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Ghost Solders Essay The book â€Å"Ghost Solders: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission† tells the story of the American raid that happened in January 1945 on the Japanese prisoner of war camp at Cabanatuan in the Philippines to rescue allied prisoners. The accounts come from interviews conducted by the author of the participants, both rescuers and prisoners. With these interviews the author was able to give the reader an insight to the concentrations caps and of the prisoners lives as well as the rescue mission with first hand details. There are three points this book was able to show and the first is about the individuals the second is of survival and the human spirit and the third is the success of the mission. It is a compelling work of history on the war with Japan. It focuses on the experiences of a few individuals but never loses sight of the bigger picture, the American war against Japan. Hampton Sides tells the true story of a daring mission to rescue American and Allied soldiers who had been incarcerated for more than three years behind enemy lines. These men roughly 500 were from an army of 100,000 who had surrendered in April 1942 and endured appalling conditions and acts such as the crushing of ailing prisoners with tanks, random decapitations and the use of exhausted troops for bayonet practice. Many of their comrades died during the Death March that followed their surrender. Sides reminds us how shocking it was for the Americans to witness suffering indiscriminate cruelty from the Japanese guards without being able to do anything about it. The story opens in December in the year 1941 with the Japanese invasion of the Philippines Islands, the American retreat to Bataan and Corregidor, and the surrender of the American and Filipino forces to the Japanese in April and May 1942. By January 1945 very few allied prisoners had survived the Bataan Death March and remained in the Philippines. Many died because of the three years of neglect, hunger, disease, and torture from the Japanese. With the summer of 1944, with Americans moving nearer to the Philippines many prisoners were shipped out to the Islands on what were called â€Å"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 uncertain. This was because of reports of Japanese troops murdering prisoners before retreating and just before American forces was able to save them. To prevent another massacre, a small force of 121 men from the U. S. Army’s 6th Ranger Battalion that slipped through the Japanese lines on January 28th 1945, engaging in one of the most daring rescue mission of the war. The object of the raids was to rescue 513 American and British POW’s in the Japanese camp near Cabanatuan on the Island of Luzon. â€Å"Ghost Story† is the story of the rescuers as well as the rescued. The author details the raid from beginning to end, intertwining the story of the prisoners in the camp with the story of the rescuers that give emotions to the reader on 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 took the C Company commanded by Captain Robert Prince, and a platoon from F Company to undertake the mission. There were 121 men total for the mission. Early in the morning on January 28th the rescuers began a 30 mile march to the camp at Cabanatuan. Sides detail the march through the jungle. He also deals with the concerns when it was discovered that the camp was a major transshipment point for retreating Japanese and almost 8,000 Japanese troops might be in the area. There were also details on the logistical, intelligence and combat contributions of the Filipino guerrillas as well as the planning, reconnaissance and execution of the assault on the camp. The author does an excellent job with these descriptions along with the emotional and gripping withdrawal of the prisoners back to American lines. Sides bring the story to life in a very exciting and very gripping manner and to me he captured the moment. He details the day to day suffering of the prisoners and tells the story of the dangerous work done by the resistance forces before and after the rescues. Many of the Filipino citizens helped the prisoners and the Rangers risking death. They supplied the Rangers with food and carts. They even fought along side of the Rangers. The book is very well written and is a must read for any WW II historian as well as the average reader. It gives a detailed look into human behavior during war and at a time when people are usually at their worst. â€Å"Ghost Soldiers† is a remarkable book, not least because Sidess heroes were ordinary solders and humans who somehow found the resilience to endure unimaginable horrors. The account of the raid itself is the stuff of high adventure, but where Sides excels is in persuading the survivors to recall their experiences in such powerful, candid detail. Reference: Sides, H. Ghost Solders: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission. New York: Doubleday (2001).