Photo By Capt. Angelo Mejia | A Philippine Army Soldier from the First Scout Ranger Regiment and a U.S. Army Ranger...... read more read more
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On Dec. 14, 1944, at the Palawan Prisoner of War (POW) Camp in the Philippines, a Japanese officer, a man they called “The Buzzard”, stood before the POWs and proclaimed, “Americans, your days of working are over!”
Shortly after, he ordered the American POWs into wooden bunkers, doused them with gasoline, set it all ablaze, and opened fire on any who tried to flee.
One-hundred-thirty-nine American Soldiers perished in the agonizing flames and gunfire that night.
Eleven escaped to tell the grisly tale.
What followed was an urgent and furious campaign by the Allies to free as many of their POWs as possible from the clutches of their Japanese captors in the Philippines. Less than two months after the Palawan Massacre, the Allies began their rescue efforts and, over the course of thirty days, liberated four POW camps across the country, rescuing more than 7,000 POWs.
They started at Cabanatuan.
They sent in the Rangers.
So it came to pass that on 30 Jan 1945, the sun set on the Cabanatuan Prison Camp, with more than 500 POWs wondering if that night was the night they’d be massacred like in Palawan.
It rose the next morning on a silent prison camp filled with hundreds of dead enemy guards …
… and not a POW to be found.
80 years later, members of the U.S. Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment and Ranger veterans went back to Cabanatuan to commemorate its liberation.
“It’s an incredible honor to be here and remember what those Rangers and Allies pulled off,” said Capt. David Bryan, a member of 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, who was present for the 80th anniversary commemoration, held at the Cabanatuan American Memorial, “The Great Raid set the stage for saving thousands of POW lives across the Philippines.”
The morning of the commemoration began with members of the Ranger veteran community joining with a group of Filipino Scout Rangers to walk the mission route that World War II Rangers took to reach their objective all those years ago, ending at the Cabanatuan American Memorial, where the infamous POW camp once stood.
There they, along with members of 2nd Ranger Battalion, dignitaries, and military and local officials, gathered for a ceremony that included a reading of the historical account, a commemoration of POW/MIA fallen, a youth rose-laying tribute, liberation messages from both the U.S. Armed forces and Filipino local perspective, and a wreath offering.
“80 years ago this week, one of the most bold and audacious military operations ever executed took place at this location,” said 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 6th Ranger Battalion, commanded by Lt. Col. Henry A. Mucci, Sixth U.S. Army, Alamo Scouts, and various guerrilla units, is considered today to be one of the most perfectly planned and executed raids in WWII.
Two days prior to the Great Raid, On Jan. 28, 1945, under cover of darkness and armed with only the clothes on their backs, a little food and water, and a whole 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 through rivers, ravines, tall grass, and thick underbrush, from allied-controlled land in Guimba deep into Japanese territory, hiding in ditches and rice paddies whenever enemy vehicles drove by and then running to make up time.
They eventually linked up with a force of 250 guerrilla fighters and the Alamo Scouts, who reported a couple hundred Japanese soldiers guarding the Cabanatuan prison camp.
But they had a problem.
“The scouts estimated another thousand or so Japanese fighters positioned at the Cabu Bridge, nearby,” said Bryan. “Way more than the Rangers expected.”
The Alamo Scouts estimated they’d move on toward Cabu in the next 24 hours. Therefore, the Rangers agreed to delay the attack until the next day.
That extra time gave the scouts and guerrillas enough time to gather a massive amount of information.
“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,” said Krivdo, “noting the materials used to construct the gate, which way it swung, and when the guard shifts changed.”
Before long, they knew the layout and patterns of the camp through and through, and after briefing Mucci, the Rangers drew up a plan to attack on 30 Jan.
With Scouts and Guerrilla soldiers setting up blocking positions to the north and south, laying out a blanket of land mines and effectively isolating the prison camp from reinforcements, the Rangers were finally ready to begin their work.
“Lt. Col. Mucci’s final guidance was, ‘Remember, all prisoners go. No one gets left behind,’” said Bryan.
They began with a three-kilometer approach to the objective, eventually dropping down to a slow and deliberate crawl, as low as they could get, faces in the dirt, toward their attack positions.
The Rangers inched closer.
Concealment grew less.
Eventually, it grew to nothing … and darkness was approaching.
When they came within a few hundred meters of their fighting positions, suddenly, out of nowhere, a P-61 ‘Black Widow’ night fighter blasted on the scene, roaring over the camp, and drawing everyone’s attention upward. Prisoners cheered and guards froze in place.
It was all 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,” said 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 worked like a charm. Rangers used the distraction to quickly crawl through the open space and get in position, and a few guerrillas and Rangers even managed to cut the camp’s telephone lines, killing the enemy’s ability to call for help.
Soon, they had encircled the entire camp.
They were finally set, and the time to go to work had arrived.
At precisely 7:45pm, Rangers, led by Murphy, opened fire on the unsuspecting Japanese guards. They wasted no time taking out the lone guard in the watchtower, eliminating the enemy pillbox to the north with a bazooka, breeching the main gate, and cutting barbed wire to allow entry.
Within minutes, they were in.
Masters of practicing disciplined savagery and operating in controlled chaos, the Rangers began to systematically and efficiently eliminate every enemy soldier they came across, picking off Japanese, destroying trucks and tanks with bazookas, and neutralizing entire bunkers. All the while, seeking out POWs and directing them to the main gate for exfil. It did not take long for the rally point to fill up.
But grouping everyone in one location proved to be costly.
The main gate became the only real point of opposition by the enemy, as it became target to Japanese mortars. The enemy only got off three rounds, but unfortunately for those in the area, the rounds were right on target, inflicting many casualties and mortally wounding the Rangers’ medical officer, Capt. James C. Fisher, who was treating POWs as they came through. One other Ranger, Cpl. Roy F. Sweeny, was killed in the encounter, and four more Rangers and two Alamo Scouts were seriously injured.
By the light of the full moon, and with a renewed sense of urgency, Rangers cleared the camp, moving from barracks to barracks and navigating the chaos with brutal efficiency, scooping up every POW they found, to include a couple of British POWs who reportedly said, “We’re not Americans, but we’re coming too!”
Thirty minutes after the first round was fired, every POW in the camp had officially become an ex-POW.
With that, the Rangers prepared to depart. They gave out cigarettes, candy, food, water, and in many cases their own clothes and shoes, to anyone who needed them, and began movement to freedom.
Over the next 24 hours, they would funnel POWs through the country, stopping at friendly villages, loading the weakest POWs onto carts to be pulled, and finally arriving back in Allied-controlled land. There they boarded trucks and ambulances and began their well-deserved trip home.
Mucci and Prince both earned Distinguished Service Crosses for their actions that night. All other officers, as well as selected enlisted Soldiers received Silver Stars, while the American enlisted men and guerrilla officers received Bronze Stars.
Twenty guerrillas were injured in the raid, along with two Alamo Scouts and four Rangers. Unfortunately, two POWs died during the rescue, one from illness on the road, and one of a heart attack before they ever left the camp. But those who made it were 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,” said 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 built 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”, said 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.”
| Date Taken: | 02.04.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 02.04.2025 15:53 |
| Story ID: | 490083 |
| Location: | FORT MOORE, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 38 |
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