As Good As Dead

Stephen L. Moore

Formats & editions

Paperback

Buy from…

Mighty Ape

Find local retailers

As Good as Dead is one of the greatest escape stories of World War II, and one that few Americans know. The eleven survivors of the Palawan Massacre—some badly wounded and burned—spent weeks evading Japanese patrols. They scrounged for food and water, swam shark-infested bays, and wandered through treacherous jungle terrain, hoping to find friendly Filipino guerrillas. Their endurance, determination, and courage in the face of death make this a gripping and inspiring saga of survival.

In late 1944, the Allies invaded the Japanese-held Philippines, and soon the end of the Pacific War was within reach. But for the last 150 American prisoners of war still held on the island of Palawan, there would be no salvation. After years of slave labor, starvation, disease, and torture, their worst fears were about to be realized. On December 14, with machine guns trained on them, they were herded underground into shallow air raid shelters—death pits dug with their own hands.

Japanese soldiers doused the shelters with gasoline and set them on fire. Some thirty prisoners managed to bolt from the fiery carnage, running a lethal gauntlet of machine gun fire and bayonets to jump from the cliffs to the rocky Palawan coast. By the next morning, only eleven men were left alive—but their desperate journey to freedom had just begun.

Praise for As Good As Dead

Published: 15 December 2016
ISBN: 9780399583551
Imprint: Nal
Format: Hardback
Pages: 368
RRP: $50.00

Categories:

History

Share…

Also by Stephen L. Moore

Pacific Payback: The Carrier Aviators Who Avenged Pearl Harbor at the Battle of Midway

See all

Praise for As Good As Dead

Equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting, As Good as Dead is an incredible, moving tale told by a master storyteller. Moore’s research is impressive, but his remarkable ability to relate the human story of everyday Americans in time of war is what really makes this book so hard to put down. I highly recommend it
John C. McManus, author of The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach

Meticulously researched and grippingly told, As Good as Dead is a powerful story of brutality, suffering, and the ultimate triumph of the American spirit
James M. Scott, Pulitzer Prize Finalist and National Bestselling Author of Target Tokyo: Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor

As Good as Dead tells an almost unbelievable story of cruelty and despair in which ordinary men survived by defiant determination, simply refusing to submit to their apparent fate. Stephen L. Moore tells the story of the Palawan survivors with great skill, and his book should be required reading to gain any understanding of the often neglected war in the Pacific
Gregory A. Freeman, author of The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II

Visceral and heartrending, As Good as Dead details the stirring stories of eleven grimly determined men who—exercising incredible resolve and grit—survived seemingly impossible circumstances. An outstanding and important work
Jay A. Stout, author of Vanished Hero: The Life, War and Mysterious Disappearance of America’s Strafing King