BOOK REVIEW Book Review Submitted to Professor Daene Liberty University Online Lisa Barton HIUS 222: Survey of American History II INTRODUCTION Escape from Bataan: Memoir of a U.S. Navy Ensign in the Philippines, October 1941 to May 1942 is a memoir about Ensign Ross Hofmann who joined the Navy as a young man during World War II. From his own eyes, he paints us a picture of what it was like to be in the Navy during the harrowing World War II. David Snead, his editor, says the book “provides a very unique look at the experiences of a junior naval officer who survived the harrowing defense of the Philippines.” In reading the book, I agree with David Snead’s comments. We will be exploring many parts of the memoir including supply crops training, service in the Philippines before the war, the experience of a naval Ensign as American forces retreated and resisted Japanese, and Hofmann’s escape from the Philippines. SUPPLY CORPS TRAINING The training seemed swift, heavy and unfinished. The Navy gave Hofmann only a weekend to get all his belongings together and quit his to join them. Training was not what was expected. “Since ships were the business of the navy, we assumed we …show more content…
They were ready for a fight. Hofmann had partied hard the night before and was feeling groggy the next day. “I was hungover, and I could smell the rum on my breath. My mind was not functioning, and the idea of the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor made no sense.” Hofmann found himself in the crosshairs of the debacle, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Unfortunately, Hofmann was there when the Japanese bombed the Cavite Naval Yard where he was. Hofmann does a beautiful job describing the sheer horror of being involved in a bombing. “It was an assembly line of broken and ruptured bodies being moved from litter to table to litter to ambulance.” He was such a brave