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Audio CD Description The Bataan Death March was just the beginning of the woes American soldiers captured by the Japanese army in the Philippines had to endure. The survivors of the march faced not only their captors' regular brutality (having surrendered, they were considered to be less than honorable foes), but also a host of illnesses such as dysentery and malaria. For three years these "ghost soldiers" lived in misery, suffering terrible losses. When Army Rangers among Douglas MacArthur's forces arrived in the Philippines, they hatched a daring plan to liberate their captured comrades, a mission that, if successful, would prove to be a tremendous morale booster at the front and at home. Led by a young officer named Henry Mucci (called "Little MacArthur" for his constant pipe as well as his brilliance as a strategist), a combined Ranger and Filipino guerrilla force penetrated far behind enemy lines, attacked Japanese forces guarding Allied prisoners at a jungle outpost called Cabanatuan, and shepherded hundreds of prisoners to safety, with an angry Japanese army in hot pursuit. Amazingly, they suffered only light casualties. In Ghost Soldiers, journalist Hampton Sides recounts that daring rescue, once known to every American schoolchild but now long forgotten. A gifted storyteller, Sides packs his narrative with detailed descriptions of the principal actors on both sides of the struggle and with moments of danger and exhilaration. Thrilling from start to finish, his book celebrates the heroism of hundreds of warriors and brings renewed attention to one of the Rangers' finest hours. --Gregory McNamee

Customer Reviews One of the most fascinanting sories that you can read This story of a daring U.S. raid on a nightmarish Japanese POW camp in the waning days of the Pacific War is the kind of narrative writers dream about -- a tale so powerful, dramatic, perfectly shaped, and heartwarming that it's almost ridiculous. No screenwriter is needed -- the damn thing is a blockbuster script as written. (And yes, Hollywood has optioned it.) In January 1945, a series of defeats across the Pacific had pushed Japan's back to the wall. The American invasion of the Philippines was another decisive blow, but it triggered hideous deeds: Japanese troops (acting with the tacit approval of the War Ministry in Tokyo) massacred helpless American prisoners. As the U.S. Army prepared to take Manila, its top brass knew about these atrocities. They also knew that another POW camp, at a place called Cabanatuan, held 500 American troops who were likely to be killed by the Japanese. These prisoners were the survivors of the infamous "Death March," the ordeal that followed the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, the largest surrender in U.S. military history. The Army decided to try to rescue these emaciated prisoners, the "ghosts of Bataan." The problem was, they'd have to go deep behind Japanese lines to do it. The troops chosen for the task were 120 strapping soldiers, mostly farm boys who had originally enlisted as mule skinners, who made up a new, elite Army unit called Rangers. They were supported by Filipino guerrillas. Their orders: sneak through 30 miles of enemy territory, kill the Japanese guards, bring out every prisoner alive, and make their way back to the American lines. I will not reveal the story that Sides eloquently tells -- a story celebrated in Life Magazine just weeks after it took place, but that had long since been forgotten. Suffice it to say that it is one of the great stories of World War II. Sides researched Ghost Soldiers deeply, including interviewing many of the men involved: He brings the personalities of the ravaged prisoners and their rescuers to life in a way that's as low-key, decent, and unpretentious as the men themselves. Skillfully weaving together vivid narratives about the Death March and life in the POW camps with a taut account of the raid itself, Ghost Soldiers is destined to become a classic of its genre. The "heartwarming World War II book" is becoming a tiresome cliché, but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved -- and inspired -- by this book. Gary Kamiya, (...) Unforgettable History It is always amazing how many true stories of heroism are never proclaimed; there are always stories that are overlooked by other 'major' events in our history. 'Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides is exactly one of those stories. It tells of the fatal fall of Bataan during WWII and the rescue mission that took place to save American POWs from Japanese death camps. Yet these events, for all the fanfare they received at the time, have been sadly overlooked by other instances in the same war. 'Ghost Soldiers' is a harrowing story; really, two stories. After a gruesomely explicit prologue, Sides splits his time between the fall of Bataan, the death march and life at the POW camp with the story of the U.S. Rangers attempt to free the camp in 1945. We see both stories build at the same time and as the narrative builds towards the end, the two stories combine into an incredible climax. These POWs survived incredible torture and various sordid diseases and were eventually rescued under almost miraculous circumstances. It's staggering just to imagine all that they had gone through. Sides has done a brilliant job at telling a too-little known story. He uses a narrative style to interweave the painful accounts of former POWs and Rangers into this timeline. The British were forced to surrender Bataan (especially due to the circumstances of Pacific warfare after the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and become prisoners of a culture who had no regard for prisoners; death was the only option. And for too many soldiers, that was their only option. It is a shame that their stories have been forgotten. Well Worth the Read Ghost Soldiers is about a rescue mission written by Hapton Sides set in the pacific theatre of operations. I will not give a book report and ruin this book for you, but it includes a little history of the Bataan Death March, a little history on Elite military forces being introduced for the first time during WWII, and a bit of history of the Japanese thinking at this time, along with a very faint bit of comedy at the end (you should read this book just for that). While reading this book you will form a heartfelt relationship with it's cast and some of them will not make it back some will become hero's in your eye's, even if all WWII vets are already hero's in your eye's. This book is very well written, I believe titles such as this should be required reading in school instead of the 3 or 4 days my class spent on WWII If you have any interest in the Pacific Theatre of Operations, WWII or a good old fashioned rescue mission this is the book for you...