The Great Raid on Cabanatuan, page 28
4. Author interview with Brigadier General Austin C. Shofner, USMC, (Ret.).
5. After the war, Lieutenant Colonel Shigeji Mori was sentenced to life in prison for maltreatment of Cabanatuan prisoners. A few years later, his sentence was commuted and he was released.
6. Author interview with Michael Gilewitch.
7. “Triumph in the Philippines—Enemy Occupation,” unpublished manuscript by Robert Smith, pp. 19-21.
8. Author interview with William Delich.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Lieutenant Colonel Harold K. Johnston kept two sets of books for the Cabanatuan commissary. The actual record included the food smuggled in by Miss U's underground, while the phony books, the ones shown to the Japanese, did not disclose the “illegal” food.
12. Author interview with Charles Di Maio.
13. Douglas MacArthur had been a baseball star at West Point and remained a fan of the sport. His “hit-'em-where-they-ain't” expression came from a fabled remark by “Wee Willie” Keeler, a major league hitting star in the early 1900s. When asked by reporters for the secret of his success, Keeler replied, “I hit 'em where they ain't!”
Chapter 7. Miss U and Her Underground
1. Two years later, Chief Godofredo Monsod was betrayed and executed by the Japanese.
2. After the war, Mario Garcia was elected mayor of Cabanatuan.
Chapter 8. Secret Radios and Boxcar Smugglers
1. Sidney Huff, pp. 9-10.
2. The New York Times, May 25, 1943.
3. Thomas Lanphier was awarded the Navy Cross and received a personal letter of congratulations from President Roosevelt. Thomas's brother, Charles, was freed from his POW camp by American troops. After the war, Thomas Lanphier eventually became vice president, planning, for Raytheon Corporation in Lexington, Massachusetts.
4. Author interview with William Milne.
5. A zoot suit had greatly exaggerated lapels, trousers that gathered tightly at the ankles, and an extremely long coat. The zoot suit was usually worn with extra-wide-brimmed hats and key chains that hung almost to the ground. It was often a status symbol among young gang members.
6. Chaplain Robert Taylor was often the target of good-natured ribbing because his name was the same as that of a leading Hollywood superstar.
7. Chaplain Alfred Oliver never fully recovered from the broken neck, and he had to wear a brace for many years.
8. Author interview with William Delich.
9. Author provided recollections of Lieutenant Colonel Emil Reed by his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Redwine.
Chapter 9. An Audacious Escape
1. The Geneva Convention provided for the humane treatment of prisoners of war. The first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864 by all countries in Europe, the United States, and by some nations in Asia and South America.
2. The two Filipino guides, Victorio and Ben, chose to remain in Mindanao as guerillas. As soon as Commander Melvyn McCoy and Major Steve Mellnik got back to the United States, they went to Saranac Lake, New York, to see President Manuel Quezon, who was ill with tuberculosis (he died a year later). Quezon granted full pardons to Ben and Victorio.
3. Author communication with Colonel Samuel C. Grashio (Ret.).
4. Ibid.
5. Paul Marshall and Robert Spielman were given guerilla commissions and remained on Mindanao for the rest of the war. Spielman married the daughter of a Spanish-American War veteran who had been in the Philippines for many years.
6. Author communication with Colonel Samuel C. Grashio (Ret.).
7. Colonel Sam Grashio retired from the air force in 1965. He then became an assistant to the president of his alma mater, Gonzaga University, in Spokane, Washington, retiring from that position in 1977.
8. The New York Times, January 28, 1944.
9. Ten years after the war, a Strategic Air Command (SAC) facility near Abe-line, Texas, was named Dyess Air Force Base in honor of the Bataan hero.
Chapter 10. Manila's Notorious Club Tsubaki
1. Myron Goldsmith, Manila Espionage (Portland, Oregon: Binford and Mort, 1947), p. 103.
2. Dialogue in this chapter was conducted by the participants in Spanish, English, Japanese, Tagalog, or a mixture of these languages and dialects.
3. Much of the background of Club Tsubaki was obtained by the author's interview with retired U.S. Navy Petty Officer Charles Di Maio, who had been a good friend of Claire Phillips before his capture on Corregidor, and he had talked with her at length after the war.
4. Myron Goldsmith, p. 106.
5. Ibid., p. 119.
6. Author interview with Charles Di Maio.
Chapter 11. Alamo Scouts and Rangers
1. Author interview with Colonel Gibson Niles (Ret.).
2. Ibid.
3. Author interview with Colonel Robert S. Sumner (Ret.).
4. Author interview with Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.).
5. Author correspondence with Colonel Thomas Rounsaville (Ret.).
6. Ibid.
7. Author correspondence with Andy E. Smith.
8. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
9. Ibid.
10 Author correspondence with Charles Bosard.
Chapter 12. Thumbs Down on a POW Rescue Scheme
1. Courtney Whitney, p. 144.
2. Huk strength estimates from Intelligence Activities, October 23, 1944, No. 81 pp. 3-4. National Archives.
3. Author communication with Lieutenant Colonel Ray C. Hunt (Ret.).
4. Theodore A. Agoncillo, The Fateful Years (Quezon City: R. P. Garcia, 1965), pp. 663-672.
5. Author communication with Lieutenant Colonel Ray C. Hunt (Ret.).
6. William Halsey, p. 202.
Chapter 13. Eagles Soar Over Cabanatuan
1. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
2. Ibid.
3. This incident was told to Admiral William Halsey when he visited Clark Field nine months later.
4. William Halsey, p. 203.
5. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
6. Blind Mrs. Robert Yearsley apparently was never suspected by the Japanese of being part of Miss U's covert operation.
7. General MacArthur always used A-Day, N-Day, or other initials for his assaults. He told aides that General Dwight Eisenhower in Europe had “monopolized” the term D-Day.
8. Author interview with Colonel Robert W. Garrett (Ret.).
9. Philippine guerillas had flown U.S. flags on occasion, but only briefly for fear of detection by the Japanese.
10. Author interview with Colonel Robert W. Garrett (Ret.).
11. Time magazine, October 26, 1944.
12. Although General MacArthur’s invasion fleet had fewer ships than did General Eisenhower for Normandy, MacArthur's armada had more firepower.
13. Over the years since the war, Douglas MacArthur critics, mostly those ten thousand miles from the Philippines, have claimed the general waded ashore several times at Leyte Gulf in order for photographers to shoot good pictures. Actually, MacArthur waded ashore, not at one, but at three different Leyte invasion beaches miles apart, usually while the fighting was still hot.
14. Author provided Lieutenant Colonel Emil Reeds recollections by his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Redwine.
15. Ibid.
Chapter 14. Hell Ships and Vanishing Guards
1. Author correspondence with Colonel Robert S. Sumner (Ret.).
2. Ibid.
3. Author correspondence with Colonel Henry J. Stempin (Ret.).
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Henry Stempin was freed by Russian troops at a POW camp at Mukden, Manchuria, on August 17, 1945.
8. William Manchester, American Caesar (Boston: Little, Brown, 1978), p. 405.
9. When General Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya,” surrendered at the close of the war, GIs quipped that he had become the “Pussycat of Luzon.” Actually, had it not been for the A-bomb, Yamashita’s force in northern Luzon could have extracted a heavy American toll for many months before it was dug out of the mountains.
10. Author provided recollections of Lieutenant Colonel Emil Reed by his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Redwine.
11. Author interview with Marine Brigadier General Austin C. Shofner (Ret.).
12. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
13. Author interview with Cecil Easley.
14. During the Vietnam War, in November 1970, Colonel Arthur “Bull” Simons led a team of U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets) in a daring helicopter assault to liberate American POWs held in a camp near Hanoi. Unfortunately, the POWs had been moved earlier.
15. Author correspondence with Leo V. Strausbaugh.
16. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
Chapter 15. A Perilous Mission
1. Author correspondence with Robert W. Lapham.
2. Dates and times in the planning and execution of the Cabanatuan raid are from a U.S. Sixth Army intelligence summary, February 22, 1945.
3. Saturday Evening Post, April 7, 1945.
4. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
5. Author interview with Colonel Robert W. Garrett (Ret.).
6. Author provided the gist of Colonel Mucci's remarks by Ranger historian Harry Pearlmutter.
7. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
8. Author communication with James B. Herrick.
9. Author interview with Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.).
10. Author provided background and some details of the P-61s' role in the Cabanatuan raid by the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama, microfilm roll A0826.
Chapter 16. Cross-Country Dominos
1. A few days after returning from the Cabanatuan raid, the same 832nd Signal Service Battalion photographers parachuted onto JapaneseCorregidor with the U.S. 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment.
2. The map Captain Robert Prince used on the Cabanatuan raid was loaned to the author and used for reconstructing the operation.
3. Author correspondence with James B. Herrick.
4. Ibid.
5. Author interview with Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.).
6. Author interview with Colonel Henry A. Mucci (Ret.).
7. Author correspondence with James B. Herrick.
8. Author interview with Colonel Henry A. Mucci (Ret.).
9. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
10. Author interview with Master Sergeant George R. Steiner (Ret.).
11. Author correspondence with Robert J. Body.
12. Author interview with Colonel Henry A. Mucci (Ret.).
Chapter 17. Creeping Up on a Dark Stockade
1. Author correspondence with August T. Stem, Jr. During the Vietnam War, his son, August III, a squad sergeant in a rifle platoon of the 101st Airborne Division, saw heavy combat. When the younger Stem received his first respite, he gained permission to fly to the Philippines to see the shrine to the 6th Rangers that had been erected at Cabanatuan camp. No one in that region knew about the shrine, but young Stem finally located an elderly farmer who took him to the ground where his father had helped rescue 511 POWs twenty-five years earlier.
2. Summary of the 547th Night Fighter Squadron's role in the Cabanatuan rescue mission, Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
3. Author correspondence with Cecil Easley.
4. Author communication with Cleatus G. Norton.
5. Yank magazine, March 2, 1945.
6. Author communication with Cleatus G. Norton.
7. Author interview with Leland A. Provencher.
Chapter 18. Pandemonium Erupts in the Night
1. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
2. Author correspondence with Leland A. Provencher.
3. Author interview with Melville B. Schmidt.
4. Author communication with Alexander Truskowski (Troy).
5. Author correspondence with Master Sergeant George R. Steiner (Ret.).
6. Author correspondence with Robert J. Body.
7. Author provided unpublished recollections of William C. Seckinger.
8. Author communication with E. C. Witmer, Jr.
9. The New York Times, February 2, 1945.
10. Author interview with Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.).
11. Ibid.
12. Author correspondence with James Herrick.
13. Author correspondence with Cecil Easley.
14. Author communication with August T. Stem, Jr. After the war, Stern joined the Baltimore, Maryland, fire department, where he remained for forty-five years. In light of his role in the Cabanatuan rescue mission, it seemed to be quite appropriate that his years in firefighting would be on a rescue team.
15. Author correspondence with Francis Schilli.
16. Author correspondence with Charles H. Bosard.
17. Author interview with William E. Nellist.
18. Author correspondence with Harold N. Hard.
19. Author communication with Andy E. Smith.
20. Author correspondence with James B. Herrick.
21. Since the Rangers had to withdraw promptly, it would never be known precisely how many Japanese were killed within the POW enclosure. A few may have hidden or fled, but so swift was the assault that Ranger leaders believe the entire garrison had been wiped out.
22. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
23. Ibid.
24. Author correspondence with Francis R. Schilli.
Chapter 19. Stealthy Trek by Carabao Caravan
1. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
2. Author correspondence with Cecil Easley.
3. Author communication with James B. Herrick.
4. Former Rangers have told the author that they felt that Lieutenant Merle Musselman should have received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
5. Microfilm roll A0826, U.S. Air Force Historical Research Center, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
6. No specific records were kept, but Captain Juan Pajota's guerillas suffered ten to twenty-seven casualties in the fight at Cabu bridge.
7. Author interview with Colonel Henry A. Mucci (Ret.).
8. Ibid.
9. Author correspondence with Colonel John M. Dove (Ret.).
10. Author communication with Gilbert J. Cox.
Chapter 20. Hamburgers, Tears, and Freedom
1. Author correspondence with Master Sergeant George R. Steiner (Ret.).
2. Captain James C. Fisher was awarded posthumously the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. After the war, his remains were disinterred at Balincarin and buried at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Manila.
3. Author correspondence with Gilbert J. Cox.
4. Chicago Tribune, February 2, 1945.
5. The New York Times, February 2, 1945.
6. Washington Star, February 3, 1945.
7. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 2, 1945.
8. Major Paul Wing's blonde and beautiful daughter, Toby Wing, was a budding Hollywood starlet during and after World War II. The mother and father of another movie star, Brenda Marshall (who later married actor William Holden), were interned by the Japanese at Santo Tomás in Manila throughout the war.
9. Time magazine, February 8, 1945.
10. Carl Mydans's wife, Virginia, was a prisoner of the Japanese in Santo Tomás.
Epilogue
1. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, February 2, 1945.
2. Oliver note on file at U.S. Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
3. Not long after introducing the Rangers and Alamo Scouts to President Roosevelt, General Stillwell was rushed to Okinawa to replace General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who had just been killed in action, as commander of the U.S. Tenth Army.
4. Author interview with Robert W. Prince.
5. The New York Times, April 8, 1945.
6. Author in possession of Mrs. James “Bodie” Fishers original letter.
7. Jonathan Wainwright, p. 276.
8. After General Masaharu Homma was sentenced to death, his wife made a tearful plea to General MacArthur to spare her husband's life. MacArthur later would say that refusing Mrs. Homma’s request was an exceedingly difficult decision.
9. Author communication with Lieutenant Colonel Ray C. Hunt (Ret.).
10. Author correspondence with William Delich and with Colonel Samuel C. Grashio (Ret.).
11. On April 24, 1993, General Austin C. Shofner was honored as a “Distinguished American” by the Tennessee chapter of the National Football Foundation in ceremonies at Knoxville.
12. William Manchester, p. 362.
13. Viscount Alan Brooke, Diaries (London: Collins, 1957), p. 321.
Index
The index that appeared in the print version of this title was intentionally removed from the eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below
4th Marine Regiment,
6th Ranger Battalion (formerly
98th Field Artillery Battalion),
and Cabanatuan raid,
formation of,
as guard for Sixth Army,
inactivity of,
and planning Cabanatuan raid,
training of,
and U.S. return to the Philippines,
14th Ordnance,
19th Bomber Group,
21st Infantry Regiment,
21st Pursuit Squadron,
24th Infantry Division,
26th Cavalry Regiment,
31st Infantry Regiment,
34th Pursuit Squadron,
57th Infantry,
77th Infantry Division,
91st Infantry (Filipino),
92nd Evacuation Hospital,
98th Field Artillery Battalion,
240-millimeter guns,
