Angels at Dawn: The Los Banos Raid

by Edward M. Flanagan Jr.

Book Overview

Originally published as "The Los Baos Raid: The 11th Airborne Jumps at Dawn, " this book recounts the complete story of a raid conducted in the last days of World War II on the Los Baos Japanese internment camp, which was located 25 miles behind enemy lines and held over 2,000 civilian POWs. (July)

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425185613
• ISBN13: 9780425185612
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

I was waiting for the Angels

As a former internee in Los Banos Camp when we were rescued by the "Angels," I highly recommend this book. It told me a lot that I never knew at the time - the background of the raid. It is well-written and comprehensive, told from the point of view of the paratroopers. We were only with them a few hours after the raid, so didn't have much chance to hear their stories. My family and I are alive because of the paratroops, the guerrillas and the Army Recon platoon.

Rescued by the Angels

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.