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The Journal of Military History 67.3 (2003) 981-982



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Avenging Bataan: The Battle of ZigZag Pass. By B. David Mann. Raleigh, N.C.: Pentland Press, 2001. ISBN 1-57197-302-8. Maps. Photographs. Notes. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xviii, 364. $26.95.

Nearly three years after the surrender of American and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor, U.S. Army units landed on the western shores of the island of Luzon bent on regaining Bataan. Their advance, however, was impeded by well-entrenched Japanese forces at ZigZag Pass located at the northern approaches to the peninsula. A bloody battle ensued which cost an estimated 1,300 to 1,400 American casualties and a delay in the American timetable for capturing Bataan. Convinced that a more thorough history of the Battle of ZigZag Pass was needed, B. David Mann has written a book that has made a substantial contribution to our understanding of a battle fought in the Philippines in early 1945.

Avenging Bataan brings together a considerable body of information about the ZigZag Pass engagement heretofore unavailable to American readers. Mann interviewed and corresponded with veterans of the U.S. Army who had participated in the battle, examining, in some instances, their wartime letters and diaries. His research, however, was not confined to interviews, documents, and publications accessible within his own country. He also sought information in Japan, obtaining copies of histories of the Himeji 39th Infantry Regiment and two subordinate units of that regiment (the Third [End Page 981] Battalion and the Third Machine Gun Company), as well as the Japanese Defense Agency's official history of the Luzon campaign and written reminiscences by Japanese participants. His research included touring the battleground with Japanese veterans.

The author also sought and accepted advice from various scholars, who helped him in many ways. Because Mann had participated in the Battle of ZigZag Pass as a platoon leader in the 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Division, he was encouraged to steer away from writing a history in the form of reminiscences. As a result, Mann has provided a detailed and thoughtful account of the confrontation at ZigZag Pass between the United States Army's XI Corps and the Imperial Japanese Army's 39th Infantry Regiment, and in so doing has provided interesting and useful insights from the advantage of having been intimately involved in the campaign.

In Mann's overall analysis of the battle, the prolonged delay in breaking the Japanese defenses was due in part to the leadership of the XI Corps commander, Major General Charles Hall. Of the Japanese units who accomplished their mission of delaying the American advance, he wrote "[w]oefully outnumbered, never flinching, they . . . fought nobly and honorably with limited resources against overwhelming odds, knowing there was no chance for relief or reinforcement" and that "[i]n essence two reinforced Japanese battalions had resisted an American corps of 4 regiments of infantry (3,000 men each), 7 battalions of artillery, a company of at least 6 tanks, and 16 P-47s [p. 313]." As for the American forces, he wrote "[t]he bravery and élan of the American GI and the ultimate weight of American materiel in ZigZag Pass overcame flaws in leadership and insured final American victory" (p. 323).

 



George H. Curtis
Blue Springs, Missouri

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