The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-02-01
BY FRANK HEWLETT

Allied Headquarters, Luzon, Feb ruary l. - (UP) - A picked force of American Commandos has slip ped behind the Japanese lines and brought back to safety 510 Allied war prisoners, many of them men of Bataan and Corregidor, General Douglas Macarthur revealed today.
 The men were brought back to freedom by a daring foray last night in which 121 members of the Sixth Ranger Battalion and and 286 trained guerillas penetrated 25 miles inside the Jap lines to storm the prisoner of war camp at Ca zanatuan, 70 miles north of Manila in Nueva Ecija province.
 No incident of the campaign has given me such personal satisfac- tion." said Macarthur.
 The rescue attack was accom- plished with such precison that only 27 Americans were lost and wound ed while the Jap garrison was anni- Inflated. Tn the fight at the camp and in a running escape battle with Japanese columns supported by tanks the Americans killed 523 Japs and knocked out 12 tanks.
 Almost all the rescued prisoners were Americans but there was 8 sprinkling of British, Dutch and other nationahties.
 The condition of the rescued men is fair" MacArthur said, they are receiving every care and attention and their rehabilitation will be rapid"
 The prisoners brought with them the first eyewitness accounts of the last days on Corregidor before the fortress finally surrendered at 10 a. m. May 6, 1942.
 They revealed that General Jona- than N. Wainwright forced the Jap anese to pay frightful price before going down before the Japanese tide. The Japanese lost almost 5000 men in their landing on the rock walls of the island fortress
 The story was told by Lieutenant Colonel John K. Borneman, Niagara Falls, N. Y, one of three chaplains 1CSCuCQ dL CIlC CdAAP.
 The other two chaplainS were Lieutenant Colonel Alfred Oliver, Washington, D. C.. a Methodist, and Captain John J. Dugan, Boston. Catholic.
 Borneman. Presbyterian and chaplain of the 60th Coast Artillery, said that most of the anti-aircraft batteries on Corregidor had been knocked out by Japanese artillery firing from Bataan on the night of May 5-6.
 That was the night the direct Japanese assault on the fortress was launched.
 The Japanese, attacking with a force of about 10000 men, lost al- most 5000 men in the assault but succeeded in putting 5000 ashore. They obtained foothold on the eastern end of the island but those who were not killed were sealed off.
 "The invasion was repelled," Borneman said. but so many of our guns were knocked out that General Wainwright decided after four hour fight that 1t was useless to continue resistance.
 General Wainwright was grand throughout but he wouldn't let any more personnel die. We later learned the Japs had 60 batteries of guns and 24O Howitzers on Bataan which had pounded us for over a month.
 At 10 a. m. over the voice of Freedof Radio Station, we sent our surrender to the Japs"
 Borneman placed American cas- ualtieS in the final Coregidor bat tie at 150 men. In the entire stand on Coregidor, he said, about $50 Americans were killed. He said he knew his figures were correct be- cause he supervised the burials.
 When Corregidor fell, he said, 1t still had 8 garrison of aboue 5,OOOc of whom 1000 were Americans and the remainder Filipino troops.
 Borneman revealed that the sur render message was read over the Corregidor tranSmitter in Japanese by Hawaiian Nisei soldier.
 During the long months of cap tivity the morale of the American prisoners was kept up by listening to radio which was built and op- erated secretly by It. William B. Gibson who had been radio con- cern representative in Manila when the Japanese attack came. He went to CorTegidor as civilian techni- clan to aid in the operation of the voice of freedom transmitter.
 On the morning of Corregidor's surrender he was commissioned second lieutenant.
 Over this radio the Americans were able to follow the progress of the war. They heard of the steady progress of MacArthur's drive northward; of the landing on Leyte and finally of the landing .