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Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission is a fascinating book detailing the rescue of over 500 American survivors of the Bataan Death March in early 1945. This is an extremely brutal accounting of the amazingly savage treatment the soldiers received from the Japanese. The author starts the book by documenting one of the worst Japanese atrocities of the war, the massacre of American prisoners on Palawan Island in the Philippines. Because General Krueger, Sixth Army commander, feared that the Japanese would also massacre the Bataan survivors he asked Colonel Henry Mucci to rescue them ahead of the advance of the Americans.

The author did a great job of alternating the story of the rescue with various narratives of the captured men. Interspersed with these two main story lines are descriptions of the heroic efforts of the native Filipinos and a really interesting story about Claire Phillips, an American spy known as High Pockets. The interaction between the surviving soldiers and their captors was very illuminating This is an amazing book but definitely not for the faint hearted. That men survived this type of imprisonment is almost unbelievable, except many did live to tell about it. I highly recommend to anyone who has an interest in World War II, especially the Pacific Theatre.

I read this about 20 years ago and remember it being quite riveting.

A 4 star review from me. In my review, I said "One of the best accounts of, sadly, a forgotten story".

There is so much history like this that is being lost. I suppose that is why I gobble so much of it up. I am glad you enjoyed the the book.