If you read one book about World War II in your life, this should be that book.  Hampton Sides tells the largely forgotten story of how a small band of American Rangers managed to pull off the biggest jail break of World War II.  But more than that, Sides chronicles the ghastly experience of the five hundred or so men who were rescued.  Veterans of the Bataan Death March, these men had survived three years of the most unimaginable horrors at the hands of the Japanese.  Sides' book will inspire you, horrify you, and educate you all at the same time.

For most of us living today it is hard to imagine how the Philippines could be viewed as anything other than a tropical paradise where the living is easy, the women are beautiful, and the beer is plentiful and cheap.  Yet for the thousands of American GI's who endured capture by the Japanese, the Philippines became a literal Hell on earth.  It is ironic that most Americans are at least somewhat familiar with the subject of the Holocaust and the names Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Berkinau are widely known.  And yet, few Americans know that our boys in the Pacific went through their own Holocaust at a place called Cabanatuan.  This book tells that story and the story of the heroic men who rescued the lucky few who managed to survive three years of the most horrendous torture imaginable.

The author skillfully combines two historical tracts together.  The first tract tells the story of the planning and execution of the raid which freed the POW's of Cabanatuan.  The second tract tells the story of the Bataan Death March and what followed.  But this is not only the story of the Americans versus the Japanese. The Filipinos themselves play a pivotal role, for without their help the raid could never have gone forward. World War II was a time when Yank and Pinoy alike shared enormous hardships and fought side by side against a relentless enemy.  We tend to forget that nowadays.

It is December 14, 1944.  The place is Puerto Princesa in Palawan.  A group of American POW's have just constructed an airfield for the Japanese.  But American bombers have just destroyed it.  There is no hope of rebuilding it.  The American POW's assume that the Japanese will ship them off to other work assignments but the Japanese commandant has other plans.  In the afternoon the air raid siren goes off and the POW's are herded into trenches that they have built for this purpose.  But there is no air raid.  Instead, the Japanese guards pour aviation fuel into the trenches and light it on fire.  About 150 American POW's have now been set on fire.  Many are able to leave the trench but they are quickly mowed down by the Japanese guards using bayonets.

A lucky few are somehow able to make it down to the beach.  Out of 150 men only six survive by swimming across the bay.  The other 144 men have been brutally butchered by the Japanese.  With the help of the local Filipinos, the six survivors are eventually able to make it to American-held territory where they tell their gruesome story to Army intelligence.

On January 9, 1945 MacArthur and the U.S. 6th Army landed in force at Lingayen Gulf.  Now the Japanese were on the run.  General Yamashita, commander of the 14th Imperial Army, planned to fight a delaying action by retreating into the mountains of northern Luzon.  The U.S. 6th Army headed for Manila.  Two weeks later, on January 26, they were almost halfway there.  On this day General Krueger, the direct commander of the 6th Army, received an intelligence briefing concerning the Cabanatuan POW camp.  Army intelligence believed that there were perhaps 500 or so American POW's still being imprisoned there.  Based upon what had happened in Palawan the month before, it was imperative to get them out as soon as possible.

It was widely believed that the Japanese would not wait until the Americans captured the camp.  The most likely scenario was that the Japanese would massacre the inmates before the Americans got close to liberating the camp.  But what to do?  A stealthy commando raid by the Army Rangers seems the only possibility but the raid will have to be done in complete secrecy.  The 6th Ranger battalion commanded by Colonel Henry Mucci was chosen for the job.  But it wouldn't be easy.  The Rangers, numbering 120 men, will have to cross 30 miles of enemy-held territory, a couple of rivers, sneak up to the camp, attack it, kill all the Japanese guards, and then most problematic of all, escort 500 American POW's in poor health back through 30 miles of enemy-held territory with the Japs chasing at their heels.  And most important of all, the raid must be launched within a few days with no advance planning or preparation.  This would be a tall order for any Ranger unit, but Colonel Mucci had the utmost confidence in his men.

Now let's backtrack a little bit.  It is April 1942 and the future looks grim for the 78,000 American and Filipino soldiers of the USAFFE (United States Army Forces Far East).  They have withdrawn to the Bataan peninsula and are being attacked by Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma.  The Japanese landed at Lingayen Gulf in December 1942 and they have been relentlessly pushing the Americans back for the last four months.  The situation looks hopeless. The supreme American commander, General Douglas MacArthur, already left for Australia the month before (earning him the nickname "Dugout Doug" among the enlisted men).  But still the Americans fight on.  They come up with the following song:

WE'RE THE BATTLING BASTARDS OF BATAAN
NO MAMA, NO PAPA, NO UNCLE SAM
NO AUNTS, NO UNCLES, NO NEPHEWS, NO NIECES
NO PILLS, NO PLANES, NO ARTILLERY PIECES
AND NOBODY GIVES A DAMN

This song vividly illustrates the sense among the American GI's that their government had abandoned and betrayed them (a feeling which lingers with many of them even to this day).  And who could blame them?  In January MacArthur had gone on the radio proclaiming that American ships, supplies, and reinforcements were on the way.  But now "Dugout Doug" had bugged out and no ships had arrived.  The harsh truth of war policy was never revealed to the men.  And that was that they had been written off.  President Roosevelt had chosen to focus on the European theater of operations first.  No reinforcements or aid of any kind would be forthcoming.

On April 9, 1942 the Americans could take it no longer.  They were out of ammunition, food, water, medicine, and everything else that a modern army requires.  Most of the men were suffering from disease, battle wounds, and hunger.  As a fighting force the USAFFE had completely expended itself.  The commander, General Edward King, did the only thing he could do and that was to unconditionally surrender his army.  General Homma's staff were expecting perhaps 25,000 Americans and Filipinos to surrender, not the nearly 80,000 who eventually did.  They all had to be moved out of the way so that the attack against the island of Corregidor (which the Americans still held) could proceed.

Thus began the horror which we know today as the Bataan Death March.  This was the greatest surrender of American forces since Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox.  The Japanese rounded up the American POW's and got them marching four abreast.  The plan was to have them march from Bataan to the town of San Fernando about forty miles away.  They would then be transported by rail another twenty miles.  The last ten or so miles they would have to march to Camp O'Donnell which was to be the POW camp.  Right away things began to go wrong.  The Japanese had no idea of the poor health of the POW's.  Many of them could not walk and had to be helped by their comrades.  But the Japs made no exceptions.  To fall out of line meant certain death.  Prisoners who fell out of line or could not go any farther, were bayoneted on the spot (the Japanese did not want to waste bullets on worthless POW's).

Mile after mile the agony continued.  There were no breaks for food or water.  Indeed, there was no food and there was no water for the prisoners.  Thousands of American and Filipino POW's were mercilessly marched under the hot tropical sun.  Although we will never know the exact number, approximately 750 Americans and 5,000 Filipinos died during this march.  So the Filipino people bore the brunt of the Bataan Death March despite the Japanese slogan of "Asia for the Asiatics".  The Japs had no problem at all killing their fellow "Asiatics".  It is the Bataan Death March, more than anything else, in my opinion, which made the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki thinkable and then inevitable.  Both sides dehumanized the other side during this war, but it is important to note that the Japanese started the dehumanization process during the Bataan Death March.

Camp O'Donnell, the POW camp, was a living incarnation of Hell.  Americans had seen nothing like it since the Andersonville prison of the Civil War.  At its peak it housed 9,000 American/Filipino POW's.  O'Donnell was a place of disease and starvation.  Open latrines filled the place and the stench of the dead and dying was ubiquitous.  During the first two months some 1,500 Americans and 15,000 Filipinos died at the camp.  Men died of malaria, dysentery, dehydration, beriberi, and assorted other diseases.  The major prison work consisted of burying the POW's who had just died.  The few prisoners who attempted to escape were dealt with in the following way.  They would be decapitated using a samurai sword and their heads would be displayed on long poles as a warning to the other prisoners.

In June 1942 the specter of Camp O'Donnell became too much even for the Japanese.  The POW's were moved to a new prison camp at Cabanatuan located approximately 60 miles north of Manila.  At first, Cabanatuan was just as bad as O'Donnell.  But gradually the death rate began to decrease until by December 1942 the camp had its first day when nobody died.  Still, life in Cabanatuan was completely miserable.  The men were chronically malnourished.  Because of this their immune systems were weakened and many of them succumbed to diseases they ordinarily would have had no problem recovering from.  The slightest infraction of prison rules could result in immediate death.  Not only that, but enforcement of the rules was completely capricious.  A minor infraction of the rules in the presence of one guard might be ignored while the same infraction in the presence of another guard might get you killed.  The POW's quickly learned who were the good (a relative term) guards and who were the bad guards.

The weeks of imprisonment turned into months and the months turned into years.  To most of the prisoners their previous life before the camp seemed like a distant memory.  Their Japanese guards told them that Japan was winning the war, that Japan had even invaded Oregon.  Thanks to a radio that the inmates built from various parts, they knew this to be a lie.  They were able to tune into a San Francisco radio station and find out the true state of the war.  They knew that the Japanese had lost at Guadalcanal, that the Japanese were driven out of New Guinea, and Tarawa, and one island after another.  Still, the progress of the American forces across the Pacific must have seemed incredibly slow to the inmates.

And the inmates had some outside help from a few brave Americans and Filipinos.  One of them was Claire Phillips, an American posing as a mestiza, who ran a nightclub in Manila catering to high ranking Japanese officers.  In reality it was an espionage ring and the information she was able to glean from her clients quickly made its way to MacArthur's headquarters.  Claire's husband perished at Cabanatuan.  Upon receiving the news she dedicated herself to helping the poor souls still imprisoned there.  She started a smuggling ring which smuggled medicines and food into the camp.  Her operations were able to successfully smuggle thousands of quinine pills into the camp which saved countless lives.  In May of 1944 her spy ring was exposed by the dreaded Kempeitai (i.e., the Japanese Secret Police) and she was thrown into prison.  For some unknown reason, the Kempeitai did not execute her and she was eventually rescued in February 1945.

On September 24, 1944 the inmates of Cabanatuan were surprised to see a squad of American warplanes fly over the camp.  The war was now drawing near.  In October of that year MacArthur landed at Leyte, thus fulfilling his famous "I shall return" promise.  The men's minds began to fill with visions of the war ending and their liberation began to seem imminent.  Unfortunately the Japanese had other plans.  On October 7, 1944 the Japanese took the 1,600 fittest inmates of the camp and shipped them off to Japan.  They had no intention of allowing the Americans to rescue their comrades.  Now, only the weakest and most useless POW's were left in the camp, numbering about 500.

In late December 1944 rumors began to circulate at Cabanatuan about what had happened at Palawan a few weeks before.  Now the POW's began to have an inkling of what the Japanese had in store for them.  Particularly since the remaining POW's were too weak to work, they now knew the fate that awaited them.  What they couldn't have known was that General Tojo had circulated orders which called for all American POW's to be executed before American forces could rescue them.  But they certainly sensed it.

In early January the inmates saw a strange phenomenon.  To the northwest a strange, eerie, orange glow was visible.  The sound of thunder could be faintly heard in the distance.  At first they thought it was just a thunderstorm but it went on hour after hour.  Then they realized that it was coming from Lingayen Gulf.  The truth hit them, what they were seeing was the American invasion of Luzon.  It was now only a matter of weeks.  Either the American forces would liberate them or the Japanese would liquidate them.

In the early morning of January 28, 1945 the U.S. 6th Ranger battalion crossed over into enemy-held territory and began their thirty-mile trek to Cabanatuan.  They numbered 120 men, but they were soon joined by the Filipino guerilla leader Eduardo Joson with about 80 men.  Joson's role was to guide them to the prison camp.  Because their mission was kept secret, most of the American forces did not know about it and that included the U.S. Army Air Corps.  They were just as likely to be attacked by American planes than by the Japanese. They would have to keep a low profile.

In the early afternoon of the next day, January 29th, the Rangers met up with another Filipino guerilla band headed by Captain Juan Pajota.  Pajota's force consisted of about 100 men.  Pajota had been given the job of scouting the camp and reporting on enemy positions.  He had some bad news to report.  The Japanese were in full retreat and thousands of enemy soldiers were fleeing up the road which ran just by the camp.  The plan had been to attack at dusk, but now it would be suicide with all the Japs in the area.  The decision was made to postpone the attack for 24 hours.  There was some more bad news.  There were reported to be over 8,000 Japanese troops in the town of Cabanatuan proper which was only four miles away from the camp on the right flank.  If they got wind of the raid they would easily annihilate the Ranger battalion.  In addition, approximately 1,000 Japanese troops were encamped about a mile away from the camp on the left flank.  How was a combined force of 300 Americans and Filipinos going to rescue 500 POW's right under the nose of a thousand Japanese troops?

A plan began to take shape.  The 1,000 Japs on the left flank were separated from the camp by a bridge over the Cabu river.  Pajota's force would blow the bridge and then shoot any Japanese who managed to swim across the river.  Pajota's job would be the most risky of the entire operation but he was ready for it.  Joson would take his force and cover the right flank.  They would cut the telephone wires leading from the camp to the town of Cabanatuan.  With any luck the 8,000 Japs in the town wouldn't know about the raid until it was too late.  The American Rangers would attack the camp head-on.  For this part of the operation Colonel Mucci picked Captain Robert Prince.  Prince would lead his team up to the front entrance and attack the Japanese guard towers, blow the front gate, enter the compound, kill the Japanese guards, and rescue the POW's.  There was just one slight hitch.  The number of Japs inside the compound was completely unknown, and they needed this information in a hurry.

Mucci called in the help of a small group of scouts known as the Alamo Scouts.  They were tasked with getting this information.  At first they could see no way of obtaining information concerning the disposition of the Japs inside the compound.  Then they hit on a brilliant plan.  There was an elevated nipa hut about 200 yards from the front entrance to the camp.  Posing as locals, two of the Alamo scouts climbed up into the nipa hut where they had an excellent view of the interior of the compound.  They sketched the basic layout and estimated that there were approximately 100 to 200 Japs inside.  Now the raid could go forward.

In the late afternoon the Rangers and the Filipino guerillas moved out.  They were only four miles from the compound.  Pajota's forces peeled off to the left and headed for the Cabu river bridge.  Joson's forces peeled off to the right and stationed themselves on the road heading towards the town of Cabanatuan.  Prince's forces headed straight towards the camp.  The last few hundred yards Prince's forces were completely exposed in the open.  They had to get down on their bellies and crawl.  As a diversion, to keep the Japanese guards looking up and not down on the approaching Rangers, it was arranged that a fighter plane would buzz the compound.  The plane arrived on schedule just before sunset and it proceeded to do all kinds of strange maneuvers over the camp.  The Japs couldn't figure what the heck it was doing there.  It wasn't firing at them.  Why was it doing these aerial acrobatics over the camp?  The POW's were equally puzzled.  Something was up but they couldn't figure out what.

So as the Japanese guards were looking up at this strange plane, Prince's team was crawling closer and closer to the main gate.  The sun had set and it was beginning to get really dark.  The Rangers were now only thirty yards away from the gate.  The plane departed.  They were now locked and loaded.  They had their weapons trained on the Japs in the guard towers.  A small group of Rangers had crawled around to the back of the camp so that the attack would come from two directions at once.  It was hoped that the Japanese inside the camp would be utterly confused.  When the group of Rangers in the back were in position they were supposed to start the attack.  After the first shot was heard all Hell was going to break loose.  And that's exactly what happened.

The attack began at 7:45 p.m. on January 30, 1945.  The Japs never knew what hit them.  Within a space of about fifteen seconds every Japanese guard in a guard tower was shot full of bullets.  The Rangers rushed towards the front gate and shot open the padlock which held it closed.  They rushed inside the compound and raked the Japanese barracks with machine gun fire.  The Japanese inside the compound were taken completely by surprise and most of them were killed before they could offer any resistance.  At first the POW's believed that this was their long awaited liquidation.  When they heard the first gunshots many of them hit the deck and tried to find a hiding place.  They were completely taken by surprise when young, clean-shaven, strong American lads burst into their huts and declared that they were free.  Many of them refused to believe it, thinking it was yet another Japanese ruse to get them out in the open where they could be more easily killed.

The Rangers were equally perplexed.  The POW's must have seemed like walking skeletons to them.  They had to beg, plead, cajole, and finally threaten the POW's to get them moving towards the front gate and out of the compound.  Many of the POW's were dragged kicking and screaming out of the prison.  Finally the truth began to seep into the consciousness of the Cabanatuan inmates.  THEY WERE FREE AT LAST!  FREE AT LAST!  THANK GOD WE'RE FREE AT LAST!  A wave of euphoria began to wash over the compound and the POW's laughed, cried, and hugged their rescuers.  As one POW put it, "we looked up to the Rangers as gods".

While all this was going on, Pajota's men were having the fight of their lives.  At exactly 7:45 p.m. they had blown the bridge.  Unfortunately the explosives had not completely destroyed it.  Japanese vehicles could not cross the bridge but it was still intact enough for Japanese infantry to cross.  The one thousand Japanese troops camped on the other side began to react.  Their commander ordered a Banzai charge.  A squad of 50 Japs charged the bridge.  Pajota's men quickly mowed them down with machine gun fire.  The Jap commander ordered a second charge.  Again, Pajota's men mowed them all down. Now the Japanese bodies were piled so high on the bridge that the Japanese would have to climb over the bodies of their fallen comrades.  Again, the Jap commander ordered a Banzai charge with the same results.  This went on for about a half an hour until Pajota's forces began to run out of ammunition.  By that time the prisoners had exited the camp and were being escorted back towards American lines.

Joson on the other flank never fired a shot.  The 8,000 Japs up the road never got wind of the raid and no Japanese vehicles appeared on the road.  Only three Americans were killed in the raid, but one of them was the battalion doctor.  Pajota had several men wounded but no one killed.  The Japanese casualties numbered in the hundreds mainly due to the stupidity of the Japanese commander at the Cabu river bridge.  But the raid was far from over.  Now they had to get the 500 former POW's through thirty miles of enemy-held territory before the Japs could react.  Most of the former POW's had difficulty walking.  But a solution was found in the form of carabaos pulling carts.  The former POW's were put on carts, two or three to a cart, and they would be pulled by carabaos.  Although this was painfully slow it was a sure method of crossing rice fields where Japanese tanks and vehicles could not travel.

On the morning of January 30, 1945 the Rangers and the former POW's crossed over into American-held territory.  The Japanese were never organized enough to perform a serious pursuit.  Colonel Mucci and his men had done it!  They had pulled off the greatest rescue mission during wartime in American history.  An anonymous inmate at Cabanatuan had penned these haunting lines:

WE ARE ALL GHOSTS NOW
BUT ONCE WE WERE MEN

For a lucky few, they were men once more.

"Ghost Soldiers" is a truly great book.  It is destined to be a classic I'm sure.  There are very few books that can bring tears to my eyes, but Hampton Sides' account of the Bataan Death March and the Cabanatuan prison camp certainly did the trick.  We who live in the present era of America tend to be quite cynical when it comes to the subject of heroes and heroism.  At least I know I am.  But this book demonstrates beyond all possible doubt that there are real, honest-to-goodness heroes.  Certainly the men of the U.S. 6th Ranger battalion are all heroes.  The Filipino guerillas who aided them are equally heroes.  The men who survived the Bataan Death March and three years of internment at Cabanatuan are even more heroic.  As Tom Brokaw has put it, this truly was America's "Greatest Generation".  Hampton Sides' tale of heroism, bravery, and the shear determination to continue living is one of the best books that I have ever read, period.  I give it my highest rating of five stars.  I can't find enough good things to say about it.  This is simply a must-read.