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Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission, by Hampton Sides (Doubleday, 342 pp., $24.95)

ON January 28, 1945, 121 U.S. Army Rangers went behind enemy lines to raid Camp Cabanatuan, deep in the Philippine jungle. Their objective was to liberate the camp’s 511 American prisoners—the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. But just as the Rangers were poised to begin their assault, they received an ominous report: A mere four miles from these 121 men were stationed more than 7,000 Japanese troops. And only one mile from the POW camp was a bivouac of 200 more enemy soldiers—the elite forces of the Dokuho 359 Imperial Battalion.

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Victorino Matus

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Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission, by Hampton Sides (Doubleday, 342 pp., $24.95)

ON January 28, 1945, 121 U.S. Army Rangers went behind enemy lines to raid Camp Cabanatuan, deep in the Philippine jungle. Their objective was to liberate the camp’s 511 American prisoners—the last survivors of the Bataan Death March. But just as the Rangers were poised to begin their assault, they received an ominous report: A mere four miles from these 121 men were stationed more than 7,000 Japanese troops. And only one mile from the POW camp was a bivouac of 200 more enemy soldiers—the elite forces of the Dokuho 359 Imperial Battalion.