Angels at Dawn: The Los Banos Raid [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Edward Flanagan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 7, 1999

When the United States returned to the Philippines in early 1945, the liberation of the many American and other Allied prisoners of war and civilian internees was a high priority.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Presidio Press (April 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0891416870
• ISBN-13: 978-0891416876
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,240,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rescued by the Angels, August 17, 2000

By 

Thomas Hall (Olney, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels at Dawn: The Los Banos Raid (Paperback)

This well-written book is a "must-read" for anyone who is interested in U.S. military actions in the Pacific during WWII. Angels at Dawn tells the little-known story of the February 1945 rescue by 11th Airborne Division paratroopers and Filipino guerillas of American civilians and other nationalities who were being held by the Japanese in a prison camp at Los Banos on the Philippine Island of Luzon. This book does a better job than many dealing with the Pacific war in explainining why prisoners of the Japanese were at much risk. In part this was due to the threat of starvation and disease, but also because during the latter stages of the war in 1945, Japanese murders of prisoners increased as Allied troops advanced. Against this backdrop the author, who was a member of the 11th Airborne Division during the 1945 fighting in the Philippines, recounts how General MacArthur called on the "Angels" as the division was nicknamed, to mount a hazardous parachute and ground assault behind enemy lines to rescue the prisoners at Los Banos before starvation or Japanese violence could take their lives. As a former soldier who served in Korea, this book reminded me once again of how important the actions of U.S. military forces were during the 20th Century. We live in a better world because of what they did. Angels at Dawn tells the story of one of those actions, which resulted not so much in the destruction of the enemy, but in the preservation of the lives of American civilians, and other foreign nationals.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars rescue at Los Banos, February 2, 2010

By 

Michael S. Post - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Angels at Dawn: The Los Banos Raid (Paperback)

This book is a good version of the events but does not have the same level of non-military background that a much earlier and now out of print book by Anthony Arthur does. Arthur wrote his in the eary 1980s when many of the participants could still be interviewed.