Undefeated

The fight to defend the Philippines from Japanese invasion during 1941 to 1942 ended with the surrender of the largest U.S. military force ever. American servicemen endured rampant disease, near-starvation, the horrors of the Bataan Death March, and life as prisoners of war.

Undefeated captures the fortitude and suffering of the American defenders of the Philippines as no other book has done. Bill Sloan, hailed as “the master of the combat narrative” (The Dallas Morning News), interviewed more than thirty war veterans and drew from unpublished oral history and out-of-print memoirs to provide a unique eyewitness account of this major military encounter and its aftermath. Yet rather than portraying the American defenders as little more than helpless victims of an overwhelmingly powerful and sadistic foe—as most previous books about the Philippines campaign have done—Sloan praises the unexcelled heroism and indomitable spirit they displayed under the worst imaginable conditions.

Undefeated also provides vivid—and critical—portraits of the officers who led the American forces, including General Douglas MacArthur, who escaped to Australia as the situation in Bataan worsened, and General Jonathan Wainwright, who succeeded him as top U.S. commander in the Philippines and himself became a POW.

Filled with remarkable feats of courage and endurance, Undefeated re-creates the tragic yet inspiring panorama of POW camps in the Philippines, in all its high-tension drama.