Ghost Soldiers Explained

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission (Doubleday, 2001) is a non-fiction book written by Hampton Sides. It is about the World War II Allied prison camp raid at Cabanatuan in the Philippines.

Synopsis

In late January 1945, 121 Ranger volunteers set out to attempt a rescue of over 513 Allied prisoners of war in a Japanese camp near the Philippine city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death March, had lived in deplorable conditions for three years, suffering from starvation, tropical diseases, and abuse from Japanese soldiers. Ghost Soldiers recounts the story of the prisoners, the Ranger unit performing the raid, and the Filipino guerrillas who provided assistance. A massacre of American soldiers at Palawan alerted U.S. commanders to the danger of mass POW murder as the Japanese retreated from the Philippines. As a consequence, they planned and executed a mission to rescue the POWs from Cabanatuan prison camp. Ghost Soldiers provides historical background to the events leading to the raid, detailed accounts of camp conditions, the prisoners' heroic will to survive, and the planning and successful execution of the rescue.

Film adaptation

• The movie The Great Raid was partially based on Ghost Soldiers, along with William Breuer's The Great Raid on Cabanatuan.
• The movie I Was an American Spy was based on the exploits of Claire Phillips, an American spy undercover as a cabaret owner in Manila.

Awards and honors

• 2001 New York Times bestseller, Nonfiction #7^[1]
• 2001 Amazon.com Best Books, Top 25 Editors' Favorites, #4^[2]
• 2002 PEN Center USA Literary Awards, Research Nonfiction^[3]

Reviews

• New York Times, “Books Of The Times"; A Heroic Military Rescue After the Hell of Bataan” ^[4]
• Kirkus Reviews

“An extraordinary tale of bravery under fire and the will to endure…”^[5]

See also

• Raid at Cabanatuan
• Bataan Death March
• Henry Mucci

References

• Web site: Chriss . C. . 1945 . Raid on Cabanatuan .
• Web site: People & Events: Juan Pajota and Filipino Contributions to the Raid. Pbs.org. 2017-08-28. 2017-03-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20170310044807/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bataan/peopleevents/p_pajota.html. dead.
• Book: Sides, H. . 2002 . Ghost Soldiers:The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission. Anchor Books.
• Book: Breuer, W. . 1994 . The Great Raid on Cabanatuan: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor . .

External links

• Esquire

“The untold story of an epic mission and the army rangers who pulled off the most dramatic secret raid of World War II.”^[6]

• USA Today

“Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission”^[7]

• Booknotes interview with Sides on Ghost Soldiers, September 30, 2001.
• Presentation by Sides on Ghost Soldiers, Santa Fe Festival of the Book, October 13, 2001

Notes and References

1. Web site: Bestsellers . . May 27, 2001 . September 15, 2013.
2. Web site: Best Books of 2001: Top 25 Editors' Favorites . Amazon.com . 2001 . September 15, 2013.
3. Web site: Ghost Soldiers . PEN Center United States . September 15, 2013.
4. Web site: Books Of The Times . New York Times, Richard Bernstein . June 11, 2001. June 9, 2015.
5. Web site: Kirkus Reviews . March 15, 2001. June 9, 2015.
6. Web site: Esquire . Esquire Books . January 29, 2007. June 9, 2015.
7. Web site: USA Today . USA Today Books . June 25, 2001. June 9, 2015.