Download or read book Wendell Fertig and His Guerrilla Forces in the Philippines written by Kent Holmes and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating a guerrilla movement to fight the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942-1945) presented Colonel Wendell Fertig with some formidable challenges. Unlike the other islands in the archipelago, Mindanao had a large Moslem (Moro) population. Using Moro and American leadership he brought the Moro people into the movement. Fertig lacked good communication with MacArthur's headquarters in Australia. With ingenuity and talented technical personnel he solved this problem, and increased the logistical support for the guerrillas by submarine from Australia. As the force expanded, Fertig was fortunate to recruit leadership from 187 Americans--military and civilian--who had not surrendered to the Japanese. The resulting force, with its intelligence from coastal watch stations, added six guerrilla divisions to U.S. military strength for the 1945 liberation of Mindanao, a contribution unique in the history of unconventional warfare.

Download or read book They Fought Alone written by John Keats and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time: 1942. The place: The Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The Story: A stirring true account of a man who refused to be defeated. When the American forces in the Philippines surrendered in May, 1942, a mining engineer named Wendell Fertig chose to take his chances in the jungle. What happened to him during nearly three years far behind enemy lines is the amazing story that John Keats tells in They Fought Alone. For Fertig, with the aid of a handful of Americans who also refused to surrender, led thousands of Filipinos in a seemingly hopeless war against the Japanese. They made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wire from iron fence. They fought off sickness, despair and rebellion within their own forces. Their homemade communications were MacArthur’s eyes and ears in the Philippines. When the Americans finally returned to Mindanao, they found Fertig virtually in control of one of the world’s largest islands, commanding an army of 35,000 men, and at the head of a civil government with its own post office, law courts, currency, factories, and hospitals. John Keats, who also served in the Philippines, has captured all the pain, brutality, and courage of this incredible drama, in which many memorable men and women play their parts. But They Fought Alone is essentially the story of one man—a testament to the ingenuity and sheer guts of an authentic American hero. “This remarkable story of guerrilla fighting in the Philippines during WWII...it is absorbing reading. . . . More remarkable still, though it contains death, torture, and desolation, it bubbles with humor.” —S. L. A. Marshall, The NY Times Book Review “A true and admirably researched account of an American hero who refused to accept defeat. His courage was incredible and his resourcefulness equally so. . . . I have read scores of books in this genre and Keats’ is one of the best.” —Chicago Tribune

Download or read book They Fought Alone written by John Keats and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-01 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They Fought Alone recounts the true story of the nearly three year period in which a handful of mostly American servicemen, led by U.S. Army Colonel Wendell Fertig, and many Filipinos, banded together on the island of Mindanao to protect the civilian population, harass a brutal occupying enemy, and to provide intelligence useful to the larger war effort. Fertig used his organizational and technical talents to meld a guerrilla force of an estimated 25-40,000 personnel, and by so doing, brought a measure of hope to a beleaguered people.

Download or read book Lapham s Raiders written by Robert Lapham and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 8, 1941, the day after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippine Islands, catching American forces unprepared and forcing their eventual surrender. Among the American soldiers who managed to avoid capture was twenty-five-year-old Lieutenant Robert Lapham, who was to play a major role in the resistance to the brutal Japanese occupation. After emerging from the jungles of Bataan and in the face of daunting odds, Lapham built from scratch and commanded a devastating guerrilla force behind enemy lines. His Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces (LGAF) evolved into an army of thirteen thousand men that eventually controlled the entire northern half of Luzon's great Central Plain, an area of several thousand square miles. This personal account of the Luzon guerrilla operations is woven into the larger context of the war. Lapham and Norling shed light on the clandestine activities of the LGAF and other guerrilla operations, assess the damages of war to the Filipino people, and discuss the United States' postwar treatment of the newly independent Philippine nation. They also offer a fuller understanding of Japan's wartime failures in the Philippines, the Pacific, and elsewhere in Asia, and of America's postwar failure to fully realize opportunities there.

Download or read book Behind Japanese Lines written by Ray C. Hunt and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-04-23 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This WWII combat memoir offers a rare firsthand account of the Allied guerilla forces fighting the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. In the Spring of 1942, US and Philippine forces lost the Battle of Bataan, leaving control of the Bataan Peninsula and the island of Corregidor to the Japanese. After the devastating loss, the Allied forces stationed across the Philippine Archipelago were supposed to surrender. Yet many of them refused, escaping into the mountains and jungles to form guerilla units. In Behind Japanese Lines one of those brave soldiers, Ray Hunt, recounts his experiences as part of the Allied resistance against the Japanese occupation. After escaping the Bataan Death March, Ray organized a troop of guerillas who went on to make noteworthy contributions to the Filipino-American reconquest of the Philippines. Ray’s story sheds important light on US-Filipino relations during World War II, as well as the realities of fighting both the Imperial Japanese Army and the Hukbalahap communist guerillas. "Stands out for the vividness of its detail, its effort to sort fact from legend, and its tribute to the heroism of the resistance movement, which was almost entirely Filipino.” —Choice

Download or read book American Guerrilla written by Mike Guardia and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A main selection of the Military Book Club and a selection of the History Book Club With his parting words, “I shall return,” General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of more than 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing more than 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann. This book establishes how Volckmann’s leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesize the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita’s forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in “blind” during their counter-invasion, reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would undoubtedly have cost more lives, materiel, and potentially stalled the pace of the entire Pacific War. Second, this book establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine and the true “Father” of Army Special Forces—a title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank of the European Theater of Operations. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two army field manuals: Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, though today few realize he was their author. Together, they became the US Army’s first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to the army chief of staff, Volckmann outlined the concept for Army Special Forces. At a time when US military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army’s first special operations unit—the 10th Special Forces Group. Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, his name absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and in much of the Army Special Forces literature. Yet as modest, even secretive, as Volckmann was during his career, it is difficult to imagine a man whose heroic initiative had more impact on World War II. This long overdue book not only chronicles the dramatic military exploits of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine. Mike Guardia, currently an officer in the US 1st Armored Division is also author of Shadow Commander, about the career of Donald Blackburn, and an upcoming biography of Hal Moore.

Download or read book The Butchers the Baker written by Victor L. Mapes and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2000 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twelve hours after Pearl Harbor, Clark Field in the Philippines was attacked by Japanese aircraft. Among the survivors was Private Victor L. Mapes, who spent the next three years fleeing from and then being imprisoned by the Japanese military machine. When the tide of battle in the Pacific turned against the Japanese, Mapes experienced more harrowing conditions than before. After his unmarked prison ship was torpedoed by an American submarine, the wounded author struggled in the water against the elements and the enemy, as the Japanese tried to kill the escaping POWs. Mapes' memoir chronicles a gruelling three-year ordeal that was punctuated by strange and often amusing encounters with fellow Americans, Japanese, Filipinos, and the fierce Moros of Mindanao Island. The memoir includes photographs and maps, as well as a bibliography and index.

Download or read book War in Mindanao written by John Keats and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-02-02 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War in Mindanao, originally published in 1963 as They Fought Alone, is the story of the nearly three year period during the Second World War in which a handful of mostly American servicemen, led by U.S. Army Colonel Wendell Fertig, and many Filipinos, banded together on the Philippine island of Mindanao to protect the civilian population, harass a brutal occupying enemy, and to provide intelligence useful to the larger war effort. Fertig used his organizational and technical talents to meld a guerrilla force of an estimated 25-40,000 personnel, and by so doing, brought a measure of hope to a beleaguered people. The book remains a powerful tribute to the courage and determination of American soldiers in the face of overwhelming odds.

Download or read book Shadow Commander written by Mike Guardia and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2015-11-24 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true story of the US Army legend who organized “Blackburn’s Headhunters” against Japan in WWII and went on to initiate Special Forces operations in Vietnam. The fires on Bataan burned on the evening of April 9, 1942—illuminating the white flags of surrender against the dark sky. Outnumbered and outgunned, remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the forces of the Rising Sun. Yet US Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn refused to lay down his arms. With future Special Forces legend Russell Volckmann, Blackburn escaped to the jungles of North Luzon, where they raised a private army of 22,000 men against the Japanese. His organization of native tribes into guerrilla fighters would lead to the destruction of the enemy’s naval base at Aparri. But Blackburn’s amazing accomplishments would not end with the victory in the Pacific. He would go on to play a key role in initiating Army Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia, spearheading Operation White Star in Laos as commander of the 77th Special Forces Group and eventually taking command of the highly classified Studies and Observations Group (SOG), charged with performing secret missions now that main-force Communist incursions were on the rise. In the wake of the CIA’s disastrous Leaping Lena program, in 1964, Blackburn revitalized the Special Operations campaign in South Vietnam. Sending reconnaissance teams into Cambodia and North Vietnam, he discovered the clandestine networks and supply nodes of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Taking the information directly to General Westmoreland, Blackburn was authorized to conduct full-scale operations against the NVA and Viet Cong in Laos and Cambodia. In combats large and small, the Communists realized they had met a master of insurgent tactics—and he was on the US side. Following his return to the US, Blackburn was the architect of the infamous Son Tay Prison Raid, officially termed Operation Ivory Coast, the largest prisoner-of-war rescue mission—and, indeed, the largest Army Special Forces operation—of the Vietnam War. During a period when US troops in Southeast Asia faced guerrilla armies on every side, America had a superb covert commander of its own. This book follows Blackburn through both his youthful days of desperate combat and his time as a commander, imparting his lessons to the new ranks of Army Special Forces.

Download or read book Cushing s Coup written by Dirk Jan Barreveld and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-07-19 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The little-known story of one of the most important intelligence triumphs of World War II, and “a record of the heroism of a forgotten man” (Naval Historical Foundation). This is the story of the capture of Japan’s “Plan Z”—the Empire’s fully detailed strategy for prosecuting the last stages of the Pacific War. It’s a story of happenstance, mayhem, and intrigue that resulted directly in the spectacular US victory in the Philippine Sea and MacArthur’s early return to Manila, doubtless shortening WWII by months. One night in April 1944, Adm. Koga, commander-in-chief of Japanese forces in the Pacific, took off in a seaplane to establish new headquarters. For security reasons, he had his chief of staff, Rear Adm. Fukudome, fly separately. But both aircraft ran into a typhoon and were knocked out of the skies. Koga did not survive. Fukudome’s plane crash-landed into the sea off Cebu, the Philippines, and both the admiral and the precious war plans floated ashore. Lt. Col. James M. Cushing was an American mining engineer who happened to be in Cebu when war broke out in the Pacific. He soon took charge of the local guerrillas and became a legendary leader. But his most spectacular exploit came when he captured Fukudome and Plan Z. The result was a ferocious cat-and-mouse game between Cushing’s guerrillas and the Japanese occupation forces. While Cushing desperately sent messages to MacArthur to say what he’d found, the Japanese scoured the countryside, killing hundreds of civilians in an attempt to retrieve it. Cushing finally traded the admiral for a cessation of civilian deaths—but secretly retained the Japanese war plans. Naturally, both Tokyo and Washington tried to cover up what was happening—neither wanted the other to know what they’d lost or what they’d found. Now, in this book, we finally learn of the intelligence coup by Lt. Col. Cushing that helped shorten the war. “Every once in a while there is a book about a forgotten or neglected aspect of World War II history that makes a reader wonder why this story has not been turned into a movie. Cushing’s Coup is one of those books.” —Naval Historical Foundation

Download or read book Stranded in the Philippines written by Scott A. Mills and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stranded in the Philippines is based on the memoirs of Professor Henry Roy Bell and his wife Edna. After graduation from Emporia College in Kansas, they had gone to the Philippines in 1921 to teach at Silliman, a missionary school founded by Presbyterians in 1901. The Bell family was stranded in the Philippines after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is their story from then until they were evacuated by a submarine on February 6, 1944. When the Japanese occupied their island of Negros, Prof. Bell first took his family into the hills to avoid Japanese soldiers on the coast. But in time, some of Bell’s recent students climbed to the Bell family’s retreat and persuaded Bell to support them in their harassment of Japanese soldiers—but only in food. Yet in time, the young men acquired enough arms on their own to clash with the nearby enemy garrison. They inflicted heavy losses and fatally wounded the garrison commander. By steps, he became fully involved with the resistance. He became a major in the island-wide guerrilla force which he helped organize an intelligence network for MacArthur’s headquarters. Despite the organizing success, the Bell’s were facing certain capture. With the help from the now well-organized guerrilla forces, the family crossed the island for evacuation by the huge cargo submarine Narwhal when it delivered arms and ammunition for the guerrillas the night of the rendezvous.

Download or read book Total Resistance written by H Von Dach and published by WWW.Snowballpublishing.com. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a legendary work by the famed Swiss expert on guerrilla warfare, Major H. von Dach. Survivalists have rediscovered this important study on resistance and underground operations, some making it the keystone of their libraries. Well-written and illustrated with easy-to-understand drawings, Total Resistance analyzes and overviews the techniques needed to overcome an invading force, formation of guerrilla units, weapons, food and medical considerations, ambushes, sabotage and much more.

Download or read book War and Resistance in the Philippines 1942 1944 written by James K Morningstar and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944 repairs the fragmentary and incomplete history of events in the Philippine Islands between the surrender of Allied forces in May 1942 and MacArthur's return in October 1944. No book has comprehensively examined the Filipino resistance during this crucial period. Here, James Kelly Morningstar provides for the first time a comprehensive history of the protracted fighting by 260,000 guerrillas in 277 units across the archipelago. Beginning with the Japanese occupation, the collapse of the United States Forces, Far East (USAFFE), and the simultaneous rise of the complex, diverse Philippine guerrilla movements, Morningstar exposes the inadequacy of MacArthur's conventional plans while revealing his inchoate preparation for guerrilla resistance. Morningstar then recounts in detail the impromptu resistance led by refugee American and Filipino soldiers, local politicians, and social revolutionaries left to battle the Japanese--and each other--with emphasis on how Japanese, American, and Filipino actions influenced and proscribed each other. From a distance, MacArthur contacted select guerrillas and organized agents to deliver supplies and radios to them by submarine. In this way he empowered some to gain power as part of a united framework under his leadership. This not only kept alive the resistance that denied the Japanese exploitation of the Philippines while setting the conditions for MacArthur's return, it also ensured that no one guerrilla leader could challenge America's supremacy. MacArthur's selective support to guerrilla groups that encouraged continued Filipino dependence on the United States would prove fatal for the incipient Maoist social revolution on Luzon. Even so, the Filipinos' shared sacrifice in their act of resistance fueled a national consciousness that created a sense of deserved nationhood. War and Resistance in the Philippines, 1942-1944 concludes with a brief discussion of legacies of the guerrilla resistance. MacArthur's return reestablished the power of American and Filipino political elites. Guerrillas and other citizens who had experienced exceptional hardship now had to fight for recognition. However, the war had resulted in a more united Philippine national identity along with new political institutions to repair the divisions between the formerly exiled government, the collaborationists, and the members of resistance. These momentous years of struggle in the Philippines changed the tide of history and challenge our understanding of war and resistance.

Download or read book Wendell Fertig and His Guerrilla Forces in the Philippines written by Kent Holmes and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-04-20 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Creating a guerrilla movement to fight the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942-1945) presented Colonel Wendell Fertig with some formidable challenges. Unlike the other islands in the archipelago, Mindanao had a large Moslem (Moro) population. Using Moro and American leadership he brought the Moro people into the movement. Fertig lacked good communication with MacArthur's headquarters in Australia. With ingenuity and talented technical personnel he solved this problem, and increased the logistical support for the guerrillas by submarine from Australia. As the force expanded, Fertig was fortunate to recruit leadership from 187 Americans--military and civilian--who had not surrendered to the Japanese. The resulting force, with its intelligence from coastal watch stations, added six guerrilla divisions to U.S. military strength for the 1945 liberation of Mindanao, a contribution unique in the history of unconventional warfare.

Download or read book Leyte written by M. Hamlin Cannon and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the Leyte Campaign the War in the Pacific entered a decisive stage. The period of limited offensives, bypassing, and island hopping was virtually over. American troops in greater numbers than ever before assembled in the Pacific Theater, supported by naval and air forces of corresponding size, fought and overcame Japanese forces of greater magnitude than any previously met. Though the spotlight is on the front-line fighting, the reader will find in this volume a faithful description of all arms and services performing their missions. The account is not exclusively an infantry story. It covers as well the support of ground fighting on Leyte by large-scale naval operations and by land-based air power under the most adverse conditions. In addition, careful attention to logistical matters, such as the movement of supplies and the evacuation of the wounded, gives the reader a picture of the less spectacular activities of an army in battle.

Download or read book Mindoro and Lingayen Liberated written by Bob East and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In just over a month—that is from mid-December 1944 to mid-January 1945—two crucial Allied “invasions” in Luzon (the northern geographical region of the Philippines) turned the tide in America’s favour in its attempt to liberate the Philippines from Japanese occupation. One invasion was on Mindoro Island, south of Manila, while the other was on the Lingayen Gulf and its environs—on the west coast of Luzon, north of Manila. While the battle of Lingayen Gulf may still have been successful without the assistance of the newly completed air facilities on Mindoro Island, this made the battle a little easier for the Allies. This publication covers the preparation for the invasion of Mindoro Island and its successful operation. In addition, it discusses the huge invasion of the Lingayen Gulf. Particular emphasis is given to the damage caused by the Kamikaze on the hundreds of Allied ships that took part in the Battle of Lingayen Gulf Because the Japanese occupation of the Philippines was such a brutal episode in the War in the Pacific, a section of this book is also devoted to Japanese war crimes. Not all the war criminals involved in atrocities in the Philippines are examined here, but, rather, only those high-ranking officers deemed responsible in some way.

Download or read book The Indomitable Patriot written by Carl Mclelland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-05-18 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: May, 1942. General Wainwright has just surrendered the Philippines. Wendell Fertig, a Corps of Engineers Lieutenant Colonel, refuses to comply and flees into the mountains of Mindanao. Fertig is soon joined by dozens of former Philippino Army scouts who encourage him to form a guerrilla Army. Over the next few months Fertig is joined by several other displaced American soldiers, one of whom builds a small, makeshift transmitter and establishes contact with the Navy. General MacArthur denounces Fertig, going on record claiming it's impossible for a guerrilla movement in the Philippines to succeed. The O.S.S. decides to take a chance and covertly supplies Fertig by submarine. Once he receives the tools to wage war, his achievements become legendary. By the time MacArthur returns to the Philippines in 1944 he is met on the beach at Leyte by a force of over twenty thousand of Fertig's guerrilla Army. This fictional accounting is based upon the actual military records and reports of one man's impossible achievements against overwhelming odds; against an enemy who outnumbered him a hundred to one. Wendell Fertig, a civil engineer and untrained amateur in the ways of war, defied the predictions of the experts and brought the Japanese Army to its knees. Enjoy this first installment in the new 'Behind The Lines' series of combat thrillers based upon historical records.