{"product_id":"2940169292534","title":"Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of of Her Survivors","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eBESTSELLER\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Son, we're going to Hell.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The navigator of the USS \u003ci\u003eHouston\u003c\/i\u003e confided these prophetic  words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend.  Renowned as FDR's favorite warship, the cruiser USS \u003ci\u003eHouston\u003c\/i\u003e was a prize target trapped  in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced  a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn't a fair  fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Hornfischer brings  to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit  slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman  effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again-until their  luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered,  the \u003ci\u003eHouston\u003c\/i\u003e was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three  years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In the brutal privation  of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as \u003ci\u003eThe Bridge on the River  Kwai\u003c\/i\u003e, the war continued for the men of the \u003ci\u003eHouston\u003c\/i\u003e-a life-and-death struggle to survive  forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty,  unvarnished story of the infamous Burma-Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood,  but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought  back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will-power-and  the undying faith that their country would prevail.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Using journals and letters,  rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals,  and the eyewitness accounts of \u003ci\u003eHouston\u003c\/i\u003e's survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted  an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it's easy to forget that  every single word is true.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47100421341424,"sku":"2940169292534","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169292534_p0.jpg?v=1769894729","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169292534","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}