The Great Raid on Cabanatuan , livre ebook

THE GREAT RAID ON CABANATUAN
Also by William B. Breuer
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Captain Cool
They Jumped at Midnight
Drop Zone Sicily
Agony at Anzio
Hitler s Fortress Cherbourg
Death of a Nazi Army
Operation Torch
Storming Hitler s Rhine
Retaking the Philippines
Devil Boats
Operation Dragoon
The Secret War with Germany
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Hitler s Undercover War
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Race to the Moon
THE GREAT RAID ON CABANATUAN
RESCUING THE DOOMED GHOSTS OF BATAAN AND CORREGIDOR
WILLIAM B. BREUER

John Wiley Sons, Inc.
New York Chichester Brisbane Toronto Singapore
This text is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 1994 by William B. Breuer Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc.
All rights reserved. Published simultaneously in Canada.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without the permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If legal, accounting, medical, psychological, or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Breuer, William B.
The great raid on Cabanatuan : rescuing the doomed ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor / William B. Breuer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-471-03742-7 (cloth)
1. World War, 1939-1945-Concentration camps-Philippines- Cabanatuan. 2. World War, 1939-1945-Campaigns-Philippines- Cabanatuan. I. Title. D805.P6B67 1994 940.54 25-dc20 94-7866

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to Admiral Frank B. Kelso, II (Ret.), former Chief of Naval Operations, whose leadership, competence, skills, and vision have earned for him the enduring respect and admiration of tens of thousands of present and past members of the United States Navy
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.
-General Douglas MacArthur
February 1, 1945
Contents Acknowledgments
1.
Deep in Hostile Territory 2. Roosevelt Abandons the Philippines 3. Legion of the Living Dead 4. Sixty Miles of Atrocities 5. Situation Fast Becoming Desperate 6. You Are Enemies of Japan! 7. Miss U and Her Underground 8. Secret Radios and Boxcar Smugglers 9. An Audacious Escape 10. Manila s Notorious Club Tsubaki 11. Alamo Scouts and Rangers 12. Thumbs Down on a POW Rescue Scheme 13. Eagles Soar Over Cabanatuan 14. Hell Ships and Vanishing Guards 15. A Perilous Mission 16. Cross-Country Dominos 17. Creeping Up on a Dark Stockade 18. Pandemonium Erupts in the Night 19. Stealthy Trek by Carabao Caravan 20. Hamburgers, Tears, and Freedom


Epilogue Notes and Sources Index
Maps
The Manila Bay Region
MacArthur s Escape from Corregidor
Japan and Dominated Areas
Northern Leyte
The Route to Cabanatuan Camp and Back
The Layout of Cabanatuan Camp
Acknowledgments
Creating this book would have been impossible without the valuable help of 306 participants-those who fought on Bataan and Corregidor and in adjacent waters, Rangers, Alamo Scouts, guerilla leaders, Death March survivors, and prisoners of the Japanese army at Cabanatuan and elsewhere during World War II. They dug out old diaries, notes, letters, drawings, newspaper and magazine clippings, decoration citations, diagrams, combat maps, unit rosters, and photographs, and sent them to me.
They probed their memories and provided recollections in face-toface and telephone interviews, and by correspondence, by audiotape, and by fax. Many of the former POWs were able to give remarkably detailed accounts because they referred to summaries of their experiences that they had compiled after returning home and in the years ahead.
Regrettably, because of space limitations and the need to avoid repetition, many recollections had to be omitted. However, these were helpful in reconstructing the story.
While all accounts were beneficial, special thanks go to the following participants:
Leon D. Beck, Bill Begley, Robert J. Body, Charles H. Bosard, Commander Henry J. Brantingham (Ret.), Vice Admiral John D. Bulkeley (Ret.), Captain Malcolm N. Champlin (Ret.), Commander Barron Chandler (Ret.), Jerry L. Coty, Gilbert J. Cox, William Delich, Charles Di Maio, Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.), James Drewes, Cecil Easley, William R. Evans, L. Rumsey Ewing.
David Foster, Franklin Fox, Thomas E. Gage, Colonel Robert W. Garrett (Ret.), Michael Gilewitch, Major Richard M. Gordon (Ret.), Colonel Samuel C. Grashio (Ret.), Russell E. Hamachek, Harold N. Hard, Neal Harrington, Clifton R. Harris, James B. Herrick, Dr. Ralph E. Hibbs, Lieutenant Colonel Ray C. Hunt (Ret.).
Mrs. Dorothy Janson, Charles C. Jensen, Navy Captain Robert B. Kelly (Ret.), Robert W. Lapham, Captain Elmer E. Long, Jr. (Ret.), MCPO Darrell M. McGhee (Ret.), William Milne, Colonel Henry A. Mucci (Ret.), William E. Nellist, Colonel Gibson Niles (Ret.), Cleatus G. Norton, Robert W. Prince, Leland A. Provencher.
Colonel Melvin Rosen (Ret.), Colonel Thomas Rounsaville (Ret.), Francis R. Schilli, Melville B. Schmidt, Brigadier General Austin C. Shofner (Ret.), Andy E. Smith, Colonel Henry J. Stempin (Ret.), Master Sergeant George R. Steiner (Ret.), August T. Stem, Jr., Leo V. Strausbaugh, Colonel Robert S. Sumner (Ret.), Alexander Troy (Truskowski), E. C. Witmer, Jr., Leon Wolf.
Tracking down 306 participants was a daunting and time-consuming task, one that could not have been accomplished without the valuable assistance of the following:
Captain Elmer E. Long, Jr. (Ret.), National Secretary, American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor; Joseph A. Vater, editor of Quart magazine, publication for former POWs of the Japanese; Ms. Clydie J. Morgan, National Adjutant, American Ex-Prisoners of War; Sue Langseth, editor, ExPOWBulletin ) Mrs. Gregorio P. Chua, Filipino War Veterans of America; Leo V. Strausbaugh, president, U.S. 6th Ranger Battalion Association; Colonel Robert S. Sumner (Ret.), director, Alamo Scouts Association; Donald M. McKee; and former guerilla leader Lieutenant Colonel Ray C. Hunt (Ret.).
Appreciation is expressed to other individuals and organizations who assisted the author in a variety of ways:
Archie DiFante, Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; Alyce Mary Guthrie, executive director, PT Boats, Inc., Memphis; Richard J. Sommers and his associates at the U.S. Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; Dean C. Allard and B. F. Calavante, historians, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; Colonel Lyman H. Hammond, Jr. (Ret.), director, Douglas MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, Virginia; Bernard Norling of Notre Dame University, a foremost authority on Philippines guerilla actions; Colonel Samuel C. Grashio (Ret.); Kim B. Holien; and the authors wife, Vivien Breuer, for her dedicated research and coordination.
Finally, a tip of my hat to numerous qualified men who read various chapters or portions of the manuscript with the critical eye of participants and provided the author with their expert critiques.
William B. Breuer Lookout Mountain, Tennessee
1

Deep in Hostile Territory

A broiling sun began its ascent into the cloudless blue skies over Luzon, the largest of the Philippine Islands, when Lieutenant Colonel Henry A. Mucci, the scrappy leader of the U.S. 6th Ranger Battalion, convened a powwow of his officers in the barrio (hamlet) of Plateros. Mucci and 107 of his Rangers were in a perilous situation, for they had infiltrated thirty miles behind Japanese lines on one of the most audacious missions of the war in the Pacific and had been holed up in Plateros for twenty-four hours. It was January 30, 1945.
Only a mile and a half to the south of the barrio was the notorious Japanese prisoner-of-war camp known as Cabanatuan, named after the largest nearby town. Earlier in World War II, there had been as many as twelve thousand Americans penned up in the huge stockade under the most brutal and primitive conditions, but thousands of them had been shipped to Japan and Manchuria to provide slave labor for Japanese war production. Buried in shallow, unmarked graves just outside the camp s barbed-wire fence were twenty-six hundred other American POWs-ones who had been murdered by Japanese guards or had died of starvation, disease, despair, or maltreatment.
Now only 511 POWs, mostly Americans, who had endured thirty-three months of captivity, remained in the Cabanatuan hellhole. They were a pitiful lot. Most were living skeletons. Some were blind. Many could not walk. Others were missing one or more arms and legs. A few had taken leave of their senses.
Three weeks before Colonel Mucci and his Rangers reached Plateros, General Douglas MacArthur s forces had stormed ashore at Lingayen Gulf, sixty-five miles northwest of Cabanatuan. Soon, U.S. intelligence officers received frightening news from guerillas in the region: When MacArthur s spearheads drove closer to the POW compound, vengeance-seeking Japanese soldiers would probably slaughter the helpless prisoners.
As a result of this information, Mucci and his Ranger force had been given the daunting task of slipping through Japanese positions for thirty miles to assault the Cabanatuan stockade, kill the sizable number of enemy troops in the compound, rescue the POWs, and escort them back through Japanese territory to American positions.
Among the officers now conferring with Henry Mucci in Plateros were twenty-five-year-old Captain Robert W. Prince, leader of the 6th Rangers Charley Comp