CDR Salamander - Fullbore Friday

I’m not sure another nation has the same underlying concern for prisoners of war (POWs) that Americans do. I don’t think anyone else has a POW/MIA flag flying all over the place, even if we don’t have any POWs.

As everyone was reminded this spring, we will go to incredible ends to stop our people from being taken prisoner if we have to. We will try to rescue them if we can.

Perhaps it is the legacy of the British prison ships of the Revolutionary War, the nightmares of the American Civil War camps, or the memory of how our POWs were treated in Vietnam and Korea.

In WWII’s European Theater, conditions were rough, but they were not so bad that we couldn’t make a comedy series out of it—but there was nothing that could be made light of American POWs in the Pacific Theater. Unimaginable horror—though we tried.

While we all like to focus on the big naval battles and island hopping in the last year in the Pacific theater, we were also grinding our way through The Philippines.

On the islands, thousands of Americans languished in Japanese prison camps. Many were survivors of the Bataan death march at the start of the war. Starved, tortured, executed for sport—used for slave labor.

As the American armies advanced, word spread that the Japanese were executing POWs who were no longer useful, or simply to prevent them from being liberated.

The 6th Ranger Battalion and Alamo Scouts had been itching to get into the fight. The Filipino guerrillas have been at it for years.

They decided to make a plan.

They did. That is how we got the Great Raid on Cabanatuan.

…nearly 150 Americans were executed by their Japanese captors on December 14, 1944 at the Puerto Princesa Prison Camp on the island of Palawan. An air raid warning was sounded so that the inmates would enter slit-trench and log-and-earth covered air-raid shelters, and there doused with gasoline and burned alive.^[64] One of the survivors, PFC Eugene Nielsen, recounted his tale to U.S. Army Intelligence on January 7, 1945.^[65] Two days later, MacArthur’s forces landed on Luzon and began a rapid advance towards the capital, Manila.^[66]

Major Robert Lapham, the American USAFFE senior guerrilla chief, and another guerrilla leader, Captain Juan Pajota, had considered freeing the prisoners within the camp,^[67] but feared logistical issues with hiding and caring for the prisoners.^[68] An earlier plan had been proposed by Lieutenant Colonel Bernard Anderson, leader of the guerrillas near the camp. He suggested that the guerrillas would secure the prisoners, escort them 50 miles (80 km) to Dibut Bay, and transport them using 30 submarines. The plan was denied approval as MacArthur feared the Japanese would catch up with the fleeing prisoners and kill them all.^[14] In addition, the Navy did not have the required submarines, especially with MacArthur’s upcoming invasion of Luzon.^[67]

On January 26, 1945, Lapham traveled from his location near the prison camp to Sixth Army headquarters, 30 miles (48 km) away.^[69] He proposed to Lieutenant General Walter Krueger‘s intelligence chief Colonel Horton White that a rescue attempt be made to liberate the estimated 500 POWs at the Cabanatuan prison camp before the Japanese possibly killed them all.^[69] Lapham estimated Japanese forces to include 100–300 soldiers within the camp, 1,000 across the Cabu River northeast of the camp, and possibly around 5,000 within Cabanatuan.^[69] Pictures of the camp were also available, as planes had taken surveillance images as recently as January 19.^[70] White estimated that the I Corps would not reach Cabanatuan until January 31 or February 1, and that if any rescue attempt were to be made, it would have to be on January 29.^[71] White reported the details to Krueger, who gave the order for the rescue attempt.

Warfare History Network has a great summary of the operation that is worth the read, but if you can, take the time to watch The Operations Room video below.

Amazing that this is not more well known. There is a great memorial where the camp used to be. Very well done.

UPDATE: We have the best comment section in the business! It was pointed out that, yes, in 2021 there was a movie made out of it called, The Great Raid.

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