Download or read book Escape From Davao written by John D. Lukacs and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The “riveting” (John Wukovits, author of Admiral “Bull” Halsey) and all-but-unknown account of ten American prisoners of war who escaped from a Japanese prison during World War II. On April 4, 1943, ten American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts executed a daring escape from one of Japan’s most notorious prison camps. The prisoners were survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March and the Fall of Corregidor, and the prison from which they escaped was surrounded by an impenetrable swamp and reputedly escape-proof. Theirs was the only successful group escape from a Japanese POW camp during the Pacific war. Escape from Davao is the “remarkable” (Bill Sloan, author of Brotherhood of Heroes) story of one of the most extraordinary incidents in the Second World War and of what happened when the Americans returned home to tell the world what they had witnessed. Davao Penal Colony, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, was a prison plantation where thousands of American POWs toiled alongside Filipino criminals and suffered from tropical diseases and malnutrition, as well as the cruelty of their captors. The American servicemen were rotting in a hellhole from which escape was considered impossible, but ten of them, realizing that inaction meant certain death, planned to escape. Their bold plan succeeded with the help of Filipino allies, both patriots and the guerrillas who fought the Japanese sent to recapture them. Their trek to freedom repeatedly put the Americans in jeopardy, yet they eventually succeeded in returning home to the United States to fulfill their self-appointed mission: to tell Americans about Japanese atrocities and to rally the country to the plight of their comrades still in captivity. But the government and the military had a different timetable for the liberation of the Philippines and ordered the men to remain silent. Their testimony, when it finally emerged, galvanized the nation behind the Pacific war effort and made the men celebrities. Over the decades this remarkable story, called the “greatest story of the war in the Pacific” by the War Department in 1944, has faded away. Because of wartime censorship, the full story has never been told until now. John D. Lukacs spent years researching this heroic event, interviewing survivors, reading their letters, searching archival documents, and traveling to the decaying prison camp and its surroundings. His dramatic, gripping account of the escape brings this remarkable tale back to life, where a new generation can admire the resourcefulness and patriotism of the men who fought the Pacific war.
Download or read book Death on the Hellships written by Gregory F Michno and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2016-07-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in paperback, Death on the Hellships chronicles the true dimensions of the Allied POW experience at sea. It is a disturbing story; many believe the Bataan Death March even pales by comparison. Survivors describe their ordeal in the Japanese hellships as the absolute worst experience of their captivity. Crammed by the thousands into the holds of the ships, moved from island to island and put to work, they endured all the horrors of the prison camps magnified tenfold. Gregory Michno draws on American, British, Australian, and Dutch POW accounts as well as Japanese convoy histories, declassified radio intelligence reports, and a wealth of archival sources to present a detailed picture of the horror.
Download or read book Tears in the Darkness written by Michael Norman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 958 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major new work about World War II exposes the myths of military heroism as shallow and inadequate. "Tears in the Darkness" makes clear, with great literary and human power, that war causes suffering for people on all sides.
Download or read book Counting the Days written by Craig B. Smith and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2012-05-08 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Counting the Days is the story of six prisoners of war imprisoned by both sides during the conflict the Japanese called the "Pacific War." As in all wars, the prisoners were civilians as well as military personnel. Two of the prisoners were captured on the second day of the war and spent the entire war in prison camps: Garth Dunn, a young Marine captured on Guam who faced a death rate in a Japanese prison 10 times that in battle; and Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, who suffered the ignominy of being Japanese POW number 1. Simon and Lydia Peters were European expatriates living in the Philippines; the Japanese confiscated their house and belongings, imprisoned them, and eventually released them to a harrowing jungle existence caught between Philippine guerilla raids and Japanese counterattacks. Mitsuye Takahashi was a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent living in Malibu, California, who was imprisoned by the United States for the duration of the war, disrupting her life and separating her from all she owned. Masashi Itoh was a Japanese soldier who remained hidden in the jungles of Guam, held captive by his own conscience and beliefs until 1960, 15 years after the end of the war. This is the story of their struggles to stay alive, the small daily triumphs that kept them going—and for some, their almost miraculous survival.
Download or read book Escape from Corregidor written by Edgar D. Whitcomb and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2018-12-03 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Escape from Corregidor is the harrowing account of Edgar Whitcomb, a B-17 navigator who arrives in World War II Philippines just before its invasion by the Japanese. Whitcomb evades the enemy on Bataan by fleeing to Corregidor Island in a small boat. He is captured but later manages to escape at night in an hours-long swim to safety. Captured once again weeks later, Whitcomb is imprisoned, tortured and starved, before being transferred to China and eventual freedom.
Download or read book Invisible Armies An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present written by Max Boot and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 809 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As fitting for the 21st century as von Clausewitz's "On War" was in its own time, "Invisible Armies" is a complete global history of guerrilla uprisings through the ages.
Download or read book Bataan Death March written by William Edwin Dyess and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hopeless yet determined resistance of American and Filipino forces against the Japanese invasion has made Bataan and Corregidor symbols of pride, but Bataan has a notorious darker side. After the U.S.-Filipino remnants surrendered to a far stronger force, they unwittingly placed themselves at the mercy of a foe who considered itself unimpaired by the Geneva Convention. The already ill and hungry survivors, including many wounded, were forced to march at gunpoint many miles to a harsh and oppressive POW c& many were murdered or died on the way in a nightmare of wanton cruelty that has made the term "Death March" synonymous with the Bataan peninsula. Among the prisoners was army pilot William E. Dyess. With a few others, Dyess escaped from his POW camp and was among the very first to bring reports of the horrors back to a shocked United States. His story galvanized the nation and remains one of the most powerful personal narratives of American fighting men. Stanley L. Falk provides a scene-setting introduction for this Bison Books edition. William E. Dyess was born in Albany, Texas. As a young army air forces pilot he was shipped to Manila in the spring of 1941. Shortly after his escape and return to the United States, Colonel Dyess was killed while testing a new airplane. He did not survive long enough to learn that he had been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.
Download or read book The Fall of the Philippines written by Louis Morton and published by . This book was released on 1953 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rescue at Los Ba os written by Bruce Henderson and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of Sons and Soldiers comes the incredible true story of one of the greatest military rescues of all time, the 1945 World War II prison camp raid at Los Baños in the Philippines—a tale of daring, courage, and heroism that joins the ranks of Ghost Soldiers, Unbroken, and The Boys of Pointe du Hoc. In February 1945, as the U.S. victory in the Pacific drew nearer, the Japanese army grew desperate, and its soldiers guarding U.S. and Allied POWs more sadistic. Starved, shot and beaten, many of the 2,146 prisoners of the Los Baños prison camp in the Philippines—most of them American men, women and children—would not survive much longer unless rescued soon. Deeply concerned about the half-starved and ill-treated prisoners, General Douglas MacArthur assigned to the 11th Airborne Division a dangerous rescue mission deep behind enemy lines that became a deadly race against the clock. The Los Baños raid would become one of the greatest triumphs of that war or any war; hailed years later by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell: “I doubt that any airborne unit in the world will ever be able to rival the Los Baños prison raid. It is the textbook operation for all ages and all armies.” Combining personal interviews, diaries, correspondence, memoirs, and archival research, Rescue at Los Baños tells the story of a remarkable group of prisoners—whose courage and fortitude helped them overcome hardship, deprivation, and cruelty—and of the young American soldiers and Filipino guerrillas who risked their lives to save them.
Download or read book War Beneath the Waves written by Don Keith and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-06 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the national bestselling author of Final Patrol comes a gripping story of heroism under the sea. In November 1943, while on war patrol in the Makassar Strait, the USS Billfish submarine was spotted by the Japanese, who launched a vicious depth charge attack. Explosions wracked the sub for fifteen straight hours. With his senior officers incapacitated, diving officer Charlie Rush boldly assumed command and led key members of the crew in a heroic effort to keep their ship intact as they tried to escape. Now, in War Beneath the Waves, this intense story is finally told in all its harrowing detail. It is an inspiring tale of one man's leadership and courage under fire, and of the remarkable efforts of a submarine crew to do their duty and save their ship.
Download or read book Prison Break True Stories of the World s Greatest Escapes written by Paul Buck and published by Kings Road Publishing. This book was released on 2012-04-19 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the folklore of World War II, the memory of those heroes who staged 'Great Escapes' from POW camps still endures. But what of the other side of the coin: the villains and jack-the-lads who painstakingly plan their escapes and await their moment at great personal risk? For the first time, Prison Break, tells the stories of all the most ruthless and desperate bad boys and chancers who broke out of gaol and into the annals of criminal history. While no one applauds the escape of a murderer or predator, such men are invariably recaptured within a short time. But in Paul Buck's definitive study of Notorious Prison Escapes, we share the military-style planning and minute-by-minute tension of more 'respected' convicts: those whose major economic or political crimes provide both the criminal support network and the audacious temperament needed to escape from heavy sentences, and maximum security conditions
Download or read book Great Wartime Escapes and Rescues written by David W. Mills and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-05-17 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Students, military historians, and casual readers will all find this compelling collection useful in learning about escape strategies, hostage situations, and rescue operations during times of conflict. Great Wartime Escapes and Rescues tells the captivating stories of dozens of escapes and rescues from conflicts dating from the 16th century to present, with extensive coverage of the world wars of the 20th century and the Vietnam War. In addition, escapes and rescues related to terrorist activities and regional conflicts are featured. Some stories of escapes and rescues included in this work have been written about extensively and portrayed in films, including The Great Escape and Captain Phillips' rescue by Navy SEALs. Other stories are less widely known but just as absorbing. The book opens with a detailed introductory essay that illuminates the government policies and tactics various countries have used to rescue soldiers and civilians during wartime, as well as the diverse methods that prisoners of war have used to escape notorious camps and prisons. The entries, organized alphabetically, are augmented by engaging sidebars related to the escapes and rescues. The book also includes references to such sources as autobiographies, biographies, news accounts, and interviews with veterans.
Download or read book The Night Stalkers written by Michael J. Durant and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-12-28 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling authors of In the Company of Heroes comes a thrilling account of military aviation for history buffs and “for those who love vivid tales of battlefield heroics” (Publishers Weekly). In the world of covert warfare, Special Operations pilots are notoriously close-lipped about what they do. They don’t talk about their missions to anyone outside their small community. But now, Michael J. Durant and Steven Hartov shed fascinating light on the mysterious elite commandos known as SOAR (Special Operations Aviation Regiment) and take readers into a shadowy world of combat they have only imagined.
Download or read book They Fought Alone written by John Keats and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time: 1942. The place: The Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The Story: A stirring true account of a man who refused to be defeated. When the American forces in the Philippines surrendered in May, 1942, a mining engineer named Wendell Fertig chose to take his chances in the jungle. What happened to him during nearly three years far behind enemy lines is the amazing story that John Keats tells in They Fought Alone. For Fertig, with the aid of a handful of Americans who also refused to surrender, led thousands of Filipinos in a seemingly hopeless war against the Japanese. They made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wire from iron fence. They fought off sickness, despair and rebellion within their own forces. Their homemade communications were MacArthur’s eyes and ears in the Philippines. When the Americans finally returned to Mindanao, they found Fertig virtually in control of one of the world’s largest islands, commanding an army of 35,000 men, and at the head of a civil government with its own post office, law courts, currency, factories, and hospitals. John Keats, who also served in the Philippines, has captured all the pain, brutality, and courage of this incredible drama, in which many memorable men and women play their parts. But They Fought Alone is essentially the story of one man—a testament to the ingenuity and sheer guts of an authentic American hero. “This remarkable story of guerrilla fighting in the Philippines during WWII...it is absorbing reading. . . . More remarkable still, though it contains death, torture, and desolation, it bubbles with humor.” —S. L. A. Marshall, The NY Times Book Review “A true and admirably researched account of an American hero who refused to accept defeat. His courage was incredible and his resourcefulness equally so. . . . I have read scores of books in this genre and Keats’ is one of the best.” —Chicago Tribune
Download or read book I Shall Return written by Cosme R. Cagas and published by . This book was released on 2013-03 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first dark days of 1942, Gen. MacArthur daringly escaped to Australia. He kept his promise to return when US troops stormed back into the Philippines in 1944. Last seen at the dreaded Death March, Juniors uncle also promised to return... but could he do so? Three purple fruits hold the answer.Set in WWII Philippines and the Pacific, and with the overarching theme of patriotism and a Christian underpinning, I Shall Return is less about war and more about the Filipino and American peopletheir faith, love, struggles, and their willingness to give their lives for country, family and friends. It relates the sacrifices and martyrdom of unheralded heroes some who occupied the highest positions before the war.The story takes the reader to many towns and provinces;to the dark dungeons of Fort Santiago in Manila; to Bataan where POWs are forced to march in scorching heat without food or water; to the swamps of Candaba where guerrillas snatch escapees from certain death; to a Spanish casa where seven sisters outsmart their guards in a dramatic escape. Woven into the plot are intertwined love stories: childhood sweethearts torn apart by the war, a poor boy in love with a rich girl and a black American lieutenant smitten by a beautiful mestiza-can he overcome prejudice and racial tensions? .With historical introductions, photographs, and rich imagery, the characters and places of I Shall Return come alive vividly and beautifully in a novel of great dimension.This historical novel complements books on WWWII Philippines published in recent years such as The Great Raid by William Breuer, Escape from Davao by John D. Lukacs and Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff.
Download or read book North Korea Journal written by Michael Palin and published by Random House Canada. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this beautifully illustrated journal based on a TV documentary, writer, comedian and world traveller Michael Palin journeys to North Korea, offering a glimpse of life inside the world's most secretive country, uncovering surprises and making friends along the way. In May 2018, former Monty Python stalwart and intrepid globetrotter Michael Palin ventured into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, camera crew in tow, to gain a glimpse of life in the most notoriously secretive and cut-off nation on earth. His resulting two-part documentary for Channel 5 fascinated millions and won universal plaudits. Now he shares the journal he meticulously kept during his trip, in which he describes his experiences in a country wholly unlike any other he has ever visited: a country where you will find the Tallest Unoccupied Building in the World; where the residents of Pyongyang awake every morning to the strains of 'Where Are You, Dear General?', broadcast from speakers across the city; and where there are fifteen approved styles of haircut. He chronicles a journey of stark contrasts that takes in a gleamingly modern capital complete with triumphal statues and arches one day, and a countryside that has barely changed in decades on another. He travels to the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, to a centuries-old Confucian academy, and to the heart of North Korea's exquisitely beautiful mountains and lakes. He recounts conversations with official guides, teachers, propaganda artists, farmers and soldiers in which mutual incomprehension and shared humanity are constantly intermingled. And he muses on what makes people tick under a regime that to outsiders seems so utterly alien and so grimly authoritarian. Written with Palin's trademark warmth and wit, and illustrated with beautiful colour photographs throughout, Palin's journal offers a rare insight into the North Korea behind the headlines.
Download or read book Rebels of Mindanao written by Tom Anthony and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Thornton, a former government operative living in retirement on the Philppine island of Mindanao, is recruited for a last mission to stop a Turkish agent from delivering cash to Al Quaida insurgents.
