They Fought Alone: A True Story of a Modern American Hero

When the American forces in the Philippines surrendered in May 1942, a mining engineer named Wendell Fertig chose to take his chances in the jungle. What happened to him during nearly three years behind enemy lines is the amazing story that John Keats tells in They Fought Alone.

With the aid of a handful of Americans who also refused to surrender, Fertig led thousands of Filipinos in a seemingly hopeless war against the Japanese. They made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wire from iron...