In 1945, Col. Henry Mucci (Left) and Capt. Robert Prince (Right) were given the task to rescue over 500 American POWs held near Cabanatuan City, Philippines after the Japanese instituted a "kill-all" policy. With little time to prepare, the force gathered their gear and ventured into the jungle.
A group of over 100 Rangers, some Alamo Scouts, and several hundred guerrillas, traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp.
On the night of Jan 30, 1945, the Rangers crawled on their bellies for over 300 yards in order to reach the camp's perimeter. A P-61 was scheduled to fly over the camp to distract the 200 guards within the camp.
At 19:40, the whole prison compound erupted into small arms fire. Within the first fifteen seconds, all of the camp's guard towers and pillboxes were targeted and destroyed. The POWs thought the Japanese had begun the massacre. When the Rangers yelled to the POWs to come out and be rescued, many of the POWs feared that it was the Japanese attempting to trick them into being killed. The force moved quickly and efficiently through out the camp, killing enemy soldiers, tanks, and avoiding friendly fire.
Japanese reinforcements were dispatched to the camp, but were stopped by the guerrillas short of the camp.
By 20:15, the camp was secured and the force, along 522 POWs, managed to get back to friendly lines.
After it was all said and done, the US sustained 2 KIA, 4 wounded and 2 POWs killed. The guerrillas sustained 45 wounded and the Japanese suffered 500-1000 KIA and 4 tanks destroyed.
Both Mucci and Prince received the Distinguished Service Cross, all the officers and selected enlisted were awarded Silver Stars, while the rest, to include the guerrillas, Bronze Stars.
To this day, this rescue mission is considered one of the most successful raids to date and it's strategy still taught at West Point.
SIDENOTE: The attack itself has a lot of details, which putting them all on here would have made this post 3 days long. For more info we suggest you read "The Great Raid: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor". #balls #stayzero #zerofoxtrot #ww2 #rangers #badass