编辑推荐
War's raw brutality pours over the pages of Astor's fourth
book (after Operation Iceberg) to chronicle WWII combat by drawing
heavily on firsthand accounts of American vets. In examining the
Philippines' fall to the Japanese in 1941-1942, the consequent
suffering of civilians and American POWs and the U.S. counterattack
in 1944, Astor criticizes Douglas MacArthur's judgment in the war's
initial stages, defends his decision to counterattack and considers
pointless his later extension of operations to the southern
islands. The author's more valuable work here, however, is his
reconstruction of the frontline experience. Astor's evocative
de*ions of jungle fighting highlight the fact that, even in an
age of technology, ground combat in the Pacific was primarily
man-to-man. American flexibility and initiative at all levels
eventually triumphed, but as Astor makes clear in this dramatic
narrative, the physical and emotional costs of defeating the
Japanese were as high as those incurred in the struggle against any
other foe in U.S. history. Maps, photographs.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers
to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
内容简介
The fighting that waged across the Philippines during World
War II ranks among the most vicious in the annals of war. Nearly
80,000 Americans and Filipinos were taken prisoner on Bataan, the
name of which is forever linked with the notorious "death march."
During the three years that Japan occupied the archipelago, 130,000
American and Filipinos were killed. Prisoners in Japanese prison
camps were 10 times as likely to die in captivity as soldiers held
by the Germans. When they returned to retake the islands, American
troops preferred not to take any prisoners at all. Gerald Astor
gives voice to the soldiers who participated in this gruesome
period of world military history. --This text refers to an out
of print or unavailable edition of this title.