Great Raid on Cabanatuan depicts Warrior Ethos, By Col. Randy Pullen
 | Lt. Col. Henry A. Mucci (left), commander of the 6th Ranger Battalion, confers with his personnel officer, Capt. Vaughn Moss. Mucci led the Jan. 30, 1945 raid on the Cabanatuan POW camp featured in the film which opens Aug. 12. |
The 1945 raid by the U.S. Army’s 6th Ranger Battalion to rescue Americans held at the Japanese POW camp near Cabanatuan in the Philippines is the subject of “The Great Raid,” a movie opening nationally Aug. 12.
The same raid was depicted in the opening scenes of an earlier movie, the 1945 “Back to Bataan,” starring John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.
Regardless of how accurately either movie depicts the raid and those who lived through it, the real-life story is one worthy of study. It is noteworthy as an example of a well-planned and expertly-conducted small-unit mission.
It may be even more valuable, however, as a reminder that the Warrior Ethos and Soldiers Creed that American Soldiers live by today are neither new nor exclusive to the men and women on the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world.
Great Soldiers of the past lived and fought by those values. There are few better examples of this than what was done by the men of the 6th Ranger Battalion answering the call to duty in late January 1945.
‘I will always place the mission first’
The more than 500 Americans inside the barbed wire of the Cabanatuan POW camp in early 1945 were survivors from America’s darkest days, the fall of the Philippines in 1942. They were the lucky ones – if “lucky” means staying alive to be continually starved and mistreated by their captors.
Somehow these Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, as well as American civilians and some allies, had survived the valiant but doomed battles of Bataan and Corregidor. Somehow many of them had survived the Bataan Death March which followed Bataan’s surrender on April 9, 1942 (Corregidor surrendered on May 6.)
‘I will never quit’
Somehow they had survived almost three years of starvation, mistreatment, minimal medical care and executions for various offenses proscribed by their guards. Somehow, they had missed the fate of thousands of their comrades who had died when American planes and submarines attacked and sank Japanese ships transporting them from the Philippines. The ships bore no indication of the human cargo they were carrying, so they were routinely attacked by the U.S. Navy and Army Air Force in the campaign to cut the enemy’s supply lines.
As U.S. forces returned to the Philippines on Oct. 20, 1944, with the landing at Leyte, followed on Jan. 9, 1945, by landing on Luzon, the question became whether the POWs would be liberated before time ran out for them. It wasn’t only a matter of malnutrition and disease catching up to the prisoners or their being moved farther away from the advancing American forces; it was whether they would be murdered before they could be freed.
This was a very real possibility. About 150 American prisoners at a POW camp on the Philippine island of Palawan had been killed by their guards on Dec. 14, 1944. A survivor of this massacre had reached friendly forces and what had happened was known to U.S. Army intelligence by the time of the Luzon invasion. A similar fate for any captive Americans on Luzon could not be overlooked.
Rescuers: ‘I will never accept defeat’
The U.S. Army was determined those who had upheld America’s honor in the opening days of the war would not suffer so ignoble a fate.
To that end, the commanding general of Sixth U.S. Army, Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger, called on the commander of a unique unit under his command, the 6th Ranger Battalion, the only Ranger battalion in the Pacific theater (During World War II, the Army had six Ranger battalions. The 1st through the 5th fought in either the Mediterranean or European theaters; the 6th fought in the Philippines.)
Lt. Col. Henry A. Mucci, a 1936 graduate of West Point, commanded the 6th Ranger Battalion. He had taken command of it in April 1944 in New Guinea when it was the 98th Field Artillery Battalion and led it through its re-designation and transformation into the 6th Ranger Battalion, putting its members through a demanding training program and weeding out those who couldn’t or wouldn’t measure up to Ranger standards.
By January 1945, his men were all volunteers and ready for a mission. The 6th Rangers landed on three islands in Leyte Gulf Oct. 17 and performed some commando-type missions. Now they were called upon to raid the Cabanatuan POW camp. Specifically, Mucci was to infiltrate about 30 miles behind enemy lines, reach the camp, overcome the guard force, liberate the prisoners and return them safely to friendly lines before the Japanese could react.
The ground to be covered was open and great care would have to be taken to avoid being spotted enroute to the camp. In addition to the camp’s guard force to be overcome, there were numerous other enemy forces in the area. Because of its proximity to major roadways, the camp often played host to Japanese units in transit. Due to American aircraft, the Japanese made troop movements at night.
A Japanese battalion regularly bivouacked about a mile from the camp and a division-sized unit was believed to be around Cabanatuan City, three to four miles from the camp. These Japanese units had tanks and tanks were also known to be included in the nocturnal movements around the camp.
To accomplish the mission, which he would personally lead, Mucci chose one company of the 6th Rangers, Company C, commanded by Capt. Robert W. Prince. Company C would be reinforced by the 2nd Platoon of Company F, led by 1st Lt. John F. Murphy. The Ranger force would also include four combat photographers from the 832nd Signal Service Battalion and two teams of Sixth Army’s elite recon unit, the Alamo Scouts. Counting a few additions from elsewhere in the battalion, the Ranger force consisted of about 120 men.
The Rangers would receive invaluable support from several hundred Filipino guerrillas under the commands of Captains Eduardo Joson and Juan Pajota. The guerrillas would provide intelligence, carry out security along the route to and from the camp, and interface with the civilian population for needed support for the Rangers and the liberated prisoners. The guerrillas would also play a critical role during the assault on the camp.
‘I will never leave a fallen comrade’
When Mucci briefed them on the mission, the Rangers immediately knew just how important it was and how difficult it was going to be to pull it off. Each was given the opportunity to stay back. None took it.
It was clear to all of them that they were the only hope to bring out the survivors of Bataan and Corregidor before the Japanese killed them. Mucci ordered them to take an oath to die fighting before letting any harm come to those they were to rescue.
The Raid
The Rangers moved out early on Jan. 28 and soon linked up with guerillas commanded by Joson. By dark, the combined Ranger-guerilla force was inside enemy territory.
At the village of Balincarin, the Rangers were provided the latest intelligence from the Alamo Scouts who had started their recon duties a day earlier. They were also joined there by Pajota’s guerilla force. Working with Pajota, Prince coordinated for the guerillas to provide security, collect enough carabao carts to transport liberated POWs too weak to walk back and prepare enough food for several hundred men.
Mucci delayed the raid for a day in order to gather additional intelligence and to allow a large force of Japanese transiting the area to move away from the camp. The delay also allowed the Rangers to gather detailed information on the camp and its defenders.
The plan for the night-time assault on the compound gave the two guerilla forces the vital mission of stopping any enemy reaction forces coming from nearby Cabanatuan City and Cabu. A Ranger bazooka section would be attached to the guerillas to deal with expected Japanese tanks. The other Rangers would hit the camp from two sides, with Murphy’s 2nd Platoon of Company F assaulting the rear entrance and Prince’s Company C storming through the front of the camp. To distract the guards while the Rangers positioned themselves for the assault, a P-61 night fighter would fly overhead just prior to the attack.
The Rangers and guerillas moved into position at twilight on Jan. 30. The force attacking the front of the camp had to crawl a mile across open ground to reach their jump-off position. The overflight by the night flyer worked as planned, drawing the attention of both guards and prisoners to the sky.
At 7:45 p.m., Murphy on the rear side of the compound fired the first shot, the signal for the attack to commence. The Rangers hit the Japanese soldiers with overwhelming ferocity, using every weapon they had. They concentrated initially on the guard towers, pillboxes and all Japanese in the open. When all enemy positions had been neutralized, the Rangers stormed into the compound and continued to eliminate enemy soldiers and interior defensive positions.
Meanwhile the guerillas at the blocking positions had their own battle to fight. Pajota’s men opened fire on the Japanese battalion in the bivouac next to Cabu Creek. Guerilla machine gunners stopped the Japanese counterattacks at the Cabu Creek bridge while the Ranger bazooka teams knocked out two tanks and a truck.
The other roadblock under Joson was not attacked, thanks to attacks by P-61 night fighters on a Japanese convoy headed toward Joson’s position.
In less than 15 minutes, all serious resistance inside the POW compound had been eliminated, though a final trio of mortar rounds wounded six men and mortally wounded the battalion surgeon, one of only two Rangers to die in the attack. A total of seven were injured.
Within half an hour from the opening shot by Murphy, Prince had completed two searches of the camp and had determined all the prisoners had been found and removed from the camp. Although no prisoners were killed during the fighting, one weakened man suffered a fatal heart attack while leaving the camp.
One British POW who hid in the latrines during the raid wasn’t found by the Rangers, but he was picked up the next day by Filipino guerrillas.
The Rangers and liberated prisoners made their withdrawal while Pajota continued to stop all Japanese attempts to pursue. By the time Pajota’s men disengaged, they had essentially destroyed an enemy battalion while suffering no fatalities or serious wounds themselves.
Filipino citizens provided food and water to the liberated prisoners on the route back. Additional carabao carts arrived to transport former prisoners too weak to walk. The guerillas continued to provide all-around security.
About 12 hours after the assault on the camp, radio contact was made with Sixth Army. Trucks were requested to meet the force. A couple of hours later, the Rangers and prisoners returned to friendly lines and shortly thereafter, the heroes of Bataan and Corregidor were undergoing medical examination at the 92nd Evacuation Hospital.
The mission, which rescued 511 American and Allied POWs and killed or wounded some 520 Japanese at the cost of two Rangers killed, was completed.
The Cabanatuan raid rescuers and rescued may not have been able to recite the Warrior Ethos of today’s Army, but they lived it.
more at the great raid or Cabanatuan and Philippines or Bataan and Bataan Death March or World War II
Source: Army News Servuce
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