A stunning collision of militaray eras--The heroic and tragic final campaign of the U.S. horseback cavalry against the mechanized Japanese Army of World War II   This the first book to chronicle the full drama of the 26th Cavalry’s magnificent but doomed mounted campaign against the finest troops, air power, and tanks of the Japanese Army—a long-neglected episode of World War II that marked the end of the grand tradition of the U.S. horseback cavalry.   It was shortly after Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines was underway. Among the Philippines’ defenses was a group of Filipino noncommissioned officers and enlisted men, led by white American officers. They were from a different era—trained to fight on horseback as had the Cavalry in the Civil War. They battled fiercely against their Japanese foes but were, in the end, forced to slaughter their mounts and to give up the fight.   Through extensive research based in part on in-depth interviews with 26th Cavalry veterans, author Peter F. Stevens brings this band of brothers and their beloved horses to life as they rode, fought, and bled together in the desperate, doomed struggle to stem the Imperial Japanese Army.   Peter F. Stevensis the news and features editor ofThe Boston Irish Reporterand the award-winning author of several books, includingThe Voyage of the Catalpa.