THE BATTLE OF BATAAN: America's Greatest Defeat

by Robert Conroy ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1969

The Landmarks are generally victories so this may be a lesson to some of us: as W. L. White signalized, They Were Expendable. The magnitude and misery of the disaster are described dispassionately here: the withdrawal into the Bataan peninsula and Corregidor to control Manila harbor; the inexperienced troops, insufficiently supplied, crumbling before the initial Japanese onslaught; the fierce fighting to recapture the Points and the Pockets; the protracted stalemate (""General Hamma burst into tears, and then fainted""--one of the book's few telling details); MacArthur's realization, with morale high and health declining, that the U.S. had written off the Philippines; the Japanese breakthrough on Bataan, surrender, the Death March (Japanese malfunction, not malefaction); the fall of ""impregnable"" Corregidor. Some vivid photos, a rather dry narrative--but the facts speak significantly for themselves.

Pub Date: April 21, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION