OLDNAVYMCPO
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
The day after the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Japs attacked U.S. forces in the Philippines. The aviation assets of both the Army Air Force and the U.S. Navy were virtually wiped out in the first day. The Jap amphibious invasion soon followed. Corregidor, Malinta Tunnel and the Bataan Death March are all familiar to us.
After the capitulation of American and Filipino forces, POWs were held in overcrowded filthy camps near Manila. POWs were eventually dispersed to various camps in the P.I. and even shipped throughout the Japanese Empire on hellships to serve as slave laborers. In August 1942, 346 men were shipped 350 miles to Camp 10-A on the island of Palawan. There, they were forced to work as slave laborers building an airstrip for the Japs.
Starvation rations, primitive to non-existent medical care, brutality and torture victimized many.A rare few escaped to the Filipino guerrillas and eventually to Australia and freedom.
After essential completion of the airstrip, 159 prisoners were returned to Manila in September 1944. The remaining 150 POWs were utilized in repairing and maintaining the airstrip after each American bombing raid.
U.S. forces made a successful amphibious assault at Leyte on 19 October. Constant air raids on Palawan, led the Jap occupiers to believe the end was near. On December 14,1944, Jap recon planes reported a substantial American convoy headed for an invasion of Palawan, or so they thought.
On a pre-planned annihilation of POWs at Camp 10-A, prisoners were forced into covered trench-like "bomb" shelters. The structures were then drenched in gasoline and ignited. Anyone trying to escape was shot, clubbed or bayoneted. 30-50 POWs actually escaped the initial onslaught, fleeing into the jungle or leaping over a 60 foot cliff. The escapees were systematically hunted down and killed except for ELEVEN men who survived. Those eleven , in small groups or individually, under the most extreme circumstances, bearing debilitating injuries, reached the Filipino guerrillas and eventual freedom through various means. After reaching U.S. forces, the escaped POWs were extensively debriefed. It was information from these debriefings that was the motivating factor in the subsequent raids on the other POW camps in the P.I. before the Japs could execute the POWs held in them.
On Jan 30, U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas liberated 513 POWs at Cabanatuan. Feb 3, 6th Army's 1st Cav freed 200 hostages at Santa Tomas Prison. The next day 1st Cav freed 800 more prisoners at Bilibid Prison. Feb 23, in a joint operation by U.S. Army Airborne and Filipino guerrillas called the Great Raid, liberated 2,147 Allied and civilian internees at Los Banos.
The story of those eleven survivors is unreal. There are many books on the Camp and associated events. They make for interesting but sometimes difficult reading.
After the capitulation of American and Filipino forces, POWs were held in overcrowded filthy camps near Manila. POWs were eventually dispersed to various camps in the P.I. and even shipped throughout the Japanese Empire on hellships to serve as slave laborers. In August 1942, 346 men were shipped 350 miles to Camp 10-A on the island of Palawan. There, they were forced to work as slave laborers building an airstrip for the Japs.
Starvation rations, primitive to non-existent medical care, brutality and torture victimized many.A rare few escaped to the Filipino guerrillas and eventually to Australia and freedom.
After essential completion of the airstrip, 159 prisoners were returned to Manila in September 1944. The remaining 150 POWs were utilized in repairing and maintaining the airstrip after each American bombing raid.
U.S. forces made a successful amphibious assault at Leyte on 19 October. Constant air raids on Palawan, led the Jap occupiers to believe the end was near. On December 14,1944, Jap recon planes reported a substantial American convoy headed for an invasion of Palawan, or so they thought.
On a pre-planned annihilation of POWs at Camp 10-A, prisoners were forced into covered trench-like "bomb" shelters. The structures were then drenched in gasoline and ignited. Anyone trying to escape was shot, clubbed or bayoneted. 30-50 POWs actually escaped the initial onslaught, fleeing into the jungle or leaping over a 60 foot cliff. The escapees were systematically hunted down and killed except for ELEVEN men who survived. Those eleven , in small groups or individually, under the most extreme circumstances, bearing debilitating injuries, reached the Filipino guerrillas and eventual freedom through various means. After reaching U.S. forces, the escaped POWs were extensively debriefed. It was information from these debriefings that was the motivating factor in the subsequent raids on the other POW camps in the P.I. before the Japs could execute the POWs held in them.
On Jan 30, U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas liberated 513 POWs at Cabanatuan. Feb 3, 6th Army's 1st Cav freed 200 hostages at Santa Tomas Prison. The next day 1st Cav freed 800 more prisoners at Bilibid Prison. Feb 23, in a joint operation by U.S. Army Airborne and Filipino guerrillas called the Great Raid, liberated 2,147 Allied and civilian internees at Los Banos.
The story of those eleven survivors is unreal. There are many books on the Camp and associated events. They make for interesting but sometimes difficult reading.
