*received for free from netgalley for honest review* This was an amazing read, one of best books i have read this year! would buy.

<i>Valor</i> mostly follows Lieutenant Bill Harris, who was captured by Japanese forces in 1942 at the Battle of Corregidor. He and a few friends decided to escape, deciding their odds were better escaping in the Philippines rather than being sent to Japan to a POW camp. We also see the viewpoints of a few of Bill’s fellow Marines as well as his family, including his officer father.

What Bill and his friends went through was extraordinary and definitely worthy of being told in a book; this is an amazing tale of bravery. However, I feel like the book would have been better if we had focused just on him; the tangents to tell things from others’ POV, short of his father’s, distracted from the main story. The story contained a lot of battle details from World War II and as such would likely be best enjoyed by military strategy enthusiasts. John Pruden did a great job narrating the audiobook.

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me an audio ARC of this book.

Valor: The Astonishing World War II Saga of One Man’s Defiance and Indomitable Spirit
Dan Hampton
Lieutenant William Frederick Harris is an American hero.
Author Dan Hampton takes readers on a journey back in time to the 1940s the U.S. and Japanese were in the midst of a war. Lieutenant William (Bill) Harris was fresh out of The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis; Bill was stationed in the Philippines shortly before World War II. On December 7, 1941 Japan not only attacked Pearl Harbor but the Philippines. Bill and his men fought hard to no avail they were defeated at the Battle Corregidor. Lieutenant Bill Harris and his men were captured in May 1942.
Twenty-five-year-old Bill planned his escape; he and a few of his men swam across the Manila Bay. The 81/2-hour swim through shark infest waters left the men exhausted. On shore the Lieutenant teamed up with the Filipino guerrillas. He attempted to rejoin his Marine Corps unit however on the island of Morotai a trusted family betrayed him. Once again, he was a Prisoner Of War. He was taken to the Prisoner of War Interrogation Center at Ofuna, Japan. He was tortured, starved and beaten on a regular basis. Through it all he refused to surrender. He taught himself Japanese by eavesdropping on the guards. He created a secret code for communicating with other prisoners. He planned to escape but could not. At the end of the war he represented the Marines and stood on the deck of the USS Missouri as Japan accepted terms of surrender.
Kudos to John Pruden who did a remarkable job narrating this book. Author Dan Hampton is a talented writer he did a superb job in describing the islands, landscape and indigenous community. Lieutenant William Frederick Harris is an unsung American Hero that should never be forgotten.

My Interest
How amazing that I’d find a World War II (nonfiction) book, set in the Philippines, featuring a guy from a Kentucky family after having just read a novel set in the Philippines in World War II and have just read two books featuring young men from families in…you guessed it…Kentucky! Plus there was a lot of talk of Australia. Now, just where were two of my books set recently? Yep, Australia!

My interest in World War II is always with me. When I saw this book, I immediately requested it.

The Story
map-philippines-1944-l

Map of the Philippines in 1944–Batan is at the very top of the map.

Bill Harris, son of a Marine Corps General, Annapolis grad, and all-around decent guy, happened to be serving in the Philippines when the Japanese attacked, General MacArthur fled with his wife, child, and nanny, and the U.S. forces surrendered. Bill did not like the idea of being held captive–being a Marine he preferred to go on fighting. He and a buddy (I thought the story sounded a bit familiar) escaped. The buddy went on to be Governor of Indiana many years later and I have his book on this escape in my Kindle. (I haven’t finished it. He may have been elected governor, but he wasn’t a gifted storyteller).

In a odyssey that would span most of the war, and at times would involve more Americans, Bill Fields starved, swan miles, paddled, sailed, hiked, climbed and more to stay free. When finally his freedom ended the war was nearly won.

My Thoughts
This adventure was very exciting. I often stayed in the car in the parking lot at work listening until the very last minute. Ditto in the driveway at home. It was that interesting. I especially enjoyed the comments the author made about “Dugout Doug”–General MacArthur, who like Britain’s Lord Mountbatten, was an early adopter of modern public relations tactics to promote himself. How a 5-star General got away with skedaddling to Australia to sit out the war (supposedly it was to avoid capture to continue directing the war–it really just got him out of having to surrender) while his men were taken prisoner, yet he STILL got the nation’s highest honor, the Congressional Medal of Honor, is a testament to the man’s ego and powers of self-promotion. You can read the citation here. Then men Bill Fields knew had little regard for him before the surrender and even less after. (Though to be fair, he did get a lot right in the reconstruction of Japan).

Harris had MacGyver-level resourcefulness. He used just about every bit of his Naval Academy education and training as well as all that was taught him after graduation at Quantico to stay alive, stay free, and keep going. This refusal to be defeated, his insistence on continuing to try and try again, earned him a spot on the U.S.S. Missouri to see the Japanese surrender.

This is an amazing story and deserves to be made into an outstanding movie.

Rating: 4

This is a true story about Lieutenant William Frederick “Bill” Harris who got captured during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942 and didn’t return home until 1945. How Bill kept his courage after everything he went through is so inspiring. Giving up was not an option for him; he kept strong and tried to do anything he could to better his situation.

Wow, this book was very interesting and at times hard to read/listen to. I started listening to the audiobook version first then I switched to the physical book. The narrator did a fantastic job and as soon as the book started I had goosebumps. I’m always pleasantly surprised by nonfiction books that don’t feel like nonfiction. By that I mean they aren’t dry but instead read like a story. I’m more likely to get into a book when it's told in that format. This book is definitely filled with lots of information and might confuse you at times. Even though I’ve learned so much about WWII in school, what was told in this book felt very new to me.

I would definitely recommend this book. It’s a book that will inspire you and you will really benefit from reading it.

Thank you so much @stmartinspress & @macmillan.audio for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The World is for the Strong

Exciting, historical true story of Lieutenant Bill Harris of the U.S. Navy. His career, his capture and escape and recapture. How he escaped, his torturous days in the Japanese prison camp and his time after the escape evading the Japanese and trying to get back to his own troops to rejoin the war.

The story tells the history of the war over the pacific, in the Philippines'. It tells about both the U.S. Forces and the Japanese. How some Japanese were loyal to the Japanese, but many if not most were willing to help the escaped American's.

He almost made it to safety, but a friendly family turned traitor and turned him in to the Japanese to be captured a second time.

His story is one of courage and bravery. I liked the after remarks that told a bit of what happened to some of the other men in the story and the Lieutenant. I thank Lieutenant Bill Harris for telling his story so that we might understand this portion of the war. It was both interesting and informative. I did enjoy the story and I learned a lot I did not know. I would recommend this story.

The narrator did a fantastic job and every word was understood. The explanation of the terms and language was wonderful. The descriptions of the islands and the scenery as well as the native people was amazing.

Thanks to Dan Hampton for writing the story, to John Pruden for the narration, to Macmillan Audio for recording and publishing it and to NetGalley for making the audio book available to me to listen to and review.

Captured in WWII in the Philippines would you rather face Japanese military or shark infested waters? Bill chose the waters, swimming what should have been 3 miles and 4 hours that turned into 8 hours after swimming the wrong way.

Then the story of his real life escape and survival continues! Quite a miracle that he survived storms, guerrilla fighting, cold, starvation, beatings and being a POW for 2 years.

This book is dense! With lots of details about the war in the South Pacific mostly focusing on Philippines and Bills escapes and survival. It was a bit laborious to read, but I was able to pair audio with the book and that helped.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio version in return for my honest review.

An amazing story of heroism and bravery. I started listening to this last night and literally stayed up all night to finish it. This is what being an American is about