Mis Memorias. Mis Bodas De Oro Con El Tango 1A. Ed

Book Description

From the critically acclaimed author whom The Wall Street Journal called "a first-class historian," here is a riveting account of one of the most spectacular rescue operations in history. On January 30, 1945, American troops staged a successful raid on Cabanatuan, a notorious Japanese POW camp where thousands of prisoners had been tortured and died. Based on interviews with the heroes who survived the raid, this book brings to life in electrifying detail the dramatic events that took place on that historic day.

Praise for William B. Breuer and his books

"A first-class historian." âThe Wall Street Journal

"Fast-paced, detailed, and satisfyingly dramatic." âWorld War II Magazine on Devil Boats

"Another smasher by Breuer, who specializes in thrilling reports of WWII spycraft and warfare." âKirkus Reviews on Race to the Moon

"Vivid . . . skillfully written." âLos Angeles Times on Retaking the Philippines

"Brings to life how airborne soldiers survived, how the human will prevails . . . against overwhelming enemies, tactical failures, and even death."âThe New York Times on Geronimo: American Paratroopers in World War II

Early on the morning of January 28, 1945, a small detachment of volunteers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry A. Mucci, leader of the 6th Ranger Battalion, embarked from their base in the Philippines on the most audacious rescue operation ever undertaken. Their objective: Penetrate thirty miles behind enemy lines and liberate 511 POWs from Cabanatuan, the notorious Japanese POW camp where thousands of American prisoners had been brutally tortured and killed. Little did Mucci's Rangers know when they got under way that morning that over the next few days and nights they would be making history.

Written by acclaimed military historian William B. Breuer, The Great Raid on Cabanatuan is a riveting account of that rescue mission and the gallant soldiers who carried it out against overwhelming odds. Based largely on interviews with the heroes who survived the operation, and featuring twenty-eight previously unpublished photographsâmany of them taken while the raid was in progressâit brings to life in electrifying detail the dramatic events that took place on the night of the raid, January 30, and during the harrowing days that followed.

In sketching out the many roads that led to Cabanatuan, Breuer brilliantly combines oral history with dramatic narrative to bring to life some of the most spectacular events of the war in the Pacific. We relive the hellish battles for Bataan and Corregidor, where in 1942 American and Filipino soldiers fought bravely to hold back the Japanese invasion force. We experience firsthand the horrors of the Bataan Death March on which tens of thousands of prisoners lost their lives en route to Cabanatuan. And we learn of the American underground and guerilla operations in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation from the men and women behind them, including Margaret Utinsky, leader of "Miss U's underground," and Claire Phillips, the glamorous lounge singer turned spy- master.

A gripping chronicle of one of the most harrowing rescue missions ever undertaken as told in all its gritty detail by the heroes who made it happen, The Great Raid on Cabanatuan is both a first-class piece of military scholarship and a thrilling adventure story.

Customer Reviews:

Read "Ghost Soldiers" Instead.......2007-06-21

Like many people, I read and generally enjoyed the 2001 bestseller Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission. What I didn't realize when I picked up this earlier book, was that it covers almost the exact same material, but in a much less engaging way. (It should be noted that both books owe a huge debt to Forrest Johnson's 1978 book Hour of Redemption: The Heroic WW II Saga of America's Most Daring POW Rescue, a debt acknowledged in Ghost Soldiers but not by this book.) Here, Breuer provides a workmanlike account of the post-Pearl Harbor political and military context that led to the U.S. "abandonment" of the Philippines, its subsequent fall to Japan, and the horrific fate of the US and Filipino soldiers taken prisoner. He similarly sketches out the spy network that operated under Japanese occupation, the regrouping of U.S. forces as the war in Europe wound down, and the planning and execution of the titular raid to free 511 POWs.

This material all more or less overlaps with Ghost Soldiers but isn't nearly as well written. Breuer has a penchant for trite melodramatic phrasing, and tends to repeat information over and over and over as if his reader has no memory. It also doesn't help that instead of simply writing "three Rangers did X", he writes, "John Q. Doe of Springfield, IL, James R. Doe of Anywhere, WY, and Jesse T. Doe of Plainview, MI did X." I certainly understand his desire to honor every solider he can by naming them, but it makes for very awkward reading. Another small tick that bothered me was that if any soldier had played college football, that merited mention -- but only football, no other sport. Why? Finally, his interviews with veteran POWs and Rangers seemed to yield little more than the most banal of anecdotes and recollections and their inclusion, again, while honoring them, really doesn't help the book's readability.

Unfortunately, behind the weak writing lurk bigger flaws. Foremost of these is a total lack of explanation as why it was deemed so crucial to mount a dangerous, complex, behind-enemy-lines mission to rescue the POWs. Breuer repeats a number of times that it was feared that the Japanese would massacre the POWs, but never tells what foundation that fear rested on. The reader is left to conclude that it was all basically hearsay based on the notion that the Japanese might do it for reasons of revenge as they retreat. This contrasts poorly with Ghost Soldiers, which explains that the U.S. Army's knew of one such massacre (the Palawan Massacre, in which American POWs were burned alive by retreating Japanese), and thus there was a very real fear guiding the raid at the climax of the book. The book also suffers somewhat from Breuer's agenda to lionize Douglas MacArthur and vilify Roosevelt and the "faceless Washington bureaucrats" (can someone please retire this trite phrase?). This is somewhat redeemed by his drawing attention to the massively heroic efforts of Filipino soldiers at the side of the Americans, and their subsequent total betrayal when it came to due honors and compensation from the U.S. government.

However, in the end, there's no reason to read this version of history when Ghost Soldiers is available -- unless you're really really interested in the Pacific Campaign. There's so much overlap between the two that all you'd be getting is different emphases. Related books that might be worth checking out are Silent Warriors of World War II: The Alamo Scouts Behind the Japanese Lines and Manila Espionage, Claire Phillips account of her life as the ringleader of an Allied spy ring in the Philippines (later made into the forgettable film I Was An American Spy).

Real life action story.......2007-05-14

This is the true story of the raid to free over 500 US POWs from the Japanese captured on Battan. It follows the 5 day mission of the 6th Rangers as they penetrate 30 miles behind enemy lines to effect the rescue. Great compaion peice to the "Ghost Soldiers" and the "Great Raid".

Reads like a thriller--but it is history!.......2006-03-24

I first heard about the Cabanatuan raid about 25 years ago, while studying guerrilla operations and special forces employed in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War Two. My studies were superficial because there wasn't much information out there for the casual historian. Then last year the movie, "the Great Raid," hit the screen, and I found books on this daring mission. Breuer's book has a 1994 copyright date; I wish I had found it earlier.

There were previous POW rescue missions in World War Two, but this was the most successful. There was a raid by Patton's forces in Germany. The Son Tay raid during 1970 came up empty-handed due to poor intel and an ossified decision cycle. The rescue of Jessica Lynch almost three years ago has been alternately criticized and lionized, but the Cabanatuan Raid was the pattern for all subsequent raids. At Cabanatuan, aviation and irregulars were cobbled together at the last minute and achieved amazing success at small cost. The commanders anticipated several hundred dead POWs and Rangers.

It was a debt of honor--something that is hard to explain to those without honor. The US Army had been abandoned in the Philippines just a few days after Pearl Harbor. This Roosevelt Administration decision was not an easy one--but Europe First and the destruction of the US Navy doomed MacArthur's forces in the Phillipines. There was no aid to send them. Australia nearly fell, too, during those dark days in early 1942. For strategic reasons, the garrison on Corregidor and Bataan were encouraged to fight the Japanese as long as possible in a hopeless battle--and President Roosevelt decided that the lie, "help is on the way," was the best way to achieve that longer fight. The US Army in the Phillipines was America's best at the time, with the best equipment and most ammunition and biggest supply stockpiles...they were not adequate for a sustained campaign, but only wartime experience would prove that. America had no respect for the Japanese fighting man--an error that cost too much.

Japan was unprepared for that amount of prisoners. Japan could barely feed its own soldiers. There was a cultural difference as well--for Japan, surrender was disgrace. What could Japan do with all of these "able-bodied captives?" William Breuer sets the stage for the Great Cabanatuan Raid by beginning with a brief description of the Japanese conquest (which was behind Tokyo's unrealistic expectations--those American and Filippino soldiers did their duty to the limits of their capabilities) and then paints a picture of Hell on Earth.

The book begins during the raid, with 107 Rangers under Lieutenant Colonel Henry A. Mucci in a village just one and a half miled from the objective--511 POWs in captivity at Cabanatuan prisoner-of-war camp. 6th Ranger Battalion was unique in that it had been raised from a regular unit, the 93rd Field Artillery Battalion, and wasn't trained by the British. Instead, this gang of mule skinners shook out the unfit and took in some replacements--and saw a little action during the initial re-invasion of the Philippines. Until the Cabanatuan mission, 6th Ranger Battalion served as guards at invasion force HQ and as a reserve.

One hero I met through the pages of "The Great Raid on Cabanatuan" was Filippino guerrilla captain Juan Pajota. I cannot say that any single element of the rescue force was more important than the rest--everybody was important--but Captain Pajota's contributions were many: up-to-date intelligence, local contacts, providing ox-cart transportation for the physically-wasted POW's, providing one of two company-sized irregular units used as a blocking force, and recommending that the Army Air Force send an airplane to fly overhead as a distraction.

Regular US Army didn't interface well with guerrilla forces even as late as the Vietnam War. That's one reason that special forces such as Ranger units were needed in World War Two. The Alamo Scouts were a dedicated recon unit that ranged behing Japanese lines in small bands (2, 3, or 4 men) and snooped around.

Most amazing for modern special operations soldiers is how short the mission planning and preparation for Cabanatuan was. Surprise and speed were everything. The "dead line" was just that--Japan had several reasons to kill POWs in Japanese hands: revenge for losing the war, silencing war crime witnesses, and depriving the United Nations of the future use of these captive soldiers. The Cabanatuan raid was a complex operation, but its execution was virtually flawless. The Japanese didn't expect Americans to do the Japanese thing and infiltrate undetected through 30 miles, then strike with ruthlessness and precision. What's more, the rescue forces, including non-combatant support, seem to have been outnumbered by more than 10 to 1, and the Japanese had all the heavy firepower--tanks, planes, artillery and mortars...

This book reads like an adventure thriller, but the incident is true. Given the hardware and military art at the time, it was a miracle.

A window to forgotten heroes.......2002-08-11

A powerful moving book detailing the experience of Filipino and American soldiers' struggle to free POWs in Cabanatuan, Philippines. As a Filipino-American, whose ancestor were directly affected by WWII, I found the book to be inspirational seeing both my beloved homelands unite to fight for the greater good.

The book gives life to a time in history of great importance, that Americans lack awareness-in and in dept to pay tribute to both Filipinos and Americans who fought for their country.

After reading the book, one is left with sheer amazement, pride, appreciation, and yet saddened by the lack of tribute lacking for these veterans, and The Great Insult America has bestowed upon Filipinos who fought and died for America and America's soldiers.

In July 14, 1941, when the Philippines was still a colony of the U.S., 140,000 Filipino soldiers was call to active service by then President Franklin Roosevelt to fight in WWII along side the Americans under the U.S. flag

Their brave service under the U.S. flag was snubbed when in 1946 Congress sign into law the Rescission Act of 1946, which affectively denied them their right to receive the same right given to other WWII U.S veterans.

Today there are only 12,000 surviving Filipino American veterans in the U.S and 35,000 Filipino veterans in the Philippines.

The book exemplifies the bravery these men did for the country and the injustice they are enduring today.

FANTASTIC ACCOUNT OF BATAAN, THE DEATH MARCH AND POW LIFE.......1999-10-23

TOUGH BOOK TO PUT DOWN. IT IS UNBELIEVABLE TO READ WHAT THE MEN WHO FOUGHT AT BATAAN WENT THROUGH AND ALSO WHAT THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILLIPINES DID TO HELP THESE MEN SURVIVE. IT IS A SHAME HISTORY CLASSES IN SCHOOL SAY LITTLE IF ANYTHING OF THIS. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

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Corregidor: From Paradise To Hell
Corregidor From paradise to hell

Corregidor: From Paradise to Hell!
Ben Waldron , and Emily Burneson
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 141202109X
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Product Description

Captured at Corregidor, Sergeant Waldron risked his life to keep a diary of Hell: a three-and-a-half year record of life as a Japanese POW during WWII.

Customer Reviews:

Corregidor: From Paradise To Hell.......2007-09-23

I am lucky enough to have met Ben Waldron through family members that know him. I am not related to him in any way, but after reading this book, I feel that I know him better than some of my own family. This is a gripping true story of Ben's life, narrated by Ben, of leaving his family at 18 years old during the depression and joining the Army. Ben kept a diary for the three and a half years that he was kept as Prisoner of War under the Japanese. This book will take you through all of your emotions, and you will be left awestruck, bewildered, angry, sickened, happy and well informed about life as a soldier and as a POW during WWII.

Corregidor From paradise to hell.......2007-04-02

Excellent book. I read it in one sitting because it was impossible for me to set it down. The author tells the story in real language with no extra words. It really shows the horrors of being a prisoner of war.

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Unconquerable Faith
Everett D. Reamer
Manufacturer: Fly Paper Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0972439722

Book Description

Enlisting at the age of 16, Everett D. Reamer was a boy who became a soldier who became a prisoner of war at the hands of the Japanese during World War II.

As a member of an anti-aircraft gun crew, he fought and was wounded in the battles to defend Corregidor, "The Rock" -- the "Alamo of the Pacific".

Spending three and a half years as a POW before his liberation, Everett would survive marches, disease, and imprisonment on Bataan; the unspeakable conditions aboard the Hell Ships; brutality in the form of starvation, beatings, and 28 days of continuous torture; being forced to stand at attention without food, water, or relief for 132 hours; and, solitary confinement for more than 11 months.

Book Description

The Great Raid film will be showing in theatres across North America starting on August 12, and the screenplay is co-written by Miramax author William B. Breuer and Hampton Sides. The movie stars Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, James Franco, Connie Nielsen and Martin Csokas. The Great Raid is a must-have for fans of WWII books. Breuer expands on the information in the bestselling Ghost Soldiers with descriptions of the military efforts of Gen. MacArthur operating from Australia from 1942-1945, and much more on the clandestine operations in Cabanatuan Town. Throughout the book are powerful, first-person recollections from the men who ran the underground operations in the Philippines, as well as the families back home receiving news that their loved ones survived.

Customer Reviews:

The Great Raid.......2007-09-03

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It taught me a good deal about McArthur that I did not know. I never thought much of him but now realize that politics was alive and well during WWII.

Read "Ghost Soldiers" Instead.......2007-06-21

Wonderful.......2006-06-24

This book was fantastic. There isn't a better told story of rescue and heroism. I couldn't put it down.

$Searching For Friday\'s Child$
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Touching and True
Sister searches for brother
A family's quest to ascertain the status of a WWII POW
Riverting and sentimental
Riverting and sentimental

Searching For Friday\'s Child
Marjorie Irish Randell
Manufacturer: Trafford Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1553694953
Release Date: 2006-07-06

Product Description

"Searching for Friday\'s Child" chronicles the life of a young heroic soldier, his early life, duty in the Philippine Islands, on Bataan, Corregidor, and life as a Japanese POW during World War II, as told by letters, telegrams, the words of his close friends and those of his sister, the author.

Customer Reviews:

Touching and True.......2007-02-10

Howard "Jack" Irish was born to Michigan farm life. His family was close, his friends were true. He was a 4H lad, strong and faithful. He went to college, joined the ROTC and was drafted after he graduated in May of 1941. He was commissioned a lieutenant after training and sent to the Philippines. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December and all of a sudden Jack's sweet duty in the tropics evaporated like steam on hot pavement.

Jack saw action on Corrigador before he was captured by the Japanese. He endured life as a POW as well as anybody could, but sadly he lost his life in September of 1944, while being transported along with 749 other prisoners of war on the Japanese freighter Shinyo Maru. The Shinyo Maru was torpedoed by the USS Paddle. The sub's commander had no way of knowing the POWs were on board.

It all happened so long ago, but Marjorie makes it seem like only yesterday, so timeless is her writing. Jack was her brother and she lovingly tells this story through the numerous letters written by Jack to his family and friends before the war, the all to brief correspondence between Jack and his family after his family discovers he has been taken prisoner and the volume of letters between Jack's mother and different officials as she relentlessly sought to find out what happened to her son.

This book is so well crafted that at times it seemed as if I was reading a novel as I read the night away. I should have read the book long ago and I'm ashamed to say that that I did not, for you see, Marjorie's Uncle Ray was my grandfather. So many of the characters in her book have passed away, as has my father, Jack's cousin, who fortunately survived the war. Soon all the people from that time will have passed this mortal coil, but thanks to people like Marjorie Randall, who can tell a story without making it seem like dry history, there will be those of us left behind who remember.

Sister searches for brother.......2003-06-08

I just finished reading Searching for Friday's Child for the second time. Each time I couldn't put it down until I finished.
Searching for Friday's Child is more than a portrait of an intelligent sensitive young man, it is a book about warm human relationships. Although Jack, a prisoner of war being transported from one Philippine Island to another or perhaps to Japan by the Japanese aboard the Shinyu Maru, died in his early twenties (a result of the torpedoing of the Shinyu Maru by an American submarine toward the end of Second World War), he lives in this book! It is clear from his letters to his family, his girlfriend and to his friends that we all lost a person who had much to offer to those he loved and cared about and to society.
Jack's words, through his letters, show us that he had a gift for writing and storytelling, as does the author, his younger sister. Searching for Friday's Child tells us of the author's emotional journey to find her brother, to discover things about him she hadn't known before, on an intimate level that I haven't found in any other memoir, autobiography or biography about the courageous soldiers of World War II. I highly recommend this book.
Nancy Sampson, Woodbridge, VA

A family's quest to ascertain the status of a WWII POW.......2003-03-29

I read this book in the past few days, only days after the beginning of America's 3/03 war with Iraq, which may be a partial explanation of why I found "Searching for Friday's Child" such a compelling read.

The book begins with the author's recollection of growing up on a Michigan farm, with her parents, and her brother, "Jack", four years her senior. We are then provided with copies of her brother's letters to home, and to his girlfriend, while he attends Michigan State College, when he is called into the Army Air Corps, from bootcamp, then when he is sent to the Philippines only months prior to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and Japan's simultaneous attack on the Philippines.

As of 12/7/41, the letters from Jack stop, and we are treated with reply letters to Jack's family from U.S. military, the Red Cross, etc., as the family is desparately trying to find out what's happened to Jack, with the advent of the US/Japanese war. Subsequently, the family learns Jack is a POW in the Philippines, but they cannot find out how he is, whether he is alive, healthy, or been a victim of the myriad of attrocities committed by the Japanese solders in the Philippines upon our servicemen, as well as the Filipinos.

Jack's family is advised of the POW camp within which Jack is held, and advised they should continue to write Jack as he may receive their letters. They do continue to write, but have no way of ascertaining if Jack is receiving any of their letters. After several months, they receive the first of about four "postcards" from Jack, from the POW camp, but these tell little of Jack, as little can be said due to censorship by his captors.

Ultimately, the family is informed that Jack was aboard a Japanese ship, one of 750 POWs being transported in September 1944 by the Japanese to another island, or perhaps Japan, that on September 7, 1944, that ship is torpedoed by the US during which 83 POW's swim to shore and are rescued by Filipinos, and ultimately returned to the US. Unfortunately, Jack was not one of the lucky ones. Thereafter, he is listed as Missing In Action(MIA), and again the family has no way of knowing if Jack is alive or dead, whether he drowned, was shot by the Japanese, who were murdering all visible POWs after the torpedo struck, or whether he somehow survived.

We are then treated to many letters from several surviving POWs, some who knew Jack, were his friends at the POW camp.

This is a wonderful historical account of a family's desparate, yet compassionate, attempts to try to find out about Jack's well-being, his life during those years, anything to fill the gaps. It begins primarily with the efforts of Jack's mother, but is continued with those of the author, his younger sister, efforts which continued all the way up the late 1990's, over fifty years after WWII.

We are treated to the insights of several POW's, their own accounts of life in a Japanese POW camp, their accounts of life with Jack, Jack's excellent accomplishments in the Army Air Corps, his unique skills with operating anti-aircraft artillery, his command's success is shooting down 15 Japanese aircraft, which as I recall, was a record during the war.

By the time one completes Searching for Friday's Child, one feels one knows Jack Irish, his mother, father, and certainly his sister, the author, she who joined the U.S. Marines Reserves during WWII. One is certainly treated to a wonderful account of a close-knit family's quest during unimaginable times of the tragedies of war.

This is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

Regards,

Frank Rankin
Sacramento, CA

Riverting and sentimental.......2003-01-12

Marjorie Randell's recollection of her life growing up in a close-knit family on a Michigan farm, and her subsequent heartbreak of losing her brother and the search for meaning in his death is both sentimental and memorable. She captures the innocence of the mid-West that was torn apart as her brother, and other small town boys, were thrust into the horrors of war. The story shifts with her brothers letters - both from his service days, and then more harrowing,when he was a POW. Through his letters, we see a boy turn into a man, and at age 23, we see how his death aboard a Japanese war ship at the hands of American bombers brought agony and questions to a family back home. Sweet recollections of an innocent time lost, and the loyalty of a sister that looks for answers, even 60 years later.

Riverting and sentimental.......2003-01-12

Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Wainwright

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Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Wainwright
Duane P. Schultz
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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MacArthur and Wainwright;: Sacrifice of the Philippines

ASIN: 0312370113

Retaking the Philippines: America's Return to Corregidor and Bataan, October 1944-March 1945

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Retaking the Philippines: America's Return to Corregidor and Bataan, October 1944-March 1945
William B. Breuer
Manufacturer: St Martins Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312678029

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La "Barbarie" En La Narativa Argentina
Maria Rosa Lojo , and Corregidor
Manufacturer: Corregidor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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