This Date.....1945....Cabanatuan Rescue of POW's

[SASless]

It was on this date in 1945, 126 US Army Rangers and assisting Filipino Resistance Fighters rescued 522 American POW's from the Cabanatuan Prison Camp.....far behind Japanese Lines and from the close proximity of large units of the Japanese Army.

The Rangers were supported by Air Force aircraft that flew over the camp to divert the Guard's attention away from the Rangers who were crawling many hundreds of Meters to get to their attack positions which was on the far side of an open grassy field.

The story of the Raid has been made into a film....which was very well done.


https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t1/1623613_608419655873959_1855609666_n.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63Fzw6_b7qA

[MTOW]

The untold story is the raid that literally never quite got off the ground to rescue up to 6000 British and Australian POWs from Sandakan in Borneo, all but six (six!) of whom died on a series of death marches and straight out mass executions - the last two weeks AFTER the end of the war (27 August, when the last of the officer prisoners were executed).

[SASless]

Another story that has only been told in the last few Years was the execution of both POW's and Civilian Prisoners captured on...and executed on Wake Island.

Tied together....marched into the sea....and machine-gunned or bayonetted.

The list of Japanese atrocities re Prisoners is long and filled with awful brutality.

An excellent research source.....

POWs in Japan, World War II, POW Camps (http://www.mansell.com/pow-index.html)