The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Los Banos Raid - 1945 - March 4th, 2005

Military History Magazine ^ | Sam McGowan

[snippy_about_it]

Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

Angels At Dawn
As Allied forces retook territory the Japanese had wrested from them at the beginning of the war in the Pacific, the fate of prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian internees was of major concern to the Allied high command. This was particularly true in the Philippines, where thousands of survivors of the Bataan Death March, as well as American and European civilians, were being held prisoner.

General Douglas MacArthur, the U.S. commander in the Philippines, ordered his subordinates to make every effort to liberate camps in their areas of operation as quickly as possible. Daring raids were organized to free prisoners and internees ahead of the attacking American forces, for it was suspected that the Japanese captors would slaughter their charges before they could be rescued. These fears were not unjustified--on more than one occasion, POWs had been slaughtered by their guards.



The former University of the Philippines Agricultural School at Los Baños, a town on the island of Luzon some 40 miles southeast of Manila, had been converted into an internment camp for more than 2,000 civilians who had had the misfortune of falling into Japanese hands at the beginning of the war. The 2,122 internees who were at the camp in the late winter of 1945 were of many nationalities, though the majority were American, and of every age, including infants. For more than three years, the internees at Los Baños, along with POWs in other camps, had waited patiently for the day when their liberators would arrive. On January 9, 1945, the U.S. Sixth Army waded ashore at Lingayen Gulf and began moving south. Three weeks later the Eighth Army landed at Nasugbu and began moving north. Within a month, the advancing U.S. forces were on the doorstep of Manila. For the occupants of the Los Baños camp, rescue appeared imminent.

As the advancing U.S. forces drew nearer and nearer to Manila, General MacArthur became concerned that the Japanese might decide to slaughter the American POWs and other Allied civilians under their control. During the Sixth Army's movement south, troops liberated American and other Allied POWs in several camps.

One of the most spectacular liberation efforts was that conducted by the 6th Ranger Battalion at Cabanatuan. A Ranger task force, assisted by Filipino guerrillas, penetrated deep into Japanese territory and, after crawling more than a mile on their bellies, attacked Cabanatuan prison and freed some 500 POWs, bringing them 20 miles to safety. Nearer Manila, elements of the 1st Cavalry assaulted the campus of Santo Tomas University and freed more than 3,500 civilian internees.

Los Baños was some 25 miles southeast of Manila and thus outside the primary line of advance for the American forces. Located on Laguna de Bay, a large freshwater lake, Los Baños was accessible to amphibious and ground forces. Because Los Baños was located in the 11th Airborne Division's area of operations, a third means of attack was also possible: a paratroop assault from the skies.



The 11th Airborne Division had arrived in the southwest Pacific in mid-1944. Under the command of Maj. Gen. Joe Swing, the 11th had undergone theater training in New Guinea prior to taking part in the invasion of Leyte. The 503rd Regimental Combat Team and the 11th were the only American airborne forces to fight in the Pacific. After Leyte, the parachute elements of the 11th moved to Mindoro, while the glider troops prepared for an amphibious landing at Nasugbu Bay. On January 31 the 188th Glider Regiment landed at Nasugbu with the Eighth Army. Four days later, the airborne infantry of the 511th Airborne Regimental Combat team jumped onto Tagaytay Ridge. Because of a shortage of available transport, the 475th Parachute Field Artillery and other support units jumped in the following day.

Once on the ground on Luzon, the 11th Airborne began working its way toward Manila after the parachute and glider elements had linked up. By mid-February, the 11th was engaged in combat along the so-called Genko Line, a fortified system of interlocking pillboxes running along the south side of Manila. Although the division was already engaged in heavy combat, General Swing and members of his staff were well aware that they were responsible for liberating the Los Baños internees. The problem was that they had not yet determined the best method for carrying out the mission.

The Filipino guerrilla groups operating in the area played a key role in the liberation of the camp. The Hunters-ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps) Guerrillas, made up originally of former cadets of the Philippine Military Academy, were one of the most active groups, along with ex-ROTC students and other former college students. Other groups included President Quezon's Own Guerrillas (the PQOG), the Chinese Guerrillas of Luzon and the Hukbalahaps, a Marxist group with their own agenda for the Philippines. To bring some order to the guerrilla effort, U.S. Army Major Jay D. Vanderpool had formed a combined guerrilla command known as the General Guerrilla Command (GGC) of Luzon. The GGC would coordinate operations against Los Baños.

The Plan

Inside the camp, there was some dissension as to whether the internees should make any effort to make contact with the Americans and effect a rescue. Los Baños was filled with civilians, with the exception of 12 U.S. Navy nurses. Some of the men were of military age, however, and one or two had tried to enlist in the U.S. forces shortly after Pearl Harbor but had been unsuccessful.



On the night of February 12, 1945, Freddy Zervoulakas, a 19-year-old Greek-Filipino, slipped out of the camp and made contact with the guerrillas. He was sent back into the camp with a copy of a letter from Major Vanderpool instructing the guerrillas to make every effort to free the internees--but the internee committee responsible for governing the camp decided that it would be best for the internees to do nothing. Nevertheless, several male prisoners slipped under the wire in the days before the rescue.

On Sunday, February 18, Major Henry Burgess, commander of the 1st Paratrooper Battalion, was ordered to withdraw his battalion from positions on the Genko Line and proceed to Manila. While the battalion rested, Burgess reported to the 11th Airborne Division headquarters, then located at Paranaque. The 26-year-old major met first with Colonel Douglas Quant, the division G-3 (operations officer), who informed him that his unit was going to be involved in the liberation of 2,000 civilian prisoners from the camp at Los Baños. Burgess spent the remainder of the day at headquarters, meeting with division Intelligence and Operations and planning the mission.

The following day Burgess met Pete Miles, an internee who had escaped from the camp the previous day and been conveyed by guerrillas to the 11th Airborne Division. Miles provided information of the layout of the camp and the schedules of the guards, details that were essential to complete the mission precisely and without needlessly endangering the internees.

The division plan called for a multi-pronged assault on the camp. A parachute company would launch the raid by jumping into a drop zone inside or adjacent to the camp at dawn on the day of the attack. The division recon platoon would cross the bay in advance of the main party, make contact with the guerrillas and organize them to attack the camp sentries exactly at H-hour. Major Burgess' battalion, minus one company, would proceed across Laguna de Bay aboard amphibious vehicles and provide the main body of the attacking force. A combat team was to attack overland from Manila on Highway 1, with the objective of providing a blocking force to cut off any Japanese reinforcements.



For the parachute assault, the 511th's regimental commander, Lt. Col. Ed Lahti, selected B Company of the 1st Battalion, commanded by 1st Lt. John M. Ringler, because it was closest to full strength. Heavy combat in recent days had severely depleted the ranks of all the division's units.

One unique factor in the Los Baños mission was that the planning for the raid itself was generally left up to the men who would do the job. Ringler personally planned the airborne phase of the mission, down to selecting a 500-foot-jump altitude instead of the usual 700-1,000 feet, so the men would be exposed for less time. Ringler also determined that the drop formation should fly three V's-in-trail of three planes each because of the small drop zone. Nine Douglas C-47s from the 65th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 54th Troop Carrier Group were selected to make the drop.

The division reconnaissance platoon under Lieutenant George Skau played a major role in the Los Baños operation. Skau's 31-man platoon would be responsible for infiltrating into the area around the camp prior to the raid and linking up with the guerrillas, then integrating the indigenous forces into the rescue effort. The soldiers of the platoon were typically of the "rugged outdoorsman" variety, and their familiarity with hiking, camping and hunting especially suited them for missions deep behind enemy lines.

On the evening of February 21, some 36 hours before the planned attack, Lieutenant Skau's recon platoon moved out by truck for the barrio of Wulilyos, where they met Filipino guides and the crews of three bancas (sailing vessels ordinarily used for fishing and trade in the coastal waters of the Philippines). The first banca moved out at 2000 hours with Skau and his headquarters group aboard. A second, larger banca set sail some 15 minutes later. The third was meant to sail right behind with the bulk of the platoon's supplies and men, but the Filipino captain discovered that the rudder was broken. Repairs took two hours.

Thanks to Freeper Andyman for suggesting and contributing to this thread (February 2003)

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FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. On my resume it says PR. But just between you and me....

[Colonel_Flagg]

Flag. I like that flag. LOL

[Valin]

Your thread of the day is historic, and is currently being made into a movie.

FANTASTIC!

[Valin]

Aren't I cute!

INDEED! She's gonna be a heartbreaker.

[snippy_about_it]

Doh!

[PhilDragoo]

The Angels Came at Dawn
by Robert A. Wheeler, Los Banos Internee

On February 23, 1945, the Marines raised the flag on Mt. Suribachi, on the island of Iwo Jima. On that same morning, about 25 miles south of Manila in the Philippine Islands, the 11th Airborne Division began an operation about which Army Chief of Staff Colin Powell proclaimed, “I doubt that any airborne unit in the world will be able to rival the Los Banos prison raid. It is the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.”

As that day dawned at Los Banos Civilian Internment Camp, it held two thousand one hundred and forty-six US, British, Canadian, French and other Allied civilian prisoners of the Imperial Japanese Forces. After several years of imprisonment, they were the remaining survivors, who were slowly but surely going to join their predecessors in starving to death. Among the remaining survivors were my father, mother, younger brother and myself.

We were down to one official meal a day; living on a bug-filled rice mush (mostly water) called lugau, banana tree stalks, papaya tree roots, slugs and in some cases, dogs and cats.

My father, who was almost six foot tall, weighed about 90 pounds, and my mother as she recalled said, “I stopped weighing myself when I weighed 80 pounds”. I myself weighed about seventy-nine pounds.

As we went to bed the night before, little did we know that as we slept, the men of the Recon Platoon of the 511th were sneaking up to their positions at key points outside the camp – the men of the 187th and 188th Regiments were busy keeping the Japanese troops occupied in a diversionary operation. The Men of the 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion were making their way in the dark with hand-held compasses across Laguna de Bay transporting the balance of the First Battalion of the 511th Regiment, and that “B” Company 511th was getting a little sleep at Nichols Field under the wings of the 65th Troop Carrier Squadron’s C-47s that were to carry them to their moment of history.

That morning, as I walked out of the barracks with my family to line up for 7:00 AM roll call, I looked up into the sky over a field near our camp and saw several C47 transport planes.

Suddenly, the sky filled with the “Angels”; the men of “B” Company of the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment, floating down as if from heaven in their white parachutes.

At that same moment, the Recon Platoon, which as I mentioned previously had infiltrated in during the night, hit the guard posts and began the race to the guard room where the off-duty guards had their rifles stored. Those guards were outside doing their regular 7:00 AM morning exercises.

By the way, the troopers won the race.

We all ran back into the barracks. With bullets flying just over my head through the grass mat walls, I lay on the floor under my bunk, eating my breakfast. I was so hungry that not even bullets could keep me form that pitifully meager portion of watery, buggy rice mush.

Soon one of the “Angels” came into our barracks shouting, “Grab only what you can carry and hurry outside to the Amtracs”.

Those Amtracs were manned by the men of the 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion which had brought the balance of the attacking force across Lake Laguna de Bay.

They had to get us back safely across the lake to US lines, before two thousand crack Japanese troops of the infamous Tiger Division, just over the hill, found out what was going on.

On that day, all 2,146 of us, including a newly born baby girl who was carried out in a helmet liner, were saved. All of us were rescued! Not one of us was lost!

Some time later, I read that they had come to get us because General Douglas MacArthur had received information, from three men who had escaped from our camp, that our guards had been making preparations to dispose of us – digging trenches for our graves and placing oil barrels which could be rolled down the hillside onto the barracks to set them afire – then machine-gunning any of us who ran outside.

I also read that this execution had been scheduled for that very morning of February 23, 1945.

To this day, fifty-seven years later, this singular event of history, this magnificent military operation, this unmatched rescue of starving civilian prisoners of war from behind enemy lines, has been overshadowed by a flag raising; which although meaningful and representing a terrible battle was, as has been reported – the replacement of a previously placed flag by a larger one.

They were and are a special breed, those men who came that day. Superbly trained, thank God – men who went home after they served – going on with their lives – not complaining, humble, proud that they served.

When I meet one of my “Angels” for the first time, I take his hand and say, “Thank you for my life”. To a man, they immediately insist, “I was just doing my job. You guys were the heroes”.

But for the pilots and crews of the 65th Troop Carrier Squadron, the troopers of the 11th Airborne and the men of the 672nd Amphibian Tractor Battalion, I would not have survived Los Banos Internment Camp. There would have been no opportunity for me to have a wife, son, daughter and nine wonderful grandchildren.

The Wheeler family – as it exists today – would never have been. I WILL NEVER FORGET.

Robert Wheeler

~~~

On Feb. 23, 1945, in an effort to rescue the many prisoners (2,147) still under Japanese control at the Los Bonas [sic] prison, B-511th, plus the light machine gun platoon from HQ1, made a dawn jump on the prison at 0700 hours. Together with a simultaneous attack, by a Reconnaissance Platoon and Filipino guerrillas, the prison was captured. Amtracks (amphibious vehicles from the 672nd Amphibious Tractor Battalion) were used to transport the prisoners to safety. The plan envisioned the immediate evacuation of all prisoners and military personnel to the security of the Manila area. It was almost a textbook operation, no fatalities were suffered on the entire mission and all prisoners were rescued.

~~~

RESCUE and REUNION
By Lois McCoy Bourinskie

February 20th, 1945....an important date to me! It was the day I was born in an infirmary in the Los Banos Prison Camp in the Philippine Island as WWII was in its final stages. This is my story.

~~~

3D model: LVT(A)-4 AMTANK, USA

Konishi, was discovered working as a golf caddy and was arrested, tried and executed in 1947.

And Sakaadi hiding among eighteen holes; Sadaam hiding in just one.

Such is the mother of all Samurai jihadists--ferocious against emaciated civilians; cowardly when confronted by real men.

Hurry up with the execution of Hussein. Combine his trial with that of Bashar Assad, Ayatollah Khomenei, and Kim Jong Il.

I've got the duct tape.

May the relatives of their victims autograph the four with wood burners, soldering irons, torches.

Always get it in writing.

[Iris7]

The Japanese military has not reformed in the least, so far as I can tell. The old Samurai families are alive and well, prosperous, and raising their children the old way. Met a few in my day.

I don't think that mistreating prisoners more than a little is considered wise anymore, though. I think the sadism is over, but not the starvation rations and not enough shelter from the elements.

The Japanese public has lost a lot of it's distrust of the military lately, mostly due to North Korea. The Japanese know that North Korea is China's running dog. The Japanese don't want to end up China's butt boy.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!

[Mudboy Slim]

"On that day, all 2,146 of us, including a newly born baby girl who was carried out in a helmet liner, were saved. All of us were rescued! Not one of us was lost!"

Amazing story, Phil...thanks fer the ping.

FReegards...MUD

[Professional Engineer]

Suppose msdrby will let you prop her up in a corner somewhere?

Maybe in the fireplace.

[colorado tanker]

I agree Japan has really cosy'd up to us lately. They need our nuclear deterrent now more than ever given the N. Korea situation.

In contrast, so far as I can tell, the South Koreans have taken total leave of their senses and are begging to be Kim's "butt boy."

[Iris7]

About the South Koreans, does look that way from here too. Don't know for sure, too far away and my contacts are all dead or retired. Getting old, sigh.

Koreans have had really mean governments for a long time.

Koreans fear and hate the Japanese. Japanese don't like North Korea, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Also a bunch of Stalinist - Maoist guys in South Korea. More National Socialist, really, as were Stalin and Mao more than Lenin. Again, I am really out of touch since 1962 when I was really young!!!