After the surrender of tens of thousands of American troops during the Battle of Bataan, many were sent to the Cabanatuan prison camp. Facing brutal conditions including disease, torture, and malnourishment, the prisoners feared they would be executed by their captors. In January 1945, a group of over 100 Rangers and Scouts and 200 Guerrillas traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. The rescue allowed the prisoners to tell of the death march and prison camp atrocities, which sparked a rush of resolve for the war against Japan.
About Raid at Cabanatuan in brief
On January 30, 1945, United States Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas liberated more than 500 from the POW camp. After the surrender of tens of thousands of American troops during the Battle of Bataan, many were sent to the Cabanatuan prison camp. Facing brutal conditions including disease, torture, and malnourishment, the prisoners feared they would be executed by their captors before the arrival of General Douglas MacArthur and his American forces returning to Luzon. The rescue allowed the prisoners to tell of the death march and prison camp atrocities, which sparked a rush of resolve for the war against Japan. A memorial now sits on the site of the former camp, and the events of the raid have been depicted in several films. The Japanese had initially planned for only 10,000–25,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war. Although they had organized two hospitals, ample food, and guards for this estimate, they were overwhelmed with over 72,000 prisoners. By the end of the 60-mile march, only 52,000 prisonerers reached Camp O’Donnell, with an estimated 20,000 having died from illness, hunger,. torture, or murder. In 1944, when the U.S. landed on the Philippines to recapture it, orders had been sent out by the Japanese high command to kill the POWs in order to avoid them being rescued by liberating forces. The Rangers, Scouts, and guerrilla escorted the POW’s back to American lines. The Camp was named after the nearby city of 50,000 people. The camp had first been used as an Agriculture Department of the Department of Agriculture training station and then a training camp for the Filipino army.
When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they used the camp to house American POWs. One side of the camp housed the guards, while the other side included the other barracks for the prisoners as well as the other bamboo barracks for other prisoners. The camp was roughly 800 yards deep by 600 yards divided by a road that ran through its center. It was one of three camps in the Philippines Occupying about about 100 acres, Occupied about the area and was designated for holding sick detainees. The other two camps were Camp O’Donnell and Camp Puerto Princesa, both of which were used for sick detainees and for training Filipino soldiers. The last camp to be used for POWs was Camp Cabanatuan, which was used as a training station for the Philippines Agriculture Department and then as a barracks for Filipino army soldiers. In January 1945, a group of over 100 Rangers and Scouts and 200 Guerrillas traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. In a nighttime raid, under the cover of darkness and with distraction by a P-61 Black Widow night fighter, the group surprised the Japanese forces. Hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute coordinated attack; the Americans suffered minimal casualties. The raid was part of a series of rescue operations to save the surviving POWs on the islands.
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This page is based on the article Raid at Cabanatuan published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
