The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission

This is an excellent book for anyone who wants to learn more about the Bataan Death March in Philippines during the Second World War. Most people, have focused on Iwo Jima, Peleliu, and Okinawa to learn more about the ordeals of soldiers in World War II and have often "forget" about these brave souls in Philipines. In "Ghost Soldiers", Hampton Sides gives these forgotten soldiers, voices.
This book deals with both the successful rescue effort by the 6th Ranger and the ordeal of the prisoners of war. It is extremely exciting when Sides portrays the difficulties and the obstacles that these Rangers encountered in reaching behind the enemy line. The Rangers, well aware of the danger ahead, put their lives at stake to rescue fellow Americans. The rescue would not have been successful without the cooperation of the Philippinos guerillas who were willing to risk their lives to rescue the Americans.
The prisoners of war were brutally abused by the Japanese army and they suffered from diseases, malnutrition which caused blindness, and were constantly living in fear. The psychological torture made the men cling on to each other for support and help. The prisoners did not expect to see the rescuers that when the Rangers showed up, some did not want to leave as they believed that it was too good to be true. The last few chapers were very emotional as the prisoners finally got what they have wanted but dare not wish - freedom. One quote in the book said, that the prisoners would definitely go to heaven when they died as they have already lived through hell.
This is an extremely powerful book as it shows courage, determination, and most importantly, the will to survive. However, I wish Sides would use footnotes as that would make his book more credible instead of briefly mentioning the sources at the end of the book. That should not prevent readers who are intersted in learning more about the survivors of the Bataan Death March and serves as a reminder of how precious lives are.

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.

Ghost Soldiers is a good book. It is about 121 hand-selected troops going behind enemy lines to rescue 513 POW's. There are very few people who survived the Bataan Death March. Some of them are POW's in the concentration camp in Cabanatuan. The troops go through harsh experiences and terrain trying to get the captured soldiers.

There are very few good things that happen in a war. Getting diseases is not one of them. The Japanese guards developed a bad problem with gonorrhea. The guards would demand pills from the prisoners but they did not have any. The POW's made counterfeit Winthrop pills and gave them to the guards. They seemed to work for some bizarre reason. The prisoners of war also went through diseases like malaria and even worse, diphtheria. Diphtheria is a deadly disease that can kill you by suffocating you at your throat. You throat would fill up with flem and if you do not cough it up, you could die. It is sad to hear about all the horrible things the soldiers had to endure.

I do not want to give away the ending but there actually is a part that is quite funny. There are some parts were they almost get spotted and if they were spotted that would ruin the whole mission. Even Americans did not know they were out on the battlefield. Very few people new they were out there risking their lives for others.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes war stories. There are a lot of Excruciating parts that I do not want to mention. There are bloodshed parts that are hard to read. This book goes into a lot of detail and the author tells it very well. My dad was in the military for 21 years and I like reading books like this one, to see what types of events he might have gone through. I hope you like this book, I did. Enjoy.

Ghost Soldiers is the story of the Cabanatuan Raid in January 1945, where about 500 Allied Prisoners of War and internees were dramatically rescued by two companies of American Rangers, who slipped through Japanese lines and attacked their prison camp for the express purpose of doing so. The book does a marvelous job of recounting the operation.
The author starts with an account of the massacre of prisoners in another camp on Palawan, to the south of Luzon, and the survivor's recounting of this event to the U.S. military. The author then alternates subjects of his chapters, with the rescue effort changing places with the prisoners' experiences during the years they were prisoners of the Japanese.
The prisoners' experiences, as they always are with the Japanese, are horrific, and difficult to read, but the author does a good job of recounting them without being morbid or hateful. One previous reviewer says that the author doesn't spend enough time on the motivations of the Japanese guards who perpetrated the war crimes. It's always difficult to get people to talk about this sort of thing, and given the differences between the Japanese and American cultures at the time, it's amazing that we have any understanding of what was going on at all. For decades, the Japanese denied that there were any war crimes at all, or insisted that they were committed by a few "bad people", now conveniently dead.
Hampton Sides isn't a military historian, and in a few instances in the book this shows. However, he is a skilled writer, and this is frankly more important. The story he tells is skillfully recounted, and the author does a wonderful job of telling the story, and what happened to the men who lived it after the war.

One of the absolute BEST books I read in 2001 and still one that I vividly recall images from. Covering the Death March of Bataan and the horrors of a Japanese Army POW camp set up to house the Allied forces in the Philippines, the book is a marvel. It's also extremely upsetting and at times difficult to read, but worth the struggle to be illuminated by the history of the Asian theater of WWII and by the story of the participants who gave their lives and, at times, their humanity, for a cause both sides believed in.

Written in a narrative style by Sides that surpasses that of most fiction novels for its vibrancy and character depth, this non-fiction account actually inspired me to read more historical books -- a genre I've never been a particular fan of. Unfortunately, the next book it lead me to was Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" which was a major disappointment and, quite frankly, a bore. After watching the Spielberg/Hanks mini-series on HBO, I was stunned that the writers were able to tell such compelling stories using source material that was uninspired and bland.

But "Ghost Soldiers" is a thousand times superior to the Ambrose book and I envy the person who gets to read this gem for the very first time.

GHOST SOLDIERS is one of the most successful books about war, a scrupulously detailed academic scrutiny delivered in a briliantly captivating novelistic form. Hampton Sides has produced a vivid reconstruction of what must be one of the most painfully forgotten episodes of WW II - the actual fall of the US Armed Forces in the Phillipines at the hands of the Japanese in the bloddiest excerpt of the Pacific Theater of WW II. It is humbling to read this beautifully written volume, knowing that our own soldiers were subjected to such atrocities and yet most lived to overcome three years of Prisoner of War condition to return home, only to be quietly forgotten ("ghosts") once the media took on Iwo Jima, Hiroshima, Okinawa, and Nagasaki.
Sides has a gift in working from oral histories, diaries, reports, and documents, turning those into so vivid a presence that he places the reader in the midst of the POWs, fully cognizant of the smells, the tension, the medical dilemmas, the interactions between prisoners and guards. But he does not confine his account to the Cabanatuan prison camp: characters on the periphery are drawn with such clarity ( for example, "High Pockets" AKA Claire Phillips who bravely cajoled the Japanese officers in her dance club to glean information for the Army intelligence) that the world of the Philippines becomes a well-trod stage, heightening the drama of the POW story.
And last, but definitely not the least of this fine book's gifts, GHOST SOLDIERS makes no judgments. Sides is able to report in an incredibly engaging manner without all the gratuitous hoopla that often accompanies "war books". This is a stellar achievement and one that would be well served translated into a movie, solely for the enlightment of the world as to an isolated atrocity that stands as a symbol for all that is wrong about War.

The book Ghost Soldiers is a historical overview of a World War Two

rescue mission in the Philippines. Ghost Soldiers tells about Army rangers who were sent to save American and British prisoners of war from the Japanese. It also describes the hardships and grueling tragedies that the prisoners of war were to endure at a prison camp of the Japanese. This story takes you on each of the sides in their turmoil and hardships they both must go through. You will meet many characters from brave commanders; to the very prisoners themselves in their epic struggle that begins the very moment you turn the page!

As a reader of this book I found it both informative and enjoyable. The plot was very well played out and the details were abundant. This made the book easy to read. This book in my opinion would be most interesting to the person who is enjoys reading about history or war. The details in Ghost Soldiers are clear and give you a vivid image even to the graphicness and horror of this time in history. Like in all books there are some things that could be better in it for example, the book is some what hard to follow for many story lines take place here. This tends to happen from chapter to chapter. Eventually however, the story lines to begin to come together near the climax. Also there are many characters in this book. Though all of them play an important part in history many of them are not mentioned more than once in the story so be careful to pay close attention to which characters that have larger roles than the others otherwise it can become extraordinarily confusing. All in all I think this book was a great read and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for an adventurous non-fiction.

This is a great book that goes back and forward detailing two journeys that finally meet at the end.

The first journey was made by American troops from the battles of Battan and Corregidor that surrendered to the Japanese army in the Philippines, confronting a gruesome reality of suffering and misery that placed them face to face with the Japanese Imperial Army that at the time was brain washed by a society heavily influenced by the military and believed they were a superior race and that surrender was one of the worst disgraces a human being could do to their divine emperor, family and country. This grandiose mentality automatically categorized the newly surrender American as an insignificant race not worthy of humane treatment. As a consequence, they experienced starvation, torture and death by a variety of methods including: bad nutrition, tropical diseases, decapitation and shooting.

The second journey is the preparation and execution of a courageous raid by the 6th Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and their assault commander Capitan Robert Prince and supported by equally courage's Philippines' guerrillas, that finally ended with the liberation of POW's of the Cabanatuan camp and their slow and dangerous trip back to the American lines with the help of brave Philippines' civilians.

This is one of those well written amazing true stories, which everyone should read.

Why?
How is it that we are who we are, or do what we wish, or live in a nation where the words "choice" and "freedom" are taken for granted?
My grandfather was not one of the Bataan survivors, nor did he ever have to endure the horrors of captivity at the hands of the Japanese Army. However, as a veteran of the Americal Division, he saw enough bloodshed and death to last him a lifetime. Because of him, I take the opportunity to read as much as I can on the Pacific War so that I may better understand his experiences in battle as a young man not all that older than myself today.
"Ghost Soldiers" is one of those books that grabs you from the first sentence and does not let go until the final page has been turned. Masterfully written, exhaustively researched, and superbly paced, Hampton Sides employs the same technique that Mark Bowden used in 1999's "Black Hawk Down" in that the historical account reads more like a novel than a work of military history. The characters and events however, are entirely real. Sadly, many of the true heroes of "Ghost Soliders" did not survive their ordeal and never returned home.
Every American should read this book. Not just those who are interested in military history, or those professionals in this country's armed forces who seek to further develop and immerse themselves in the profession of arms.
No, the ones who need to read this book are those who abhor war and who cannot even begin imagine the unthinkable acts of cruelty and suffering heaped upon young men whose only crime was that they were on the losing side in the early going of the Pacific War. The ones who need to read this book are the ones who show little interest in the history of this great nation that they are citizens of, yet show little appreciation or knowledge of how America got here. Only after reading "Ghost Soldiers" will those begin to understand the meaning of the popular catchphrase "freedom isn't free."
To the brave prisoners who suffered, yet lived, and all of those who endeavoured to bring them out of their hell before it was too late, they have finally received their just due. However, for this grateful son and soldier, this book doesn't even begin to make up for their selfless service and sacrifices to preserve our way of life.
But it is a very good start...

I give this book four stars because the beginning was slow so its hard to get into and understand the book, but after I got into the book I couldn't put it down. This book is very hard to follow because you have to keep track of two stories one story is about the Prisoners of war and what they do to survive, while the other story is about the small group of Americans getting groups to gether and getting a bigger army so they can save the prisoners of war. At the beginning the stories are very hard to follow because there so far apart but after the stories get going they come together perfectly. I also like this book because of the way the author describes the illnesses in the prisoners of war camp, "we have to handle him carefully or he will explode on us" was one of the things I liked. I also like how the author supports the parts in the story that don't sound real. The way he does this is he gives examples from the interview that he had read about or done to some of the main characters. The thing I didn't like about this book was the frequent change in the stories because you would just get to a good part, and then the author would change the story. The reason why I would recommend this book is it is a very good book if you have some time and if you have the cape ability to follow along. I wouldn't recommend this book to any one too young because of some of the parts in the book have a lot of gore but other than that this book was very good. I liked the way this book was descriptive about Japanese and the Americans soldiers and how they were treated and how they treated others. This book is a must read!

I have always heard that you can tell a lot about a society by how it treats its prisoners, what this book and statement says about the 1940's Japanese society is not that pleasant. The book covers the surrender of a large number of American troops to the Japanese in the early stages of World War Two when the Japanese were on a roll. It covers the battles that lead up to the surrender and how the American's really held out almost as long as they could (not quite the German Stalingrad style holdout but close). It then covers the Battan Death March and the prisoners time in the Japanese concentration camps - oh sorry, I mean prison camps.
I have always been a World War Two buff and have concentrated most of my reading on the war in Europe. This book really opened my eyes to the different type of war the Japanese fought. They were not the professional solders that adhered to the Rules of War that we were facing in Europe, but more of an anything goes, surrender is the worst thing ever type of mentality. The author really takes you into the hell that the American soldiers were placed into once they surrendered. He describes the tortures very well, almost too detailed. He has also captured the feelings of the troops. The sense of abandonment by the U.S., the everyday fears and depression that overtook the troops and the joy of liberation all come through in the writing.
If you would like to read more about how the Japanese fought and the war crimes they commented then I would suggest the book "The Rape of Nanking". After reading these two books you will have a very different view of the Japanese war effort

The heroic rescue of approximately 500 American and Allied prisoners from the remote Japanese prison camp in Cabanatuan, Philippines is eloquently portrayed in Hampton Sides' thoroughly researched novel, Ghost Soldiers.
The 500 prisoners were the sickest survivors of the Bataan Death march after the surrender of Allied forces in 1942 and the subsequent fall of Corregidor. These survivors were tortuously marched without sustenance through the disease infested jungles of the Philippines. Those that survived to be incarcerated in the camp were subjected to starvation, vitamin deficiency, sadistic cruelty and slave labor by their merciless Japanese captors. It was feared that when MacArthur successfully recaptured the Philippines in 1945, that the prisoners would be slaughtered.
It was decided that a clandestine mission lead by Col. Henry Mucci and 121 Army Rangers would march through the jungle to rescue the surviving prisoners. With help from Japanese despising armed Filippino guerillas and civilians the rescue was attempted against huge odds. The planning had to be precise and the coordination of the many facets of the operation needed to go off without a hitch.
Sides alternates chapters of the story as seen through the eyes of both the bedraggled prisoners and gung ho Rangers to create a feeling of both pathos and patriotism. He does a masterful job in telling a story of heroism in World War 2 which was soon overshadowed by the subsequent attack of the Japanese mainland and the atomic blasts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

WOW!! From the first pages of this book, it's hard, direct, and no-holds-barred story telling at it's very, very best. To the point.
Mr. Sides starts this book as if the story has been running for 150 pages already. BANG! First page, and you're there and involved, no standing by watching from afar. Right on top of the events and cruelties that are beyond words. And this is how it starts. I anxiously await your next work Mr. Sides.
You most likely know something about the Bataan Death March, even if it's the John Wayne movie, but you're going to really learn about it reading this book. I cannot imagine what these men are made of to survive all this. Hero has a new meaning after this read.
There is not much critical to say about this book. It is stunning in it's eye opening frankness and candor. Direct in it's story, and doesn't play around with words. It could be a 6 hour newscast. When you start this book, you won't want to stop, and that's not just hollow cliche. That's the fact!!!
Get this book, read it, and think about what you read. Look at the men's pictures in the book. Now you'll think about what they did for you, me and the rest of us. Are we even close to this strength, this character. Sadly, I don't think so.
Read this book NOW. No excuses, no reasons, READ IT! Then see how you've changed..... .
Thank you Mr. Sides for opening my eyes to what the soldiers in the Pacific gave of themselves, and the veterans in the 21st Century have to live with. The flag is brighter and bigger now, and the heroes too!

Hampton Sides has done a remarkable job telling the story not only of the brave Rangers and Filipino guerillas who rescued the POWS of Cabanatuan, but also of those held who endured enormous suffering while at the hands of the Japanese. It is a discredit to those heroes that so few Americans have even an inkling about the horrors of the Bataan Death March and the prisoner of war camps of the Imperial Japanese Army. GHOST SOLDIERS is a first-rate account of the deprivation, brutality, and starvation which killed so many Allied soliders and sailors. The authors allows the survivors to "bear witness" much like the survivors of the Nazi death camps do so compellingly in other books.
But GHOST SOLDIERS is never slow or tedious or maudlin or sentimental. The pacing is double-quick and the whole book has a cinematic quality to it. It would make a fine movie (an all-American "Bridge on the River Kwai"). WWII and history buffs will devour the book quickly, but others should not be dissuaded, simply because GHOST SOLDIERS is "military history." It is much more than that. It is a story of human beings enduring the unendurable, and of making enormous sacrifices for the sake of their fellows. The historical context, geography of the Philippines, and the military tactics are all expertly and unobstrusively explained. Readers not familiar with military jargon or tactics will not find themselves lost, but rather rooting for the brave rescuers as they advance stealthily to liberate the walking skeletons of Cabanatuan.

This is the tale of the Army Rangers rescue mission to save American POWs, many whom were survivor's of the Bataan Death March. The POW's were interred at Cabanatuan Prison in the Philippines, and the returning invasion of McArthur worried the Japanese would massacre them. The author alternates chapters between the stories of the POWs and the Rangers. The POW chapters cover the fall of Bataan, the Death March and the interment at the Cabanatuan Prison. The Ranger chapters briefly cover the history of the Rangers and discusses in detail the preparations for and the raid itself. Despite the historical topic, the book is a real page turner. The author, who is a journalist, does a great job of creating suspense where the outcome is known, and paints a graphic portrait of life as a POW.
One commendable thing I found about the book was the evenhandedness of the accounts of the Japanese war crimes and atrocities. There was no attempt made to lambast the Japanese, some effort was made to explain their acts without presumption of being able to fully divine their intent and yet at the same time there was no exoneration either. One of the most fascinating themes for me in college was that of War. Why we go to war? What devices are used by political entities to employ a countries resources, human and otherwise in war? etc. One of my favorite quotes from the book was: "the story of war is always the story of hate; it makes no difference with whom one fights. The hate destroys you..." I highly recommend this book.

Hampton Sides deserves a great deal of praise for writing a memorable account of not just the famous Bataan Death March but also a January 1945 rescue mission of American POWs from the Bataan Death March which has largely been lost in the annals of history, despite the fact that it remains the largest POW rescue in American history. Sides artfully intersperses chapters describing the fall of the Phillippines with the story of the Army Raiders and Fillipino guerillas group who pulled off the amazing rescue of over 500 POWs who were interned in a rural prison camp and in substantial jeopardy of being murdered by the retreating Japanese as the Americans invaded the Phillippines in early 1945. This is an extremely insightful book, giving fresh perspectives into such things as why the Japanese mistreated American prisoners so badly both during the Bataan Death March and in the prison camps. It treats the relationships between the three cultures--American, Fillipino, and Japanese--quite sensitively. Sides has also done his homework in terms of interviewing surviving vets of both the POW group and those who raided the camp to rescue them, and has made this a lively, hard-to-put-down account. He has truly rescued from obscurity a story that deserves to be remembered, and has drawn important parallels between this POW experience and that of Americans who were interned by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. If you interested in World War II in the Pacific, this book should be irresistable to you.

This is a stirring account of the raid to save over 600 prisoners of war during WWII. Through detailed interviews with participants and survivors, the author draws a clear picture of events that pulls the reader in to become a part of the story.
After the Bataan Death March, POWs were sent to a central prision where conditions were deplorable. To the Japanese, the POWs were no longer soldiers or even men and therefore did not deserve proper treatment. The POWs lived in squalor and deprivation for months, malnourished and mistreated. Thousands died from disease, starvation and mistreatment.
But the survivors managed to form a semi-living society with order, discipline and a semblance of sanity. It is truly a testament to the human spirit that these men were able to accomplish what they did for 3 years.
THe Rangers, led by Col. Mucci, were a new breed of soldiers, trained in a different type of war (which has become the way of war in modern times.) They risked their lives to rescue these unknown POWs. Their ordeal is heroic and inspiring.
Lee once said that it is good that war is so terrible else we should grow too fond of it. War brings out the worst and best in people. THis book shows examples of both. Yet it is not condemning or racist in the descriptions of the Japanese. It really was a clash of cultures in which no compromise could exist. It is told in a straightforward, clear manner that makes reading it enjoyable and moving.

This is a great war story that is moving for both the depravity of Japanese treatment of American POW's and our soldier's struggle to survive.
Ghost Soldiers traces American GI's from the Bataan Death March through their internment in the Japanese prison system and the eventual liberation of several hundred during a daring raid on the prison at Cabanatuan by an army Ranger unit. It is a gripping and well written story that will keep you fixed to the pages of this fine book.
The first chapter is searing and just about the saddest piece of history I've ever read. The massacre of American prisoners at Palawan tipped the US Army to the danger faced by other POW's operating under a Japanese policy of prisoner annihilation as the Empire's prospects faded late in the war. Knowing that 500 prisoners were at the Phillipine camp Cabanatuan ahead of the US Sixth Army unleashed what is perhaps the war's most dramatic rescue mission in early 1945.
Hampton Sides is a good writer who knows how to keep a story moving. He weaves back and forth between the prisoners and their Ranger rescuers withoug breaking the story pace. He also traces the history of the prisoner's experiences under Japanese authority. The sadistic barbarity with which the captors treated American prisoners is amazing for its uniformity. Sides brings enough of Japanese culture and military training into the story to show how almost everyone from top commanders to lowly prison guards were perhaps predisposed to the atrocities that visited our soldiers with stunning regularity through their long months of starvation and neglect.
The threads of the story come together nicely with a climatic battle scene that will glue your attention to the pages.
This is a well written story that deserves to be remembered both as a testament to the barbarity of the war-era Japanese army and the heroics of POW survival and American arms.

In many respects, World War II was the defining act of the 20th century, and there are many ways to conceptualize and write about it. There is the one-sentence version: The evil Axis of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan attempted to conquer the world, and was defeated by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and their allies. Many wonderful books have been written about the major, turning-point campaigns and battles. And there now are many individual stories of heroism and sacrifice, which make up what might be characterized as the micro-history of the conflict. Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers is of the latter variety. In chronological order, it begins with the defeat of the American forces in the Philippines in 1942, which resulted in the largest surrender in U.S. military history, takes the prisoners of war through the brutal Bataan "death march," follows them through nearly three years of insufferable captivity in prisoner of war camps, reports that the Japanese were preparing to slaughter the surviving prisoners as they retreated, and narrates the fascinating and stirring story of the liberation of about 500 American and British POWS by a small force of American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas in January 1945.
In Sides's view, several factors accounted for the near-unspeakably harsh conditions to which Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific were subjected. Sides ably demonstrates that, for cultural reasons, the Japanese generally held their prisoners in contempt. According to their Military Field Code, Japanese soldiers who fell into enemy hands "brought irrevocable shame" to themselves and their families. That attitude could not be expunged when Japanese soldiers were assigned to prison camps, and this explains, but certainly does not excuse, the harsh discipline, which included beatings, torture, and occasionally random acts of murder, imposed by the Japanese. The camps, themselves, often were poorly equipped with medical and sanitary facilities, and exposure to the elements and natural pathogens made tropical diseases rampant. For instance, the camp where most of the Bataan POWS were marched was planned for about 25,000 troops, but the actual number of prisoners held there began at closer to 100,000. It is nearly miraculous that anyone survived.
By late 1944, most of the Allied POWS held at Cabanatuan had died or had been taken to Japan to serve as slave laborers, and only about 500, mostly men with severe psychiatric disorders, dysentery, and tuberculosis, survived. When the American military command obtained reports that the Japanese were in the process of annihilating the remaining prisoners, a plan was rapidly improvised to send about 200 American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas to Cabanatuan to rescue the POWS. This may not have been, as the subtitle asserts, "World War II's Most Dramatic Mission" (I consider that merely publisher's hyperbole), but the story of the indomitable prisoners is inspiring, and the chapters devoted to the rescue mission are very exciting.
Books of this type are not without their critics. An example of the most serious criticism recently appeared in The New York Times, where the reviewer wrote that that "Sides's effort to expand gratuitously a brief chapter in Army history is an egregious of the recent trend to milk every drop of drama from World War II, a conflict whose realities are heroic enough unembellished." If Sides exaggerated or "embellished" the drama of the Ranger raid on the Cabanatuan prison camp, he committed a serious error of judgment and reportorial ethics. But the suggestion that this "brief chapter in Army history" does not deserve book-length attention strikes me as ungenerous and short-sighted. It is true that the events at Cabanatuan in January 1945 did not determine the outcome of the war in the Pacific, but they did illustrate some of the conflict's principal themes. I have read that American veterans of World War II are dying at the rate of 1,000 per day. In 20 years, practically all of them will be dead. And then, the stories of this great generation quite literally will pass into history. I am in complete favor of the publication of every possible book about World War II, especially first-person accounts and those in which the participants tell their stories to professional writers. Only in that way will succeeding generations have the fullest possible record of what happened during this horrific conflict. In one hundred years, students will still ask: Why did 50 million people die in the world war of the 1930s and 1940s? Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers offers a partial answer to that question, and that is why books such as this are so valuable.

Three things struck me as I read Hampton Sides "Ghost Soldiers". First, as a young boy I read an account of the Bataan Death March which, I believe, is one of the references cited in the author's acknowledgements. Ghost Soldiers brought back memories of the incredible suffering of the American and Filipino prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese. Mr. Sides tries to justify the actions of the General Masaharu Homma and the troops under his command. He doesn't succeed and he ignores the fact that the Japanese have never acknowledged the atrocities committed during World War II. In fact their government's official position is that they were the victims and the war was caused by the U.S. embargo on oil to their island empire.
Next is how Mars smiled on the 6th Ranger Battalion's efforts to liberate the Cabanatuan prison camp survivors. They were guided and escorted by two bands of competent Filipino guerrillas. The little known Alamo Scouts provided invaluable intelligence without which the mission could not have be attempted. The battalion surgeon found two Filipino doctors in the village closest to the camp. The Filipino civilians provided oxen and wagons to transport the emaciated and sickly prisoners back to American lines. The weather cooperated. As Napolean said, "In war it is better to be lucky than good."
Finally, the author errs on some military facts. For example, he says the M-1 carbine is a lighter version of the M-1 Garand rifle (not true) and seems awed by the Browning Automatic Rifle's cyclical rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute. This is the theoretical rate of fire. The BAR is fed by a 20 round box magazine. At 550 rpm a rifleman would use up 28 magazines in a minute (impossible) which is more than he carried. Some might argue that this is picking at nits but if one is going to write military history one should get the military facts straight.
Overall, this is a quick, engrossing read that is a testament to the human spirit. It reinforces the cruelty of the Japanese military in WW II as previously described in current books such as "The Rape of Nanking" and "Flags of Our Fathers." The description of the welcome given to these brave POW survivors will bring tears to your eyes.

`Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides

Having just re-read `Ghost Soldiers' for the second time, I decided it was time to write a few words about this spectacular narrative. The book tells the parallel stories of the "Bataan Death March" survivors turned POW's with that of the 6th Army Rangers tasked with liberating them from the Cabantuan prison camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The author recounts, in remarkable detail, these two stories until finally converging in a climactic rescue scene that rivals any great war story, WWII or otherwise.

`Ghost Soldiers' features the stories of individual prisoners whose crushing ordeal is at times almost too harrowing to believe. As you'll see in the author's acknowledgements - which, if ever, should certainly not be overlooked - the survivors fortunate enough to make it through this period of their lives, still themselves, have difficulty reconciling the circumstances of their captivity. It is more than a war story: `Ghost Soldiers' is an epic of a ghastly militaristic ideology confronted with indomitable human spirit. Mr. Sides brings these men and women's stories to life in a portrait that is truly stirring with patriotism.

Hampton Sides does an excellent job narrating not only the daring rescue but the background events - the Fall of Bataan and the Death March. His accounting struck a personal cord. My father, Virgilio "Totoy" Celis, Jr. was with the Philippine Army's Cavalry Division at Bataan and in that infamous Death March to Capas. He used to tell us stories: about being in a fox hole for so long, yet not daring to even light a cigarette for fear of snipers; of hearing bullets whizzing by in the dark nights... He described the 'road' to Capas - the starving prisoners ate anything green along the way, so that not a blade of grass, not a single leaf remained; of thirst crazed men lapping the muddy water from tadpole filled potholes... of carrying pick-a-back his CO - Enrique Zobel, Sr. - who was so weakened w dysentery, the Japanese soldiers would surely have bayonetted him if he lagged behind or slowed the march's pace ... of my grandmother (leaving her eight younger children, including a baby - in occupied Manila)bribing her way into the camp to bring food and medicine to my father. My father also said, as brutally cruel as the Japanese were to the Filipinos, they were ten times more so to the Americans! (After the surrender, the Japanese immediately separated the Americans from the Filipinos).
Thanks, Mr. Sides, for telling this particular "story" and keeping us from forgetting these heroes!

It is not by accident that this story bears the title of Ghost Soldiers. The book is named after the men of the brand new at the time elite army units operating behind the enemy lines that effected the rescue, and also, the title aptly describes those who were getting rescued - the American POW survivors of the Bataan death march in the final stages of starvation deemed too weak to transport by the Japanese and left to die or fend for themselves by their fleeing captors.
The book does a good job of covering its territory and making sure that the significance of events is not lost on those not familiar with the WWII in Philippines. To that end the author weaves a compelling narrative that covers everything essential about the Japanese prison camps, about the Bataan death march, about men who fought the invading japanese and how they were surrendered, but the story goes deeper than that, giving us a glimpse of the lives of the men who enlisted in the US Army before WWII, those soldiers who were captured in the beginning of the war, and through the details of the biographies we catch a glimpse of what life was like in the US before the Big One. Eventually, these get contrasted with the new US GI's of the 1944 and 1945 with brand new weapons, awesome firepower, strange uniforms and a different sort of the folk who were caught up in the general mobilization of the World War Two. That would have been a well enough bckground exposition for any military history, but the book goes beyond the biograhy and atrocity, and shows the Japanese military and its key actors in the Philippines in an objective and non-stereotyping way that lets us see what the Japanese were like and why the Japanese Imperial Army acted the way it did.
As a historian, Hampton Sides takes the approach of the oral folklore gatherer rather than that of an academic. The book does not deal with timetables, statistics and the big picture, and it has been criticized by some as not being footnoted enough for scholastic research. What the budding geniuses overlook is that this story was pieced to gether largely from the accounts of survivors and what the numerous written accounts that were used are listed in the bibliography, which I might add is excellent and covers practically every aspect of the war in the Philippines.
As a military history, the story of the raid takes a seat behind the story of human survival. This is not to say that the story of the raid is incomplete, but there is so much that can be said about a straightforward military patrol that goes largely according to plan. The raid takes place in the context of the guerilla warfare and the story is told in the high adventure commando tale in the vein of the Guns of the Navarone. The key difference is that this is a historical account, and it takes into consideration the mature consciousness of its military leaders and the greater issues in the context of which the raid occurs, something that military histories and commando adventure stories tend to overlook. The, genesis of the rangers as a unit, their training and equipment is described in reasonable detail. The personalities of the guerilla leaders, the cooperation of the Americans with the indiginous units and the effect of the reconnaissance on the mission's execution are shown with textbook clarity. More importantly, the personality of the unit commander, how he makes his decisions and how the mission unfolded in the face of the ever changing picture of the battlefield, all of these were shown in enough detail where leadership style the decision making structure becomes apparent. Some readers show incredulity and dismay at the apparent lack of opposition and at some of the details of the incursion that make it seem easier than it really was. Basically these voices are ignorant of guerilla warfare and large scale operations behind enemy lines. The tremendous success of this mission can be judged from the fact that there are a lot of Vietnam-era POW rescue movies, but not one successful raid, despite the advantages in communications and air transport that US had in Vietnam, and for that matter one can compare Mucci's Rangers of WWII with the US military's failed attempt to rescue US hostages in Iran, to fully appreciate their ability and their luck in that they took practically no casualties.

Ghost Soldiers is a good name for those POWs. They were treated very brutally and horribly.
Ghost Soldiers details the accounts of the soldiers that survived the Baatan Death March. Many Americans don't knwo much about it. It was one of the few times that we let our men down. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philipenes were also attacked, as were many US bases in the pacific. The men on the philipenes endured a long seige before surrendering. After they were caputered, they were marched on what is now known as the Baatan Death March, where thousands of Americans and Philipeno troops died.
They then spent the next three years in consentration camps, being worked, starved, beaten and shot to death by their Japanese captors.
Ghost Soldiers also tells about their rescue, which is nothing short of amazing. After three years, as the US began re-taking the islands, a group of Army Rangers, a new division, were sent fifty miles on foot to one camp, where they rescued all five hundred of the prisoners, losing only five men to the japanese, who were consentrated in the area.
Hampton Sides wrote this book beautifuly, showing what it was like for those poor soldiers, physically and mentally. The book is clear, detailed, and well written.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of World War II.

In Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, the true heroes of America are given a fitting tribute.
Ghost Soldiers is an action packed thriller that will leave you clearing your schedule because you do not want to put it down. Personally, I knocked it out in 2 days.
Ghost Soldiers is the story of the soldiers who liberated the few survivors of the Bataan Death March in WW2. The book takes you through the formation and planning of this risky operation. In switching back and forth between the happenings at the camp and the planning and execution of the raid, Sides does a great job of giving the reader both sides of the story. The reader is able to grasp the harsh treatment that the POW's received and their plans to escape and the planning and execution of their liberation. All the while, the soldiers had no idea just how bad the camp was, and the POW's had no idea they were ever going to be freed by their countrymen.
Both sides of the story come together in the thrilling final pages. This is a great book and an easy read. Sides does not bog us down in minute details like so many historians like to do, but he does create the story well enough to make us feel like we are there. Things happen fast and before you know it, you will be done with one of the best books I have read in a long time.

Sixty years ago today, the U.S. government abandoned 78,000 American and Philippine troops to their fate on the Philippine peninsula of Bataan when General King surrendered to the Japanese. The ships left, the aircraft flew off and the men were left leaderless without even a protocol to surrender. Mass confusion ensued; the Japanese had vastly underestimated the huge number of prisoners and had few places to take them and hardly anything to feed and clothe them. Thus the infamous Bataan Death March.
The Japanese culture saw prisoners of war as lesser beings. The Japanese soldier was taught to fight to the last man, and that last man should commit suicide rather than be captured. Consequently, the prisoners were accorded little if any humanity. Also, the elite of the Japanese forces were at the front. The prison camp guards were the lowliest, least skilled and educated of their troops. Their treatment of the prisoners was mercurial, harsh, and sometimes unbelievably savage. Thousands upon thousands perished, most of the deaths caused by tropical diseases that felled them in their starving condition.
Almost three years later, when Japan was close to defeat, the Americans established a beachhead on Bataan. The 6th U.S. Army Rangers, a crack force of 121 men were assigned the perilous operation of getting behind Japanese lines and liberating the American prisoners at the largest camp, Cabanatuan before the Japanese could execute the entire prison population.
"Ghost Soldiers" is the story of the liberation and the oral histories of some of the surviving soldiers. The book is not a military history; it is the story of the men involved. It is told in a time-lapse method with the prisoner's life interspersed with the Ranger's upcoming raid. The chances of success were slim, and the operation was shot with luck and almost miracles.
Mr. Sides does a good and caring job with the information he has gathered. The book has an epilogue of the "Where Are They Now" type that is highly welcome. By the end of the story, you care for these men as individuals and hope the remainder of their lives made up for the hellish three years in Bataan.

As World War II slips farther and farther into the past, small events in it that were considered very important and fascinating at the time have disappeared from common knowledge. The action about which this book is concerned is one of those events. When it happened, it was considered something extremely heroic, and it was assumed that the story would become an essential element of our history. It didn't, of course, overshadowed by the battle of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the dropping of the A bomb. That neglect does not mean that what happened is any less heroic or amazing because we have forgotten about it. This story shows the courage of both the POWs from Bataan, and their Ranger rescuers (both American and Filipino) as the real, unsung heroes that they were in actuality. It's a fascinating book to read, and the true courage and fortitude of all the men detailed within it is astonishing. We have so much to thank these unselfish folks for, particularly the freedom which we enjoy today, and I often wonder if our generation would be "up" to the sacrifices that they made during the years of war. We cannot honor them enough, and this book is just another way of doing that honoring. Read it, and learn of the actions of brave people whom we can only admire, and emulate by that admiration.

With these words the "Battling ... of Bataan," the American POWs expressed their sentiment at the fall of the last Phillipine stronghold and their subsequent fate in the infamous Death March. In harrowing conditions which no living being must endure, the poor brave souls languished for three years, seemingly forgotten by the outside world. Facing hellish cruelty, all manner of exotic disease and nightmarish shortages, the several thousand men at the Bataan Death March became only 650 near the war's end.
To make matters worse, there were reports from survivors of other camps that the Japanese were systematically murdering their prisoners, leaving no one behind for the ever-advancing American forces. Given the gravity of the situation, no other remedy remained than to try a daring rescue. This noble duty fell to Colonel Mucci and his novice Rangers, a handful of men who braved jungles infested with tropical disease and Japanese patrols.
Hampton Sides retells the near forgotten story of one of the most daring rescues in WWII, revealing the horrendous evil of war, the courage in ordinary men, and the proud, stubborn will to live inherent in humanity. This page-turner is moving: this book allows the reader to descend into the nightmarish conditions faced by the survivors, as well as participate in the triumph of their rescue. Uncle Sam did not forget His boys. A TRIUMPH.

I am two generations away from WWII, but my grandfather served in the Navy. He never said much about his service, and I was too young to ask. But I've always wondered in my advanced placement history class in highschool, and as I've continued to take classes in history in college. Lately, my research into The Medical Holocaust and of course, the movies on WWII and the clamor over the monument, have piqued my interest in this subject area. I've always believed that the truth is stranger then fiction...in the case of this book, the heroics of the American and Phillipino men and women far surpasses any heroics rendered by fictional characters. Sides does an incredible job of research into this story. It reads like an old John Wayne movie, and it is too bad he isn't around anymore, because this story is right up his alley. I have nothing but admiration for these men on both sides...the Rangers who risked so much and the guerrillas who helped them, and the men who survived the horror of a Japanese prison camp. We cannot possibly understand everything they went through, but Hampton Sides gives us an opportunity in this great book, to share in their riveting tale of courage and survival. This is the consummate war story. It takes your breath away. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

Quite simply, this book is excellent. I could barely put it down as the details and compassion I felt for these "ghost" soldiers pulled me into the story. The author, Hampton Sides, brings to vivid life the fall of Battan and the absolutely appalling conditions of the POWs for their 3 years of captivity and the rescue mission to save them before a possible mass execution at the hands of their Japanese captors. The first hand accounts are stirring. One can put themselves right in the middle of this tragic tale. Yet he deftly bounds the story with great insight into the political and social cultures that clashed during the war, including interesting details about some of the key military players. One thing I gained from this book is a much greater understanding of the 'how' and 'why' the Battan deathmarch happened. It was not just abject cruelty on the part of the Japanese (though there is absolutely no excuse for what happened) but a compounding effect of miscalcuations, stark cultural ideals, and conditions in a terrible series of events. I especially liked the structure of the book where the author first lays out the background of the battle of the Philippines and then alternates by chapter the going concern of the rescue mission with life in the camps as it progresses thru the years. The story is brought to a high point with the first hand accounts of the rescue itself. This book is a great tribute to the men who fought to live in captivity and to those who took it upon themselves to rescue them against terrific odds. For any WWII buff this is a must read story. You will not be disappointed.

Hampton Sides conjures up a masterpiece in his galvanizing story Ghost Soldiers. The setting of the book is in the Philippines during World War II. Confronted by starvation and depravation of supplies, the American army is forced to surrender to the Japanese. Despite Japanese promises of hospitality, the American soldiers are quickly rounded up and forced to participate in the infamous Bataan Death March. Incarcerated for years in horrid conditions, the prisoners must fight a personal war every day in the fight to survive. Many succumb to sickness or perish at the hands of the Japanese brutality. But, this story focuses on those who made it out alive at the hands of the American Ranger battalion.
I strongly recommend this book for it vividly portrays the grim situation of war without omitting lurid details. Sides does not back down from the cacophonous details. For example, in describing the burial of the dead prisoners, he describes how when a new body was thrown into the mass grave, you could hear the "crack of one skull on another." The story will leave a lasting impression which forces the reader to think twice about his fellow country men who fought to protect what was truly precious to both them and us, freedom.

Hampton Sides has written a very readable classic. Ghost Soldiers gives a blow by blow account of the rescue of the remaining Allied (mostly US) prisoners from the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan, Philippines. The smallest details are noted, many of which are harrowing. What the POWs went through during their three years of captivity after the fall of Bataan will shock you although readers who are familiar with WWII will know what I mean. The highs and lows of man's character are laid out for all to see in this book and you can't help but be moved.

Following an "in your face" preface, the build up to the actual night of the raid, following the Rangers through the bush and profiling various individual POW's experiences, gets you to the edge of your seat as you wait for the first shot to be fired and the first prisoner to be rescued.

Hopefully we will never see the likes of WWII again but the people who were there deserve to be remembered and this book has to be one of the best records for that time.

If some older cultures are spot-on about personal character and resulting deeds living-on after mortal passing -- then these "Ghost Soldiers" [USA Army Rangers and Philippine allies] will be undying-great due to their near-miracle operation to rescue prisoner-of-war folks from a ghastly concentration camp run [into-the-ground] by Imperial Japan Army folks. Altho many and even most IJA folks were harsh and even cruel to their American, British and Philippine prisoners -- I was surprised by some small acts of kindness by individual IJA folks -- and especially when the vast majority of the IJA resisted a mass murder order given-out over the IJA field radio network by a fanatic lunatic IJA officer from a back-room in Japan. This does not downplay the general harsh conditions, decisions and actions by the IJA towards Allied POWs. This great account of a great mission includes spot-on background and foreground to great effect -- amounting to a great story of a great mission by great folks of the "Greatest Generation" +++

I really learned a lot of things I did not know about WWII when I read this book. A relative gave it to me as a gift since military history is one of my favorite subjects. Before reading this book, I have not spent much time learning about the pacific theatre. I have always thought that the European part of WWII much more interesting. This book has completely changed my perspective.
The book focuses on the surrender of the Phillipines to the Imperiel Japanes Army, the treatment of allied POWs by the Japanese, and subsequent rescue mission by US Army Rangers. All three topics make for fascinating, eye-opening discovery. The author uses a lot of personal accounts and quotes from soldiers who lived through this saga, which adds an element of realism that I have not found in many other books. This technique drew me into the story and gave me a whole new perspective about what happened to these soldiers. Your heart will ache when you learn about the treatment of the POWs, and leap with joy during the rescue mission portion.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique story from WWII. This book is not a dry, boring history book. Instead it tells the sad story of what happened to our soldiers in the Phillipines during WWII, and the inspiring story of the men who rescued them. The fact that any of the POWs survived their ordeal is a miracle, and the story of how the US Army rangers completed this "mission impossible" is fascinating. For anyone currently serving in the military, get it and read it. It will give you a whole new appreciation of those who have gone before us (some paying the ultimaye price), and motivate you to do well the duty that lies before you.

Ghost Soldiers is an account of a situation in the Philippines in World War II. A large group of soldiers was being held hostage under harsh conditions at a prison camp. A group of rangers considered to be the elite soldiers set out on a mission to free the soldiers and bring them home safely. The book alternates between the two groups' viewpoints giving the reader a simulataneous look at them. When new characters are introduced, the author often goes into multiple page descriptions of their origin and past experiences. While interesting, these pauses in the plot line may frustrate the reader. Hampton Sides makes an extreme effort to include diction that would convey the horrific conditions that the prisoners were forced to undergo such as when describing the soldiers that "would become grotesquely swollen, assuming an unnatural corpulence of three hundred pounds or more, the skin cracked and oozing with a thin yellowish serum". Overall, this book gives an excellent account of the situation and leaves the reader with a greater sense of understanding of the brutality that war creates, and of the determination that the soldiers had.

This is one of the most extraordinary books I have ever read. There is no disputing that true life is filled with infinitely more drama and heart wrenching tragedy than fiction, and this book is the true embodiment of those human elements.
The first chapter may be the most gripping you will ever encounter, even in the biographical realm. I can't even begin to imagine the horror of the Palawan massacre, and to think that some of the soldiers survived that gauntlet of terror is a testament that our soldiers were the essence of bravery and survival. I am nauseated by the perpetuation of the notion that the WWII soldiers are a bunch of eccentric old fellows who like to get together to trade old war stories. If you had a story like this to tell, it would be hard to ever regroup and continue on with your life, as they did.
Many good books have been written about the Bataan Death March, but this book succeeds in a way many of those couldn't by taking multiple accounts of the incidents to provide a succinct timeline and event summary without taking any of the emotion out of the real story. I feel so strongly that this book must be read that I have read and lent the book to two friends already, and have only owned it for 2 wks.
Do yourself a favor, even if you have an aversion to historical biographies - read this book. You will never forget it.

When World War II is brought up in one way or another it usually is Adolf Hitler and the European front that gets the attention. America's "Europe First" policy caused many of those captives of the Bataan Death March and their subsequent imprisonment in Cabanatuan on the island of Luzon in the Phillipines to feel they were forgotten in this war. The story of their liberation after three years of suffering at the hands of the Japanese depicts man's imhumanity to man. Supposedly the Japanese didn't intend to treat the Americans brutally on what became known as the Death March, but the large number of prisoners and their poor physical condition with lack of water and food slowed things down. Also, the fact that the soldiers were so spread out, individual Japanese guards could treat the captives as he saw fit without having to answer to anyone in authority. Many of these surviving soldiers feel forgotten now as they did then. This is a story that younger generations should not be allowed to forget. These men suffered terribly in fighting for America and we can't be too thankful for their lives which were forever changed.

Hampton Sides' well-written "Ghost Soldiers" rescues the Cabanatuan POW Camp Raid from undeserved historical obscurity. At the fall of the Philipines to Japanese invasion in 1942, thousands of U.S. soldiers were captured and imprisoned in POW camps, there to perish in large numbers from starvation, overwork, and neglect at the hands of Japanese soldiers who considered them less than human for having surrendered. U.S. forces under General Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philipines in 1944, but the Japanese still held most of Luzon at the time the raid.

Sides' narrative captures the decision by Lieutenant General Walter Krueger to send elements of the Sixth Ranger Battalion to rescue some 500 POWs in the Cabanatuan Camp before they could be executed by the Japanese. The Rangers endured a grueling march 30 miles cross-country and behind enemy lines to reach the camp and organize their attack with the Filipino resistance. The attack on the camp was brazen in the extreme: 120 Rangers attacked twice their number in Japanese guards to seize the camp and evacuate 500 starved and sickly men. As "Ghost Soldiers" makes clear, the Rangers performed superbly, saving the POWs with only minimal casualties. The Filipino resistance also performed with high heroism, blocking Japanese reinforcements from reaching the camp and organizing the transportation to move the POWs back to friendly lines. Sides's narrative provides fascinating insight into the leaders of the raid, including Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci, the Ranger Battalion Commander, and Captain Robert Prince, the Company Commander who planned the raid.

This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and exciting read, especially for students of special operations and of the Second World War.

This is most likely a book for a fairly narrow audience - specifically those with an interest in WWII, or in military history in general. But it is well done and might appeal to a wider group than I imagine. It is written in a direct, descriptive style interwoven with quotes or observations from the participants - prisoners, rangers, Filipino guerillas - that provide a context with the ring of historical fact.

The raid on the Cabanatuan POW camp is a story of one of the very rare instances of a military mission where planning, effort, coincidence and luck combined such that almost everything went exactly right. One hundred twenty American Army Rangers assaulted a fortified camp garrisoned by several hundred Japanese combat troops and rescued over 500 POW's, losing only two soldiers during the engagement. Simultaneously, Filipino guerillas provided a blocking action against the arrival of 1,000 reinforcements only one mile away.

Alternating chapters deliver the progression of the raid - approach, planning, coordination with the local guerillas, the assault, and the return - interspersed with descriptive background such as the fall of Bataan, the Death March, conditions and developments within the POW camp, and the Japanese plan to exterminate all the POW's in the face of the American invasion to recapture the Philippine islands.

The narrative is not dry or dull; the author's prose is colorful and he provides an appropriate but not overwhelming level of detail - the strength and weaponry of the opposing forces, the layout of the camp, the details of the tactical plan itself and some of the individual actions during the attack.

As an aside, the motion picture, The Great Raid, with Benjamin Bratt and James Franco, is very true to the book and has taken very few dramatic liberties. The rescue assault sequence is a fairly brief, but compelling piece of combat action with a terrific atmosphere of sights and sounds and a driving sense of urgency, without any extraneous gore.

"Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." That simple line has been forgotten in todays society, along with the story recounted in this book.
Sadly, if you go out and ask 100 people what they know about the Bataan Death March, fully 2/3rds will not really know what you are talking about. At least 25% will not even be able to tell you in what war it took place. The sad price of ignorance, as the opening line of this review states, is repetition.
Hampton Sides has taken a part of history and brought it back to the forefront. The story of what these people went through, and the missions undertaken for them, are stories of heroism at its best. Forget the stories of bravery in combat, or the daring air raids. The Ghost Soldiers suffered through agony and torture at the hands of an enemy - agony and torture that were uncalled for and appalling by any standards of humanity.
For wht it's worth, I beg everyone to read this book with your children. Pass on the story of what happened to these brave men so that it shall not be forgotten . . . lest it be allowed to happen again.

This is a stirring account of the raid to save over 600 prisoners of war during WWII. Through detailed interviews with participants and survivors, the author draws a clear picture of events that pulls the reader in to become a part of the story.
After the Bataan Death March, POWs were sent to a central prision where conditions were deplorable. To the Japanese, the POWs were no longer soldiers or even men and therefore did not deserve proper treatment. The POWs lived in squalor and deprivation for months, malnourished and mistreated. Thousands died from disease, starvation and mistreatment.
But the survivors managed to form a semi-living society with order, discipline and a semblance of sanity. It is truly a testament to the human spirit that these men were able to accomplish what they did for 3 years.
THe Rangers, led by Col. Mucci, were a new breed of soldiers, trained in a different type of war (which has become the way of war in modern times.) They risked their lives to rescue these unknown POWs. Their ordeal is heroic and inspiring.
Lee once said that it is good that war is so terrible else we should grow too fond of it. War brings out the worst and best in people. THis book shows examples of both. Yet it is not condemning or racist in the descriptions of the Japanese. It really was a clash of cultures in which no compromise could exist. It is told in a straightforward, clear manner that makes reading it enjoyable and moving.

This is a great war story that is moving for both the depravity of Japanese treatment of American POW's and our soldier's struggle to survive.
Ghost Soldiers traces American GI's from the Bataan Death March through their internment in the Japanese prison system and the eventual liberation of several hundred during a daring raid on the prison at Cabanatuan by an army Ranger unit. It is a gripping and well written story that will keep you fixed to the pages of this fine book.
The first chapter is searing and just about the saddest piece of history I've ever read. The massacre of American prisoners at Palawan tipped the US Army to the danger faced by other POW's operating under a Japanese policy of prisoner annihilation as the Empire's prospects faded late in the war. Knowing that 500 prisoners were at the Phillipine camp Cabanatuan ahead of the US Sixth Army unleashed what is perhaps the war's most dramatic rescue mission in early 1945.
Hampton Sides is a good writer who knows how to keep a story moving. He weaves back and forth between the prisoners and their Ranger rescuers withoug breaking the story pace. He also traces the history of the prisoner's experiences under Japanese authority. The sadistic barbarity with which the captors treated American prisoners is amazing for its uniformity. Sides brings enough of Japanese culture and military training into the story to show how almost everyone from top commanders to lowly prison guards were perhaps predisposed to the atrocities that visited our soldiers with stunning regularity through their long months of starvation and neglect.
The threads of the story come together nicely with a climatic battle scene that will glue your attention to the pages.
This is a well written story that deserves to be remembered both as a testament to the barbarity of the war-era Japanese army and the heroics of POW survival and American arms.

In many respects, World War II was the defining act of the 20th century, and there are many ways to conceptualize and write about it. There is the one-sentence version: The evil Axis of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and imperial Japan attempted to conquer the world, and was defeated by the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and their allies. Many wonderful books have been written about the major, turning-point campaigns and battles. And there now are many individual stories of heroism and sacrifice, which make up what might be characterized as the micro-history of the conflict. Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers is of the latter variety. In chronological order, it begins with the defeat of the American forces in the Philippines in 1942, which resulted in the largest surrender in U.S. military history, takes the prisoners of war through the brutal Bataan "death march," follows them through nearly three years of insufferable captivity in prisoner of war camps, reports that the Japanese were preparing to slaughter the surviving prisoners as they retreated, and narrates the fascinating and stirring story of the liberation of about 500 American and British POWS by a small force of American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas in January 1945.
In Sides's view, several factors accounted for the near-unspeakably harsh conditions to which Allied prisoners of war in the Pacific were subjected. Sides ably demonstrates that, for cultural reasons, the Japanese generally held their prisoners in contempt. According to their Military Field Code, Japanese soldiers who fell into enemy hands "brought irrevocable shame" to themselves and their families. That attitude could not be expunged when Japanese soldiers were assigned to prison camps, and this explains, but certainly does not excuse, the harsh discipline, which included beatings, torture, and occasionally random acts of murder, imposed by the Japanese. The camps, themselves, often were poorly equipped with medical and sanitary facilities, and exposure to the elements and natural pathogens made tropical diseases rampant. For instance, the camp where most of the Bataan POWS were marched was planned for about 25,000 troops, but the actual number of prisoners held there began at closer to 100,000. It is nearly miraculous that anyone survived.
By late 1944, most of the Allied POWS held at Cabanatuan had died or had been taken to Japan to serve as slave laborers, and only about 500, mostly men with severe psychiatric disorders, dysentery, and tuberculosis, survived. When the American military command obtained reports that the Japanese were in the process of annihilating the remaining prisoners, a plan was rapidly improvised to send about 200 American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas to Cabanatuan to rescue the POWS. This may not have been, as the subtitle asserts, "World War II's Most Dramatic Mission" (I consider that merely publisher's hyperbole), but the story of the indomitable prisoners is inspiring, and the chapters devoted to the rescue mission are very exciting.
Books of this type are not without their critics. An example of the most serious criticism recently appeared in The New York Times, where the reviewer wrote that that "Sides's effort to expand gratuitously a brief chapter in Army history is an egregious of the recent trend to milk every drop of drama from World War II, a conflict whose realities are heroic enough unembellished." If Sides exaggerated or "embellished" the drama of the Ranger raid on the Cabanatuan prison camp, he committed a serious error of judgment and reportorial ethics. But the suggestion that this "brief chapter in Army history" does not deserve book-length attention strikes me as ungenerous and short-sighted. It is true that the events at Cabanatuan in January 1945 did not determine the outcome of the war in the Pacific, but they did illustrate some of the conflict's principal themes. I have read that American veterans of World War II are dying at the rate of 1,000 per day. In 20 years, practically all of them will be dead. And then, the stories of this great generation quite literally will pass into history. I am in complete favor of the publication of every possible book about World War II, especially first-person accounts and those in which the participants tell their stories to professional writers. Only in that way will succeeding generations have the fullest possible record of what happened during this horrific conflict. In one hundred years, students will still ask: Why did 50 million people die in the world war of the 1930s and 1940s? Hampton Sides's Ghost Soldiers offers a partial answer to that question, and that is why books such as this are so valuable.

Three things struck me as I read Hampton Sides "Ghost Soldiers". First, as a young boy I read an account of the Bataan Death March which, I believe, is one of the references cited in the author's acknowledgements. Ghost Soldiers brought back memories of the incredible suffering of the American and Filipino prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese. Mr. Sides tries to justify the actions of the General Masaharu Homma and the troops under his command. He doesn't succeed and he ignores the fact that the Japanese have never acknowledged the atrocities committed during World War II. In fact their government's official position is that they were the victims and the war was caused by the U.S. embargo on oil to their island empire.
Next is how Mars smiled on the 6th Ranger Battalion's efforts to liberate the Cabanatuan prison camp survivors. They were guided and escorted by two bands of competent Filipino guerrillas. The little known Alamo Scouts provided invaluable intelligence without which the mission could not have be attempted. The battalion surgeon found two Filipino doctors in the village closest to the camp. The Filipino civilians provided oxen and wagons to transport the emaciated and sickly prisoners back to American lines. The weather cooperated. As Napolean said, "In war it is better to be lucky than good."
Finally, the author errs on some military facts. For example, he says the M-1 carbine is a lighter version of the M-1 Garand rifle (not true) and seems awed by the Browning Automatic Rifle's cyclical rate of fire of 550 rounds per minute. This is the theoretical rate of fire. The BAR is fed by a 20 round box magazine. At 550 rpm a rifleman would use up 28 magazines in a minute (impossible) which is more than he carried. Some might argue that this is picking at nits but if one is going to write military history one should get the military facts straight.
Overall, this is a quick, engrossing read that is a testament to the human spirit. It reinforces the cruelty of the Japanese military in WW II as previously described in current books such as "The Rape of Nanking" and "Flags of Our Fathers." The description of the welcome given to these brave POW survivors will bring tears to your eyes.

`Ghost Soldiers' by Hampton Sides

Having just re-read `Ghost Soldiers' for the second time, I decided it was time to write a few words about this spectacular narrative. The book tells the parallel stories of the "Bataan Death March" survivors turned POW's with that of the 6th Army Rangers tasked with liberating them from the Cabantuan prison camp on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. The author recounts, in remarkable detail, these two stories until finally converging in a climactic rescue scene that rivals any great war story, WWII or otherwise.

`Ghost Soldiers' features the stories of individual prisoners whose crushing ordeal is at times almost too harrowing to believe. As you'll see in the author's acknowledgements - which, if ever, should certainly not be overlooked - the survivors fortunate enough to make it through this period of their lives, still themselves, have difficulty reconciling the circumstances of their captivity. It is more than a war story: `Ghost Soldiers' is an epic of a ghastly militaristic ideology confronted with indomitable human spirit. Mr. Sides brings these men and women's stories to life in a portrait that is truly stirring with patriotism.

Hampton Sides does an excellent job narrating not only the daring rescue but the background events - the Fall of Bataan and the Death March. His accounting struck a personal cord. My father, Virgilio "Totoy" Celis, Jr. was with the Philippine Army's Cavalry Division at Bataan and in that infamous Death March to Capas. He used to tell us stories: about being in a fox hole for so long, yet not daring to even light a cigarette for fear of snipers; of hearing bullets whizzing by in the dark nights... He described the 'road' to Capas - the starving prisoners ate anything green along the way, so that not a blade of grass, not a single leaf remained; of thirst crazed men lapping the muddy water from tadpole filled potholes... of carrying pick-a-back his CO - Enrique Zobel, Sr. - who was so weakened w dysentery, the Japanese soldiers would surely have bayonetted him if he lagged behind or slowed the march's pace ... of my grandmother (leaving her eight younger children, including a baby - in occupied Manila)bribing her way into the camp to bring food and medicine to my father. My father also said, as brutally cruel as the Japanese were to the Filipinos, they were ten times more so to the Americans! (After the surrender, the Japanese immediately separated the Americans from the Filipinos).
Thanks, Mr. Sides, for telling this particular "story" and keeping us from forgetting these heroes!

It is not by accident that this story bears the title of Ghost Soldiers. The book is named after the men of the brand new at the time elite army units operating behind the enemy lines that effected the rescue, and also, the title aptly describes those who were getting rescued - the American POW survivors of the Bataan death march in the final stages of starvation deemed too weak to transport by the Japanese and left to die or fend for themselves by their fleeing captors.
The book does a good job of covering its territory and making sure that the significance of events is not lost on those not familiar with the WWII in Philippines. To that end the author weaves a compelling narrative that covers everything essential about the Japanese prison camps, about the Bataan death march, about men who fought the invading japanese and how they were surrendered, but the story goes deeper than that, giving us a glimpse of the lives of the men who enlisted in the US Army before WWII, those soldiers who were captured in the beginning of the war, and through the details of the biographies we catch a glimpse of what life was like in the US before the Big One. Eventually, these get contrasted with the new US GI's of the 1944 and 1945 with brand new weapons, awesome firepower, strange uniforms and a different sort of the folk who were caught up in the general mobilization of the World War Two. That would have been a well enough bckground exposition for any military history, but the book goes beyond the biograhy and atrocity, and shows the Japanese military and its key actors in the Philippines in an objective and non-stereotyping way that lets us see what the Japanese were like and why the Japanese Imperial Army acted the way it did.
As a historian, Hampton Sides takes the approach of the oral folklore gatherer rather than that of an academic. The book does not deal with timetables, statistics and the big picture, and it has been criticized by some as not being footnoted enough for scholastic research. What the budding geniuses overlook is that this story was pieced to gether largely from the accounts of survivors and what the numerous written accounts that were used are listed in the bibliography, which I might add is excellent and covers practically every aspect of the war in the Philippines.
As a military history, the story of the raid takes a seat behind the story of human survival. This is not to say that the story of the raid is incomplete, but there is so much that can be said about a straightforward military patrol that goes largely according to plan. The raid takes place in the context of the guerilla warfare and the story is told in the high adventure commando tale in the vein of the Guns of the Navarone. The key difference is that this is a historical account, and it takes into consideration the mature consciousness of its military leaders and the greater issues in the context of which the raid occurs, something that military histories and commando adventure stories tend to overlook. The, genesis of the rangers as a unit, their training and equipment is described in reasonable detail. The personalities of the guerilla leaders, the cooperation of the Americans with the indiginous units and the effect of the reconnaissance on the mission's execution are shown with textbook clarity. More importantly, the personality of the unit commander, how he makes his decisions and how the mission unfolded in the face of the ever changing picture of the battlefield, all of these were shown in enough detail where leadership style the decision making structure becomes apparent. Some readers show incredulity and dismay at the apparent lack of opposition and at some of the details of the incursion that make it seem easier than it really was. Basically these voices are ignorant of guerilla warfare and large scale operations behind enemy lines. The tremendous success of this mission can be judged from the fact that there are a lot of Vietnam-era POW rescue movies, but not one successful raid, despite the advantages in communications and air transport that US had in Vietnam, and for that matter one can compare Mucci's Rangers of WWII with the US military's failed attempt to rescue US hostages in Iran, to fully appreciate their ability and their luck in that they took practically no casualties.

Ghost Soldiers is a good name for those POWs. They were treated very brutally and horribly.
Ghost Soldiers details the accounts of the soldiers that survived the Baatan Death March. Many Americans don't knwo much about it. It was one of the few times that we let our men down. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philipenes were also attacked, as were many US bases in the pacific. The men on the philipenes endured a long seige before surrendering. After they were caputered, they were marched on what is now known as the Baatan Death March, where thousands of Americans and Philipeno troops died.
They then spent the next three years in consentration camps, being worked, starved, beaten and shot to death by their Japanese captors.
Ghost Soldiers also tells about their rescue, which is nothing short of amazing. After three years, as the US began re-taking the islands, a group of Army Rangers, a new division, were sent fifty miles on foot to one camp, where they rescued all five hundred of the prisoners, losing only five men to the japanese, who were consentrated in the area.
Hampton Sides wrote this book beautifuly, showing what it was like for those poor soldiers, physically and mentally. The book is clear, detailed, and well written.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of World War II.

In Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides, the true heroes of America are given a fitting tribute.
Ghost Soldiers is an action packed thriller that will leave you clearing your schedule because you do not want to put it down. Personally, I knocked it out in 2 days.
Ghost Soldiers is the story of the soldiers who liberated the few survivors of the Bataan Death March in WW2. The book takes you through the formation and planning of this risky operation. In switching back and forth between the happenings at the camp and the planning and execution of the raid, Sides does a great job of giving the reader both sides of the story. The reader is able to grasp the harsh treatment that the POW's received and their plans to escape and the planning and execution of their liberation. All the while, the soldiers had no idea just how bad the camp was, and the POW's had no idea they were ever going to be freed by their countrymen.
Both sides of the story come together in the thrilling final pages. This is a great book and an easy read. Sides does not bog us down in minute details like so many historians like to do, but he does create the story well enough to make us feel like we are there. Things happen fast and before you know it, you will be done with one of the best books I have read in a long time.

Sixty years ago today, the U.S. government abandoned 78,000 American and Philippine troops to their fate on the Philippine peninsula of Bataan when General King surrendered to the Japanese. The ships left, the aircraft flew off and the men were left leaderless without even a protocol to surrender. Mass confusion ensued; the Japanese had vastly underestimated the huge number of prisoners and had few places to take them and hardly anything to feed and clothe them. Thus the infamous Bataan Death March.
The Japanese culture saw prisoners of war as lesser beings. The Japanese soldier was taught to fight to the last man, and that last man should commit suicide rather than be captured. Consequently, the prisoners were accorded little if any humanity. Also, the elite of the Japanese forces were at the front. The prison camp guards were the lowliest, least skilled and educated of their troops. Their treatment of the prisoners was mercurial, harsh, and sometimes unbelievably savage. Thousands upon thousands perished, most of the deaths caused by tropical diseases that felled them in their starving condition.
Almost three years later, when Japan was close to defeat, the Americans established a beachhead on Bataan. The 6th U.S. Army Rangers, a crack force of 121 men were assigned the perilous operation of getting behind Japanese lines and liberating the American prisoners at the largest camp, Cabanatuan before the Japanese could execute the entire prison population.
"Ghost Soldiers" is the story of the liberation and the oral histories of some of the surviving soldiers. The book is not a military history; it is the story of the men involved. It is told in a time-lapse method with the prisoner's life interspersed with the Ranger's upcoming raid. The chances of success were slim, and the operation was shot with luck and almost miracles.
Mr. Sides does a good and caring job with the information he has gathered. The book has an epilogue of the "Where Are They Now" type that is highly welcome. By the end of the story, you care for these men as individuals and hope the remainder of their lives made up for the hellish three years in Bataan.

As World War II slips farther and farther into the past, small events in it that were considered very important and fascinating at the time have disappeared from common knowledge. The action about which this book is concerned is one of those events. When it happened, it was considered something extremely heroic, and it was assumed that the story would become an essential element of our history. It didn't, of course, overshadowed by the battle of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the dropping of the A bomb. That neglect does not mean that what happened is any less heroic or amazing because we have forgotten about it. This story shows the courage of both the POWs from Bataan, and their Ranger rescuers (both American and Filipino) as the real, unsung heroes that they were in actuality. It's a fascinating book to read, and the true courage and fortitude of all the men detailed within it is astonishing. We have so much to thank these unselfish folks for, particularly the freedom which we enjoy today, and I often wonder if our generation would be "up" to the sacrifices that they made during the years of war. We cannot honor them enough, and this book is just another way of doing that honoring. Read it, and learn of the actions of brave people whom we can only admire, and emulate by that admiration.

With these words the "Battling ... of Bataan," the American POWs expressed their sentiment at the fall of the last Phillipine stronghold and their subsequent fate in the infamous Death March. In harrowing conditions which no living being must endure, the poor brave souls languished for three years, seemingly forgotten by the outside world. Facing hellish cruelty, all manner of exotic disease and nightmarish shortages, the several thousand men at the Bataan Death March became only 650 near the war's end.
To make matters worse, there were reports from survivors of other camps that the Japanese were systematically murdering their prisoners, leaving no one behind for the ever-advancing American forces. Given the gravity of the situation, no other remedy remained than to try a daring rescue. This noble duty fell to Colonel Mucci and his novice Rangers, a handful of men who braved jungles infested with tropical disease and Japanese patrols.
Hampton Sides retells the near forgotten story of one of the most daring rescues in WWII, revealing the horrendous evil of war, the courage in ordinary men, and the proud, stubborn will to live inherent in humanity. This page-turner is moving: this book allows the reader to descend into the nightmarish conditions faced by the survivors, as well as participate in the triumph of their rescue. Uncle Sam did not forget His boys. A TRIUMPH.

I am two generations away from WWII, but my grandfather served in the Navy. He never said much about his service, and I was too young to ask. But I've always wondered in my advanced placement history class in highschool, and as I've continued to take classes in history in college. Lately, my research into The Medical Holocaust and of course, the movies on WWII and the clamor over the monument, have piqued my interest in this subject area. I've always believed that the truth is stranger then fiction...in the case of this book, the heroics of the American and Phillipino men and women far surpasses any heroics rendered by fictional characters. Sides does an incredible job of research into this story. It reads like an old John Wayne movie, and it is too bad he isn't around anymore, because this story is right up his alley. I have nothing but admiration for these men on both sides...the Rangers who risked so much and the guerrillas who helped them, and the men who survived the horror of a Japanese prison camp. We cannot possibly understand everything they went through, but Hampton Sides gives us an opportunity in this great book, to share in their riveting tale of courage and survival. This is the consummate war story. It takes your breath away. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

I find maybe one book a year that I can't put down and this was the one for 2003. Hampton Sides has given us a riveting story about the rescue of a heroic band of survivors of Bataan and Corregidor who almost surely would have been massacred by their Japanese captors were it not for the resolve and bravery of an untried unit of U.S. Army Rangers. I have a cousin, with whom I've lost touch, who was a Navy lieutenant on Corregidor when it fell and may well have been one of the men rescued from this camp, so the book had an added resonance for me. Contrary to at least one other reviewer, I enjoyed Sides' somewhat cinematic narrative that gave us alternating chapters between the raiders and their preparations and progress and the experience of the prisoners with the story lines converging in a dramatic crescendo. This is a first-rate book that makes you proud to be an American. The atrocities committed by the Japanese are well-documented but Sides avoids stereotyping and gives us a deeper understanding of the cultural and historical sources for the savage brutality, along with the realization that the Imperial Japanese Army included humane and cultured men as well as sadistic butchers. If you have an interest in history, particularly in WWII, this book belongs on your reading list.

Quite simply, this book is excellent. I could barely put it down as the details and compassion I felt for these "ghost" soldiers pulled me into the story. The author, Hampton Sides, brings to vivid life the fall of Battan and the absolutely appalling conditions of the POWs for their 3 years of captivity and the rescue mission to save them before a possible mass execution at the hands of their Japanese captors. The first hand accounts are stirring. One can put themselves right in the middle of this tragic tale. Yet he deftly bounds the story with great insight into the political and social cultures that clashed during the war, including interesting details about some of the key military players. One thing I gained from this book is a much greater understanding of the 'how' and 'why' the Battan deathmarch happened. It was not just abject cruelty on the part of the Japanese (though there is absolutely no excuse for what happened) but a compounding effect of miscalcuations, stark cultural ideals, and conditions in a terrible series of events. I especially liked the structure of the book where the author first lays out the background of the battle of the Philippines and then alternates by chapter the going concern of the rescue mission with life in the camps as it progresses thru the years. The story is brought to a high point with the first hand accounts of the rescue itself. This book is a great tribute to the men who fought to live in captivity and to those who took it upon themselves to rescue them against terrific odds. For any WWII buff this is a must read story. You will not be disappointed.

Hampton Sides conjures up a masterpiece in his galvanizing story Ghost Soldiers. The setting of the book is in the Philippines during World War II. Confronted by starvation and depravation of supplies, the American army is forced to surrender to the Japanese. Despite Japanese promises of hospitality, the American soldiers are quickly rounded up and forced to participate in the infamous Bataan Death March. Incarcerated for years in horrid conditions, the prisoners must fight a personal war every day in the fight to survive. Many succumb to sickness or perish at the hands of the Japanese brutality. But, this story focuses on those who made it out alive at the hands of the American Ranger battalion.
I strongly recommend this book for it vividly portrays the grim situation of war without omitting lurid details. Sides does not back down from the cacophonous details. For example, in describing the burial of the dead prisoners, he describes how when a new body was thrown into the mass grave, you could hear the "crack of one skull on another." The story will leave a lasting impression which forces the reader to think twice about his fellow country men who fought to protect what was truly precious to both them and us, freedom.

Hampton Sides has written a very readable classic. Ghost Soldiers gives a blow by blow account of the rescue of the remaining Allied (mostly US) prisoners from the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan, Philippines. The smallest details are noted, many of which are harrowing. What the POWs went through during their three years of captivity after the fall of Bataan will shock you although readers who are familiar with WWII will know what I mean. The highs and lows of man's character are laid out for all to see in this book and you can't help but be moved.

Following an "in your face" preface, the build up to the actual night of the raid, following the Rangers through the bush and profiling various individual POW's experiences, gets you to the edge of your seat as you wait for the first shot to be fired and the first prisoner to be rescued.

Hopefully we will never see the likes of WWII again but the people who were there deserve to be remembered and this book has to be one of the best records for that time.

If some older cultures are spot-on about personal character and resulting deeds living-on after mortal passing -- then these "Ghost Soldiers" [USA Army Rangers and Philippine allies] will be undying-great due to their near-miracle operation to rescue prisoner-of-war folks from a ghastly concentration camp run [into-the-ground] by Imperial Japan Army folks. Altho many and even most IJA folks were harsh and even cruel to their American, British and Philippine prisoners -- I was surprised by some small acts of kindness by individual IJA folks -- and especially when the vast majority of the IJA resisted a mass murder order given-out over the IJA field radio network by a fanatic lunatic IJA officer from a back-room in Japan. This does not downplay the general harsh conditions, decisions and actions by the IJA towards Allied POWs. This great account of a great mission includes spot-on background and foreground to great effect -- amounting to a great story of a great mission by great folks of the "Greatest Generation" +++

I really learned a lot of things I did not know about WWII when I read this book. A relative gave it to me as a gift since military history is one of my favorite subjects. Before reading this book, I have not spent much time learning about the pacific theatre. I have always thought that the European part of WWII much more interesting. This book has completely changed my perspective.
The book focuses on the surrender of the Phillipines to the Imperiel Japanes Army, the treatment of allied POWs by the Japanese, and subsequent rescue mission by US Army Rangers. All three topics make for fascinating, eye-opening discovery. The author uses a lot of personal accounts and quotes from soldiers who lived through this saga, which adds an element of realism that I have not found in many other books. This technique drew me into the story and gave me a whole new perspective about what happened to these soldiers. Your heart will ache when you learn about the treatment of the POWs, and leap with joy during the rescue mission portion.
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a unique story from WWII. This book is not a dry, boring history book. Instead it tells the sad story of what happened to our soldiers in the Phillipines during WWII, and the inspiring story of the men who rescued them. The fact that any of the POWs survived their ordeal is a miracle, and the story of how the US Army rangers completed this "mission impossible" is fascinating. For anyone currently serving in the military, get it and read it. It will give you a whole new appreciation of those who have gone before us (some paying the ultimaye price), and motivate you to do well the duty that lies before you.

Ghost Soldiers is an account of a situation in the Philippines in World War II. A large group of soldiers was being held hostage under harsh conditions at a prison camp. A group of rangers considered to be the elite soldiers set out on a mission to free the soldiers and bring them home safely. The book alternates between the two groups' viewpoints giving the reader a simulataneous look at them. When new characters are introduced, the author often goes into multiple page descriptions of their origin and past experiences. While interesting, these pauses in the plot line may frustrate the reader. Hampton Sides makes an extreme effort to include diction that would convey the horrific conditions that the prisoners were forced to undergo such as when describing the soldiers that "would become grotesquely swollen, assuming an unnatural corpulence of three hundred pounds or more, the skin cracked and oozing with a thin yellowish serum". Overall, this book gives an excellent account of the situation and leaves the reader with a greater sense of understanding of the brutality that war creates, and of the determination that the soldiers had.

I'm a novelist with my debut book in its initial release and the son of a man who fought World War II in the wrong theater of operations. As Dad always put it, he served in the army with Doug MacArthur. Growing up and hearing tales spun by my friends' fathers who fought their war in Europe, I always felt a bit uncomfortable because my Dad merely jumped from island to island in the South Pacific with the army air corps. The story Hampton Sides tells in GHOST SOLDIERS is one of the stories I grew up with. Dad and his war buddies from the Pacific Theater would recount this story as if they actually participated in this celebrated mission. They didn't, but I'm glad I sat around and listened. Sides brings back some memories with this book. It reads well, and it captures the mood of the times perfectly. It tells the story of America's daring rescue of POWs in the Philippines. I enjoyed reading it. I'm certain you will, too.

I have read many books about the war in the Pacific, but this has to be one of the best. As soon as I started reading I was hooked. The hardships that the men of Bataan had to face at the hands of the Japanese were unbelieveable. Hampton Sides tells their story in a way that draws the reader in and doesn't let them go. The book's chapters alternate between the Death March in 1942 and the liberation in 1945. I particularly enjoyed this format very much. I haven't read very much about the Death March, but Mr. Sides brings this tragic event to life and makes the reader feel as if they are walking side by side with the prisoners. We also see their liberation through the eyes of an extremely heroic group of American Rangers who, along with filipino soldiers and civilians, thwart the Japanese and free these American soldiers. If you enjoy books about the Pacific war and human triumph, then be sure to read this excellent book

The book was extensively written. The author did a ton of research before compiling it all into a great read. This book is for anyone wanting to learn about American History - Our History and what our American soldiers endured and sacrificed for this great nation. The book goes into much detail surrounding the Bataan Death March leading up to one of the largest rescue missions in American History. It gives great insight into the POWs hardships and how the spirit can endure and survive painful atrocities as experienced by these individuals. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars, as the author is very wordy at times when trying to explain the simplest of things.

I am 74 years of age and have read everything I could find concerning WW II since I was in the second grade. This book details an action that I had not heard of before. We have all heard of Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Anzio, The Battle of the Bulge, and other major campaigns, but little has been written about operations of this nature.
This book chronicles a small unit operation charged with the rescue of American POWs held by the Japanese, their efforts to achive surprise, their courage, and their ability to overcome obstacles. It also tells of the day to day efforts of the POWs just to survive the harsh and unpredictable treatment by their captors.
In general this book is very well written, although I do not agree with the author's reasoning concerning the treatment of POWs by the Japanese. The Japanese Military was notoriously ruthless and cruel in it's treatment of both civilian and military captives. This treatment was not only condoned by Japanese Officers, they often instigated and participated in it. To suggest that Japanese General Homma was not aware of the treatment of POWs is ludicrous, this would suggest that Homma the Commanding General had little or no control over his officers and men or that he was incompetent. General Homma was many things, but he was not inconpetent. I believe that Homma was fully aware of all aspects and actions within his command, and as far as captives were concerned, he just did not care. In his eyes to be captured was the ultimate disgrace and a captive was beneath contempt.
In spite of my disagreement concerning the Japanese, I would recommend this book to others, it tells in vivid detail the human side of war and the lengths Americans will go in order to rescue fellow Americans.

Of all the war audio books I've experienced, this is my personal favorite.

The story opens with American and other POW's slaving on a rocky, military airfield under the blazing Philippine sun and cruel Japanese army. On this day they are lead at gunpoint into horrible mass execution. What follows is a very compelling and gripping story of horror, cruelty, stavation, rebellion, struggle, courage, and honor. Knowing that in desperation of defeat, the Japanese army will kill all prisoners, the US Military plans a dangerous rescue against incredible odds - just one company of Army Rangers to rescue 500 mostly immobile prisoners while surrounded by over 10,000 Japanese troops. How can they possibly succeed, even with the aid of the passionate local Phillipine guerilla resistance?

The presentation is incredibly descriptive and graphic, making you feel that you are there and can even smell the smoking gunpowder, rotting jungle, and burning flesh. Also, the audio presention by James Naughton is superb with his deep projection of all the misery, anger, determination and action.

By the way - the modern Movie presentation of this "The Great Raid" is actually pretty good though a bit toned down from the book.

If you like WW2 stories, get THIS one - and always rememeber the great men who have fought, suffered and died in the service of all of us.

Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soldiers" is a book riding the wave of World War II nostalgia that is hot right now in the wake of "Pearl Harbor." Perhaps that is why it seems like a book that was rushed out before it was ready. Author Sides tells the main story well. In January 1945, a group of Rangers lauched a Top Secret mission through 30 miles of enemy held territory in the Phillippines to rescue just over 500 allied prisoners that were expected to be massacred as the Japanese withdrew. The mission, though of no strategic value, was a spectactular success.
The story includes a cornucopia of colorful figures, from the gritty Colonel who organized the ranger unit to two Pillippino guerrilla leaders, to an American woman who posed as a Phillipna to spy on the Japanese to an American Chaplin in the prison camp and many more. Sides brings them all to life expertly.
My quibble with the book is that Sides' prose occasionally veers in to the overly-dramamtic. For example, the subtitle of the book refers to the mission as "forgotten" even though those who participated were well decorated and that there have been several other books written about the mission. Even the use of the description "Most Dramatic" in the subtitle describing the mission is subject to debate. These types of overstatements appear frequently in the narrative and are distracting. Additionally, the book has no index or endnotes, which seems to indicated that it was a rush project. Nevertheless, it is an entertaining read and is a fitting tribute to the brave souls who live and die on its pages.

I found this on a young adult reading list, but it is suitable for adults as well. A warning for young people and especially those who want to suggest it to young people, it is very violent and graphic in some places. That is appropriate for the subject matter, but some readers might be disturbed by it. Those who expect a ghost story will be disappointed. I found it a fascinating and compelling story, very well told. I don't usually read war fiction, so I don't have the same standards as those who are looking for more technical information. It is an important story that needed to be told. Reading it in these times brings all sorts of modern resonances about war, prisoners, cultural differences to mind. The two one star reviews that this book has received so far seem to be from people who don't understand the rating system.

Disappointment and shame for having to surrender at Bataan; humiliation and abuse from the Japanese captors who treated those who surrendered as less than worthy opponents; starvation, exhaustion, and torture on the 70 mile forced trek, known and immortalized as the Bataan death march; punishing, back breaking labor in slave camps. So it was for US servicemen who surrendered at Bataan or who were captured elsewhere in the Philippines in 1942. For one such Army private - Eugene Nielsen, whose story makes up one of the narratives of GHOST SOLDIERS, the three years of his life spent in the Philippines was a perpetual nightmare.
Beginning with a description of the torture and execution of prisoners at the Puerto Princesa Prison Camp on Palawan, Philippines, the book describes the daily ordeal - it can't be called life - that these men endured. By December 1944 the Japanese on Palawan knew that it was only a matter of time before the Americans returned. The officer in charge, the one the men called the 'buzzard' decided to rid himself of his prisoner problem. From their positions in trenches the Americans watched as Japanese carrying liquid filled buckets approached. "With a quick jerk of the hands, they flung the contents into the openings of the trenches. By the smell of it on their skin, the Americans instantly recognized what it was - high octane aviation fuel from the airstrip. Before they could apprehend the full significance of it, other soldiers tossed in lighted bamboo torches." The details provided by the book are obviously gruesome. That Nielsen and 10 others survived the incineration is miraculous. It was these survivors' accounts as told to Army intelligence that prompted the US to send in Rangers to free the 513 Americans held prisoner at Cabanatuan.
The narratives of four other survivors is interwoven with the exploits of the Ranger officer who led the mission. "Little MacArthur's" story and that of the other 120 Rangers and 200 Filipino guerrillas who successfully freed the prisoners, is as heroic and as uplifting a story as the survivors tales are grim and gruesome.
The author is correct in calling these men the "ultimate survivors." We can only be glad that there are a few still alive today to retell their story. The author spoke to 30 in researching his book. Similarly with IN HARM'S WAY, this WWII narrative is written by a young man (the author is 39). These survivors who refer to themselves as "Ghosts" because they felt abandoned should take some gratification in knowing that their story is still of great interest and their courage a source of inspiration to young writers today.
"It is with books as with men; a very small number play a great part." (Voltaire)
I salute the GHOST SOLDIERS.

Ghost Soldiers is an extremely compelling work. Although Ghost Soldiers is a non-fiction work, it flows smoothly and is well written. Many likely have a fleeting understanding or recognition of the Bataan Death March. Very few people have an understanding of the lives of the US soldiers in the aftermath of the March. Sides provides an excellent view of the brutal existence (both physical and emotional) of the prisoners during their years in captivity. Intertwined with perspective of the prisoners, Sides tells the story of the newly-formed and untested Army Rangers outfit that will attempt to rescue the prisoners from their living hell. Sides provides the reader with great insight into the tenaciousness, courage, perseverance, valor and honor of both the rescuers and the rescued. This is a truly inspirational story. It is a must read.

Wow, what a story....or should I say "two stories." That's the what the book is - two stores, alternating with each chapter. One is as fascinating as the other.

The story of these poor POWs and their Bataan Death March and subsequent imprisonment is shocking and a testimony to how man can survive in the toughest of situations. The other half is a testimony to courageous and selfness men who rescued some the remaining POWs three years later.

This book is a real page-turner, as good and memorable a book as Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken." Hampton sides is a terrific writer. Both books are fantastic and heartily recommended, as is Sides' book on Kit Carson and The American West.

"Ghost Soldiers" is one of those rare books that immediately arrests your attention and doesn't loosen its hold until the final page. Hampton Sides has resurrected a long-forgotten story of the liberation of Bataan Death March survivors from a POW camp in the Philippines.
What makes the narrative especially gripping is Sides' skillful technique of alternating the storyline between the pitiful fate of the U.S. soldiers held in captivity, and the cunning preparation and daring execution of plans to liberate them three years later.
For me, the book was truly eye opening in more ways than one. Not far from my parents' Connecticut home, there's a highway named after Colonel Henry Mucci. I had often wondered who he was and what he'd done to merit such acclaim. Thanks to "Ghost Soldiers" I wonder no longer.

Ghost Soldiers is very well written, book. It makes you realize the unspeakable atracities the Japanees did to Captured Americans and Civilians.
The main focus of the book is the rescue of survivors of the Baatan death march. The book first takes you on the death march. You will find out things you never though a human being would do to a fellow human. It is important that we learn about what the prisoners went through. Then you learn about life in the camp. The guards were rutheless. The book quotes a veteran of the camp on the camp guards, he says of them, "The Japanees werent Beasts, a beast kills to eat, the Japannees killed for fun." I think this quote show how bad these prisoners had it, and what they went through. Hampton Sides does an Excellent job in this book.

Also he focuses on the rescue of the prisoners. He goes through the planning, which took very little time because of the short notice, and of course, the execution of the plan.
This book shows the strong will to live many of the men in this camp had, and the will to die and get it over with.
I think you will find this action packed, true horrific acount gripping, sad, and triumphal.

This was an outstanding book, about a real WW2 event. The author (Sides) does a terrific job of balancing the details of the raid itself, the personal story of a lot of the main figures, and the overall "big picture" of the Pacific war. He also addresses the cultural differences between the Empire of Japan and the USA that played so strong an underlying part in the Cabanatuan experience (or, for that matter, any prison camp run by the Japanese).

He is objective - he doesn't "slam" the Japs but attempts to explain the mindset they were in, while at the same time not letting them off the hook for atrocities.

Wonderful job in presenting this little-remembered but important American event in WW2...this book is well-worth the purchase and could be used as an historical textbook.

With "Ghost Soldiers" Hampton Sides has given us a thoroughly engrossing and vivid look at the Bataan Death March and the Ranger rescue several years later. Sides organized this fascinating tale very well as he alternates from the tale of the death march prisoners to the story of the Ranger rescue participants until the point when their stories converge in an amazing climax that will have the reader gripping the pages.
Not only does this book give us a history lesson that has been largely forgotten, it gives us back heroes we may never have heard of. It's more than a horrifying description of man's inhumanity to man; it is also a glorious celebration of honor, courage and humanity.
Warning: reading this book will make it very difficult (okay, impossible) to complain about the blister on your heel, the bad meal you had last night, or how hot it is when your A/C goes out.

This is perhaps the finest story of World War II I have ever read. After the early defeat on the Philippine islands, a large number of US forces were stranded and forced to surrender to the Japanese. The march of these men to their final POW camp has been enshrined as the infamous Baatan death march. Once they reached their destination, many men were later sent to work in mines or factories in Japan but many remained in the horrible conditions of the camp. As the war neared its conclusion, the American forces undertook to rescue the remaining soldiers in the belief that the Japanese may slaughter them rather than let them be rescued. The book ends with this rescue.
Heroes abound in every page. All with human failings, yet still one is overwhelmed with the simple decent humanity of these individuals. The writing is excellent and the story moves at a breakneck speed. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Please read for yourself and realize the sacrifies of these men and women.

of the participants. Sides seamlessly interweaves two parallel stories. Alternating between chapters, we step inside the memories of the POWs and the Rangers sent to rescue them. This is a book of characters and action. The characters emerge from the written and oral testimonies of their ordeals. However, Sides doesn't exhaustively focus on the individuals. His main thrust is the actions that led up to the initial surrender and imprsionment that ensued from 1942-1945, and the rescue mission headed by Mucci and Prince in January 1945. The details of the torture endured by the POWs is handled with care and sensitivity. The rescue mission's planning and execution are described with vivid words that carry the narrative smoothly from page to page. Sides has authored a book that deserves the renown it has earned on the best-sellers' lists. It would be wonderful if this book could be used in high school and college history courses.

Ghost Soldiers is an excellent account of the atrocities faced in times of war and hits especially close to home, since the atrocities were committed against fellow Americans. I was totally engrossed in the book from page 2 of the prologue. Sides details the story of heroism of both the Rangers and the POW's that were faced with hardships (to put it mildly) for 3 and 1/2 years of captivity. Not only a fascinating read, but one that inspires and motivates as well. The strength, will and courage of these men should remain in the minds of Americans, and although these POW's became heroes at an extreme cost to themselves and their families, it is imperative that they never be forgotten. Thank you, Mr. Sides, for writing a story that helps deliver to the reader the deserved respect for our American soldiers.

With over 400 reviews, I am not going to discuss what the book is about or anything of great importance. I simply want to say that it is one of the great World War II books. I own and have read hundreds and this is a clear favorite. That is particularly noteworthy because it is not the type of book that I usually prefer. I like soldier, sailor, and airman narratives. It may read too much like fiction for some, but I think that this is a powerful and important plus for this book. It is all but impossible to not get emotionally involved with the story. Please read this book. Please buy some extra copies and give them away. Give them especially to young people.

This is a gripping story of a daring raid behind enemy lines in the Philippines 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.

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...

Simply an amazing story. Not to sound old, but kids today should see what that generation had to endure. It is also very sad about how people treat other people. I've read several things by Hampton Sides and this is among his finest. You won't want to put it down. It's engrossing.

Although I do not normally read non-fiction books, something about the description of the book made me give it a try. I am so glad I did. I never really learned much about the war with Japan in school, I remember mostly learning about our campaigns in Europe. So now, I feel like I should forgo some more of my fiction books and try to learn more about the many, many, sacrifices our men and women made in the Phillipines. But...anyway, this book is so interesting, I cried and cringed and cheered. For you other "mostly fiction book readers" out there, give this book a try, it reads very fast, and it keeps you wanting to read. Congratulations to the author for a wonderful book and for bringing this story to life for the reading audience. It's a story that everyone should read.

Every reviewer of this book has been rightly unanimous in its praise. Hampton Sides' WWII summer blockbuster of a book is simply the best history work I have read in at least five years, and I read history for a living. Ghost Soldiers combines so many amazing emotional moments, drama, humor, terror, and sadness that it is unique in its presentation. Those who took part in this story in the darkest days of World War II will no longer face the idea that their story will go untold. Sides' book is a gripping read, hard to put down, and stylistically rare in that it is history, yet seems better written than most novelists could only hope for. If you need one book to teach you about the triumph of the human spirit, this is it. If you read only one book this year, this should be it.

Even if you rarely read "war books," I defy you to read the first few pages of Hampton Sides' superb new book without reading on. GHOST SOLDIERS heralds the arrival of a fine historical journalist -- as adept at recounting critical facts and figures as he is at spinning a gripping, very moving tale. Before I read this book (in three sittings), I had never heard of Robert Prince, Henry Mucci, or the extraordinary team of rangers and guerrillas who liberated the survivors of the Bataan death march. Now I will tell every intelligent person I know.
Sides' book reminds us that no matter how badly our civilization has decayed, it still has a moral center and within that center greatness is still possible. So -- thank goodness -- are books like this.

Like any good war epic, this book takes its audience on a wild ride through the horrors inflicted on the good guys by an evil enemy and ends with them being saved at the last minute by a group of courageous men. It seems that this would get old, but it really never does, and the fact that this book is a true story gives it even more drama. This is an excellent book for World War II buffs, but it is an equally good read for people like me who enjoy dramatic stories, good writing and well developed characters. It is in the end an heroic story and will leave readers feeling very good about America and the men who fought in WWII, but it is certainly not mere war propaganda or revisionist history--it is very well done and I am glad I had the chance to read it.

This is an exception recounting of a small band of Rangers going deep behind enemy line to rescue prisoners of war. It reads very well, It shows how amazing this mission was and what they were up against, like 10,000 Jap troops nearby, a bridge with Japs near by and Japs within the camp itself. Well out numbered they travel 100 miles or so behind the lines, worked with the locals, the delays, the open ground they had to cover and of course getting all these prisoners back to American lines. No easy task. It was one of the best books I ever read as it gripped me. You think it is impossible with all the travel, the problems, the locals etc and my god they did it. Will make your proud! I didn't say everything as I didn't wan,t to give it all away!

One of the most incredible events of WWII has also been one of the least known or reported. With "Ghost Soldiers" Hampton Sides has introduced us to the brave men of the U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion who marched thiry miles through the jungles of the Phillipines to rescue 513 men (the survivors of the Bataan Death March) held prisoner by the Japanese.
Combining eyewitness accounts with detailed research, "Ghost Soldiers" tells us the story of all those involved; the brave rescuers, the resilient prisoners, and the villagers who risked everything to help.
Full of unspeakable atrocities and acts of bravery that will make you nearly stand up and cheer, "Ghost Soldiers" ranks near the top in World War II literature.
Highly Recommended

This book is good, if not as emotionally engaging as it possibly could have been. The experiences of the prisoners in the first section of the story is gripping and not for the faint of heart.

Then the story slows down. Definately interesting to listen to on audio but could have been better. These men went to hell and back I have listened to similiar audios on similiar camp atrosities and the other books went into more detail.

I recommend this book to all World War II historical interested people and would only add that absolutely anyone who reads this will discover nothing but courage from the men involved.

This book is a great weekend read. While the author is not a master writer, he does a good job of portraying the hideous treatment of the POW's for 3 1/2 years and the dedication of the Rangers to rescue them. The story is presented as two lines of events and time. One is the story of the POWs, beginning with the Baatan Death March and continuing through the years up to the rescue attempt. The other is the story of the Ranger mission as it is formed, equipped and then makes it's way into enemy territory. I found this dual story line annoying at first, but by the time the two lines converged I was hooked.
The book is rather simplistic, which is good thing for a story like this. The weight of the events does not get buried in a mountain of details, as often happens with military history authors.
Overall this is good, easy read for anybody, even if History is not your usual fare. Excellent for younger generations that may not realize the sacrifices that have been made for their freedom.

I have to admit that at first I wasn't sure I would like the way the book was written. I'm a big fan of Stephen Ambrose, and I found myself wanting more facts about what else was going on the Pacific Theater at the time of the setting, what MacArthur was doing, etc. However, as I read on I realized more details like this would have taken away from the suspense of the story.
The book is set up with parallel aspects of the story that eventually meet. The first aspect deals with those soldiers actually in the Bataan Death March and their captivity (beginning in 1942). The next aspect, beginning in the second chapter, deals with the rescue effort organized in 1945. Then the author alternates between these two aspects, continually building the suspense until the two aspects meet when the Rangers ambush the POW camp and liberate the prisoners. By the time you read through all the horrors the POWs endured, you can't wait for the Rangers to storm in and take control.
Some of the atrocities committed against the POWs were almost too horrible to read. However, I think we owe it to those who endured these things to at least know the price they paid for our freedom.

Because of that Japanese massacre of the American POWs which precluded the bomb being dropped by the U.S., a group called 'Ghost soldiers' took a rugged trip behind the enemy lines on January 28, 1945. These specially trained and selected 120 troops marched thirty miles to rescue over five hundred POWs from a concentration camp near Cabu before the victims were executed en mass and buried in a commutal grave.

They were on a strict timetable to get these Americans back to safety and tramped through grass taller than a man with thick brush lining the way and hiding the guard towers of the stockade. The Americans had almost starved in the trenches at Bataan. Some of the last survivors of the Death March there were in this camp.

Many survived torture and strange tropical diseases in April, 1942, at Camp O'Donnell there under the captivity of the imperial Japanese army. There is a photo of a real American female spy, Claire Phillips, dressed as a lady, pearls and all, like Ms. Pelot at the city council meeting. The American commander, Colonel Beecher, told his rescuers: "Avoid all profanity when dealing with the Japanese. Do not oppose, insult or offend these people."

Sides is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and the author of STOMPING GROUNDS, also has appeared on NPR's 'All Things Considered.' Called a collaboration between the writer, Hampton Sides, and the men he wrote about, he used oral history transcripts, prisoners' memoirs, Army records and actual interviews and observations of the landscapes where the story took place. He used books by Louis Morton, Stanley L. Falk, Donald Knox, John Olsen, William Manchester, and Stanley Karnow. Other reference books were written by Sidney Stewart, Forrest Johnson, Robert W. Black and David W. Hogan.

There is a 'Ghost soldiers Fund' at the Santa Fe Community Foundation in New Mexico where the author resides with his family.

Simply put, this is an outstanding book.

Brave Americans (along with allies), overseas fighting for their country, are taken as prisoners-of-war. The horrors they face and the cruelty they witness and experience are almost unspeakable.

Today, people wring their hands and curse our country because a Guantanamo Bay prisoner gets a slap in the face.

But in World War II, our own soldiers were beheaded, starved, beaten, grossly abused, and tortured regularly. The lack of nutrition and the squalid conditions left some with disfiguring diseases and loss of vision.

But this true story has a heroic ending for those who persevered, as Rangers swoop in to rescue them from the Cabanatuan prison camp.

This excellent book is a must-read for anyone interested in true American heroes, and for all who yearn to learn more about the power and faith of the human spirit.

As I write this, our country stands on the edge of war. In these frightening times, I found this captivating account of the ugly face of war and the heights good men can reach uplifting. The author, Mr. Sides, masterly weaves the past with the present, bringing the reader from the horrors of the Death March up to the rescue mission's first gun shot. While the author does not engage in a lot of flag waving, I felt proud of the accomplishments of my father's generation - people who fought a desperate fight they never asked for but didn't back away from either. If we still have people in America like the POWs and the Rangers who went into harm's way for them, maybe we still have a chance. Read it yourself and be inspired.

I really enjoyed this book. I gave it 1 less star due to the author's sporadic use of "big" words that seemed out of place. I understood most of them, but I have to admit that I used my dictionary a time or two. All that aside, I really had a hard time putting it down. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but it helped to undertand what was going on and why. I have read many negative reviews here and I guess this book can be good or bad depending on what you're looking for.

If you're looking for a good story about a famous situation in WWII, this is a great book. If you want extreme details about everything, exact dates, etc... It may not be for you. I still recommend it in either case.

I really enjoyed the movie The Great Raid when I saw it in the theaters. After the movie I wanted to know more about the true story of the Bataan Death March and the Cabantuan Prison camp raid. I went out and bought Ghost Soldiers and it did not disapoint. This book gives you a well written account of the soldiers who fought the Battle of Bataan, were captured and were forced through some unimaginable horrors in transit to the camp and at the prison camp by the Japanese. Mr. Sides does a good job of recounting the story and keeping your interest throughout the entire book from capture to escape. I reccomend this to anyone who is a fan of non fiction or of warfare histories.

This is a very well-written book! I found it hard to put down. The atrocities of war were not glossed over but the strength and determination of the human spirit was certainly evident, both in the portrayals of the American prisoners and those who were tasked with rescuing them. It was interesting to read about the beginnings of the Army Rangers and I learned a lot about the Filipino people as well.

I found numerous passages that were quite enlightening:

“Never had the U.S. Army fought against an enemy about whom it knew so little.”

“For the Rangers, the intensely pro-American loyalty of the Filipinos like Joson and his guerillas was both touching and a little hard to understand. Yes, they shared the same enemy – and if anything, the Filipinos hated the Japanese even more virulently than the Americans did. But why should the Filipinos worry over the fate of 500 American prisoners when they had their own immeasurable tragedies and sufferings to contend with? Their country was going up in flames all around them. Once again, two nations from across the seas were thrashing it out on Philippine soil, and once again, they were caught in the maelstrom. Like history’s stepchildren, the Philippine people repeatedly seemed to bear the brunt of other people’s arguments.”

I would encourage anyone who is interested in World War II history to read this book.

This is an amazing and harrowing story, well-written and absolutely compelling. I can't believe the cruelty humans are willing to inflict on each other, as well as what the human spirit is able to endure. If you enjoyed Unbroken, this will probably be right up your alley.

Just read it, you will be glad you did. Hampton Sides writing style is absolutely engrossing and then you come to the realization of all the things these men went through..., amazing, absolutely amazing.

Hampton Sides has really fashioned a great World War II tale of heroism and survival in the grimmest of conditions. Sides simultaneously chronicles two stories--one telling the unspeakable conditions that gripped the Bataan Death March survivors in their struggle to stay alive in Japanese occupation; the other of an elite force of American Rangers and Fillipino soldiers who garnered the courage to embark on a long journey through enemy lines to rescue the POW's. In doing so, I found the book to be so engaging; with every turn of the page I was rooting for the mission to liberate the death camp inmates and provide an end to their hellish day to day existence, which is described in rich detail. But, if they managed to invade the camp and spree the POWs, could they evade enemy pursuit and make it back to American lines? How can they sneak up on the guards in the first place, and eliminate the Japanese force within the camp? Read on!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good writing, "Great Escape" style adventures, or books that thrive on the personal accounts of those who lived to tell about it.

Admittedly, Ghost Soldiers is not typical reading material for me. I tned to read financial non-fiction or fiction. However, I was handed the book recently prior to a trip to the airport. After a quick hour in the lounge and a few in the air, I had found myself through most of the book.
The author sets up the situation in a prologue with a survey of the history of Japanese occupation of the Phillipines and the conditions (i.e. starvation, disease) and treatment (i.e. mental and physical tortures) which American POWs faced as captives. In the waning days of the war, the Japanese out of desperation committed atrocities by executing POWs with the war lost and the POWs usefulness diminished. A few POWs managed to escape to tell their horrific tales that sets the US Rangers up for their valiant rescue mission - the 1st Ranger mission in the Pacific theater.
After the prologue, the remainder of the book is broken up into essentially two stories that eventually merge. The odd chapters provide a narrative on the early war in the Phillipines with the eventual surrender, the Bataan death march, and life as a POW in a Japanese prisoner camp. The even chapters provide a narrative on the selection of the Ranger team and the planning and execution of their mission.
Overall, I found the book entertaining and informatigve, but I must admit that I was far more interested in the Rangers story line than the POWs' experience. It was far more exciting and uplifting to read about the mission planning and execution.

This book does not waste space with details of WWII. You will not finish this book with any understanding of the Pacific Theatre, why it started, how it ended, who the generals were and what were the broad tactics and strategies of victory and defeat. It simply recounts one daring raid. You will be horrified by what man does to man. You will be uplifted by what man does for man. The violence and cruelty, the sacrifice and selflessness. There are heroes and villains and any of us can be either at any time. This book will make you cry and when the tears of pain and loss and hope and bravery block your vision, it will be the only time you are not reading. You will not put it down until you are finished. I finished it in one sitting both the first and the second time I read it. In several months, I am sure I will finish it again in one sitting.

This is one of those great books that drove me nuts. He starts talking about one person, then shifts four years ahead to talk about someone else, then back tracks four years to discuss another angle. He gets there eventually, but his style of authorship sucks.

Great story line held my interest all the way through. I did not however care for how the author switched back and forth so abruptly from the rescue mission back to the actual prison life. Actually made it hard to follow a few times as it was hard to tell if he was talking about the rescue mission or being in the prison at a different time.

I listened to this book on tape while driving across country, and I didn't even notice the hours or the miles flying by because this book was SO good. I didn't have to stop and stretch or use the rest areas. You can read the other reviews for the contents of the book itself, but if you are looking for a book on tape to listen to - I HIGHLY recommend Ghost Soldiers. It's a well-written book and it's very well read on the tape. My only caution would be to have some kleenex handy for the end of the book. After I listened to the book on tape, I took a look at the hardcover book in the store just to see the pictures and the maps, but I was able to follow everything in the story without them.

My favorite quote was on page 28 of the Prologue. "There"ll be no atheists on this trip." Mucci wanted every Ranger to meet with the chaplain and pray on their knees. "I want everyone to swear an oath before God," he told them. "Swear that you'll die fighting rather than let any harm come to those prisoners". I am grateful for every man and woman who were a part of the underground, guerillas, Alamo Scouts, and the Rangers, and the Filipino people that worked and aided in this rescue mission. My Father was one of the 511 who walked out that day in January 1945. Some have forgotten. But I never will.

It was nice to see the men of Bataan get their just due when this bestseller came out. It's a fun book, but at times, I thought I was reading a magazine article that was fleshed out to make it into a book.
Mr. Sides writes well and his book kept me going. But I didn't like the shifting chapters. One chapter was on the ordeal of the POWs, the next on the mission to raid the Cabanatuan POW camp. Not all of the veterans interviewed were at Cabanatuan when the Rangers attacked it. I personally think he should have stuck to a standard story line, first, follow the POWs and their terrible odyssey, then go to the Rangers and their daring rescue of these starved and emaciated heroes.
But again, it was nice to see a book about the Pacific capture the public's imagination after all these ETO books, get so much publicity.
It's a fun, exciting read, but I believe far from the best. Try reading Dorothy Cave's Beyond Courage, One Regiment against Japan 1941-1945. That is a superb work.

Mr. Sides brings us a wonderful - and horrific - story from World War II. Whenever I have heard the word "Bataan", my mind always fills in "Death March". This book filled in some gaps and gives us a personal account of some of the survivors and their rescuers.
That Mr. Sides does not have the storytelling ability of a Stephen Ambrose is not to disparage him in any way. This book is good, if not as emotionally engaging as it possibly could have been. I must admit that perhaps the author should be thanked for keeping us somewhat distant, the experiences of the prisoners are not for the faint of heart.
I recommend this book to all World War II historical nuts, like myself, and would only add that absolutely anyone who reads this will discover nothing but courage from the men involved. Who was more brave, the POW's or the Rangers? It doesn't matter, they're all worthy of the title "Hero".

I am not even someone who is fascinated by war stories but this account is so well written and engaging and heart rending that you can not put it down.
When David Halberstam died I figured that was the end of greatest non-fiction story teller ever, until I picked up this book. Mr. Sides recounts a story in the same manner, giving background history, personal anecdotes and histories. Everything he writes about engages you completely. this story, aside from being an amazing part of history, but personal and military, is so well told you can not stop reading and crave for more at the end.
I can't recommend this book enough.

Even if...
... you are not a history major
... you are not a WWII buff
... you are female
this powerful book will hold you in its grip and not let you go! Sides' storytelling is masterful. His method of switching back and forth chapter by chapter (thankfully not paragraph by paragraph, Clancy-style) between the "past" of the surrender of Bataan/Death March/imprisonment of the POWs and the "now" of the rescue mission, kept me keenly interested in the developments on both sides of the story. He introduces just enough characters to present a balanced (rather than bird's-eye) view of the events, but with enough depth to evoke tears when some of them (POWs and rescuing Rangers alike) perish. Literary embellishments and descriptive phrases (the temperature dropped "from infernal to the merely intolerable") were a treat and added to the readability. I was so loathe to put this book down, I read every word of the acknowledgments, the only tribute I could pay to the author. Read it and pass the word!

I've never read a book that elicited so many feelings. From the outrage and disgust while reading how human life was so ruthlessly disregarded, tortured, and cast aside, to the joy and pride as I read through moist eyes as the rescued sailed beneath the Golden Gate. The heroes are many and their story reads like an action/adventure novel. The pacing is perfect, bringing the reader along to the successful conclusion while educating, enlightening and invoking a sense of pride and patriotism. This book is highly recommended, not only for the richness of the story but for the opportunity to reflect upon the courage, tenacity and sacrifices made so we can enjoy the freedom we have.

Hampton Sides has brought history to life with a dazzling combination of detail, gut wrenching action, and the soldiers' own words in the story of the remnants of the soldiers in the Bataan Death March. Some descriptions are very hard to read as in the beginning where he details the slaughter of American prisoners on Palawan as the war nears its end. Details of prison life alternate from the horrifying diseases picked up by the prisoners to the sublime moment when the captives steal food and futons from the Japanese side of the prison camp. The nail biting rescue against impossible odds (about 200 American and Filipino soldiers against several thousand Japanese in the area)is a fitting climax to an enthralling, suspenseful story of heroes rescuing heroes. Let not anyone forget these men, and let not anyone forget our brave comrades-in-arms, the Filipino guerrillas who fought tenaciously to cover the withdrawal of the prisoners and U.S. Rangers from the prison camp. Hampton Sides deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this magnificent tale.

A daring rescue once known to every American schoolchild but now long forgotten was ordered. 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission was to march thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a camp near the city of Cabanatuan. This is the story of a stirring and heroic rescue operation in World War II. Gives us an enthralling and deeply disturbing look at the horrors of war. There's grief, despair, and terror, but the story ends much more satisfying. Thrilling from start to finish, as the book celebrates the heroism of the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion.
FinancialNeeds.com

There are some stories that are better left untold b/c you can never get the same reaction, feeling or visualization. This book is not one of them; I read this book a little while ago and remember the story so vividly. From the descriptions of what the POW's endured; how they sacrificed for each other and the ultimate rescue the details just stand out... On one hand this book would be a great movie on the other, to have Hollywood ruin it would be terrible. For the generation that didn't live through Vietnam, Korea and WWII this shows what our soldiers and the American people would do for freedom...

Oh how 24 hour news channels have changed our lives.

Hampton Sides' "Ghost Soldiers" is a story of Japanese brutality and racism, the sorry, dishonest nature of the Democratic administration of the early 1940's that gleefully sacrificed American lives to cover their own narrow-minded mistakes -- and of values liberals have longed since weaned out of American culture and heroism: patriotism, military discipline, a willingness to die for country, freedom and fellow man.
This narrative of four horrible years for the Filipinos, Americans, British and others taken prisioner by the Imperial Japanese Army is over-hyped as the "epic story of World War II's most dramatic mission." It wasn't by a long shot.
Rather, as Sides' story unrolls, it was a fairly routine mission: rescue prisoners in an enemy POW camp. Some of the missions were staged solely to satisfy a general's vanity. A mission in Europe to rescue the son-in-law of General Patton that turned into a small-scale disaster. (Full-scale disaster to those who died.) The rescue mission in Sides' book was undertaken in part to rehabilitate the tarnished reputation of Gen. MacArthur.
Sides' attention to historically correct detail is admirable. His descriptions of the geography, the units, the commanders and some of the enlisted, aircraft and weapons types - all are right on the mark.
He builds the drama by describing the misery of the American soldiers who, after being lied to by President Roosevelt through MacArthur are encouraged to figt on in the belief that relief was on the way. In truth, no relief was on the way and the American troops were merely sacrificial lambs. It is difficult to suppress anger while reading of the horrors the American government inflicted upon its own - and then read of the greater cruelties visited upon them by the Japanese. (Any of the revisionist liberal historians claiming that Americans were racists re the Japanese hasn't bother studying both sides of the story.)
While every Filapina and American participant in this adventure is a hero, military or civilian, the particular focus is on a unit of American Rangers. Elite troops that couldn't exist today because feminist and other special interest groups have made it impossible to create effective combat forces. The Rangers were men's men - the term not being used in the contemporary sense. These were ordinary men, raised during the Great Depression in the days before the NEA decided its teacher union members and Ritalin should be in complete charge of raising children, relegating parents to the role of outsiders. Many grew up on farms and weren't taught to fear guns. All still had that old-fashioned idea of being responsible.
In short, nearly all would be turned down for jobs today because of their silly notions, most of which are considered evidence of bias and bigotry today.
The Rangers set out to rescue the prisoners from a POW camp. Some of the prisoners are survivors of Bataan and Corriegidor. Most of the book is about people, their experiences, sometimes their hopes. The power of war to control the destiny of lives is clearly defined. The valor of the Rangers setting out against great odds is superbly described. There's very little combat, a minimum of blood and gore - and one of the saddest stories you'll ever read about the needless deaths of fine and decent young men.
At bottom, this is an "America and its people are great" story.
You won't find on the shelves of many, if any, public schools or other byways of academia. It's simple story is far too politically incorrect.
But it is something you may want to buy for a young person to show them what America once was.
Jerry

There were a great many documentaries on tv last month about WWII. I watched many of them regarding the events that transpired in the Pacific, and Hampton Sides was featured, as well as many of the prisoners and rangers mentioned in this book, who spoke about their ordeal in the Philippines. Their oral memories were so touching and remarkable that I had to find out more. "Ghost Soldiers" tells a bit of the history of the surrender of Bataan and then follows many of the American prisoners through the hell they endured for the following years that they were held captive in the islands; it also tells us about the many who didn't make it home. The army finally decided to go in and save the remaining prisoners from a camp, many of whom were barely alive. They planned to do this through a small clandestine operation, before the prisoners were all executed by the Japanese, who were panicking due to the American force returning with great strength. Just how this was accomplished seems nothing short of a miracle. This story was very well researched and clearly told -- both informative and emotional. I felt like I came to know many of the men personally and couldn't believe the horrors they somehow lived through. I've always heard about the German POW camps of WWII because my uncle was a prisoner in one, but seeing how the Japanese ran the camp at Cabanatuan brought a second horror to light that I can't really even fathom. Everyone should read this book. I can't say enough about it, other than it will stop you in your tracks and remind you of what freedom means.

Not only does Mr. Sides's work present credentials of meticulous research and convey a vivid picture of both the POW's ordeal and the liberator's quest. For me, passages of his work had an almost magically evocative ability to call up recollections from my own few years in the Philippines long after the war.
(Short autobigraphical aside: As a teenager and American native I lived on the outskirts of Manila in the years from 1970 through 1974. I have toured Corregidor and Fort Santiago, seen the Death March Memorial, and paid a somber visit to the American Cemetery. I've walked along rice-paddie paths paved with landing mat; heard a few first-hand tales of life during the war; handled spent Japanese ammunition; and ridden in a number a WWII-surplus land and sea craft; met a survivor of the Death March, and been inside Japanese tunnel hideouts outside Manila and Baguio. There were many pages of _Ghost Soldiers_ that brought back things I'd learned or flashbacks to places or things I'd seen.)
I would love to meet the author; even more would I give to meet one of the surviving Rangers or POWs. Yet merely to read their story has for me been a great honor.
I withhold a last fifth star merely because of the book's at-times somewhat pop history tone.

"Ghost Soldiers" is a well-written history of the perfect commando mission. The history is told with chapters from January 1945 alternating with the story of the prisoners' ordeal. By the time the Rangers reach the compound, you'll feel emotional - trust me! Many Japanese captors were terribly cruel to the Allied prisoners, and it seems like a miracle any of them survived. The author seems to be fair throughout - nobody is unduly sanctified or demonized, though people did saintly and demonic things. My only quibble is with the subtitle - "The Forgotten..." - it seems there are already several books and websites with certain details on the raid. Sides does a great job pulling it all together.

I really enjoyed this book. I gave it 1 less star due to the author's sporadic use of "big" words that seemed out of place. I understood most of them, but I have to admit that I used my dictionary a time or two. All that aside, I really had a hard time putting it down. There were a lot of characters to keep track of, but it helped to undertand what was going on and why. I have read many negative reviews here and I guess this book can be good or bad depending on what you're looking for.

If you're looking for a good story about a famous situation in WWII, this is a great book. If you want extreme details about everything, exact dates, etc... It may not be for you. I still recommend it in either case.

I really enjoyed the movie The Great Raid when I saw it in the theaters. After the movie I wanted to know more about the true story of the Bataan Death March and the Cabantuan Prison camp raid. I went out and bought Ghost Soldiers and it did not disapoint. This book gives you a well written account of the soldiers who fought the Battle of Bataan, were captured and were forced through some unimaginable horrors in transit to the camp and at the prison camp by the Japanese. Mr. Sides does a good job of recounting the story and keeping your interest throughout the entire book from capture to escape. I reccomend this to anyone who is a fan of non fiction or of warfare histories.

This is a very well-written book! I found it hard to put down. The atrocities of war were not glossed over but the strength and determination of the human spirit was certainly evident, both in the portrayals of the American prisoners and those who were tasked with rescuing them. It was interesting to read about the beginnings of the Army Rangers and I learned a lot about the Filipino people as well.

I found numerous passages that were quite enlightening:

“Never had the U.S. Army fought against an enemy about whom it knew so little.”

“For the Rangers, the intensely pro-American loyalty of the Filipinos like Joson and his guerillas was both touching and a little hard to understand. Yes, they shared the same enemy – and if anything, the Filipinos hated the Japanese even more virulently than the Americans did. But why should the Filipinos worry over the fate of 500 American prisoners when they had their own immeasurable tragedies and sufferings to contend with? Their country was going up in flames all around them. Once again, two nations from across the seas were thrashing it out on Philippine soil, and once again, they were caught in the maelstrom. Like history’s stepchildren, the Philippine people repeatedly seemed to bear the brunt of other people’s arguments.”

I would encourage anyone who is interested in World War II history to read this book.

This is an amazing and harrowing story, well-written and absolutely compelling. I can't believe the cruelty humans are willing to inflict on each other, as well as what the human spirit is able to endure. If you enjoyed Unbroken, this will probably be right up your alley.

Just read it, you will be glad you did. Hampton Sides writing style is absolutely engrossing and then you come to the realization of all the things these men went through..., amazing, absolutely amazing.

Hampton Sides has really fashioned a great World War II tale of heroism and survival in the grimmest of conditions. Sides simultaneously chronicles two stories--one telling the unspeakable conditions that gripped the Bataan Death March survivors in their struggle to stay alive in Japanese occupation; the other of an elite force of American Rangers and Fillipino soldiers who garnered the courage to embark on a long journey through enemy lines to rescue the POW's. In doing so, I found the book to be so engaging; with every turn of the page I was rooting for the mission to liberate the death camp inmates and provide an end to their hellish day to day existence, which is described in rich detail. But, if they managed to invade the camp and spree the POWs, could they evade enemy pursuit and make it back to American lines? How can they sneak up on the guards in the first place, and eliminate the Japanese force within the camp? Read on!
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good writing, "Great Escape" style adventures, or books that thrive on the personal accounts of those who lived to tell about it.

Admittedly, Ghost Soldiers is not typical reading material for me. I tned to read financial non-fiction or fiction. However, I was handed the book recently prior to a trip to the airport. After a quick hour in the lounge and a few in the air, I had found myself through most of the book.
The author sets up the situation in a prologue with a survey of the history of Japanese occupation of the Phillipines and the conditions (i.e. starvation, disease) and treatment (i.e. mental and physical tortures) which American POWs faced as captives. In the waning days of the war, the Japanese out of desperation committed atrocities by executing POWs with the war lost and the POWs usefulness diminished. A few POWs managed to escape to tell their horrific tales that sets the US Rangers up for their valiant rescue mission - the 1st Ranger mission in the Pacific theater.
After the prologue, the remainder of the book is broken up into essentially two stories that eventually merge. The odd chapters provide a narrative on the early war in the Phillipines with the eventual surrender, the Bataan death march, and life as a POW in a Japanese prisoner camp. The even chapters provide a narrative on the selection of the Ranger team and the planning and execution of their mission.
Overall, I found the book entertaining and informatigve, but I must admit that I was far more interested in the Rangers story line than the POWs' experience. It was far more exciting and uplifting to read about the mission planning and execution.

This book does not waste space with details of WWII. You will not finish this book with any understanding of the Pacific Theatre, why it started, how it ended, who the generals were and what were the broad tactics and strategies of victory and defeat. It simply recounts one daring raid. You will be horrified by what man does to man. You will be uplifted by what man does for man. The violence and cruelty, the sacrifice and selflessness. There are heroes and villains and any of us can be either at any time. This book will make you cry and when the tears of pain and loss and hope and bravery block your vision, it will be the only time you are not reading. You will not put it down until you are finished. I finished it in one sitting both the first and the second time I read it. In several months, I am sure I will finish it again in one sitting.

This is one of those great books that drove me nuts. He starts talking about one person, then shifts four years ahead to talk about someone else, then back tracks four years to discuss another angle. He gets there eventually, but his style of authorship sucks.

Great story line held my interest all the way through. I did not however care for how the author switched back and forth so abruptly from the rescue mission back to the actual prison life. Actually made it hard to follow a few times as it was hard to tell if he was talking about the rescue mission or being in the prison at a different time.

I listened to this book on tape while driving across country, and I didn't even notice the hours or the miles flying by because this book was SO good. I didn't have to stop and stretch or use the rest areas. You can read the other reviews for the contents of the book itself, but if you are looking for a book on tape to listen to - I HIGHLY recommend Ghost Soldiers. It's a well-written book and it's very well read on the tape. My only caution would be to have some kleenex handy for the end of the book. After I listened to the book on tape, I took a look at the hardcover book in the store just to see the pictures and the maps, but I was able to follow everything in the story without them.

My favorite quote was on page 28 of the Prologue. "There"ll be no atheists on this trip." Mucci wanted every Ranger to meet with the chaplain and pray on their knees. "I want everyone to swear an oath before God," he told them. "Swear that you'll die fighting rather than let any harm come to those prisoners". I am grateful for every man and woman who were a part of the underground, guerillas, Alamo Scouts, and the Rangers, and the Filipino people that worked and aided in this rescue mission. My Father was one of the 511 who walked out that day in January 1945. Some have forgotten. But I never will.

It was nice to see the men of Bataan get their just due when this bestseller came out. It's a fun book, but at times, I thought I was reading a magazine article that was fleshed out to make it into a book.
Mr. Sides writes well and his book kept me going. But I didn't like the shifting chapters. One chapter was on the ordeal of the POWs, the next on the mission to raid the Cabanatuan POW camp. Not all of the veterans interviewed were at Cabanatuan when the Rangers attacked it. I personally think he should have stuck to a standard story line, first, follow the POWs and their terrible odyssey, then go to the Rangers and their daring rescue of these starved and emaciated heroes.
But again, it was nice to see a book about the Pacific capture the public's imagination after all these ETO books, get so much publicity.
It's a fun, exciting read, but I believe far from the best. Try reading Dorothy Cave's Beyond Courage, One Regiment against Japan 1941-1945. That is a superb work.

Mr. Sides brings us a wonderful - and horrific - story from World War II. Whenever I have heard the word "Bataan", my mind always fills in "Death March". This book filled in some gaps and gives us a personal account of some of the survivors and their rescuers.
That Mr. Sides does not have the storytelling ability of a Stephen Ambrose is not to disparage him in any way. This book is good, if not as emotionally engaging as it possibly could have been. I must admit that perhaps the author should be thanked for keeping us somewhat distant, the experiences of the prisoners are not for the faint of heart.
I recommend this book to all World War II historical nuts, like myself, and would only add that absolutely anyone who reads this will discover nothing but courage from the men involved. Who was more brave, the POW's or the Rangers? It doesn't matter, they're all worthy of the title "Hero".

I am not even someone who is fascinated by war stories but this account is so well written and engaging and heart rending that you can not put it down.
When David Halberstam died I figured that was the end of greatest non-fiction story teller ever, until I picked up this book. Mr. Sides recounts a story in the same manner, giving background history, personal anecdotes and histories. Everything he writes about engages you completely. this story, aside from being an amazing part of history, but personal and military, is so well told you can not stop reading and crave for more at the end.
I can't recommend this book enough.

Even if...
... you are not a history major
... you are not a WWII buff
... you are female
this powerful book will hold you in its grip and not let you go! Sides' storytelling is masterful. His method of switching back and forth chapter by chapter (thankfully not paragraph by paragraph, Clancy-style) between the "past" of the surrender of Bataan/Death March/imprisonment of the POWs and the "now" of the rescue mission, kept me keenly interested in the developments on both sides of the story. He introduces just enough characters to present a balanced (rather than bird's-eye) view of the events, but with enough depth to evoke tears when some of them (POWs and rescuing Rangers alike) perish. Literary embellishments and descriptive phrases (the temperature dropped "from infernal to the merely intolerable") were a treat and added to the readability. I was so loathe to put this book down, I read every word of the acknowledgments, the only tribute I could pay to the author. Read it and pass the word!

I've never read a book that elicited so many feelings. From the outrage and disgust while reading how human life was so ruthlessly disregarded, tortured, and cast aside, to the joy and pride as I read through moist eyes as the rescued sailed beneath the Golden Gate. The heroes are many and their story reads like an action/adventure novel. The pacing is perfect, bringing the reader along to the successful conclusion while educating, enlightening and invoking a sense of pride and patriotism. This book is highly recommended, not only for the richness of the story but for the opportunity to reflect upon the courage, tenacity and sacrifices made so we can enjoy the freedom we have.

Hampton Sides has brought history to life with a dazzling combination of detail, gut wrenching action, and the soldiers' own words in the story of the remnants of the soldiers in the Bataan Death March. Some descriptions are very hard to read as in the beginning where he details the slaughter of American prisoners on Palawan as the war nears its end. Details of prison life alternate from the horrifying diseases picked up by the prisoners to the sublime moment when the captives steal food and futons from the Japanese side of the prison camp. The nail biting rescue against impossible odds (about 200 American and Filipino soldiers against several thousand Japanese in the area)is a fitting climax to an enthralling, suspenseful story of heroes rescuing heroes. Let not anyone forget these men, and let not anyone forget our brave comrades-in-arms, the Filipino guerrillas who fought tenaciously to cover the withdrawal of the prisoners and U.S. Rangers from the prison camp. Hampton Sides deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this magnificent tale.

A daring rescue once known to every American schoolchild but now long forgotten was ordered. 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission was to march thirty miles in an attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent three years in a camp near the city of Cabanatuan. This is the story of a stirring and heroic rescue operation in World War II. Gives us an enthralling and deeply disturbing look at the horrors of war. There's grief, despair, and terror, but the story ends much more satisfying. Thrilling from start to finish, as the book celebrates the heroism of the elite U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion.
FinancialNeeds.com

1. Ghost Soldiers is an account of the greatest American POW rescue and the events leading up to this daring mission. The author, Hampton Sides, reports the chilling accounts of hundreds of American prisoners who suffered the long bloody battle of Bataan, the inevitable surrender, and the brutal captivity from the Japanese Imperial Army. Sides develops his story through many interviews of actual Bataan survivors, telling a gripping account of what it was like to be in the hands of the Japanese. Within his book he develops a second account of the extremely successful rescue by 6th Ranger Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince. The book jumps back and forth between the perspectives of the newly trained and outfitted 6th Rangers on their very first mission, and the battle starved and brutally beaten American POWs of Bataan. Ghost Soldiers dives deep into guerrilla warfare and the details of resistance fighters running information to prisoners and supporting the Rangers rescue mission.

2. Hampton Sides is a columnist and contributing editor for Outside magazine, The New Yorker magazine and NPR. In 2002 he won the PEN USA Award for nonfiction. He is the writer of two books, Ghost Soldiers and Americana. Sides was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2003.

3. Sides is a magazine writer and he sticks with a reporter's writer style. He develops an objective outline that draws in readers intended for a large audience both civilian and military. The story is laid out and formatted for easy reading. Throughout the book the reader can't help but feel that he is being reported to on location in the death camps of the Philippines from a correspondent reporter. Sides' writing style makes for a first class page turner. His ability to bounce around the plot of the story keeps even a short attention span deeply interested in this book.

4. Hampton Sides draws the reader into two different points in time during the same period of Philippine history. The period is World War II. The early time frame starts off before the on coming Japanese attack. Sides paints a picture of a life in the Philippines as an endless siesta. The well hidden secret of the Army and Navy was a tour of duty in the Philippines. Happiness however was not to be endless and the Japanese quickly forced the American forces into a bloody battle of survival. Without the supplies that were failing to come from the damaged Pacific naval fleet (Due to the attack on Pearl Harbor), surrender was inevitable for the US forces in the Philippines. The US was caught off guard in a text book example of the principle of surprise. In a short matter of time the US was in a position where it could not support its troops. Without the pacific fleet being rebuilt and remanded the war in the Pacific was to be a long road to victory. At the other end of the timeline Sides brings us to another bloodied force on the verge of surrender, but this time it's the Japanese turn to hang their heads in shame. It is four long years later. The American war machine is turning out great men that are equipped with detroits finest. The Philippens is ready to fall back into the hands of the US once again, but not without one thing left to fix. Their were at least 500 survivors of the original 80,000 men of Bataan kept in Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the island of Luzon. General MacArthur was not going to fall back on his promises to come back and rescue the men of Bataan.

5. The author's background in journalism gives him great ability to develop and narrate the story of the American POWs. The interviews are, for the majority, first hand accounts and seemed to be well researched. Sides drew on many interviews with Japanese military veterans to help develop the story and give it much more legitimacy. This is Sides first attempt at writing within the scope of military history. Unfortunately Sides' lack of military experience makes the reader long for more dialogue concerning strategy and tactics using proper military terminology. His description of the Rangers' plan was very crude. Hampton Sides states in multiple interviews that this was not to be a traditional history piece with notes and an index. I do believe Sides accomplished what he set out to write, and that was a first rate account of the actions of the POWs and the rescue operation in a style appealing to the general public. However when Ghost Soldiers is compared to other military history books that appealed to the masses like We Were Soldiers Once and Young or Band of Brothers it falls short. I believe that this is a direct result in the confidence that bleeds through the narration of military tactics. Hampton Sides' perspective is from the objective viewer. He took great care to research past memoir, periodicals, after action reports, and took very detailed interviews. He built up a dramatic factual report of what actually happened with very limited obvious opinion. I did find his opinion of the Rangers interesting, and maybe a little underestimated. In several cases Sides characterized the Rangers as being very lucky. Based off the reading and the interviews it was my interpretation that LTC Mucci had crafted these fresh young and very well equipped Rangers into a fierce, maneuverable, and lethal elite infantry battalion. The Rangers luck was not luck at all, but truly a combination of a much more prepared and trained force that could meet the demands of this particular mission. Often Sides opinion would show through in the interviews based off of what he decided was needed to be reported. The reader also gets a sense that this story is very much developed around the American POWs' account of what happen. An overwhelming majority of the dialogue is focused on life as a prisoner with the raid being a branch off from the main theme. Side's perspective was on showing the 21st century an example of one the greatest endurance challenges of man kind's history of warfare.

6. To be brief in my conclusion, I will say that this is an enjoyable read. Ghost Soldiers may not hold up to the masters of military history writing in comparison, at the same time it doesn't suffer a lack of entertainment. Sides knows his readers, and is a professional at keeping their attention. I would recommend this book for any soldier. All soldiers would gain some good insight on what it was like to be a POW in hands of a ruthless enemy. Most of all I recommend this book because it defines what is to be brave in the face of hopelessness.

There's a lot of fascinating information in this book, and it's reasonably well-written. But the constant leaping back and forth in time is simply excessive. And it's maddening to have no table of contents, no index and no citations. Also, some places mentioned in the text are not shown on the four confusingly-overlapping maps.

Wow. Just...wow. This true story is incredible on its own and Mr. Sides does a great job of telling the story in an interesting and powerful way. The writing style goes back and forth between the two groups of men, the prisoners of war and their experiences, and the Rangers on their rescue mission, interwoven together near the end. It was difficult to put this book down as I continued to want to know more about how the men survived the Death March and subsequent imprisonment as well as the harrowing rescue taken on by the newly formed Army Rangers.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone, especially ones curious about this event. I learned a lot more than I knew before about it by reading this book.

Great Book! The story begins with a Japanese massacre at a Philippine POW camp. The report by the survivors alarms the US Army;lest it be repeated again. A newly formed Ranger unit is picked for the rescue mission. The book continues with alternate stories and narratives of life at the POW camp and of the preparations of the Ranger unit and the infiltration of the enemy lines. Side stories are included of the Philippine people - their sacrifices and their fondness of Americans. Finally, the Rangers attack and liberate the camp. Philippine guerrillas help block Japanese reinforcements. The book includes many photographs of the Rangers and the prisoners.

When you read this book you are taken to another time and place where great men fought and died for their country. Every young man that crossed the Pacific showed great courage, but there were some men who showed the awesome power of the human spirit and the will to survive. This book will take you to dark places where men were pushed beyond their limits. Youth and passion gave way to wearyness and desperation. The young men at the Cabanatuan prison camp endured more than anyone should ever have to. This book is not about escape or rescue as much as it is about survival and resistance. We honor those mens memories by reading this book and tring to understand what they must have went through all those years that they were prisoners of war. Thsi book is a page turner and sure to an emotional adventure. I'm glad I read this book, I will all ways remember these men and their story.

Hampton Sides has written a story that tells the epic tragedy of defeat on the Bataan Peninsula, the horrific march that followed with many soldiers not making it to their intended prison camp destination where the survivors endured years of cruelty. He powerfully tells the story of the courage these men showed daily and of the final triumph of their rescue by Army Rangers. My only regret is that I did not know the full account of these men many years ago when there were more of them alive to thank personally for their courage in the face of such adversity. Thank you Hampton for a wonderfully well written book about our nation's heroes in the Pacific.

Tim White
Winning Attitude Communication

I am literally minutes from reading the last page of this book and suddenly my cares pale to insignificance compared to what the Bataan Death March (or as the book points out the "hike") survivors endured. Author Sides does a superb job juxtaposing the story of the POWs and their rescuers. One has to constantly remember this is non-fiction, the elements of a novel seem almost in every page-the irony of the American Rangers' fatalities, the poignant "last" POW. Read from page 30 to the end non-stop feeling every emotion imaginable from horror to comedy.

Looking for real story that reads like a spine tingling novel?
Looking for something to put your life in perspective?
Want to know what it means to sacrifice?
Want to know what separates the "men from the boys?"
Want to read about one man's inhumanity to man AND another's willingness to give his life for his fellow man?
Read Ghost Soldiers, a superb and very readable account of how a small army of men risked their lives to save 500 survivors from the Battan Death March.
Read it and pass it on to someone else.

As a teen-ager, I read with great sadness the daily newspaper accounts of America's holding action in the Pacific Theater, especially of the defeats suffered by the undermanned, underarmed and isolated forces in the Philippine Islands. Grim stories of a Bataan "Death March" emerged soon after the surrender there in 1942. But not until I read "Ghost Soldiers" almost 60 years later did the full impact of the three-year ordeal endured by those prisoners of war reveal itself. Their story and the nail-biting secret mission by a force of Army Rangers to rescue the survivors of the march make for an emotionally draining but rewarding reading experience.

This book is a must read. The amazing rescue story is the largest and most daring to this day; it is puzzling that stories such as this one and the escape from Davao were seldom used in schools... The book is very well written offering plenty of suspense! As our WWII generation is slowly fading away, Americans and especially younger ones should never forget their sacrifices that ensured our liberties today!

This book is a must-read. In an age of relative ease and an increasing impatience for the world around us Hampton Sides has given us cause to take stock of the world we currently find ourselves in and be thankful. Too many of the actual facts and minute details of the war have faded from our current era into "the past" and have been minimized with the passing of time. Sides vividly tells us the heroic story of those that fate and time put into a situation that we would now find unthinkable. The book is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. With our modern way of life where food, shelter, and safety are readily available, how would any one of us fair in the same circumstances.
For those that find the war was too gruesome and distasteful to relive, for the masses that came long after the war had ended, I think this book should be required reading. The strengths that we so often attribute to ourselves as Americans were forged by the people in this story and the hundreds of thousands like them that did their duty, endured the unimaginable, and were the foundation of where we stand today. This book will make you cover your open mouth at the unspeakable inhumanity and cheer out loud at the remarkable strength of the human spirit. By writing this book Sides has, in some small way, paid hommage to those that fought and suffered, but should also remind us that this story is one of many.
Sides does a marvelous job of bringing to life the enormity of the battles and the intricacies of the rescue. This is not a one-sided account of a historical event. Sides has brilliantly incorporated details from both prisoner and savior, and all those that played even a minor role in these astonishing events. Sides reminds up that heroism is not just an individual quality that only the rare possess, but these incredible events were the result of the efforts of the American Rangers, Philippine soldiers, common villagers, and the prisoners themselves. Before all recollection of the events of WWII are gone forever with the passing of our last soldier, stories like this, both great and small, should be passed on to the generations that have followed and that continue to thrive, due in part, to the remarkable strength and uncommon bravery of those that were there.

This novel by Hampton Sides is a great read. It begins with the dangerous battle on the island of Bataan. The Americans hopelessly lose this battle, finally surrendering to the Japanese. The whole story is about the P.O.Ws inside the Japanese camp of Cabanatuan, and the American Rangers on their way to save them. This book includes two genres, Action and Drama. This is one way this book is so good. It definitely has an action side, with all the fighting in the battles and the Rangers trying to free the prisoners. The drama genre comes in when you read about the P.O.Ws inside the camp. What these Japanese did was horrible. In Ghost Soldiers, you read about what the Rangers do to save these prisoners. It is truly amazing what a person would do for his country, like running into the battlefield to retrieve fallen soldiers and risking your own life to save another.
Historically, I think this book was pretty true. In the book Ghost Soldiers, there were many quotes from the prisoners and Rangers during that time period. Overall I think these quotes were not far from the truth. As far as the events go, I believe that Hampton Sides told it as it was. If you're looking for facts about the battle of Bataan, or the prisoners in the prison camp of Cabanatuan, this book is a pretty good source for information. Ghost Soldiers was a fairly decent book for information.
If you're looking for an awesome book, Ghost Soldiers is the book for you. It combines the two genres of Action and Drama, making it a good book for a girl or a boy. It gives you a very good idea on what the soldiers went through to save the prisoners of the Japanese prison camp. It also lets you see how bad the Japanese treated the P.O.Ws of Cabanatuan prison camp. Seeing how bad these P.O.Ws were health wise and mentally, you will realize what they went through.
Ghost Soldiers was an excellent book. If you're into action or drama this book is just for you.

Ghost Soldiers
By: Hampton Sides
Ghost Soldiers is a wonderful account of the brutality of some of the Japanese guards at Cabanatuan, a camp for the sickest and most disabled POWs of the Allies. It also gave a scary and compelling look into how they got there, and what happened to them inside the camp. Ghost Soldiers also allowed us to look at what happened to the thousands of POWs who passed through the camp, and then headed to Japan or other countries to work on projects that would assist the Axis.
Ghost Soldiers is based around a group of roughly 200 Rangers and 150 Filipino guerillas and their struggle to go and save the 500 imprisoned POWs presiding at Cabanatuan before the POWs are murdered. The Japanese had already exterminated many POWs at other camps and the Rangers and Filipino guerillas were trying to prevent this from happening at Cabanatuan.
The only thing in the Ranger's favor was the element of surprise. If this was lost, the Allies would probably lose 700 men along with causing the death of 150 Filipinos. This element keeps the book flowing along with keeping you on the edge of your seat and wondering how the Rangers could have dealt with the nerve racking thought of "if they were caught, they were dead."
Ghost Soldiers allows you to learn a lot about the history of WWII, along with seeing the torture POWs were put through. It also shows you that because of miss communication, POWs were tortured. This book will bring you to tears through out the whole book, especially in the parts where POWs are killed due to malnutrition, disease, murder, or torture.
I would highly suggest reading this book if you would like to see the life of a POW in Cabanatuan, or the worst of WWII, or the life of a Ranger in the U.S. Army. These are all wonderfully wound together through out the whole book. Making it flow and allowing you to see some of the worst of WWII.

A compelling story about the rescue of prisoners during World War II. This is a great book. It details the lives of many characters that are impacted by this portion of the war. First we learn of the horrors of the Bataan Death March, the horrific treatment of the prisoners and Philippine civilian by the ruthless Japanese soldiers. After reading these accounts, I do not sympathize at all with the people who protested the dropping of the Atom bombs on Japan. The book builds emtional ties with the many heroes that Hampton Sides describes. We realize that none of our bravery (except for the NYPD and NYFD) compare to the prisoners, Rangers, and many civilians that were involved in this event. Thank you, Hampton Sides for bringing this story to me.

This book was incredibly well-written and moved at the speed with which this mission to save American POWs at Cabanatuan Camp had to be planned, staged and executed. It tells not only how the POWs were forced to live and survive, but also what they went through on the Bataan Death March even to get Cabanatuan. Even more amazing was that the US Army could so quickly grasp the situation at Cabanatuan, identify the Rangers/Philippines/Alamo Scout force needed to carry out the mission, and put them on the move to do so. Col. Mucci's and his staff's planning and leadership (and that of the guerrilla leaders) and their bravery and that of their men is a truly inspirational story, as is the human story of the prisoners whose rescue was the whole purpose of the mission. Though have read extensively on WWII, I had not known that Army Rangers participated in the Pacific Theater of WWII (having previously read only of their European Theater exploits). Fortunately the 6th Rangers "were there" and can add this mission to the proud laurels of US Army Ranger history. Hoooah!

I would have to rate this one of the best and enjoyable history book of this year. After seeing the author being interviewed on the Today show, I knew I had to read it. The book is very well written and enjoyable to read. The accounts by Sides are very candid and graphic, which adds to the book being about both the tragedy and victory of war. Sides also describes the death march being brought about by poor Japanese logistics, as well as their cultural view regarding prisoners. This account has escaped readers for so long is now magnificently told.

Hampton Sides does an exceptional job of bringing this story to life.
I did not know about this rescue mission until I picked up his book.
You get to know these people, what happened to them, how they dealt with everything, and how they crafted ways to survive.
Parts of the story are truly shattering, but the planning of the mission and the carrying it out took incredible courage.
It's one of those books you don't want to put down.

This is one of the best written WW2 books I've ever read. I read this book in a less than 24 hour period because I could not put it down. The author's use of descriptive narrative and the maps enabled me to picture in my mind the action as it unfolded. I was also impressed by how the author effectively integrated the stories of the rescuers and the rescuees so that I was unable to stop reading on. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more of the sacrifices our parents' generation endured to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.

When I first saw Sides' book I must admit I was a bit miffed. Forrest Bryant Johnson gave a fantastic account of the Cabanatuan resue in his book HOUR OF REDEMPTION and I felt like Sides was taking advantage of Johnson's great work.
However, Sides presents the story in a different way and includes many tidbits that are not found in Johnson's book, such as numerous Japanese atrocities and the massacre at Palawan. Sides also has a great writing style that I enjoyed immensely.
While Johnson's book is still the standard on this subject, Sides' book is a great addition to the field.
I rated GHOST SOLDIERS a 4-star rather than 5 as it contains no footnotes or endnotes, no index, and no table of contents. I believe that all serious history books should contain at least notes and and index.

Hampton Sides does an outstanding job of weaving past and present in this story of a World War II rescue mission. The unspeakable suffering endured by the POWs only makes their remarkable spirit more inspiring, and the author's in-depth research enables a comprehensive treatment of a complex story. Also fascinating were the exploits of little-known heroes like Claire Phillips and the chaplains who smuggled news and life-prolonging materials into the Cabanatuan camp. The description of the role played by Filipino guerrillas, the chronicle of the prisoners' homecoming, and especially the haunting quotations from prisoners' poignant diaries and poetry round out a very satisfying read. Highly recommended.

This is the second book I have read by Hampton Sides. The first was In The Kingdom of Ice which was a fascinating story of human courage. Ghost Soldiers was even better.The book shifts back and forth between the prison environment and the rescuers. Not only is Sides an excellent writer, but the story itself is just hard to believe. Interesting corollary with Unbroken with respect to the Japanese and the way they treated our prisoners, which was enough to make you want to never buy another product from Japan. All told this is an amazing and well written book.

Considering that this the author's first foray into historical writing (that I'm aware of), I think this is a terrific book.
The book consists of two main stories, told in tandem: that of the Cabanatuan prisoners and that of the mission to rescue them. Each chapter brings the two stories closer until they eventually merge as one.
Contrary to the previous reveiwer's comments, I don't think every historical author should mold themselves after the great Steven Ambrose. If you want Stephen Ambrose, read Stephen Ambrose (who, as yet, has not done a Pacific Campaign book).
If you're interested in a fascinating story, written by a very good author, check this book out.

My grandfather was one of the first Rangers through the gate at Cabanatuan. His name was Charles "Coggie" Swain. I only remember him telling me a few stories about the raid on the camp. So when I heard the story was previewed in the May 2001 issue of Esquire, I had to buy a few copies for me, my brother and sister and my father Charles E. Swain (Coggie was my dad's dad).
Dad bought me a copy of the book.
If it were not a true story, it would be almost unbelievable. The stories Coggie told me were true....this is written proof. Everything from the training at Pike's Peak to bellycrawling just yards from Japanese soldiers.
Coggie died over ten years ago, so I'll never hear any more stories from him, but when I read the book, it was like he was telling me directly.
By the way, the first face you see on the left in the second row on the cover of Ghost Soldiers, is Coggie.
Seth Andrew Swain

1. Ghost Soldiers is an account of the greatest American POW rescue and the events leading up to this daring mission. The author, Hampton Sides, reports the chilling accounts of hundreds of American prisoners who suffered the long bloody battle of Bataan, the inevitable surrender, and the brutal captivity from the Japanese Imperial Army. Sides develops his story through many interviews of actual Bataan survivors, telling a gripping account of what it was like to be in the hands of the Japanese. Within his book he develops a second account of the extremely successful rescue by 6th Ranger Battalion led by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince. The book jumps back and forth between the perspectives of the newly trained and outfitted 6th Rangers on their very first mission, and the battle starved and brutally beaten American POWs of Bataan. Ghost Soldiers dives deep into guerrilla warfare and the details of resistance fighters running information to prisoners and supporting the Rangers rescue mission.

2. Hampton Sides is a columnist and contributing editor for Outside magazine, The New Yorker magazine and NPR. In 2002 he won the PEN USA Award for nonfiction. He is the writer of two books, Ghost Soldiers and Americana. Sides was nominated for a National Magazine Award in 2003.

3. Sides is a magazine writer and he sticks with a reporter's writer style. He develops an objective outline that draws in readers intended for a large audience both civilian and military. The story is laid out and formatted for easy reading. Throughout the book the reader can't help but feel that he is being reported to on location in the death camps of the Philippines from a correspondent reporter. Sides' writing style makes for a first class page turner. His ability to bounce around the plot of the story keeps even a short attention span deeply interested in this book.

4. Hampton Sides draws the reader into two different points in time during the same period of Philippine history. The period is World War II. The early time frame starts off before the on coming Japanese attack. Sides paints a picture of a life in the Philippines as an endless siesta. The well hidden secret of the Army and Navy was a tour of duty in the Philippines. Happiness however was not to be endless and the Japanese quickly forced the American forces into a bloody battle of survival. Without the supplies that were failing to come from the damaged Pacific naval fleet (Due to the attack on Pearl Harbor), surrender was inevitable for the US forces in the Philippines. The US was caught off guard in a text book example of the principle of surprise. In a short matter of time the US was in a position where it could not support its troops. Without the pacific fleet being rebuilt and remanded the war in the Pacific was to be a long road to victory. At the other end of the timeline Sides brings us to another bloodied force on the verge of surrender, but this time it's the Japanese turn to hang their heads in shame. It is four long years later. The American war machine is turning out great men that are equipped with detroits finest. The Philippens is ready to fall back into the hands of the US once again, but not without one thing left to fix. Their were at least 500 survivors of the original 80,000 men of Bataan kept in Cabanatuan Prison Camp on the island of Luzon. General MacArthur was not going to fall back on his promises to come back and rescue the men of Bataan.

5. The author's background in journalism gives him great ability to develop and narrate the story of the American POWs. The interviews are, for the majority, first hand accounts and seemed to be well researched. Sides drew on many interviews with Japanese military veterans to help develop the story and give it much more legitimacy. This is Sides first attempt at writing within the scope of military history. Unfortunately Sides' lack of military experience makes the reader long for more dialogue concerning strategy and tactics using proper military terminology. His description of the Rangers' plan was very crude. Hampton Sides states in multiple interviews that this was not to be a traditional history piece with notes and an index. I do believe Sides accomplished what he set out to write, and that was a first rate account of the actions of the POWs and the rescue operation in a style appealing to the general public. However when Ghost Soldiers is compared to other military history books that appealed to the masses like We Were Soldiers Once and Young or Band of Brothers it falls short. I believe that this is a direct result in the confidence that bleeds through the narration of military tactics. Hampton Sides' perspective is from the objective viewer. He took great care to research past memoir, periodicals, after action reports, and took very detailed interviews. He built up a dramatic factual report of what actually happened with very limited obvious opinion. I did find his opinion of the Rangers interesting, and maybe a little underestimated. In several cases Sides characterized the Rangers as being very lucky. Based off the reading and the interviews it was my interpretation that LTC Mucci had crafted these fresh young and very well equipped Rangers into a fierce, maneuverable, and lethal elite infantry battalion. The Rangers luck was not luck at all, but truly a combination of a much more prepared and trained force that could meet the demands of this particular mission. Often Sides opinion would show through in the interviews based off of what he decided was needed to be reported. The reader also gets a sense that this story is very much developed around the American POWs' account of what happen. An overwhelming majority of the dialogue is focused on life as a prisoner with the raid being a branch off from the main theme. Side's perspective was on showing the 21st century an example of one the greatest endurance challenges of man kind's history of warfare.

6. To be brief in my conclusion, I will say that this is an enjoyable read. Ghost Soldiers may not hold up to the masters of military history writing in comparison, at the same time it doesn't suffer a lack of entertainment. Sides knows his readers, and is a professional at keeping their attention. I would recommend this book for any soldier. All soldiers would gain some good insight on what it was like to be a POW in hands of a ruthless enemy. Most of all I recommend this book because it defines what is to be brave in the face of hopelessness.

There's a lot of fascinating information in this book, and it's reasonably well-written. But the constant leaping back and forth in time is simply excessive. And it's maddening to have no table of contents, no index and no citations. Also, some places mentioned in the text are not shown on the four confusingly-overlapping maps.

Wow. Just...wow. This true story is incredible on its own and Mr. Sides does a great job of telling the story in an interesting and powerful way. The writing style goes back and forth between the two groups of men, the prisoners of war and their experiences, and the Rangers on their rescue mission, interwoven together near the end. It was difficult to put this book down as I continued to want to know more about how the men survived the Death March and subsequent imprisonment as well as the harrowing rescue taken on by the newly formed Army Rangers.

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone, especially ones curious about this event. I learned a lot more than I knew before about it by reading this book.

Great Book! The story begins with a Japanese massacre at a Philippine POW camp. The report by the survivors alarms the US Army;lest it be repeated again. A newly formed Ranger unit is picked for the rescue mission. The book continues with alternate stories and narratives of life at the POW camp and of the preparations of the Ranger unit and the infiltration of the enemy lines. Side stories are included of the Philippine people - their sacrifices and their fondness of Americans. Finally, the Rangers attack and liberate the camp. Philippine guerrillas help block Japanese reinforcements. The book includes many photographs of the Rangers and the prisoners.

When you read this book you are taken to another time and place where great men fought and died for their country. Every young man that crossed the Pacific showed great courage, but there were some men who showed the awesome power of the human spirit and the will to survive. This book will take you to dark places where men were pushed beyond their limits. Youth and passion gave way to wearyness and desperation. The young men at the Cabanatuan prison camp endured more than anyone should ever have to. This book is not about escape or rescue as much as it is about survival and resistance. We honor those mens memories by reading this book and tring to understand what they must have went through all those years that they were prisoners of war. Thsi book is a page turner and sure to an emotional adventure. I'm glad I read this book, I will all ways remember these men and their story.

Hampton Sides has written a story that tells the epic tragedy of defeat on the Bataan Peninsula, the horrific march that followed with many soldiers not making it to their intended prison camp destination where the survivors endured years of cruelty. He powerfully tells the story of the courage these men showed daily and of the final triumph of their rescue by Army Rangers. My only regret is that I did not know the full account of these men many years ago when there were more of them alive to thank personally for their courage in the face of such adversity. Thank you Hampton for a wonderfully well written book about our nation's heroes in the Pacific.

Tim White
Winning Attitude Communication

I am literally minutes from reading the last page of this book and suddenly my cares pale to insignificance compared to what the Bataan Death March (or as the book points out the "hike") survivors endured. Author Sides does a superb job juxtaposing the story of the POWs and their rescuers. One has to constantly remember this is non-fiction, the elements of a novel seem almost in every page-the irony of the American Rangers' fatalities, the poignant "last" POW. Read from page 30 to the end non-stop feeling every emotion imaginable from horror to comedy.

Looking for real story that reads like a spine tingling novel?
Looking for something to put your life in perspective?
Want to know what it means to sacrifice?
Want to know what separates the "men from the boys?"
Want to read about one man's inhumanity to man AND another's willingness to give his life for his fellow man?
Read Ghost Soldiers, a superb and very readable account of how a small army of men risked their lives to save 500 survivors from the Battan Death March.
Read it and pass it on to someone else.

As a teen-ager, I read with great sadness the daily newspaper accounts of America's holding action in the Pacific Theater, especially of the defeats suffered by the undermanned, underarmed and isolated forces in the Philippine Islands. Grim stories of a Bataan "Death March" emerged soon after the surrender there in 1942. But not until I read "Ghost Soldiers" almost 60 years later did the full impact of the three-year ordeal endured by those prisoners of war reveal itself. Their story and the nail-biting secret mission by a force of Army Rangers to rescue the survivors of the march make for an emotionally draining but rewarding reading experience.

This book is a must read. The amazing rescue story is the largest and most daring to this day; it is puzzling that stories such as this one and the escape from Davao were seldom used in schools... The book is very well written offering plenty of suspense! As our WWII generation is slowly fading away, Americans and especially younger ones should never forget their sacrifices that ensured our liberties today!

This book is a must-read. In an age of relative ease and an increasing impatience for the world around us Hampton Sides has given us cause to take stock of the world we currently find ourselves in and be thankful. Too many of the actual facts and minute details of the war have faded from our current era into "the past" and have been minimized with the passing of time. Sides vividly tells us the heroic story of those that fate and time put into a situation that we would now find unthinkable. The book is both heart-wrenching and inspiring. With our modern way of life where food, shelter, and safety are readily available, how would any one of us fair in the same circumstances.
For those that find the war was too gruesome and distasteful to relive, for the masses that came long after the war had ended, I think this book should be required reading. The strengths that we so often attribute to ourselves as Americans were forged by the people in this story and the hundreds of thousands like them that did their duty, endured the unimaginable, and were the foundation of where we stand today. This book will make you cover your open mouth at the unspeakable inhumanity and cheer out loud at the remarkable strength of the human spirit. By writing this book Sides has, in some small way, paid hommage to those that fought and suffered, but should also remind us that this story is one of many.
Sides does a marvelous job of bringing to life the enormity of the battles and the intricacies of the rescue. This is not a one-sided account of a historical event. Sides has brilliantly incorporated details from both prisoner and savior, and all those that played even a minor role in these astonishing events. Sides reminds up that heroism is not just an individual quality that only the rare possess, but these incredible events were the result of the efforts of the American Rangers, Philippine soldiers, common villagers, and the prisoners themselves. Before all recollection of the events of WWII are gone forever with the passing of our last soldier, stories like this, both great and small, should be passed on to the generations that have followed and that continue to thrive, due in part, to the remarkable strength and uncommon bravery of those that were there.

This novel by Hampton Sides is a great read. It begins with the dangerous battle on the island of Bataan. The Americans hopelessly lose this battle, finally surrendering to the Japanese. The whole story is about the P.O.Ws inside the Japanese camp of Cabanatuan, and the American Rangers on their way to save them. This book includes two genres, Action and Drama. This is one way this book is so good. It definitely has an action side, with all the fighting in the battles and the Rangers trying to free the prisoners. The drama genre comes in when you read about the P.O.Ws inside the camp. What these Japanese did was horrible. In Ghost Soldiers, you read about what the Rangers do to save these prisoners. It is truly amazing what a person would do for his country, like running into the battlefield to retrieve fallen soldiers and risking your own life to save another.
Historically, I think this book was pretty true. In the book Ghost Soldiers, there were many quotes from the prisoners and Rangers during that time period. Overall I think these quotes were not far from the truth. As far as the events go, I believe that Hampton Sides told it as it was. If you're looking for facts about the battle of Bataan, or the prisoners in the prison camp of Cabanatuan, this book is a pretty good source for information. Ghost Soldiers was a fairly decent book for information.
If you're looking for an awesome book, Ghost Soldiers is the book for you. It combines the two genres of Action and Drama, making it a good book for a girl or a boy. It gives you a very good idea on what the soldiers went through to save the prisoners of the Japanese prison camp. It also lets you see how bad the Japanese treated the P.O.Ws of Cabanatuan prison camp. Seeing how bad these P.O.Ws were health wise and mentally, you will realize what they went through.
Ghost Soldiers was an excellent book. If you're into action or drama this book is just for you.

Ghost Soldiers
By: Hampton Sides
Ghost Soldiers is a wonderful account of the brutality of some of the Japanese guards at Cabanatuan, a camp for the sickest and most disabled POWs of the Allies. It also gave a scary and compelling look into how they got there, and what happened to them inside the camp. Ghost Soldiers also allowed us to look at what happened to the thousands of POWs who passed through the camp, and then headed to Japan or other countries to work on projects that would assist the Axis.
Ghost Soldiers is based around a group of roughly 200 Rangers and 150 Filipino guerillas and their struggle to go and save the 500 imprisoned POWs presiding at Cabanatuan before the POWs are murdered. The Japanese had already exterminated many POWs at other camps and the Rangers and Filipino guerillas were trying to prevent this from happening at Cabanatuan.
The only thing in the Ranger's favor was the element of surprise. If this was lost, the Allies would probably lose 700 men along with causing the death of 150 Filipinos. This element keeps the book flowing along with keeping you on the edge of your seat and wondering how the Rangers could have dealt with the nerve racking thought of "if they were caught, they were dead."
Ghost Soldiers allows you to learn a lot about the history of WWII, along with seeing the torture POWs were put through. It also shows you that because of miss communication, POWs were tortured. This book will bring you to tears through out the whole book, especially in the parts where POWs are killed due to malnutrition, disease, murder, or torture.
I would highly suggest reading this book if you would like to see the life of a POW in Cabanatuan, or the worst of WWII, or the life of a Ranger in the U.S. Army. These are all wonderfully wound together through out the whole book. Making it flow and allowing you to see some of the worst of WWII.

A compelling story about the rescue of prisoners during World War II. This is a great book. It details the lives of many characters that are impacted by this portion of the war. First we learn of the horrors of the Bataan Death March, the horrific treatment of the prisoners and Philippine civilian by the ruthless Japanese soldiers. After reading these accounts, I do not sympathize at all with the people who protested the dropping of the Atom bombs on Japan. The book builds emtional ties with the many heroes that Hampton Sides describes. We realize that none of our bravery (except for the NYPD and NYFD) compare to the prisoners, Rangers, and many civilians that were involved in this event. Thank you, Hampton Sides for bringing this story to me.

This book was incredibly well-written and moved at the speed with which this mission to save American POWs at Cabanatuan Camp had to be planned, staged and executed. It tells not only how the POWs were forced to live and survive, but also what they went through on the Bataan Death March even to get Cabanatuan. Even more amazing was that the US Army could so quickly grasp the situation at Cabanatuan, identify the Rangers/Philippines/Alamo Scout force needed to carry out the mission, and put them on the move to do so. Col. Mucci's and his staff's planning and leadership (and that of the guerrilla leaders) and their bravery and that of their men is a truly inspirational story, as is the human story of the prisoners whose rescue was the whole purpose of the mission. Though have read extensively on WWII, I had not known that Army Rangers participated in the Pacific Theater of WWII (having previously read only of their European Theater exploits). Fortunately the 6th Rangers "were there" and can add this mission to the proud laurels of US Army Ranger history. Hoooah!

I would have to rate this one of the best and enjoyable history book of this year. After seeing the author being interviewed on the Today show, I knew I had to read it. The book is very well written and enjoyable to read. The accounts by Sides are very candid and graphic, which adds to the book being about both the tragedy and victory of war. Sides also describes the death march being brought about by poor Japanese logistics, as well as their cultural view regarding prisoners. This account has escaped readers for so long is now magnificently told.

Hampton Sides does an exceptional job of bringing this story to life.
I did not know about this rescue mission until I picked up his book.
You get to know these people, what happened to them, how they dealt with everything, and how they crafted ways to survive.
Parts of the story are truly shattering, but the planning of the mission and the carrying it out took incredible courage.
It's one of those books you don't want to put down.

This is one of the best written WW2 books I've ever read. I read this book in a less than 24 hour period because I could not put it down. The author's use of descriptive narrative and the maps enabled me to picture in my mind the action as it unfolded. I was also impressed by how the author effectively integrated the stories of the rescuers and the rescuees so that I was unable to stop reading on. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more of the sacrifices our parents' generation endured to give us the freedoms we enjoy today.

When I first saw Sides' book I must admit I was a bit miffed. Forrest Bryant Johnson gave a fantastic account of the Cabanatuan resue in his book HOUR OF REDEMPTION and I felt like Sides was taking advantage of Johnson's great work.
However, Sides presents the story in a different way and includes many tidbits that are not found in Johnson's book, such as numerous Japanese atrocities and the massacre at Palawan. Sides also has a great writing style that I enjoyed immensely.
While Johnson's book is still the standard on this subject, Sides' book is a great addition to the field.
I rated GHOST SOLDIERS a 4-star rather than 5 as it contains no footnotes or endnotes, no index, and no table of contents. I believe that all serious history books should contain at least notes and and index.

Hampton Side's Ghost Soldiers is the best epic of the modern era. It tells the story of how a group of men rescue their brothers in war. Then men they are rescuing in the camps have endured such atrocities that can only be matched in concentration. Side takes a different perspective on the war as most writers are focused more on the confrontation in Europe. He portrays the soldiers with colorful personalities while still instilling them with the traits of a soldier during war. The story seems to the reader as it is always at a climax as they are racing the clock to save the soldiers before the Japanese force completely exterminates them.

The soldiers in the camp have suffered over three years in the camp. After they were captured, the United States had to focus on the battle with Hitler in Europe before they could save their boys in the Philippines. They had to keep their morals up by staying close to one another and forming strong friendships. The soldiers on the outside knew that it would not belong until their comrades were killed and being led by Lt. Commander Mucci they began to prepare. Side illustrates the frantic feeling of how the soldiers have to beat the clock in order to help the prisoners of war that the Japanese are treating like dogs. Side illustrates the bond that the United States army had to create with the Philippine gorilla army in order to have a chance of having a successful mission.

The epic is one of the best World War II novels ever written. Hampton Side helps the reader realize the incredible bond that not only soldiers share but inevitably all Americans share. The rescue mission would have no strategical affect on the soldiers. However, it would last forever as a great moral victory. The victory was the greatest rescue mission ever in United States history.

Great story about the rescue mission of the survivors of the Bataan Death March. A very disturbing look at some of the horrific experiences of world war II. Hampton Sides does a great job in telling the heat wrenching story of the 500 survivors of the Japanese POW camp. Not only do the soldiers overcome remarable odds to even survive, they are also the beneficiary of an incredibly courageous rescue mission.
The Bataan Death March is a topic that I was aware of, but not familiar with. This is an unbelivably tragic story of what these young americans endured. Much like another great WWII book, "Flags of our Fathers", we see the heartless cruelty of the Japanese military. Ghost Soldiers is an incredible testament to the courage of the survivors and their story.

Ghost Soldiers is the historic tale in World War II about a POW rescue operation on a now well-known prisoner camp called Cabanatuan. It follows two stories, one of the POW survivors of the Bataan Death March. From when the soldiers surrendered in Bataan to the point where they are rescued in the raid on Cabanatuan, it details their gruesome hardships and their struggle to survive. The other story it follows in the dual story line is the U.S. Rangers sent to rescue them and how they manage to pull off the most successful raid on a POW camp in the history of the world.

This book is well written, solid in both detail and the events that took place. I found the book interesting as although I am aware of many World War II events, I did not know of such POW camps and the details of the Japanese retreat back to their homeland in the Philippines. I liked the dual story line format used to explain the events up to the point of the aftermath of the Cabanatuan raid as it gave a sensible and reasonable time frame to understand. I also enjoyed the many first hand information gathered by the author, Hampton Sides, who went to such great lengths to interview the survivors to write the book accurately.

Despite the many pros of the book, there were some cons to me as a reader. Even though I enjoyed the dual story lines, I found it difficult to fully follow and understand at first as it swapped between the POW's story and the Ranger's story. This con was corrected later on in the book though as it becomes easier to follow as the dual story lines merge towards the raid on Cabanatuan. I also feel it-lacked detail in certain areas, such as the Hukbalahap guerrilla's exact grudge against the pro-American guerrillas and the history behind them. One of the last cons I found in the book is how the many characters in the event all were hard to remember. I feel it might have been possible to represent the characters in an easier fashion that would allow the reader to have an easier time learning each character.

I learned much from the book on the Cabanatuan POW camp and I become aware of the Bataan Death March. The gruesome atrocities committed in the Bataan Death March and the POW's living conditions showed me how gruesome war can be. The book did an excellent job in teaching about the Death March as it went into such detail as many of the murders of the surrendered U.S. soldiers and the unfortunate planning towards the POW's transportation and condition. The book also succeeded in describing how the Rangers managed to complete the Cabanatuan raid, which was the most successful raid in U.S. history due to the fact there was so few casualties taken by both the POWs and Rangers and how many Japanese troops were killed in a very short amount of time. This book is one of the best I have read on a World War II event yet.

Honestly, I've never been a WWII history buff - but I might be now. Once I started reading this book (the subject of which I ashamedly knew nothing about beforehand) I absolutely could not put the book down.

Truly these men (or boys) showed their courage and their love of freedom and country over their own lives. A great sacrifice that should never be forgotten. In spite of the brutality of war, goodness will overcome.

Read this book!

Read this in college a few years back. It is a good book for readers just looking for an intense story of bravery, hardship, depravity, sadness, etc. Just a very moving book, not too mired in the details. Just keeps moving, which is good for us who know little about WWII.

"We're the battleing bastards of Battaan,no momma, no papa, no uncle sam...and nobody gives a damn". I still remember the entire thing, and that was like 4 years ago.

Just get it. It's a great read.

even the most hamfisted writer couldn't miss with the bataan death march.

having said that, sides is a quite skilled writer and this book on this notorious chapter in the pacific war (ww2) is gripping. the facts themselves are brutal, surely as ghastly as any chapter of any war. sides brings to this a historians perspective, a journalist's eye for stories and a nice touch.

great history, great story-telling about an event all americans should know about.

This is an amazing and well-researched story that Hampton Sides tells with skill and objectivity. The reader will gain some understanding not only of the brutal Death March and life as a POW in the Philippines, but also the varied mindsets of their captors. It was interesting to learn that more than a few of the POW camp guards were actually Korean and Taiwanese conscripts, and yet just as menacing to the POWs as Japanese members of the Imperial Army.

Although the movie based on this book is already in production, I don't think any screenplay could be more exciting as this true story. Heroism is found on every page: In the silent suffering of the POWs; the heavy sacrifices made by Filipino civilians and guerrillas who had no direct interest in helping these prisoners yet did so with enthusiasm; and the Rangers themselves, who took on this mission with great skill and courage. The upcoming movie should do the same for renewed public interest in the WWII Pacific theatre as "Saving Private Ryan" did for interest in D-Day/WWII in Europe. Until then, the American Experience DVD "Bataan Rescue" is an excellent companion to this book. Also worthwhile is the patriotic WWII film "Back to Bataan"(1945), which briefly depicts the rescue and actual POWs from Cabanatuan, as well as subsequent guerrilla actions. A subdued John Wayne was never better than in this film, IMHO.

Side's depiction of the major role that Filipino guerrillas played in the rescue may spark your interest in learning more about the anti-Japanese resistance movement in the Philippines. A superb book on this subject is "Lapham's Raiders" by Major Robert Lapham, who was the US Army guerrilla liaison featured in Ghost Soldiers. "American Guerrilla in the Philippines"(1945) is a very lively personal account of Leyte partisan actions as told by Ensign David Richardson. Another well-written account by an American POW in the Philippines is "Mr. Michel's War", one of the unfortunates who were eventually shipped off to Japan & Manchuria as slave labor. A good book can motivate the reader to seek out other inspirational accounts that occurred during this important era, and "Ghost Soldiers" does exactly that.

Ghost Soldiers was written by Hampton Sides and is the story of the incredible rescue of the prisoners of war at Camp Cabanatuan in WWII. The author used interviews, official records and previously published material to weave the story together. The author takes you behind the scenes with every little detail about how the prisoners themsleves came to be at Camp Cabanatuan to the daring resuce mission by the US Army 6th Ranger Battalion. There have been other books written about the Bataan Death March and about Camp Cabanatuan. However, this book is able to give you a true taste of it all. You will not want to put this book down.

This is the incredibly gripping story of the rescue of American POWs by U.S. Army Rangers in the Phillipines near the end of WWII. The author gives great details of the rescue itself as well as what life in the camp was like. This was an important mission because all allied prisoners were going to be rescued from the camp, and it was to be the proving ground for the Rangers who were in their infancy. Highly recommended patriotic read that will leave the reader with a good feeling afterward.

I knew about the raid on Cabanatuan but didn't know much about the operation itself. This book explains it all. The humility of the men in the raid is what got me. This was an extremely dangerous mission that was nearly carried off flawlessly. And let's not forget the equally brave Filipino guerrillas who assisted the Rangers. This is a magnificent book, well done.

I've actually been to Corregidor island and to the memorial outside Manila where thousands of white crosses stand in formation, but I have never understood the historical significance until this book. From the first page, I was glued to this book like none other I've read. It's ashamed that theses events in the Phillippines were pushed aside so quickly after they occurred because of other major events concluding the war. Effects of these soldiers' presence still lingers, especially in rural areas. Being an obvious American, Philipino kids liked to yell out "hey Joe!" (in reference to GI Joe, our soldiers in WWII) to get my attention. And this was 60+ years after the events written.

This is a very well composed book and I have been recommending it at every chance I get.

This novel by Hampton Sides is truly a great one. "Flags of Our Fathers" was slightly better, but this one ranks with the best of the WWII books.
The novel captures the readers attention in the opening chapter that tells the horrific story of one of the few survivors of the Palawan massacre.
Sides did a wonderful job in telling the story. One chapter would tell the survivors story, and the next would tell the Rangers story. At the end of the book, and after a huge amount of suspense, the two stories finally merged into the rescue of the POW's.
If you loved Flags of our Fathers, then you'll love this one too. All people should read these two great novels, they show how much those young men gave so that we could be free.
The price of freedom was and is a great one. Hampton Sides shows this in his novel and with every page you read it will add to your respect of those that fought for our freedom.

I like to read well researched novels by journalists. This book did not disappoint me. Well written and suspenseful even tho you know the outcome.

This was not the first Japanese prison camp book I read but the actions of the Japanese commanders are consistant through the books I read. In light of the news of our prisoners of war treatment I wonder if this situation brings out the worst in people. I would like to read a well researched book on this topic.

I read this slowly, putting it down and coming back later. It was a difficult read.

Narrative history at it's best! This book will make you feel that you are living next to the characters. Hampton Sides has given us a tale of a little known heroic rescue of POWs. Sides allows the reader to see both the pain of the prisoners and the ingenuity and perserverance of the rescurers. He also shows the extreme inhumanity the Japanese inflicted on the prisoners.
If you are looking for an exciting, suspenseful read that is historically accurate, this is your book!

This book chronicles the horrific story of the Bataan death march, the treatment of American, British, Dutch, Australian, and Norwegian POWs in the Philippines, as well as the Philippine resistance very well. Also fairly well documented is the cultural rift between the Far East and the West prior to, and during the Second World War.

Hampton Sides' writing style is, at times, frustrating. It is obvious that Mr. Sides is not a military historian. It appears that he often tries to compensate for his lack of knowledge by using bombastic terminology, and over-intellectualizing easily explained facts and events.

I believe that first reading Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys, both by James Bradley, will make Ghost Soldiers much better understood by the reader.

Regardless, this is a must read for anyone interested in WWII history.

I thought Ghost Soldiers was an excellent and informative account of a great rescue mission but also of the plight of World War II prisoners of war in Japanese prison camps in the south pacific. I don't think I ever truly realized how horribly they were treated. A great book which I most highly recommend.

I am very grateful for Mr. Sides story. My father, Robert Kirkwood Whiteley, was one of the Ghost Soldiers. He was, understandably, emotionally reluctant to tell his family, or anyone else, of his experiences in the Philippines so we heard fragments every now and then and only in a disjointed and emotionally charged fashion. Mr. Sides accurately recounts the military, political and cultural imperatives of the US Army and Imperial Japanese forces and has affirmed for me and made sense of many of the extraordinary incidents, individual actions and psychology of my father's experience. There is a kind of restraint in the author's telling - it is almost beyond belief what these people endured. Mr. Sides' literary style is eminently readable, his research is excellent, and the survivors he interviewed are to be commended for unburdening themselves so straightforwardly of such a horrendous and defining experience. What I remember most of my father's stories is his flat, unemotional description of horror and his unabashed tearful joy as he sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge upon his return. This is not so much a story of World War II as it is an affirmation of man's endurance and dignity in the face of unspeakable deprivation and hopelessness. I'm proud of my father and this story helps explain why.

Cabanatuan City was my home in December 1941. My parents were missionaries and we were caught in the onslaught of the Japanese attack. We fled our home on December 24 in an attempt to avoid the invasion army. Capture was obviously inevitable, but survival chances were greater if it came at the hands of an occupational force. While hiding in the mountains, we were captured on February 3, 1942, and were taken to the military base at Cabanatuan. After days of extensive interrogation of my father, we were transferred to Santo Tomas internment camp in Manila.
The accounts of deprivation and starvation in this book are so accurate it brought back a flood of memories. While the years have somewhat dimmed the horrors of death and destruction during the battle of Manila, if I live to be a hundred I will never forget starvation. So true was the segment discussing recipes. Hours were spent talking, even arguing, about which recipe would produce the tastiest results. This book also reinforces the things we learned about the importance of faith, hope, resilience and a sense of humor...without which we would not have survived.
Hampton Sides presents a true picture of life in a Japanese internment camp.

I was well aware of the Bataan Death March, but had never learned the fate of the men who survived it. Sides tells the stories of those men, who endured unspeakable hardships as POW's of the Japanese for almost three years. He also tells the thrilling story of the heroes of the U.S. Army's 6th Ranger Battalion, who, in January, 1945, staged a daring raid behind enemy lines to rescue those who still remained in captivity.
The book is exquisitely written by an evident master of English language narration.

4 Stars- Exciting
Ghost Soldier by Hampton Sides was a riveting book that opened my eyes to a whole new perspective of what WWII was like.The vast description that Sides gets into in this book allows the reader to experience the full emotion of what is transgressing. The wondrous tales of the men and there account's allows the reader's to fell as though they are there and really relate to the soldiers. Although the book seems somewhat unorganized and can be hard to read at times you never loose attention for a second. although the books main plot was about the rescue of the POWs Sides developed the occasional soldier so highly that he appeared to be a a living person in front of your eyes, not just a bunch of jumbled text. This book however is not meant to put your mind at ease about war. On the contrary this book shows just how brutal war can truly be and how it leaves nothing undevestated. This book is one of the best war book on expressing the degree of which the war effects each individual person including both Japanese and American soldier and the toll it has on there mind. This books takes readers through all the emotions involved in a war and leaves the reader with a feeling of more knowledge and wisdom than before they read the book.

I am a WWII buff and have read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies on the subject. This non fiction book is one of the best. It read like a novel. It was a great story, told in such a way that it was almost impossible to put down.

If you are interested in WWII, and specifically if you are interested in the Pacific leg of WWII, Ghost Soldiers is a book you cannot miss. It is a story everyone should know.

This book will astound and horrify you in equal parts as you live through the misery of the Bataan Death March and enslavement of thousands of American POWs and then see them liberated by Rangers (no surprise there - you have a pretty good idea of how things will turn out from the very beginning - especially if you skip to the photographs).
From its ghastly opening chapter to the victorious conclusion, "Ghost Soldiers" is a suspensful and amazing read.