Raid

There are all sorts of raids, perhaps the one most known today is the FBI raid on Roger Stone's house.  Back in World War II a number of raids occurred.  There were air raids, hostage raids and raids to free prisoners.  Hitler had a raid to rescue Mussolini.  But, there was another raid that is often lost in the dust heap of history.  It has become known, in the United States, as The Great Raid.  There is both a book and a movie of this title.  The Great Raid was undertaken by US Army Ranger and Philippine guerrilla  forces in January 1945.  Many have argued that the raid had little military purpose, but to many others it was a chance for freedom.  The raid that was planned and undertaken over five days in the tropics of the Philippines was to free over 500 prisoners of war from a POW camp near Cabanatuan.

Lt Col Mucci and Capt Robert Prince

The journey of most of the prisoners to the squalid prison camp near Cabanatuan, would begin with the strike in Pearl Harbor.  The day after that day of infamy, the United States declared war on the axis powers of Japan, Italy and Germany.  While the United States would begin a war on two fronts, the war in the east was, for many practical purposes, the poor step child as much of the men and material from the United States went first to Europe. England had to be saved yet once again. Yet, things were moving fast in the east.  After Pearl Harbor the Japanese fleet made its way to southeast Asia to secure the Philippines, and other islands and archipelagos.  Some were strategic in the overall plan of battle, others were necessary for resources.  General Douglas MacArthur commanded the US soldiers in the Philippines and as Japanese forces took Manila, that forced a planned US retreat to the other side of Manila Bay to the Bataan peninsula.  MacArthur would be told to abandon his headquarters.  General King, who commanded the forces on the peninsula surrendered a large number of American and Filipino soldiers, about 75,000 in total including 12,000 Americans, to the forces of the Emperor of Japan.  This is the largest contingent of American forces to ever surrender.

Allied Filipino Guerrillas

As commonly noted, the Bushido code of Japan did not agree with surrender so the Allied forces who were taken prisoner were subjected to forced labor and torture.  To the Japanese, the US, and other Allied prisoners were a nuisance, but would become a labor force.  These men would be subjected to what is known as the Bataan Death March.  A forced 65 mile hike in the tropics with prisoners subjected to mass murder on the route.  Over 600 Americans and at least 5,000 Filipino's would die (although some estimates place the Filipino account at up to 16,000) during the March. Many of these prisoners would end up at the camp near Cabanatuan.

Former Prisoners of Cabantuan Camp on way to Freedom

As MacArthur reestablished himself in the Philippines in fall of 1944 the Japanese high command sent out a list of instructions as to circumstances where they said US prisoners could be killed.  Intelligence information reported on a massacre at Palawan where over 150 Americans were crowded into small air raid shelters and the Japanese opened and rolled barrels of gasoline to the side of the pits and started them on fire.   As American forces advanced to retake the Philippines  the concern arose that this would occur in other prison camps.  Hence the great raid was planned and needed to be executed by the end of January due to the movement of American forces.

Freed Prisoners

On January 25, Major Robert Lapham, who coordinated guerrilla forces with the Filipino insurgents recommended that a raid occur on the camp. MacArthur had previously denied an earlier raid by the insurgents due to concern with capture by the Japanese before they were able to reach American lines.  It was estimated that there were 100 to 300 Japanese forces in the camp, with 5000 of their soldiers four miles away in Cabanutuan City, and another 1,000 or more bivouacked about 1/2 mile from the camp.  General Krueger approved the idea of a raid.  The approval made its way down the chain of command to Lt. Col Henry Mucci to plan and implement.

Layout and Plan of Attack and Rescue of Cabanatuan POW Camp

On January 27  Mucci and his complement of 121 US Army Rangers departed their base at 5 am to make their way the 30 some miles to enemy lines which they crossed at about 2 pm.  They then made their way to a small barrio, about five miles from the camp.  Filipino fighters assisted and guided the US force.   Filipino intelligence on the movement of Japanese forces required Mucci had to delay the raid for 24 hours from January 29 to January 30.  With the Americans on the move, the Japanese were adjusting their forces and Cabanatuan was now base for over 7000 enemy forces.  During this time, Captain Prince and Mucci were provided with more detail on the geography of the area, and the situation at hand from American scouts.  The flat, open nature of 800' around the camp was a major concern.  They realized there would be only an hour of full darkness between sunset and moon rise.  The 121 Americans would need to crawl that distance in open view, and they had limited time in which to do so.

Prisoner Hut at Cabanatuan POW Camp

The leader of the Filipino guerrillas suggested, and Mucci agreed, to a US plane to fly over to distract the Japanese as the Americans made their way to their final positions.  The one plane flyover, in which the pilot risked his own life by flying close to the ground, would distract the Japanese guards for about 20 minutes.  Two Filipino guerrilla forces would be sent up and down the road to slow any of the other Japanese forces.  At 20 minutes to eight the Rangers, now in position, would begin the raid.  The POW's were not aware of the raid, even though two Filipino boys had thrown two rocks which contained a note:  "Be ready to go".  The prisoners thought it was a prank.  Luckily no guard caught a rock.  By 15 minutes after 8, the death camp was secure and the 513 prisoners, including 464 Americans, were on the first leg of their journey to American lines.  The planning of the escape from the camp required the gathering of a large number of carts pulled by the local draft animal--carabao, all secured and guided by the local population.  By 10:00 pm the group had reached the community of Plateros and at 11 pm headquarters was notified.  There were Communist Filipino guerrillas who disliked the Americans and the Japanese and were in control of a village through which the caravan would have to pass and refused to do so.  That is until Mucci relayed a message that he was calling in an air raid to destroy the whole village.  It was a ruse as his radio did not work, but the threat worked.

Survivors of Bataan Death March and Camp Cabanatuan 

Two American soldiers and  21 Allied Filipino guerrillas died during the rescue raid.  A few of the Americans rescued would die within a few days, due to illness from captivity.  Malaria, dystentery and cholera were common illnesses in the camp.  MacArthur would say of the raid:  "No incident of the campaign in the Pacific has given me such satisfaction as the release of the POWs at Cabanatuan. The mission was brilliantly successful."  The news of the rescue was released on Feb 2 in the Philippines, which was Feb 1 in the United States.  It is likely the news headline on groundhog day was of the rescue of the prisoners of war.  It is thought that over 20,000 Allied soldiers and civilians were interred at this camp.  Death and transfer to other camps reduced the camp population.  The horrors undertaken by the Japanese would also become known to the American population.

Former Prisoners being treat at a MakeShift Hospital

As bad as things were for the survivors of the Bataan death march, and in the camp near Cabanatuan, some claim that there was even worse prisoner treatment in other areas of the Japanese Empire, such as in Malaysia, and Burma (present day Myanmar).  The raid my have had little military value, but it would be one of the first to show the atrocities of the Empire of Japan not only on Allied Prisoners of War, but also on local populations.  For readers of this blog, look for more on this matter in a future blog post.   

Images from Google Images