Valor The astonishing World War II saga of one man's defiance and indomitable spirit

With the raid on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, war was declared. The shock of this brazen attack had barely registered when Japanese forces attacked other U.S. bases in the Pacific, including the Philippines. Bill Harris, serving in the Marine Corps at the time, believed that U.S. involvement would be swift and decisive, but this turned out to be wishful thinking. When the Japanese attacked and captured Corregidor Island, where Bill's company was stationed, he grudgingly accepted the surrender of his unit, but refused to bend to the will of his captors. With a fellow solder, he planned an escape, and soon the two absconded with a boat and headed for friendlier terrain. However, the escape from Corregidor was only the beginning of Bill's story. Valor highlights the unbreakable will of a soldier who wanted to serve his country and never cower to brutality. Hampton (Operation Vengeance, 2020) writes an emotionally charged and transfixing biography and a story of courage at its peak.

A U.S. Marine's daring escape from the Japanese-occupied Philippines is recounted in this dramatic WWII adventure story. Former combat pilot Hampton (Viper Pilot) details how Lt. William Frederick Harris, the son of Marine Corps general Field Harris, was taken prisoner at the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942, escaped captivity by swimming three miles across Manila Bay to Bataan, dodged Japanese patrols, fought alongside Filipino guerillas, and attempted to sail first to China and then to Australia before he was recaptured and taken to a series of POW camps on the Japanese home islands, where he endured beriberi, dysentery, starvation, and torture while teaching himself Japanese in order to spy on the guards. After his camp was liberated in August 1945, Harris witnessed the formal signing of the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. Eager to command his own battalion, he stayed in the Marines, married, and had two daughters before being sent to Korea, where he disappeared during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. Hampton skillfully interweaves Harris's travails with the major events of the Pacific war and draws a nuanced portrait of the dynamic between father and son. The result is a captivating portrait of courage and determination during wartime. (May)

The spectacular adventures of an American soldier who refused to surrender after the Japanese conquest of the Philippines. Hampton, a decorated former Air Force pilot and bestselling author of military history, tells the remarkable story of Lt. Col. William Frederick Harris (1918-1950), whose regiment arrived in the islands in the Philippines in 1941, just after Pearl Harbor and only days before the Japanese invasion. In January, his unit moved to Corregidor, a fortified island in Manila harbor and the last remaining outpost after the American defeat. Despite a fierce defense, American forces surrendered on May 6, 1942. Harris immediately planned to escape his imprisonment, which would require swimming three miles across the shark-infested harbor to the mainland. Against all odds, he and a companion succeeded, although it required nine exhausting hours. There followed an amazing odyssey, as Harris and a changing cast of fellow soldiers, assisted by Indigenous people and guerrillas, walked and sailed several thousand miles toward Australia, eventually reaching Indonesia before being recaptured by the Japanese in June 1943. Taken to Japan, Harris endured more than two years of miserable conditions in prison camps until the American fleet arrived on Aug. 30, 1945, two weeks after Japan's surrender. His postwar life seemed to be moving toward the traditional happy ending, as he fell in love, married, and had two children, but readers will be jolted to learn that he remained in the Marines and returned to war in Korea in 1950, where he was killed. Hampton narrates his story with a combination of invented dialogue, melodrama, insight into characters' thoughts, and precise details of events that are unlikely to be documented, pausing regularly to recount the progress of the war. Though the author's conventional, novelistic approach is in keeping with countless other breathless accounts of World War II heroics, Harris' life was unquestionably amazing, making his story worthwhile. A fast-paced WWII tale for military-history devotees. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.