Scan barcode
_mhunt_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Gore, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, War, Blood, Death, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Suicide, and Violence
booksnooksandcooks's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely well-written, balances documented activities with oral history, and keeps you interested throughout the entire book. The author did a great job at making this both investing to read and a strong historical account. I had to google quite a few words, too!
qjbrown96's review against another edition
5.0
This is how history books should be written! Super interesting and engaging war story and shows the horrors of being a WW2 POW with the Japanese.
book_concierge's review against another edition
4.0
Book on CD performed by James Naughton
From the book jacket On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners included the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. …. Elsewhere in the Philippines, the Japanese Army had already executed American prisoners as it retreated from the advancing U.S. Army.
My Reactions
Sides crafts a story that is gripping, informative, horrifying and inspiring. I was captured from page one and mesmerized throughout. I felt that I really got to know the men involved – prisoners and rescuers.
My reaction to this book was somewhat personal. I could not help but think of my father, who served in the Pacific for 33 months, making seven landings with MacArthur’s forces. I remember his stories of how the Filipino guerillas helped them “string wire around Manila Bay. They said it couldn’t be done, but we did it.” I have a collage of photos of him hanging over my desk – including one where he stares into the camera, cigarette in one corner of his mouth, while he and six other men stand holding a large snake that Daddy had killed (Daddy holds the head). And I thought of my husband, an Airborne Ranger who served in Vietnam. In the 1990s, when visiting the Philippines on business, he walked about a hundred meters of the Bataan Death March route – “Just to get the feel of what they endured.”
This is a history that will appeal to fans of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken or Doug Stanton’s In Harm’s Way.
James Naughton does a fabulous job of narrating the audio book. I really felt I was in the heart of the action.
From the book jacket On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan. The prisoners included the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. …. Elsewhere in the Philippines, the Japanese Army had already executed American prisoners as it retreated from the advancing U.S. Army.
My Reactions
Sides crafts a story that is gripping, informative, horrifying and inspiring. I was captured from page one and mesmerized throughout. I felt that I really got to know the men involved – prisoners and rescuers.
My reaction to this book was somewhat personal. I could not help but think of my father, who served in the Pacific for 33 months, making seven landings with MacArthur’s forces. I remember his stories of how the Filipino guerillas helped them “string wire around Manila Bay. They said it couldn’t be done, but we did it.” I have a collage of photos of him hanging over my desk – including one where he stares into the camera, cigarette in one corner of his mouth, while he and six other men stand holding a large snake that Daddy had killed (Daddy holds the head). And I thought of my husband, an Airborne Ranger who served in Vietnam. In the 1990s, when visiting the Philippines on business, he walked about a hundred meters of the Bataan Death March route – “Just to get the feel of what they endured.”
This is a history that will appeal to fans of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken or Doug Stanton’s In Harm’s Way.
James Naughton does a fabulous job of narrating the audio book. I really felt I was in the heart of the action.
35lauriemb's review against another edition
3.5
It was good reading but not as good as some of his other books
suebrownreads's review against another edition
4.0
I especially enjoy WWII history, and this was a good one! I was familiar with the Bataan Death March, but now I have been immersed in the history that led up to this event, and the horrible details of the Cabanatuan POW Camp. I think war is dreadful, but unfortunately necessary at times. I don't know how a man (or woman) mentally prepares themselves for possible death in battle situations, or for the possibility of torture and mutilation upon capture. I have so much respect for those men and women who have fought for, and suffered for our country.
nderiley's review against another edition
3.0
Another solid non fiction from Hampton Sides. I knew next to nothing about the events around the Batan march so this book was extremely informative.
m1120's review against another edition
4.0
This book was the first time I've been exposed to a POW war novel. I really liked the back and forth between the raid and the lives of the POWs; it gave very good context into who the prisoners actually were and what they went through. OVerall, this is a very enjoyable, well-written book, and I would definitely recommend that everyone gives this a read, especially if you enjoy real stories from World War II.