Want to learn the ideas in Ghost Soldiers better than ever? Read the world’s #1 book summary of Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides here.

Read a brief 1-Page Summary or watch video summaries curated by our expert team. Note: this book guide is not affiliated with or endorsed by the publisher or author, and we always encourage you to purchase and read the full book.

Video Summaries of Ghost Soldiers

We’ve scoured the Internet for the very best videos on Ghost Soldiers, from high-quality videos summaries to interviews or commentary by Hampton Sides.

1-Page Summary of Ghost Soldiers

Overall Summary

Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission (2001) is a historical nonfiction book by Hampton Sides. It tells the story of a group of soldiers sent to rescue prisoners from behind enemy lines in the Philippines during World War II. With so many lives at stake, this mission takes on even greater importance when another camp is destroyed and more POWs are killed.

The book starts with a survivor of the massacre telling his story. He was one of the people who escaped from a bomb shelter that had been set on fire by Japanese soldiers. Only eleven out of thirty-odd escapees survived to tell their stories, which were different from what the Japanese told about how they died in an air raid. After this incident, Americans turned their attention to Cabanatuan camp and its 500 prisoners living there in horrible conditions. If such a thing happened at one prison camp, it could happen again; thus, Major Lapham was worried that if Japanese believed an invasion was imminent, they would kill all prisoners—and themselves—to avoid capture by Americans. Colonel Mucci is chosen for this rescue mission because he has experience working with guerilla fighters (the local Filipino army).

The Philippines were lost to the Japanese after General Edward King surrendered. The conditions in Bataan were terrible, with hospitals operating beyond capacity and rampant disease, dwindling rations, almost no medicine left, and little hope of help from the United States. President Roosevelt preferred to concentrate more on Europe instead of Asia. MacArthur was stunned into days-long silence before he rallied (only to be transferred to Australia). General King had no choice but surrender because there was no support or provisions for his troops at Bataan. When he surrendered, there was confusion in the ranks as to how they would proceed. Some soldiers joined guerillas while others escaped by boat during that time period; however most inhabitants knew they would be captives once captured by the Japanese army and didn’t know what that would look like or what would happen next. The march towards prisoner of war camps awaiting those who survived capture was long and brutal with some not being able to keep up being bayonetted along the way if unable to continue walking since they wanted prisoners alive so badly at first until later when things changed when it became a death march for many due lack of food water and medical care once reaching their destination camp where things got worse without any food water or medical care available only beatings torture starvation forced labor sexual abuse rape murder executions dog attacks poor sanitary conditions unsanitary living quarters unhygienic toilets bad air inadequate ventilation rat infestation vermin presence insects roaches fleas bedbugs lice ticks scorpions mosquitoes flies gnats etc…

Although the prisoners were not able to escape, they found allies in Manila. One woman, Claire Phillips (a.k.a Clara Fuentes and High Pockets), was an American spy who passed information about Japanese officers visiting Club Tsubaki to them. She also smuggled food and medicine into the camp for a brief period of time in January when their usual guards left them alone at Camp O’Donnell. The prisoners raided the food supplies during that time and had improved health after two weeks of eating well, although it didn’t last long as new regiments came through with little interference from the Japanese guards by mid-January until early February when fear returned that all would be executed by then end of January or soon thereafter since they believed that America’s military wasn’t coming back to rescue them anytime soon.