Avenging Bataan: The Battle of ZigZag Pass

Sea Power, May 2003 by Gardner, Sherry L

AVENGING BATAAN: The Battle of ZigZag Pass, by B. David Mann. Raleigh, N.C.: Ivy House Publishing, June 2002. 384 pp. $26.95. ISBN: 1-57197-302-8. As an Army platoon leader, David Mann took part in the battle of ZigZag Pass, a key action on the island of Luzon that proved vital in the liberation of Bataan and Corregidor and was viewed by many as revenge for the brutal treatment of American and Filipino POWs during the Bataan Death March.

The 38th Division, composed of Indiana and Kentucky National Guardsmen, the "Avengers of Bataan," and the 34th Regimental Combat Team struggled in February 1945 to open Highway 7 through ZigZag Pass. Possession of this road, running between Subie Bay and Manila, was vital to the liberation of Bataan. Mann's book-which features interviews, letters, and reports from both American and Japanese forces-presents the reader with gripping insights into the day-by-day life-and-death saga of battle, and with a comprehensive historical background of events leading up to the battle. With black-and-white photographs, maps, appendices, bibliography, and index.