bataan
First words
All about them, their work lay in ruins.
Quotations
In August 1944, the War Ministry in Tokyo had issued a directive to the commandants of various POW camps, outlining a policy for what it called the "final disposition" of prisoners. A copy of this document, which came to be known as the "August 1 Kill-All Order," would surface in the war crimes investigations in Tokyo. [23]
Colonel Mucci had proposed the sweetest imaginable use of force, to defend and avenge in the same act. [64]
Over time, the prisoners perfected the sport of gastrosado-masochism. At night the men would swap recipes for dishes that were ludicrously, obscenely rich -- chocolate syrup on mashed potatoes, molasses and whipped cream over a whole stick of butter. They would torment each other with elaborate recitations of the meals they were going to prepare. They'd be lying on their bunks in the dark, and without preface or provocation, someone would say, in a tone of perverse glee: Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich! Everyone would writhe and groan. A few minutes would pass, and someone would break the silence: New England clam chowder! On and on it would go until they finally became sated and drifted off to miserable sleep. [142]
In the [prison camp] hospital for the critically ill, known as Zero Ward, the doctors labored with improvised equipment and conducted operations with nothing more than what was termed vocal anesthetic ("It won't hurt much"). [151]
Rumormongering was an assiduously practiced sport around camp. The rumors spread even faster than disease. [...] It was not a malicious tendency, however. Very seldom were rumors hatched that prisoners didn't want to hear. If the rumors preyed on people's hopes, they were themselves a reflection of hope. They were spread in the spirit of certain universal understandings, the main one being that prisoners of war are not interested in the truth. [159]
Last words
A memorial wall of white marble lists the names of 2,656 Americans [sic] who perished there.
Biography & Autobiography.
History.
Military.
Nonfiction.
HTML:NATIONAL BESTSELLER ā?¢ ā??The greatest World War II story never toldā? (Esquire)ā??an enthralling account of the heroic mission to rescue the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying
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5
As you read, you become acquainted with many of the individuals whose lives were irrevocably changed during this time.
Sides tells what is known not only of the POW's, Rangers, and Philippine scouts, but also of some of the Japanese involved, and (for me) he tells the story of a woman I had never heard of- a woman who had the. code name of Side Pockets. Claire Fisher was an American living in Manilla when the Japanese took over. Through a series of events described in the book she became a life saving espionage agent who not only passed information she got from the Japanese to the Americans, but also was able to secret lifesaving food and drugs to the camp for the benefit of the POW's.
This book is a must read for anyone with any interest at all in the Pacific Theater WWII experience. I don't see it as just a story of this one episode but as an overview of what the fighters in the Pacific Theater were against. (