Bataan Death March - by William E Dyess (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The hopeless yet determined resistance of American and Filipino forces against the Japanese invasion has made Bataan and Corregidor symbols of pride, but Bataan has a notorious darker side. After the U.S.-Filipino remnants surrendered to a far stronger force, they unwittingly placed themselves at the mercy of a foe who considered itself unimpaired by the Geneva Convention. The already ill and hungry survivors, including many wounded, were forced to march at gunpoint many miles to a harsh and oppressive POW camp; many were murdered or died on the way in a nightmare of wanton cruelty that has made the term "Death March" synonymous with the Bataan peninsula. Among the prisoners was army pilot William E. Dyess. With a few others, Dyess escaped from his POW camp and was among the very first to bring reports of the horrors back to a shocked United States. His story galvanized the nation and remains one of the most powerful personal narratives of American fighting men. Stanley L. Falk provides a scene-setting introduction for this Bison Books edition.

William E. Dyess was born in Albany, Texas. As a young army air forces pilot he was shipped to Manila in the spring of 1941. Shortly after his escape and return to the United States, Colonel Dyess was killed while testing a new airplane. He did not survive long enough to learn that he had been awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Review Quotes

"Dyess's plain-spoken graphic record of one of the worst atrocities of the war is a harrowing testament to both Japanese barbarism and the indomitability of the human spirit. It is a classic of its type that should not be overlooked by World War II scholars."--WW II History

"For anyone reading about the war in the Pacific, this first-person account will change all statistics into human beings."--Southwest Book Views

About the Author

Stanley L. Falk is a former chief historian of the U.S. Air Force and professor of international relations at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He is the author of numerous works, including Bataan: The March of Death.