In addition to oral history, the author uses archival documents, prisoner memoirs, army records, and transcripts of other interviews. The book is based on accepted World War II historiography as well as Hampton Sides’s own interviews of the participants.

The rescue mission is so successful that it takes only 30 minutes, with two Rangers killed in action and two POW deaths from failing health. The author also develops a “subplot” featuring Claire Phillips, an American spy in the Philippines. Due to the difference in time scales, the latter narrative is more detailed and, at times, told in a minute-by-minute fashion. The second narrative is the rescue raid carried out by American Rangers, Alamo Scouts, and the Filipino guerillas in January 1945. It covers the period of approximately three years between the American loss in the Battle of Bataan in the spring of 1942 and the POW liberation in January 1945. The first narrative features the stories of Allied (primarily, American) prisoners of war-soldiers and civilians-in the Philippines during World War II. Ghost Soldiers follows the format of narrative history with two alternating, parallel “plots” that collide at the end of the book. This guide uses the Kindle edition of the version published by Anchor in 2002.Ĭontent Warning: The source text deals constantly with acts of violence, deprivation, psychological and physical torture, and other war crimes. Ghost Soldiers also covers the story of Claire Phillips, the subject of the 1951 film I Was an American Spy. The 2005 Hollywood film, The Great Raid, was partially based on this book.

The rescue was necessitated by humanitarian, rather than strategic, reasons, such as the massacre of American POWs in Palawan a month prior. At the same time, the author reveals the plan and execution of the rescue raid led by Colonel Henry Mucci and Captain Robert Prince and the guerilla leaders, Juan Pajota and Eduardo Joson.

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides