Deborah Hopkinson

A thrilling account of the most dar­ing World War II res­cue mis­sion, lib­er­at­ing hun­dreds of Amer­i­can pris­on­ers of war.

Fol­low­ing the bomb­ing of Pearl Har­bor, Amer­i­ca entered World War II, and a new the­ater of bat­tle opened up in the Pacif­ic. But US troops, along with thou­sands of Fil­ipino sol­diers who fought along­side them, were over­tak­en in the Philip­pines by a fierce­ly deter­mined Japan­ese navy, and many Amer­i­cans and Fil­ipino fight­ers were killed or captured.

These Amer­i­can and Fil­ipino pris­on­ers of war were forced to endure the most hor­rif­ic con­di­tions on the dead­ly trek known as the Bataan Death March. Then, the Amer­i­can ser­vice­men who were held cap­tive by the Japan­ese mil­i­tary in Cabanat­u­an Camp and oth­ers in the Philip­pines, faced beat­ings, star­va­tion, and trop­i­cal dis­eases, and lived con­stant­ly under the threat of death.

Unable to for­get their com­rades’ fate and con­cerned that these POWs would be bru­tal­ly mur­dered as the tides of war shift­ed in the Pacif­ic, the US Army Rangers under­took one of the most dar­ing and dan­ger­ous res­cue mis­sions of all time. Aid­ed by the “Angels of the Under­ground,” the Sixth Ranger Bat­tal­ion and coura­geous Fil­ipino guer­ril­la sol­diers set out on an uncer­tain and treach­er­ous assign­ment. Often called the Great Raid, this remark­able sto­ry remains large­ly forgotten.

Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son presents an extra­or­di­nary and unflinch­ing look at the hero­ic ser­vice­men and women who coura­geous­ly weath­ered the worst of cir­cum­stances and con­di­tions in ser­vice to their coun­try, as well as those who answered the call to save their fel­low soldiers.