Phantom Warrior: The Heroic True Story of Pvt. John McKinney's One-Man StandAgainst the Japanese in World War II - Hardcover

Johnson, Forrest Bryant

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0425215660 ISBN 13: 9780425215661

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover, 2007

Synopsis

A portrait of World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner John McKinney describes how he single-handedly fought off a Japanese surprise attack, killing more than one hundred enemy combatants and saving many of his fellow soldiers in the process.

About this title

About the Author:

Forrest Bryant Johnson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and graduated from the University of Louisville with degrees in chemistry and psychology before serving for nine years in the U.S. Army. He is also the author of Hour of Redemption.

From Publishers Weekly:

Singlehandedly repulsing a Japanese attack in 1945, Pvt. John McKinney won the Medal of Honor for one of America's most heroic wartime feats, and here Johnson (Hour of Redemption) presents the event as a docudrama. Private McKinney was the nearly illiterate son of a Georgia sharecropper who served quietly throughout the New Guinea and Philippine campaigns. With victory assured in the Philippines, his unit was sent to defend a remote spit of land far from the fighting, where no one expected the attack when it came. Recovering from his surprise, McKinney recaptured a machine gun from the Japanese, firing until it jammed, then fought on alone with his rifle (he was a crack shot) and bayonet. Afterward, witnesses counted over 100 enemy dead—so many that superiors wanted a lower number before submitting their report. McKinney died in 1997, leaving no personal papers, so the author relies on interviews and official documents, and also on his imagination. The lurid invented dialogue accompanied by his hero's thoughts (His mouth went dry, his muscles tightened, his heart beat slow and steady...) will leave history buffs gnashing their teeth. (Aug. 7)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley Hardcover
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0425215660
• ISBN 13: 9780425215661
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352