On Dec. 14, 1944, on the Palawan Prisoner of War (POW) Camp within the Philippines, a Japanese officer, a person they referred to as “The Buzzard”, stood earlier than the POWs and proclaimed, “Americans, your days of working are over!”
Shortly after, he ordered the American POWs into picket bunkers, doused them with gasoline, set all of it ablaze, and opened hearth on any who tried to flee.
One-hundred-thirty-nine American Soldiers perished within the agonizing flames and gunfire that night time.
Eleven escaped to inform the grisly story.
What adopted was an pressing and livid marketing campaign by the Allies to free as lots of their POWs as doable from the clutches of their Japanese captors within the Philippines. Less than two months after the Palawan Massacre, the Allies started their rescue efforts and, over the course of thirty days, liberated 4 POW camps throughout the nation, rescuing greater than 7,000 POWs.
They began at Cabanatuan.
They despatched within the Rangers.
So it got here to cross that on 30 Jan 1945, the solar set on the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, with greater than 500 POWs questioning if that night time was the night time they’d be massacred like in Palawan.
It rose the following morning on a silent jail camp crammed with lots of of useless enemy guards …
… and never a POW to be discovered.
80 years later, members of the U.S. Army’s seventy fifth Ranger Regiment and Ranger veterans went again to Cabanatuan to commemorate its liberation.
“It’s an incredible honor to be here and remember what those Rangers and Allies pulled off,” mentioned Capt. David Bryan, a member of 2nd Battalion, seventy fifth Ranger Regiment, who was current for the eightieth anniversary commemoration, held on the Cabanatuan American Memorial, “The Great Raid set the stage for saving thousands of POW lives across the Philippines.”
The morning of the commemoration started with members of the Ranger veteran neighborhood becoming a member of with a gaggle of Filipino Scout Rangers to stroll the mission route that World War II Rangers took to succeed in their goal all these years in the past, ending on the Cabanatuan American Memorial, the place the notorious POW camp as soon as stood.
There they, together with members of 2nd Ranger Battalion, dignitaries, and army and native officers, gathered for a ceremony that included a studying of the historic account, a commemoration of POW/MIA fallen, a youth rose-laying tribute, liberation messages from each the U.S. Armed forces and Filipino native perspective, and a wreath providing.
“80 years ago this week, one of the most bold and audacious military operations ever executed took place at this location,” mentioned Dr. Mike Krivdo, the U.S. Army Pacific Command Historian, “successfully planned and accomplished by a unique and formidable collection of U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts, and Philippine Guerrillas.”
The Raid on Cabanatuan, comprised of the sixth Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Henry A. Mucci, Sixth U.S. Army, Alamo Scouts, and varied guerrilla models, is taken into account right this moment to be one of the crucial completely deliberate and executed raids in WWII.
Two days previous to the Great Raid, On Jan. 28, 1945, underneath cowl of darkness and armed with solely the garments on their backs, just a little meals and water, and an entire lot of weapons and ammunition, the Rangers of Company C, commanded by Capt. Robert Prince, and Company F, commanded by 2nd Lt. John Murphy, trekked a grueling 24 miles via rivers, ravines, tall grass, and thick underbrush, from allied-controlled land in Guimba deep into Japanese territory, hiding in ditches and rice paddies at any time when enemy automobiles drove by after which working to make up time.
They finally linked up with a drive of 250 guerrilla fighters and the Alamo Scouts, who reported a pair hundred Japanese troopers guarding the Cabanatuan jail camp.
But they’d an issue.
“The scouts estimated another thousand or so Japanese fighters positioned at the Cabu Bridge, nearby,” mentioned Bryan. “Way more than the Rangers expected.”
The Alamo Scouts estimated they’d transfer on towards Cabu within the subsequent 24 hours, nevertheless. Therefore, the Rangers agreed to delay the assault till the following day.
That additional time gave the scouts and guerrillas sufficient time to assemble an enormous quantity of data.
“One combined team even donned farmer’s clothes and was able to recon the front gate of the camp while working the ground with a hoe,” mentioned Krivdo, “noting the materials used to construct the gate, which way it swung, and when the guard shifts changed.”
Before lengthy, they knew the structure and patterns of the camp via and thru, and after briefing Mucci, the Rangers drew up a plan to assault on 30 Jan.
With Scouts and Guerrilla troopers establishing blocking positions to the north and south, laying out a blanket of land mines and successfully isolating the jail camp from reinforcements, the Rangers have been lastly prepared to start their work.
“Lt. Col. Mucci’s final guidance was, ‘Remember, all prisoners go. No one gets left behind,'” mentioned Bryan.
They started with a three-kilometer strategy to the target, finally dropping all the way down to a gradual and deliberate crawl, as little as they may get, towards their assault positions.
The Rangers inched nearer.
Concealment grew much less.
Eventually, it grew to nothing … and darkness was approaching.
When they got here inside a couple of hundred meters of their preventing positions, out of the blue, out of nowhere, a P-61 ‘Black Widow’ night time fighter blasted on the scene, roaring over the camp, and drawing everybody’s consideration upward. Prisoners cheered and guards froze in place.
It was all a part of the plan.
“The Japanese had a well-known habit of putting all their attention on the sky any time an Allied aircraft went by,” mentioned Bryan. “The P-61 was a planned distraction to cover the final approach as Rangers crawled up to the camp. The pilot made multiple passes, buzzing the Japanese over and over. He got dangerously low to the camp and cut his engines, which caused the plane to shake, sputter, and rattle in the air. Then he’d flip them back on and the engines would backfire, covering any noise the Rangers made. He’d waggle the wings up and down … he basically did everything he could to keep the enemy’s eyes up on him and not out at the approaching Rangers. It was a gutsy move.”
And it labored like a allure. Rangers used the distraction to shortly crawl via the open area and get in place, and some guerrillas and Rangers even managed to chop the camp’s phone strains, killing the enemy’s capacity to name for assist.
Soon, they’d encircled the complete camp.
They have been set.
At exactly 7:45pm, Rangers, led by Murphy, opened hearth on the unsuspecting Japanese guards. They wasted no time taking out the lone guard within the watchtower, eliminating the enemy pillbox to the north with a bazooka, breeching the primary gate, and slicing barbed wire to permit entry.
Within minutes, they have been in.
Masters of training disciplined savagery and working in managed chaos, the Rangers started to systematically and effectively eradicate each enemy soldier they got here throughout, choosing off Japanese, destroying vehicles and tanks with bazookas, and neutralizing complete bunkers. All the whereas, searching for out POWs and directing them to the primary gate for exfil. It didn’t take lengthy for the rally level to replenish.
But grouping everybody in a single location proved to be pricey.
The foremost gate turned the one actual level of opposition by the enemy, because it turned goal to Japanese mortars. The enemy solely obtained off three rounds, however sadly for these within the space, the rounds have been proper on the right track, inflicting many casualties and mortally wounding the Rangers’ medical officer, Capt. James C. Fisher, who was treating POWs as they got here via. One different Ranger, Cpl. Roy F. Sweeny, was killed within the encounter, and 4 extra Rangers and two Alamo Scouts have been critically injured.
By the sunshine of the complete moon, and with a renewed sense of urgency, Rangers cleared the camp, shifting from barracks to barracks and navigating the lethal chaos with brutal effectivity, scooping up each POW they discovered, to incorporate a few British POWs who reportedly mentioned, “We’re not Americans, but we’re coming too!”
Thirty minutes after the primary spherical was fired, each POW within the camp had formally develop into an ex-POW.
With that, the Rangers ready to depart. They gave out cigarettes, sweet, meals, water, and in lots of instances their very own garments and footwear, to anybody who wanted them, and commenced motion to freedom.
Over the following 24 hours, they might funnel POWs via the nation, stopping at pleasant villages, loading the weakest POWs onto carts to be pulled, and eventually arriving again in Allied-controlled land. There they boarded vehicles and ambulances and commenced their well-deserved journey house.
Mucci and Prince each earned Distinguished Service Crosses for his or her actions that night time. All different officers, in addition to chosen enlisted Soldiers obtained Silver Stars, whereas the American enlisted males and guerrilla officers obtained Bronze Stars.
Twenty guerrillas have been injured within the raid, together with two Alamo Scouts and 4 Rangers. Unfortunately, two POWs died in the course of the rescue, one from sickness on the street, and certainly one of a coronary heart assault earlier than they ever left the camp. But those that made it have been eternally grateful to the Rangers and their relentless efforts to free them.
“In all the annals of military history, the raid at Cabanatuan is on the short list to be studied by military leaders,” mentioned Krivdo, “exciting the imagination with its faultless execution and impact. The Raid exemplified ingenuity, determination and collaboration. It is a shining example of how U.S. and Filipino forces came together in wartime to overcome insurmountable odds for the most noble of causes, the preservation of life.”
For Bryan, the Great Raid is a poignant and humbling reminder of what the Ranger legacy is constructed on.
“The Ranger Creed wasn’t written until nearly thirty years after the Great Raid, but it’s clear to me that it was inspired by the actions of these Rangers, Alamo Scouts, Guerrillas, and pilots”, mentioned Bryan. “Giving 100 percent and then some, energetically meeting the enemies of their country, never leaving a fallen comrade, displaying the intestinal fortitude required … it all started in places like Cabanatuan. What they did there shaped not just the words in our Creed, but the expectations of who we are today and what we must continue to be every day.”
Source: U.S.Army