They Were Expendable
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: This copy of W. L. White’s They Were Expendable (Harcourt, Brace, 1942) belonged to Helen Sage, a Red Cross worker at “Yorkies Knob” in Melbourne during WWII. It is inscribed to her by Squadron Commander John D. Bulkeley (29 March 1943), admiring her “splendid work in the Red Cross”; by Ensign George E. Cox Jr., USNR; and by a third donor whose signature is unclear, possibly “Ben Sloane.” Laid in are a typed note describing the book’s delivery by B-17, a vintage photograph (possibly Mrs. Sage), and a clipping on Bulkeley’s visit to Melbourne. Sage also annotated the text in her own hand, adding to a strong personal and local association.
In the darkest days of the Pacific War, four PT boat officers fought their way out of the Philippines and lived to tell a tale that would shake the American conscience — They Were Expendable is that story, as told by W. L. White with the raw urgency of a man who heard it firsthand. Published in 1942, this gripping non-fiction account chronicles the harrowing ordeal of a small Motor Torpedo Boat squadron under Lieutenant John Bulkeley, tasked with harassing the vastly superior Japanese naval forces during the fall of the Philippines. Set against the backdrop of Bataan and Corregidor, it details acts of extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and the brutal calculus of war in which men are knowingly sent into impossible odds. The title itself captures the sobering doctrine of military command: that individual lives may be forfeited for strategic gain. White's journalistic prose is spare, immediate, and devastatingly effective — he allows the officers to speak largely in their own voices, lending the narrative an authenticity that reads more like testimony than reportage. The book was a runaway bestseller upon release and later adapted into a celebrated 1945 John Ford film starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, cementing its place in the cultural memory of World War II. A remarkable historical document, it stands as both a tribute to the men of the PT boats and an unflinching examination of duty, loyalty, and what it truly means to be deemed expendable — leaving the reader to wonder at what cost victory is ever truly won.
Author: W. L. White
Format: Hardback
Published: 1942, Harcourt, Brace and Company
Genre: WW2
Edition: 2nd pr.,
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
Condition remarks: This copy of W. L. White’s They Were Expendable (Harcourt, Brace, 1942) belonged to Helen Sage, a Red Cross worker at “Yorkies Knob” in Melbourne during WWII. It is inscribed to her by Squadron Commander John D. Bulkeley (29 March 1943), admiring her “splendid work in the Red Cross”; by Ensign George E. Cox Jr., USNR; and by a third donor whose signature is unclear, possibly “Ben Sloane.” Laid in are a typed note describing the book’s delivery by B-17, a vintage photograph (possibly Mrs. Sage), and a clipping on Bulkeley’s visit to Melbourne. Sage also annotated the text in her own hand, adding to a strong personal and local association.
In the darkest days of the Pacific War, four PT boat officers fought their way out of the Philippines and lived to tell a tale that would shake the American conscience — They Were Expendable is that story, as told by W. L. White with the raw urgency of a man who heard it firsthand. Published in 1942, this gripping non-fiction account chronicles the harrowing ordeal of a small Motor Torpedo Boat squadron under Lieutenant John Bulkeley, tasked with harassing the vastly superior Japanese naval forces during the fall of the Philippines. Set against the backdrop of Bataan and Corregidor, it details acts of extraordinary courage, sacrifice, and the brutal calculus of war in which men are knowingly sent into impossible odds. The title itself captures the sobering doctrine of military command: that individual lives may be forfeited for strategic gain. White's journalistic prose is spare, immediate, and devastatingly effective — he allows the officers to speak largely in their own voices, lending the narrative an authenticity that reads more like testimony than reportage. The book was a runaway bestseller upon release and later adapted into a celebrated 1945 John Ford film starring Robert Montgomery and John Wayne, cementing its place in the cultural memory of World War II. A remarkable historical document, it stands as both a tribute to the men of the PT boats and an unflinching examination of duty, loyalty, and what it truly means to be deemed expendable — leaving the reader to wonder at what cost victory is ever truly won.