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Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Son, we’re going to Hell."
The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.
Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.
In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail.
Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
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ISBN:
9780739349243
9780307490889
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDd9e4e7fd-7689-b6ef-2791-1c6760834e38
Grouping Titleship of ghosts the story of the uss houston fdrs legendary lost cruiser and the epic saga of her survivors
Grouping Authorjames d hornfischer
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-28 04:05:51AM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 04:32:14AM

Solr Fields

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display_description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Son, we’re going to Hell."
The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.
Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.
In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail.
Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true.
BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from James D. Hornfischer's Neptune's Inferno.
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eAudiobook
eBook
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Audio Books
eBook
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d9e4e7fd-7689-b6ef-2791-1c6760834e38
isbn
9780307490889
9780739349243
last_indexed
2024-03-28T08:32:14.488Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
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Online OverDrive
owning_library_aacpl
Anne Arundel County Public Library Online
owning_location_aacpl
Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9780739349243
publishDate
2006
2009
publisher
Books on Tape
Random House Publishing Group
recordtype
grouped_work
title_display
Ship of Ghosts The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors
title_full
Ship of Ghosts The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors
title_short
Ship of Ghosts
title_sub
The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors
topic_facet
Biography & Autobiography
History
Military
Nonfiction

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