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Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission
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List Price: $15.95
Special Price: $10.85
Your Savings: $ 5.10 ( 32% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Anchor
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.5425
EAN: 9780385495653
ISBN: 038549565X
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2002-05-07
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2002-05-07
Studio: Anchor
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Editorial Reviews:
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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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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Historical fact that reads like fiction
Comment: Hampton Sides has written a work of history that reads like a novel. A first-rate account of an absolutely astonishing achievement - the rescue of Allied prisoners from the Japanese prison camp at Cabanatuan. It also highlights the crucial role played by two battalions of Filipino guerrilla fighters, who were key to the success of the mission. While Sides does not go overboard on the atrocities committed by the Japanese, it's certainly easy to see why more than 25% of Allied prisoners held by the Japanese did not survive the war. I couldn't put this book down from the moment I picked it up until I finished it. If written as fiction, it would be sent back as not believable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sides gives a credible account of The March!
Comment: In Hamilton Sides well-written and quite readable "Ghost Soldiers," the
Yale-educated author is no stranger to respected non-fiction,
having authored previously a definitive account of Kit Carson and his
own "march" in the American West.
"Ghost Soldiers" is highly acclaimed. Minnesota native and historian JoAnn Johnson notes: "Being a World War II `buff,' this true story is an excellent addition to my `sense of history,'The detailed account
of the rescue mission of the prisoners at Cabanatuan, the Philippines, is a very gripping story even though one knows the outcome. The only other book I have read that addresses the `prisoners left behind"'is 'Bataan
Uncensored' by Col. E.B. Miller, a survivor of that awful camp."
Sides uses no footnotes in this very readable, often riveting account; that said, his acknowledgments are extensive and the reader has no reason to doubt his research, which seems thorough and convincing. The
narrative is rich with detail and one almost feels like `one of them.'
If one is familiar with the entire story of the Fall of Bataan
and the subsequent Death March, the plight of the prisoners becomes
more meaningful. "Ghost Soldiers" is the story of how the rescue was accomplished and Sides succeeds with his narrative in a highly dramatic fashion.
Clearly Sides has spent a lot of time with extensive reading and interviewing soldiers who'd been in the Death March and it leaves an indelible impression on the reader of how these men suffered and survived, of many issues that become key to men in situations like this. In a way, there is a parallel theme with his Kit Carson book (Blood and Terror) published earlier. Both leave the reader exhausted as he examines the depths of inhumanity that transpires, even in comparison to events today.
His next research (and book) is on the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. Sides is from Memphis and says he feels a particular
"calling" to do this book. It should be worth the wait.
Customer Rating:
Summary: awesome work; a must read
Comment: This is a must read. Well written, captivating and shocking. It details how our people, and the Filipinos suffered at the hands of the barbarian Japs; including decapitations, castrating, and the like. After reading this book, you will have no regrets for the dropping of the atom bomb(s)to end the war. In addition to telling the story of the infamous Death March, the book details the freeing of our POWS in a stunning raid on a Jap prison. Further, noteworthy aspects of this book are the accounts of various "side stories" of Bataan, including a female spy who did much to aid the American POW's, and griping accounts of the physical ailments and diseases the POW's suffered due to malnutrition, and lack of medical care. You won't put this book down !
Customer Rating:
Summary: First Class Narrative
Comment: This is a gripping story of a daring raid behind enemy lines to liberate 500 tortured, starved and diseased POWs about to be executed by the Japanese near the end of WWII. A first person history at its best, based on interviews with the surviving POWs and Army Rangers.
The main strength of the book is the artful narrative, moving deftly back and forth between the raid itself and the history of the POWs during the three year occupation beginning with the Bataan Death March. He gives unusually vivid characterizations of the civilian resistance and the POWS, Rangers and Japanese soldiers, crammed with revealing anecdotes and interesting detail.
An amazing story, amazingly well told and highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a story of true heros
Comment: This is the book that the movie the Great Raid is based on. It bring the people involved to vivid life, making history anything but dull.
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