The Airshow at Cabanatuan Death Camp, the Philippines, WWII As American forces closed in on Japan during World War II, they began to liberate Japanese-run POW camps in the Pacific. What were discovered were installations akins to Nazi concentration camps in Europe. Here, prisoners faced torture, beatings, starvation, disease, and death. When American forces landed in the Philippines in October of 1944, they faced a dilemma. The Philippines held thousands of American and Filipino prisoners, most of whom were captured after the Battle of Bataan over two years earlier, when almost eight divisions worth of American and Filipino soldiers were captured. Eighty thousand men. It was feared that when the Americans attempted to liberate the Japanese prison camps, the Japanese guards would simply execute their prisoners. Thus, the tactics of liberating the camps involved very fast assaults combined with elements of trickery. In January of 1945, one hundred thirty-three Army Rangers and Alamo scouts set out to liberate the Japanese prison camp named Cabanatuan, which held around five hundred starving and diseased American POWs. The assault force would later be joined by over two hundred fifty Filipino guerrillas. After conducting a reconnaissance of the camp, they developed a plan for liberating the prisoners while quickly eliminating the 220 Japanese guards before they could react and harm any of the POWs. What resulted was a brilliant act of trickery that would make the Cabanatuan raid one of the most successful prison camp raids of the Pacific. As the Rangers slowly approached the camp during the night of January 30th, an American P-61 Black Widow night-fighter flew over the prison. Its crew, Captain Kenneth Schrieber and Lieutenant Bonnie Rucks, cut one of the engines and restarted it, causing loud backfires that gained the attention of the whole camp. They then performed a night airshow, performing various acrobatic maneuvers, buzzing the camp, and at one point even flying within thirty feet of the ground and pretending to crash. The airshow attracted the attention of all the guards, gazing at the planes aerobatic antics. As the Japanese guards watched the sky, the Rangers, Alamo, and guerrillas used the distraction to slowly crawl towards the camp. Because of the distraction, they were able to sneak to within mere yards of enemy pillboxes and guard towers. Ranger Captain Robert Prince later stated, Tthe idea of an aerial decoy was a little unusual and honestly, I didnt think it would work, not in a million years. But the pilots maneuvers were so skillful and deceptive that the diversion was complete. I dont know where we would have been without it. The airshow lasted twenty minutes. Once in position, the assault group sprang from their positions and sprayed the Japanese with devastating, close-range gunfire. The ruse worked so well that within fifteen seconds all the camps guard towers and pillboxes were destroyed and all of the guards were slaughtered. The camp itself was secured within thirty minutes, and five hundred twenty-two prisoners were quickly loaded onto carts and evacuated. After the prisoners were evacuated the attack element guerrillas held off counterattacking Japanese forces with the assistance of more Black Widows as well as P-51 Mustangs. The task force achieved a casualty ratio of up to 35:1 and a kill ratio of up to 250:1. Only four friendly personnel were lost in the attack. Besides the between 530 and 1,000 KIA, four Japanese tanks were also rendered hors de combat.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 14:23:32 +0000