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.

New York Times bestseller. The definitive story of the Ritchie Boys, as featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes. “A spellbinding account of extraordinary men at war.” —USA Today They were young Jewish boys who escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe and resettled in America. After the United States entered the war, they returned to fight for their adopted homeland and for the families they had left behind. Their stories tell the tale of one of the U.S. Army’s greatest secret weapons. These young men—known as the Ritchie Boys, after the Maryland camp where they trained—knew what the Nazis would do to them if they were captured. Yet they leapt at the opportunity to be sent in small, elite teams to join every major combat unit in Europe, where they collected key tactical intelligence on enemy strength, troop and armored movements, and defensive positions that saved American lives and helped win the war. A postwar army report found that nearly 60 percent of the credible intelligence gathered in Europe came from the Ritchie Boys. Sons and Soldiers draws on original interviews and extensive archival research to vividly re-create the stories of six of these men, tracing their journeys from childhood through their escapes from Europe, their feats and sacrifices during the war, and finally their desperate attempts to find their missing loved ones. Sons and Soldiers is an epic story of heroism, courage, and patriotism that will not soon be forgotten. “An irresistible history of the WWII Jewish refugees who returned to Europe to fight the Nazis.” —Newsday “Gripping . . . A story of courage and determination, revenge and redemption.” —The Boston Globe

Originally published as The Los Baos Raid: The 11th Airborne Jumps at Dawn, this book recounts the complete story of a raid conducted in the last days of World War II on the Los Baos Japanese internment camp, which was located 25 miles behind enemy lines and held over 2,000 civilian POWs. (July)

New York Times bestselling author David L. Robbins presents a riveting novel of war, love, and survival, set against the backdrop of an improbable rescue, the Los Baños prison raid -- one of the most daring episodes of World War II. For three years after the fall of Manila, 2,100 Allied civilians have been imprisoned at Los Baños Internment Camp, 40 miles to the southeast and notorious for its horrendous conditions. American Remy Tuck, the camp's resident gambler, struggles daily with his Japanese army captors to keep his community of Americans, Brits, and Dutch alive, as they stave off starvation and protect one another from vicious punishments. Remy's son, Talbot, now nineteen, has become a man while in captivity. Headstrong to the hilt and a nimble thief, Tal can move like a snake under the guards' noses and defies their orders at every opportunity. On the other side of the barbed wire, looking down on the camp, is the Filipina Carmen, a "comfort woman" who has been kidnapped by the Japanese, raped, and forced into sexual slavery to service the Imperial Japanese Army. Carmen battles to keep herself physically and emotionally intact. A favorite of one of the guards, she accepts his occasional kindnesses but has eyes only for Tal, whose fortitude in the face of great suffering astounds her. Tal, in turn, looks up to Carmen's high window and sees the grace and courage with which she endures her imprisonment. Without speaking, the two fall in love above the encampment grounds. As the tide of the war in the Pacific turns against the Japanese, tensions and danger in the camp escalate. In the face of all but certain execution at the hands of their captors, Remy and Tal enact a daring plan to save their fellow prisoners and the woman Tal loves.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “The greatest World War II story never told” (Esquire)—an enthralling account of the heroic mission to rescue the last survivors of the Bataan Death March—from the author of Blood and Thunder. On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines. Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation. In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions.

The nation's foremost police chief shows how community policing can offer a model for repossessing our cities. Through anecdotes drawn from his own experience, Williams explains what each of us can contribute to taking back our streets, relating to such vital national issues as assault weapons and gang warfare, and discussing the background of some of the L.A.P.D.'s most prominent cases.

In Learning to Perform. Carol Simpson Stern and Bruce Henderson introduce the art and craft of performing literary texts, including poetry, prose fiction, and drama, as well as personal narratives and ethnographic materials. They present a performance methodology that offers instruction in close reading and analysis, the development and refinement of performance skills, and the ability to think critically about and discuss a performance. As students become reacquainted with the world of the imagination and its possibilities, the insights they gain in the classroom can become the basis for achievement not only on the stage or in front of the camera but in many facets of public life. By addressing an expanded sense of text that includes cultural as well as literary artifacts, Stern and Henderson bridge the gap between oral interpretation and the more inclusive field of performance studies. A substantial appendix provides a dozen texts for performance in the classroom, including works by Jane Hamilton, Willa Cather, Henry James, E.M. Forster, Henrik Ibsen, Jane Austen, and Michael S. Bowman. --Book Jacket.

Beginning as America's first attempt to reach the North Pole, an expedition ended with the captain's suspicious death, a brutal struggle for survival, and a government cover-up. This harrowing account of the 130-year old mystery of the "U.S.S. Polaris" presents information from transcripts of the Navy inquest, the ship's log, autopsy and forensic reports, and the personal papers of the captain and crew.