The Expendable: The True Story of Patrol Wing 10, PT Squadron 3, and a Navy Corpsman Who Refused to Surrender When the Philippine Islands Fell to Japan
Language: English
Published by Trou de Lapin, 2020
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books Inc
AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
Condition: Used - Fair
£ 24.46
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The Expendable is the true story of Charles Conrad Beckner, a young Navy corpsman confronting life and death in the opening battle of WWII in the Pacific. Charles leaves his Indiana sharecropper family and enlists in the Navy in 1939. After basic and clinical training as a hospital corpsman, Charles is posted to Cañacao Navy Hospital in the Philippine Islands. He is later assigned to Patrol Wing 10. In December 1941 he is serving as the independent duty Corpsman, caring for the crewmen of PBY Seaplane Squadron VP-102 at Olongapo. Japan opens the War in the Pacific on 7 December with a devastating strike on U.S. Navy ships at Hawaii. Six hours later, with smoke and flames still billowing from Pearl Harbor, Japan throws the full weight of its Imperial Military Forces against the outnumbered and under equipped Filipino Garrison. The American-Filipino Army is unable to hold a line of defense across the Bataan Peninsula. Low on ammunition ammunition and food, and riddled with malaria and dysentery, General Douglas MacArthur's troops retreat to the tip of the Bataan Peninsula to face surrender or worse. Left behind when the remnants of his PBY squadron fled south with the rest of the American Far East Fleet, Charles talks his way into Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 as a squadron corpsman and machine gunner on PT-34. After two months of action off Bataan and in the South China Sea, the four remaining PT Boats are handed a covert, critical mission: transport General Douglas MacArthur from the island fortress of Corregidor to the Del Monte airfield on the southern island of Mindanao. Four of the three PT Boats complete the harrowing two-night ocean run through enemy waters. Once MacArthur has flown on to Australia, the small squadron continue offensive operations around the southern islands. When PT-34 is lost, Charles is abandoned on the island of Cebu. He makes his way across the island on foot, evading roaming Japanese patrols and hostile natives. Reaching Mindanao Island, he joins an organizing guerrilla resistance. Charles is pulled for a special mission and unexpectedly reunited with crewmates from Patrol Wing 10. In a final desperate effort, they will attempt to repair and fly a badly damaged airplane to Australia.…
Seller Inventory # CIN1734542128A
- Title
- The Expendable: The True Story of Patrol Wing 10, PT Squadron 3, and a Navy Corpsman Who Refused to Surrender When the Philippine Islands Fell to Japan
- Author
- John Lewis Floyd
- Publisher
- Trou de Lapin
- Publication year
- 2020
- Condition
- Fair
- Binding
- Hardback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1734542128
- ISBN 13
- 9781734542127
2021 is the 80th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and will be accompanied by a great deal of ceremony and remembrance of the attack on Pearl Harbor, but little about what happened 8,500 miles to the west that same day. As time passes, fewer are aware that only 6 hours after Japanese planes sunk the USS Arizona, Japan attacked their main objective, the Philippine islands, with the full force of its naval, ground, and air forces. Thus began a heroic American and Filipino resistance, buying with blood and lives enough time for the Allies to regroup in Australia. Five months later, 78,000 American troops were surrendered in the greatest defeat in the history of the United States. "A riveting page-turner," THE EXPENDABLE is a captivating, true story from the opening months of WWII in the Pacific. As smoke billows skyward from Pearl Harbor, Japan throws its full military might against the outnumbered and under-equipped Filipino forces. Hart sends his U.S. Asiatic Fleet south, to the safety of Allied waters. When the remnants of PBY Patrol Wing 10 depart with the fleet, Charles Beckner, corpsman for PBY Squadron 102, is left behind with no apparent avenue for escape. Under relentless pressure from General Homma's troops and air forces, American-Filipino troops retreat to the tip of the Bataan Peninsula. Sick with malaria and dysentery and nearly out of food and ammunition, surrender is imminent for those who survive. Charles wrangles a transfer to Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 as machine gunner and corpsman on PT-34. After two months of engaging enemy forces along the Bataan coast, Squadron 3 is tasked with a critical, covert mission that once more leaves Charles stranded, this time on the southern Philippine Island of Cebu. As the Japanese noose tightens, Charles joins other sailors and soldiers preparing for guerrilla resistance from the interior mountains of Mindanao Island. His plans are interrupted by a secretive assignment that unexpectedly reunites him with crewmen of his old seaplane squadron. With advancing Japanese troops only minutes away, there is one possibility for escape, though It is risky and failure will be fatal. "This long (500+ page) saga crescendos from the start. I stayed up all night finishing the last 200 pages, unable to put it down." - Ex-Navy Corpsman.
"We are losing our World War II veterans by the thousands daily and along with them we all too often lose their stories. John Floyd has done an admirable job of preserving the stories of his father-in-law in a fast-paced and highly readable narrative; he knows his military history as well as his family’s." -Walter Borneman, Author of The Admirals and MacArthur At War.
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World of Books Inc
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AbeBooks seller since March 23, 2026
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