7. Raid at Cabanatuan 1945
The Raid at Cabanatuan is considered the most successful rescue mission in U.S. history. At the Battle of Bataan in 1942 thousands of American soldiers surrendered and were taken prisoner. As American troops marched through the Philippines to take it back from the Japanese, it became apparent that the Japanese were brutally executing American POWs before they could be rescued. There were also concerns of disease, torture and starvation that would kill the men before General Douglas MacArthur and his forces could retake the Philippines and rescue them. Therefore, it was decided that a small group would advance first to Cabanatuan prison camp in order to rescue the men being held there.
On January 30th, 1945 a troop of 400 men that included American Rangers, Scouts and Filipino guerrillas surrounded the camp in the dark of night. A P-61 Black Widow provided a distraction and the men were able to surprise the Japanese forces. In a 30-minute planned attack, hundreds of Japanese soldiers were killed. The American and Filipino forces were also able to take out four tanks. There were some casualties as 2 American soldiers, and 2 prisoners were killed while 4 American soldiers and 21 Filipino guerrillas were wounded.
At its height Cabanatuan prison camp held thousands of prisoners, but at the time of the raid, many of them had been moved. When the rescuers entered the prison camp they found that most of the POWs were actually in hiding fearing that the gunfire meant the Japanese were massacring the prisoners. In the end some of the POWs had to be forcefully rescued. But the operation was a success with 489 POWs and 33 civilians rescued from the camp.
The raid also brought renewed vigor for the war against Japan as rescued POWs told of the Bataan Death March and the horrible conditions in the prison camp.