Description: In January 1945, 121 hand-selected troops from the elite U.S. Army Sixth Ranger Battalion slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: Attempt to rescue 513 American and British POWs who had spent more than three years in a surreally hellish camp near the city of Cabanatuan, thirty miles distant. The prisoners were the last survivors of the Bataan Death March left in the camp, and their extraordinary will to survive might soon count for nothing -- elsewhere in the Philippines, the Japanese Army had already executed American prisoners as it retreated from the advancing U.S. Army. As the Rangers carefully evaded Japanese troops, they made a disquieting discovery. Cabanatuan had become a major transshipment point for the Japanese retreat, and instead of facing a few dozen prison guards, they would possibly confront as many as 8,000 battle-hardened enemy troops.

"Ghost Soldiers" is far more than a thrilling battle saga. Hampton Sides explores the mystery of human behavior under extreme duress -- the remarkable resilience of the prisoners, who defied the Japanese authorities even as they were subjected to starvation, tropical diseases, and unspeakable tortures; the violent cultural clashes with Japanese guards and soldiers, trained in the warrior ethic of Bushido; the complicated heroism of the Rangers and Filipino guerrillas; the complex motivations of the U.S. high command, some of whom could justly be charged with abandoning the men of Bataan in 1942; and the nearly suicidal bravado of several spies, including priests and a cabaret owner, who risked their lives to help the prisoners during their long ordeal.

At once a gripping depiction of men at war and a compellingstory of redemption, "Ghost Soldiers" joins such landmark books as Flags of Our Fathers, The Greatest Generation, The Rape of Nanking, and D-Day in preserving the legacy of World War II for future generations.

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