This remarkable rescue of civilian prisoners of war is considered one of the most successful rescue operations in modern military history.
One of Fr Gordon Jackson's sketches of the camp from the Los Baños Raid. Photo: Patricia Brooks
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Los Baños Raid, in the Philippines, when 2,147 civilian prisoners of war including women and children, were saved from imminent death.
Many of the prisoners were missionaries, including New Zealand and Australian Columban priests. All were rescued safely from the Los Baños internment camp, a former agriculture college on the edge of Laguna de Bay, 72 km from Manila and 40 km behind enemy lines.
Among those rescued were New Zealand Columban priests, Frs Arthur Price, Martin Strong, Tom Dwyer and Redemptorist Fr Patrick Hurley, who later became Bishops of Western Samoa. Also rescued was Australian Columban Fr Gordon Jackson who sketched pictures of the camp which he sent home to his family.
As the American and Allied Forces gained control in the Philippines in February 1945, the Imperial Japanese Army became more desperate and the prisoners in the internment camps were starving and weak.
General McArthur was determined to rescue the prisoners and a highly complex plan was drawn up using the Filipino guerrilla forces on the ground, the American 11th Airborne Division Parachute Infantry Regiment, the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment in the air and 54 amphibious assault vehicles that would carry the internees to safety back across the lake.
The success of the mission depended on speed and surprise. Operations were planned for 7.00 am when the Japanese soldiers would be at callisthenics, their exercise period, without their guns.
During the night the Filipino guerrilla soldiers silently crossed the lake, stealthily crept through the jungle and rice paddies without alerting the Japanese, to be ready waiting for 7.00 am action on the 23 February 1945.
Leaving at 4.00 am, 54 amphibious tractors (Amtracs), each weighing 18 tonnes, capable of carrying 50 people, crossed Laguna de Bay and crawled 3.2 km overland to the camp arriving at 7.00 am. At the same time 150 paratroopers dropped from their aircraft surprising the prisoners and the Japanese soldiers. Joining forces with the guerrilla soldiers, the fighting was short and intense. The Japanese were defeated, and the internees freed.
Weak and confused some of the prisoners were reluctant to be herded into the Amtracs thinking they were Japanese tanks. It was not until their nipa huts were destroyed by fire that they realized they were being rescued. The ages of those rescued ranged from prisoners in their 70’s to a three day old baby.
All 2,147 prisoners were rescued safely which was remarkable considering many of them were near death from starvation and malnutrition. There were two guerrilla casualties but tragically the Japanese returned and killed in reprisal all the neighbouring Filipinos who had failed to heed the warnings and move from the area.
By coincidence, Col Frank Quesada, who commanded the Hunters ROTC, the most active Filipino guerrilla group in this rescue operation, had been present at the interrogation and torture of Columban Fr Francis Vernon Douglas in Paete 18 months earlier in July 1943. His testimony, written in 1995, verified anonymous statements made in 1945. For fifty years Col Quesada had carried memories of the torture and interrogation of Fr Douglas, not knowing who he was or where he was from. He thought he was an Australian but he never forgot the strength and resolution as Fr Douglas refused to cooperate with his interrogators. It was not until he read an article in an American magazine about
Fr Douglas that he realized this was the priest that he had seen tortured fifty years earlier.
The Columbans in the Philippines lost five priests during WW11. While war is a desecration of humanity, the accounts of heroic endeavours and the triumph of the human spirit deserve to be remembered. “I doubt that any airborne unit in the world will ever be able to rival the Los Baños prison raid. It is the textbook airborne operation for all ages and all armies.” General Colin Powell former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military.
Patricia Brooks is the author of With No Regrets, a biography of Columban Fr Francis Vernon Douglas. Patricia’s father, Brian Molloy was a close friend of Fr Douglas from their Seminary days.
Listen to "Los Baños Raid"
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- Read more from The Far East, September 2020
