Follow the men who fought America's first battle in World War II--their will, their resolve, the odds against them, their surrender, the Death March, their imprisonment, and the few who escaped to continue the fight.After the destruction of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the U.S. Army on Bataan was forced to surrender to the Japanese and70,000 American and Filipino soldiers became Prisoners of War. Over the next three years, almost two-thirds of them would die in Japanese custody. However, a few hundred Americans refused to surrender, evaded the Japanese Army, and slipped into the jungle to hide and await the return of General MacArthur. Some joined Filipino guerrilla bands hoping to help the war effort during the months they would wait. But months turned into years, and there was no sign of General MacArthur or his army. At home in the United States their families waited for them, not knowing if their men were dead or alive. Bataan Diary is the remarkable true chronicle of the American prisoners, evaders and guerrillas, trapped in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation.

This is the diary of Brigadier General William Edward Brougher, who, after distinguishing himself as a combat leader in the unsuccessful defense of the Philippines, stoically endured confinement in Japanese prison camps in Luzon, Taiwan, Kyushu, and Manchuria from 1942 to 1945. Brougher's frank, terse, and moving day-by-day descriptions of his sufferings and those of his fellow prisoners provide an absorbing account of human behavior under harsh conditions and terrible stress. Since his fellow inmates were the high-ranking officers and civilian governors of the surrendered American, British, and Dutch colonies of Southeast Asia, the diary is also an interesting study of interallied relations under extraordinary circumstances. Editor D. Clayton James provides a narrative account of General Brougher's combat record in the first Philippine campaign, accompanied by sketches of prison life drawn by a Dutch prisoner, Major General H. J. D. de Fremery. Also included are maps illustrating Brougher's military operations and his travels as a prisoner from camp to camp.

Fought with obsolete and discarded equipment by an army mostly made up of untrained Filipinos, the Battle of Bataan has become one of the "forgotten" battles of World War II. This book provides a complete history of the conflict by looking at the events which led up to the battle, with an overview of the American, Philippine and Japanese forces that fought on Bataan. Abandoned by their commander, Douglas MacArthur, and written off by their president, without an air force or navy to support them, for 90 days the Americans and Filipinos held out against not only the Japanese but the ravages of starvation and disease. In the end came the largest surrender in American military history. The book contains dozens of period and modern photographs and several maps.

From a brave American veteran comes an eyewitness account of a gruesome chapter in World War II history. Captured when America surrendered the PhilippinesBataan Peninsula, James Bollich experienced first-hand the march that cost more than 8,000 American and Filipino lives. Now, he shares the unforgettable experience of his three and a half years of Japanese imprisonment.This journal relates his personal experience, first focusing on the sixty-five-mile march that deprived prisoners of food, water, and rest. Prisoners received harsh punishments for any infraction, one of the most brutal of these being the policy of beheading them for taking a sip of water. Rather than force him to give up, these things made Bollich fight for life even more. Witnessing his comrades falling beside him and watching his own body waste away to ninety pounds, he never yielded his will to survive. After completing the march, he remained a prisoner of war, first at an old Philippine army base, then in another camp at Mukden, Manchuria. He relates his imprisonment in detail, from starvation and torture to digging their own comrades graves in the hot sun, without hats or water. Through it all, he remained courageous and hopeful that he would one day make it back home. His story reminds both past and present generations of the horror and brutality of the Pacific war, all the while providing an inspiring testament to the will ofthe human spirit.

In the fall of 1941, the Philippines was a gardenia-scented paradise for the American Army and Navy nurses stationed there. War was a distant rumor, life a routine of easy shifts and dinners under the stars. On December 8 all that changed, as Japanese bombs began raining down on American bases in Luzon, and this paradise became a fiery hell. Caught in the raging battle, the nurses set up field hospitals in the jungles of Bataan and the tunnels of Corregidor, where they tended to the most devastating injuries of war, and suffered the terrors of shells and shrapnel. But the worst was yet to come. After Bataan and Corregidor fell, the nurses were herded into internment camps where they would endure three years of fear, brutality, and starvation. Once liberated, they returned to an America that at first celebrated them, but later refused to honor their leaders with the medals they clearly deserved. Here, in letters, diaries, and riveting firsthand accounts, is the story of what really happened during those dark days, woven together in a deeply affecting saga of women in war. Praise for We Band of Angels “Gripping . . . a war story in which the main characters never kill one of the enemy, or even shoot at him, but are nevertheless heroes . . . Americans today should thank God we had such women.”—Stephen E. Ambrose “Remarkable and uplifting.”—USA Today “[Elizabeth M. Norman] brings a quiet, scholarly voice to this narrative. . . . In just a little over six months these women had turned from plucky young girls on a mild adventure to authentic heroes. . . . Every page of this history is fascinating.”—Carolyn See, The Washington Post “Riveting . . . poignant and powerful.”—The Dallas Morning News Winner of the Lavinia Dock Award for historical scholarship, the American Academy of Nursing National Media Award, and the Agnes Dillon Randolph Award

News reporter to commander: Bataan, the Death March, three POW camps- the war story of Captain Charles Underwood. A Story untold for more than sixty years! There are thousands of U.S. soldiers who have never been properly recognized for their actions during the Second World War. This is the story of one of them. Charles Underwood was a young reporter when he was called up to active service in the Philippines. He survived the infamous Death March, and spent over three years as a prisoner of war in Japan, at the end of which time he boldly commandeered a train and traveled through hostile territory to reach the U.S. lines. He is credited with helping to liberate more than seven hundred starving POWs. Using his father's long-forgotten journal as a starting point, Charles Underwood, Jr. has done extensive research to bring to life the important part of American military history.

When the Japanese began their brutal occupation of the Philippines in early 1942, 76,000 ill and starving Filipinos and many Americans were left to defend Bataan, Manila, and surrounding islands. During the three violent years of occupation that followed, Allied sympathizers smuggled suppliesand information to guerilla fighters and prisoner camps around the country. Theresa Kaminski's Angels of the Underground tells the story of two such members of this lesser-known resistance movement - American women known only as Miss U and High Pockets. Incredibly adept at skirting occupationauthorities to support the Allied effort, the very nature of their clandestine wartime work meant that the truth behind their dangerous activities had to be obscured as long as the Japanese occupied the Philippines. Were their identities revealed, they would be arrested, tortured, and executed.Throughout the war, Miss U and High Pockets remained hidden behind a veil of deceit and subterfuge.Angels of the Underground offers the compelling tale of two ordinary American women propelled by extraordinary circumstances into acts of heroism. Married to servicemen, Peggy Utinsky and Claire Phillips, the women behind Miss U and High Pockets, hoped that their clandestine efforts would reunitethem with their husbands. Both men died at the hands of the Japanese, but Utinsky and Phillips stayed on through the occupation, working in hospitals, moving supplies, and building their networks. Utinsky narrowly survived a month of torture at Fort Santiago, then joined John Boone's guerilla bandand became a brevet second lieutenant before returning to the Red Cross until the end of the war. Phillips barely escaped execution in 1943, and was sentenced to hard labor in a prison camp, where she remained until February 1945.Angels of the Underground illuminates the complex political dimensions of the occupied Philippines and its importance to the war effort in the Pacific. Kaminski's narrative sheds light on the Japanese-occupied city of Manila; the Bataan Death March and subsequent incarceration of American militaryprisoners in camps O'Donnell and Cabanatuan under horrific conditions; and the formation of guerrilla units in the mountains of Luzon.Angels of the Underground makes a significant contribution to the work on women's wartime experiences. Through the lens of Utinksy and Phillips, who never wavered in their belief that it was their duty as patriotic American women to aid the Allied cause, Kaminksi highlights how women have alwaysbeen active participants in war, whether or not they wear a military uniform. An impressive work of scholarship grounded in archival research and personal interviews, this is also a stunning story of courage and heroism in wartime.

Incredible 159-day escape from the infamous Bataan Death March and harrowing voyage across the enemy-held Pacific in a leaky, wooden boat during World War II.