Small Press & Self-Published Books about WWII

ALAN Review, Fall 2004 by Broz, Bill

On December 7, 1941, sixtyseven Japanese Mitsubishi 21 He bombers released their loads on Clark Field, Luzon, in the Philippines. On the ground below, Private First Class Dick Lang and members of the 19th Bombardment Group maintenance crew were servicing B17 bombers which had arrived from Hawaii a few days earlier. Lang tells the story of the three and a half harrowing years that follow.

On Christmas Eve, 1941, the group abandoned Clark Field and under the direction of General Douglas MacArthur retreated to the Bataan Peninsula. Days later they boarded an ancient, rusty steamer bound for Mindanao Island to service the aircraft located there. On March 15, Lang and seven other airmen were ordered to report for special duty at the airfield to load four B-17 bombers which would take MacArthur and his staff to Australia. On May 6, 1942, all American troops in the Philippines were ordered to surrender to the Japanese. "A campaign to support the military in the Philippine Islands was redirected to Europe, and the men and women who served in the Philippine Islands were sacrificed," writes author Norman Rudi.

Rumors were rampant of Japanese brutality on Bataan. Dick Lang and hundreds of other Americans on the islands decided they would rather take their chances in the hills than in a prison camp. With six compatriots, Lang purchased three water buffalo to pack weapons, ammunition, and all the food they could find. They traveled on the jungle trails until they had to abandon the pack animals and continue on foot, carrying their supplies on their backs. It would be nearly two years before MacArthur made good on his promise, "I shall return!" During that time Dick Lang fought not only the Japanese, but the treacherous plants, leeches, and malaria-carrying mosquitoes of a jungle which receives up to 200 inches of annual rainfall. Rudi writes, "Walking through the wet plant materials, Lang's army hightop shoes finally rotted out and were no longer wearable. This meant he would have to walk barefoot until a replacement could be found." It would be over a year before Lang received shoes for his by then toughened size 13EEE feet. Lang made his way to the east coast of the island where he organized guerrilla activities, salvaging sunken boats, repairing motors, and scouting for guns and ammunition. He led hit and run attacks on the Japanese invaders, including a daring mission to slip through enemy lines, sneaking back into their enemy-held maintenance building to retrieve a hidden radio.

Lang makes clear to the reader the tenacity of the Japanese war effort in the islands of the Pacific, the courage and ingenuity of the abandoned American guerilla fighters on the Philippines, and the generosity and bravery of the Filipino people. The book, which includes timelines, maps, photographs, and a glossary of Tagalog words, is a wonderfully readable history lesson and an amazing true adventure story which pays tribute to a heroic Marshalltown, Iowa, farm boy who lives to tell his tale.