Raid on Los Baños

some of the allied airborne operations in europe during the second world war are very well remembered and well studied d-day market garden but airborne assaults were far less common and far less well-remembered in the pacific where only one of america's five airborne divisions was assigned and yet an airborne operation little known in february of 1945 by the 11th airborne division is considered by many to be the most perfect of the war general colin powell former chairman of the u.s joint chiefs of staff said of the operation i doubt that any airborne unit in the world will ever rival the los banos prison raid it is the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies it is history that deserves to be remembered the 11th airborne division was activated on february 25th 1943 with one paratrooper regiment and two glider infantry regiments under the command of major general joseph swing swing served as airborne advisor for general eisenhower during operation husky the allied invasion of sicily in the summer of 1943 during which the 82nd airborne made its first combat drop heavy winds scattered the airborne troops and few of them reached their rally points the army wasn't sure that division size air units would be practical general swing was put in charge of the swing board which using the 11th airborne was meant to answer that question in december of 1943 the 11th proved their worth in the knollwood maneuvers where they successfully performed a mock operation with the whole division in north carolina army ground forces commander lieutenant general leslie mcnair attributed the success to better understanding of airborne units since sicily and eisenhower okayed the use of airborne divisions the 11th was sent to the pacific in june of 1944 and saw combat with general macarthur on the island of leyte the beginning of the campaign to liberate the philippine islands they were then involved in the invasion of luzon the largest and northernmost major island in the archipelago and home of the filipino capital manila the 11th made its first combat jump at tagaytay ridge on february 3rd as the japanese defenses crumbled on the island of luzon american leadership became worried for the fate of many americans in prison camps across the island the concern stem from a horrible yet little-known event the palawan massacre some 350 american pows captured in the philippine campaign in 1942 suffered terrible conditions at the notorious camp 10a on the philippine island of palawan given starvation rations housed in dilapidated buildings denied medical care and used as slave labor the prisoners faced regular physical abuse in september approximately half the prisoners were returned to manila but 150 were left behind complete work on an airfield on december 14 1944 concerned by the american advances in the philippines the 150 prisoners were taken into camp a false air raid alarm was used to herd them into airaid shelters which the guards then doused with gasoline and set on fire prisoners who tried to escape the flames were machine-gunned or bayoneted several were able to break free but most of those were hunted down of the 150 prisoners only 11 survived some of whom managed to swim away from the island and reach american lines on january 7th private first class eugene nielsen of the 57th coastal artillery regiment was able to recount the harrowing tale of his escape from the palawan massacre american command realized the danger the plow and massacre represented for prisoners held throughout the philippine islands and decided upon a set of daring raids to rescue those prisoners on january 30th 1945 522 military and civilian pows were rescued and arrayed by army rangers and filipino gorillas from a camp near cabanatuan city an event that became known as the great raid on february 3rd a small force including armor was pushed forward to liberate the cento tomas internment camp rescuing 3785 mostly civilian prisoners an advanced unit of the 148th infantry regiment of the ohio national guard rescued some 1200 military and civilian prisoners from the bilibid prison near manila on february 4th finding that the guards had abandoned the prison the los banos prison camp was built from a campus of the university of the philippines on the shore of laguna bay the largest lake in the philippines the 60-acre camp was formed when the sento tomas prison camp became overcrowded with 800 attorneys being brought to the camp in may of 1943. by february of 1945 over 2 000 prisoners were held in the camp aside from 11 navy nurses some of the angels of bataan and a handful of servicemen the prisoners were civilians the camp conditions had deteriorated considerably by 1945 and the camp was overcrowded and unsanitary rations have been cut to almost nothing and the guards have become more and more abusive frank buckles one of the prisoners suffered from a thymine deficiency and at his rescue weighed less than 100 pounds among the garrisons of los banos prison imperial japanese army lieutenant sadaki khanishi was the most hated and feared kaneshi who was the camp's second-in-command and supply officer had a virulent and off-stated hatred for the white race among his many crimes he deliberately withheld food from the prisoners one prisoner said prisoners were dying so fast that the gravediggers themselves men in miserable condition could hardly keep up on february 3rd general swing had been tasked with planning the operation to rescue the prisoners at los banos but because of the 11's engagement in manila could not act immediately it wasn't until the 18th of february that the 511th could be pulled out of combat general swing staff put together a plan to rescue the prisoners a company of paratroopers under lieutenant john ringler was assigned to make the jump near the camp while the 188th glider regiment under colonel robert sewell was given the task of distracting the eight to ten thousand japanese soldiers of the nearby japanese eighth army division called the tiger division as los banos prisoner carl talbot noted if any word of this rescue leaked out to the japanese the nearly ten thousand japanese troops under general fuji shige just eight miles from the prison camp could commit a horrible massacre of the pows and the rescuers lieutenant colonel gustavo inglaz was designated the coordinator for the 800 gorillas who would take part in the attack the girls had friends in the camp and had been conducting intelligent operations for some time a number of escapees also assisted making contact with the gorillas providing troop positions and even taking part in the raid on february 21st lieutenant ringler was briefed on the mission general swing warned him that we could take heavy losses of troops and internees if we're not successful ringler briefed his man and decided to have his soldiers jump for much lower than the usual 1000 foot altitude army air force pilot alex morley explained the plan the filipino scouts had told us that the japanese troops guarding the camp always went for morning calisthenics at the same time and at the same place stacking their rifles together while exercising we were to drop the paratroopers at the precise time when the japanese were disarmed the previous night paratroopers under lieutenant george skow crossed the lake dodging japanese patrols they met gorillas and escaped internees and scouts split his soldiers into six teams assigning gorillas with each the groups infiltrated close to the camp and were assigned to attack the guards on the west side of the camp exactly as the paratroopers dropped in the early morning of the 23rd the amphibious vehicles of the 672nd amphibious tractor battalion which would be used to transport the camp prisoners to safety across the lake the paratroopers had spent the moonless night at nichols airfield in manila lieutenant ringler led the jump and they landed without casualties on the drop zone prisoner david winslop described the scene out of the north came 18 transport planes ours and to our amazement out of the plane's poured parachutists the most beautiful sight ever seen by my gray eyes the timing was perfect and attorney carol talbot witnessed the effect when the planes flew in the liberators decimated the sentries and neutralized enemy guards doing physical exercises in the morning while their arms were stacked and unattended when the time came attorneys clive dewitt said guerilla troops were all over the place they seem to rise out of the ground and i can vouch for the fact that they showed no mercy against the enemy thomas watty vice president of the pow committee at the camp described the fierce firefight that ensued the ensuing fight went on for very long minutes without let up enemy defenders caught by total surprise were pinned and cut down mercilessly by liberators fire then came the liberation of the prisoners soldiers recalled one lady who when they arrived at the camp seemed to have already packed her bag and was ready to go but seemed somehow upset when asked about her lack of enthusiasm for rescue she replied night after night i have dreamed of this day and in all my dreams of rescue i was rescued by marines you're not marines the paratroopers then had the difficult task of organizing the 2000 prisoners who were milling about the camp in a turbulent mass and retrieving belongings from the cabins they had to clear the area quickly to encourage them to stop delaying lieutenant wrangler ordered the hutts burned as the soldiers struggled to maintain order one of the attorneys suddenly shouted enemy tanks but it was not an attack what the prisoner had thought were japanese tanks were actually american lvts or amphibious landing vehicles tracked there to carry the prisoners across the lake to the american lines in the distance could be heard the sounds of the glider infantry making their diversionary attack on the japanese tiger division among the attorneys rescued was lois kathleen mccoy who had been delivered in the prison infirmary by a navy nurse just three days before the daughter of two american civilian internees also among them was frank buckles a shipping executive who had been in manila at the outbreak of war and had stayed behind to help supply u.s troops buckles was a veteran who had enlisted with the us army in 1917 at the age of 16 and had seen action in the first world war driving ambulances buckles would become the last surviving american veteran of world war one before he passed away in 2011 at the age of 110. the official us army dispatch on the action said by 1 30 pm that day the last of the internees paratroopers and gorillas had been evacuated from los banos apparently the entire japanese garrison had been killed in all 2147 civilians were liberated one attorney said in an interview i have to pinch myself now to realize that i am now free to do as i please after 1135 days under the emperor of japan you can't realize how i feel two soldiers of the glider infantry regiment john t doran and vernal ray mcmurty were killed in the diversionary attack and two of the filipino guerrillas privates first class atanasio castillo and and selmo soleil were killed in the hand-hand fighting in the camp none of the prisoners were killed and only one was lightly injured in the raid of the filipino gorillas prisoner clive dewitt said when i learned later of the great part they played in our rescue i felt i owed them a debt of gratitude that i could never repay in the otherwise near perfect raid however one deed was left undone sadaki khanishi had escaped the filipino gorillas had warned the local population to vacate the area for fear of japanese reprisals but they had chosen to stay behind a few days after the raid khanishi returned with a group of soldiers and finding the camp empty the prisoners gone he and his soldiers and a group of philippine filipino rebels who were sympathetic to the japanese took out their frustrations on the local population they murdered 1500 men women and children lieutenant sadaki khanishi was caught after the war was tried and convicted of war crimes and hanged the 11th airborne division would fight on in the philippines their last combat operation was to take part in the encirclement of the 52 000 strong shobu group in northern luzon they were part of the occupation of japan until 1949 and in 1950 were made a training regiment the 187th regiment saw fighting in korea while the rest trained stateside and in 1965 the division was inactivated for good major general joseph swing commanded the division until 1948 retired from the military in 1954 he died in 1984 at the age of 90. the american public saw little newspaper coverage of the dramatic rescue on the same day 1500 miles north and east of manila photographer joe rosenthal had taken a picture of six marines raising a flag a photo so dramatic that it captured the nation's attention and pushed other war news to the back of the paper in 2005 u.s representative trent franks sponsored house joint resolution 18 commemorating the raid the resolution said it is more important than ever to recognize the heroism and sacrifice of soldiers who risk their safety not to achieve some strategic objective but simply to bring a comrade home i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 384,197

Keywords: History, the history guy, history guy, world war ii, wwii, us history, military history, los banos, us airborne

Id: eqkTddTNMBY

Length: 13min 21sec (801 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 14 2018