Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission - Book Reviews

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II's Most Dramatic Mission. By Hampton Sides. New York: Doubleday, 2001. 342 pages. $24.95. Reviewed by Steve R. Waddell, author of U.S. Army Logistics: The Normandy campaign, 1944, and Associate Professor of History, US Military Academy.

In his book Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides, a contributing editor for Outside magazine and author of Stomping Grounds, a book of stories about American subcultures, tells the story of the January 1945 American raid on the Japanese prisoner of war (POW) camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines to rescue Allied prisoners. In the tradition of Cornelius Ryan and Stephen Ambrose, the author interviewed many of the participants, both rescuers and prisoners, and then tells the story of the POW camp and the subsequent rescue mission through the eyes of the individuals involved. The book is as much a story about the individual--about survival and the human spirit--as it is the story of a successful military operation.

The story begins in December 1941 with the Japanese invasion of the Philippine Islands, the American retreat to Bataan and Corregidor, and the subsequent surrender of the American and Filipino forces to the Japanese in April and May 1942. By January 1945 very few Allied prisoners, survivors of the Bataan Death march, remained in the Philippines. Many had died from nearly three years of neglect, hunger, disease, and torture at the hands of the Japanese. By the summer of 1944, with the Americans moving nearer to the Philippines, many prisoners were shipped out of the islands on the infamous "Hell ships" bound for Japan or Formosa. With the Allied invasion of the Philippines in October 1944, the fate of the surviving prisoners of war became even more precarious: Reports of Japanese troops murdering Allied prisoners prior to retreating began reaching the American forces. To prevent another massacre, a small force of 121 men from the US Army's 6th Ranger Battalion slipped through the Japanese lines on 28 January 1 945, launching one of the most daring rescue missions of the war. The objective of the raid was to rescue 513 American and British POWs in the Japanese camp near Cabanatuan on the Island of Luzon. Ghost Soldiers is the story of the rescuers and the rescued.

Sides details the raid from beginning to end, intertwining the story of the prisoners in the camp with the story of the rescuers, capturing not only the details but the emotions of the event. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci, a West Point graduate and the commanding officer of the 6th Ranger Battalion, was selected to lead the raid. Mucci could not take all 800 of his Rangers, so he selected C Company, commanded by Captain Robert Prince, and a platoon from F Company to undertake the mission--121 men in all. Early on the morning of 28 January, the rescuers began a 30-mile march to the camp at Cabanatuan. Sides details the march through the jungle; the concern when LTC Mucci learned that the camp was a major transshipment point for retreating Japanese and that nearly 8,000 Japanese troops might be in the area; the logistical, intelligence, and combat contributions of the Filipino guerrillas; the planning, reconnaissance, and execution of the assault on the camp; and the successful withdrawal of the prisoners back to American lines.

Sides not only tells a great story in an exciting, gripping manner, he brings the participants to life; he captures the spirit of the time. He details the day-to-day suffering of the prisoners of war, the hunger, disease, and Japanese torture they endured with no end in sight. He tells the story of the dangerous work conducted by the Filipino resistance forces, both before and during the rescue mission. Many Filipino citizens risked certain death to gather intelligence and aid the prisoners whenever possible. Many aided the Rangers, supplying carts and food, and often taking up arms to join in the fight against the Japanese. The determination of the Rangers, committed to rescuing as many of the prisoners as possible, to prevent their murder by retreating Japanese soldiers, is inspiring.

Ghost Soldiers is worth reading for several reasons. First, it is a great account of one of the most exciting rescue missions of World War II. Second, it is a study in human behavior. It details people at their best dealing with people at their worst. Third, it is engagingly written. Anyone interested in military history, in World War II, and in the American spirit will find it to be an exciting story, compellingly told.

COPYRIGHT 2002 U.S. Army War College
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