by Hampton Sides
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Product Description
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 conditions.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Daring Raid , 2009-01-02
This is a terrifically exciting book about a rescue/raid in World War II that saved the lives of hundreds of American POWs in the Philippines. The characters are finely drawn, although I would have liked to learn more about Captain Robert Prince, the assault commander and Juan Pajota, the guerrilla leader whose group made a critical rear guard stand that enabled the Rangers and POWs to escape from hell.
This is a micro story about a specific military operation, and it gives an almost hour by hour account of the raid, letting the big picture emerge.
The author divides the book between scenes in the prison camp and the approaching American Ranger unit, and builds suspense marvelously. Sides is an extremely talented young writer, who has also written Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American Westthat I also highly recommend.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Bravery at Its Best, 2008-11-24
First Hampton Sides book I have read. Fascinating story of untold Bravery. Many have heard of the death march, but no one captivates it so well
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
A Truly Patriotic Saga, 2008-11-17
`Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides
Having just re-read `Ghost Soldiers' for the second time, I decided it was time to write a few words about this spectacular narrative. The book tells the parallel stories of the "Bataan Death March" survivors turned POW's with that of the 6th Army Rangers tasked with liberating them from the Cabantuan prison camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The author recounts, in remarkable detail, these two stories until finally converging in a climactic rescue scene that rivals any great war story, WWII or otherwise.
`Ghost Soldiers' features the stories of individual prisoners whose crushing ordeal is at times almost too harrowing to believe. As you'll see in the author's acknowledgements - which, if ever, should certainly not be overlooked - the survivors fortunate enough to make it through this period of their lives, still themselves, have difficulty reconciling the circumstances of their captivity. It is more than a war story: `Ghost Soldiers' is an epic of a ghastly militaristic ideology confronted with indomitable human spirit. Mr. Sides brings these men and women's stories to life in a portrait that is truly stirring with patriotism.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Great historial account, 2008-11-09
I enjoyed the book very much. The planning and execution of the rescue, as well as historical events leading up to the imprisonment, are told brilliantly.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
excellent read, 2008-07-09
This book brings an important period during WWII to life with stories that paint the horror that existed during this time and location of the war.
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