Rescue at Los Banos: The Most Daring Prison Camp Raid of World War II

Description

As the Pacific War was ending in 1945, the Japanese bitterly tightened their grip on their prisoners of war. Starved, beaten, and demeaned, the 2,146 prisoners of the Los Banos prison camp in the Philippines-almost all Americans-knew that their chances of survival were slim if help did not arrive soon. Fearing the worst, General Douglas MacArthur authorized the 11th Airborne Division to embark on a dangerous mission deep inside enemy-held territory-and a heart-pounding race against the clock. A combination of world-class strategy and a more than a little luck, this flawlessly-executed raid has gone down in history as what Gen. Colin Powell calls "a textbook operation for all ages and all armies." Weaving together insights from personal interviews, diaries, memoirs, and archival research, SUNRISE At LOS BANOS tells the timeless story of a group of POWs of all ages and both genders who overcame hardship with courage and resilience, and of the young American and Filipino fighting men who risked their lives to rescue them.

Bruce Henderson is the author or coauthor of more than twenty nonfiction books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller And the Sea Will Tell and the national bestseller Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War. An award-winning journalist and writer, he has published work in Esquire, Playboy, Reader's Digest, and other periodicals. Henderson has taught writing and reporting at USC School of Journalism and Stanford University. He lives in Menlo Park, California.