The Wilmington morning star., 1945-02-03

GEN. MacARTHUR'S HEAD
QUARTERS, Luzon, Feb. 2.-UP)
Shots fired by two of the "coun-
try boys" in 1t. John F. Murphy S
contingent of American Rangers
were the call to freedom for $40
American and Allied prisoners
they freed from the Cabanatuan
prison camp in the Caraballo foot
hills Tuesday night, it was dis
closed today as additional details
of the rescue mission became
known.
The shots came at 7:45 p. m.
and felled Japanese soldier in
guard tower overlooking the
camp. For two hours the men un-
der Murphy, Springfield, Mass,
who once was candidate for the
Massachusetts, Senate, had been
crawling into position for attack.
At the sound OF gunfire, a group
under First 1t William J. Cornell,
Boston, Mass, rose from hiding
places before the front gate on
the opposite side the camp and
attacked.
Their be-whiskered faces grimly
set, the Americans shot, bayonet-
ted or knitted 70 guards in five
minutes. There was a brief delay
at the main gate. Ranger Theo-
dore Richardson started to blow
off the lock with a shot but the
magazine clip feel from his gun.
He reached for his pistol. A jap
anese guard fired and the bullet
knocked it, from his hand. Rich
ardson picked it up, blew off the
lock, and killed the guard.
BY that time, Murphy's men had
knocked out a pillbox and its
eight occupants east of the gate
with hand grenades and the Rang
ers drove into the stockade, blast
ing with bazookas the guards bar
racks and a building housing four
tanks. The entire assault was
led by Capt. Robert w. Prince,
Seattle, Wash.
Within seven minutes of the first
shots, the first group of rescued
Americans was stumbling out of
their huts and eight minutes later
all had quit the stockade where
they had been suffering from hun
ger and disease for 80 months.
Before the assault began, Prince
had deployed 70 Filipino guerril-
las under Capt. Pajota to guard
the main road east of the stockade
and IS under Capt. Joson to guard
the road to the west. AS the freed
prisoners were organized for the
march to American lines, an es-
timated 300 Japanese came out OF
the town of Cabu, about mile
east of the camp, heading for the
scene of action.
About 8:15 p. M, Pajota, having
waited for the japanese to come
into range, ordered his Filipinos
to fire. The relief force was stop
ped cold by Browning automatic
rifles chattering in the hands Of
Pajota's men.
Bodies piled high on the road be-
fore the entrenched guerrillas, and
later estimates placed the enemy
dead at 400. Finally the japanese
brought up eight tanks which kept
the guerrillas pinned until the
Rangers gave the signal to with
draw. The guerrillas lost 81 men
in this battle the Rangers had one
IL ,yJ fu,o 1uO11o6oG
For an hour, the japanese pur-
sued the retiring Americans and
the rescued prisoners, some OF
whom were armed and some OF
whom were too weak to walk.
Capt. Ralph Hibbs, East Oska-
loosa, Iowa, who had been with the
31st Infantry at Bataan, said he
knew of about 20 men executed by
the Japanese at the camp where
he had spent nearly three years.
He said men often were beaten
with clubs which the prisoners
dubbed "vitamin sticks.
Hibbs was confined at Bilibld
prison in Manila for time. There
he saw the Japanese throw rot
ten. manure-covered vegetables to
their prisoners. American officers
were forced to use clubs to keep
their hungry men from eating
them, and the japanese stood by
and laughed.
Last September 81, some of the
prisoners were working on an air
drome when it was attacked by
American Navy planes-the first
the captives had seen for nearly
three years.
'Thatll be a national holiday
the rest of my life said Hibbs.
We've been waiting for the
Americans to return since two
months after we were captured .
Pvt. Alfred Jolly, San Francisco,
Calf, said the Japanese treated
us pretty cruel
eve had to snap to- OF they
used rifle butts on u.s. he said.
1--WE had to kowtow to the sons
a-guns all the time. We got hand
full of rice and camotes for meals.
Occasionally, the Japs slaughtered
a carabao and gave us only the
ham, head and bones. They gave
us 80 cans of evaporated milk
weekly for invalids.'
Once the camp had 5000 men,
Jolly said, but most were believed
taken to Japan, Formosa and
China.
On January Z, just before the
Americans landed at Lingayen
Gulf, the japanese left the camp