Book Review: James Fenelon’s ‘Angels Against the Sun’

Blood and Battle in the Philippines

U.S. Chockmen removing the chocks from the wheels of Navy Grumman Hellcats as they prepare to take off, during the strike at Manila Bay during World War II, Philippines, 1945. U.S. Navy/Getty Images

In “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” the movie about the Korean War based on James Michener’s novel, Rear Adm. George Tarrant watches as his pilots take off from the pitching deck of a carrier to attack the enemy and asks, “Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they do their job. … Where do we get such men?”

Though our schools and colleges have neglected the teaching of military history these last 50 years or so, novels like Michael Shaara’s “The Killer Angels,” the histories of World War II by Stephen Ambrose, and movies like “Saving Private Ryan” remain popular with the public. As we read these books or watch these films, we may be thinking, as did Rear Adm. Tarrant, “Where do we get such men?”

Coming Together

For readers of “Angels Against the Sun: A WWII Saga of Grunts, Grit, and Brotherhood,” this question will likely arise a multitude of times. Here, James Fenelon, a historian who served 12 years in the military and is a graduate of the U.S. Army’s Airborne, Jumpmaster, and Pathfinder schools, tells the story of the 11th Airborne Division and the courageous role it played in the liberation of the Philippines. While fighting against the ferocious and determined soldiers of the Japanese army, these U.S. soldiers also battled swamps, rain and mud, jungles, and disease.