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Post by EXO on Aug 14, 2020 11:35:37 GMT 8
I have been advised that the release date for ROCK FORCE will be 1 December 2020. Here's the content based on the publisher's Fall Catalog. More later. - EXO
From the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of No Easy Day comes a thrilling World War II story of the American airborne soldiers who captured a Japanese-held island fortress
In late December 1941, General Douglas MacArthur, caught off guard by the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, is forced to retreat to Corregidor, a jagged, rocky island fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay. Months later, under orders from the president, the general is whisked away in the dark of night, leaving his troops to their fate. It is a bitter pill for a fiercely proud warrior who has always protected his men. He famously declares “I shall return,” but the humiliation of Corregidor haunts him, even earning him the derisive nickname “Dugout Doug.”
In early 1945, MacArthur returns to the Philippines, his eyes affixed firmly on Corregidor. To take back the island, he calls on the 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, a highly-trained veteran airborne unit. Their mission is to jump onto the island—hemmed in by sheer cliffs, pockmarked by bomb craters, bristling with deadly, spiky, broken tree trunks—and wrest it from some 6,700 Japanese defenders who await, fully armed and ready to fight to the death.
Drawn from firsthand accounts and personal interviews with the battle’s surviving veterans, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Kevin Maurer delves in this extraordinary tale, uncovering astonishing accounts of bravery and heroism during an epic, yet largely forgotten, clash of the Pacific War. Here is an intimate story of uncommon soldiers showing uncommon courage, and winning, through blood and sacrifice, the redemption of General MacArthur. -------------------------------- Kevin Maurer is an award-winning journalist who has covered military operations for nearly two decades. He has been embedded with combat troops many times, including with the 82nd Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and with a Special Forces team in Afghanistan for ten weeks in 2010. His books include the massively successful No Easy Day, the inside story of the Bin Laden raid, co-written with former Navy SEAL Mark Owen. --------------------------------
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Post by EXO on Aug 15, 2020 7:55:46 GMT 8
The publisher sent me a higher resolution of the front cover, and I'm keen to share it. Far be it for me to criticize, but I feel that this "Exacted MacArthur's Revenge" is a bit over the top. It's too florid, too copywriter, too overly P. T. Barnum. I prefer the concept which the word “PAYBACK” brings to the story. It’s not revenge motivated, more like the second half of a football match when the home team has been thrashed during the first half. The essence of Corregidor is that it was a word which defined the Japanese-American clash not once, but twice, and on the very same playing field. First half, Japanese attacking, America receiving. The Japanese decide on protracted artillery bombardment , the Americans are defending with their outdated WWI technology. Comes 1945, the roles are reversed, it’s PAYBACK. America has developed an invasion technique honed to effectiveness by practical experience, and the surprise is Paratroopers, who take the high ground, cut the communication net, and shatter the defense coordination within a matter of hours. It’s an all new army, all new technology and a PAYBACK attitude. Sure it's balls to the wall PAYBACK, but not revenge on a cold blade style. What motivates this amalgam of professional officers and citizens in uniform who have become an effective soldiery? Not the spruiking of MacArthur, but the living lessons of New Guinea, slugging it out across the expanse of the SWPA, knowing that their dead were butchered on Noemfoor, knowing that the great number of their POW’s are no longer in the Philippines, and have disappeared.
Any comments?
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Post by EXO on Oct 10, 2020 8:43:57 GMT 8
The book is confirmed for release 1 December, says the Amazon Pre-order purchase page."Rock Force is a beautifully told story of war: the friendships, the courage and despair, and the terror... One of the most exciting books ever written about the Pacific War.” (Mitch Weiss, New York Times best-selling coauthor of Countdown 1945)
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Post by EXO on Oct 20, 2023 8:15:23 GMT 8
I was just checking on my memory to confirm a "detail" and came upon this INTERNET ARCHIVE site hosted by C-SPAN. If you didn't catch the original program (broadcast 25 AUG 2021) this is sure worth a visit. The broadcast was a project of Amanda Williams & Jim Zobel of MacArthur Memorial. It features an interview of book author Kevin Maurer.
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