S. planes passing overhead.
Cabanatuan Rescue: After the exodus of the Japan Detail (the so-called
healthy prisoners) in late October, there were only 511 unhealthy
prisoners remaining in camp.
Things were rather quiet until about 2000 hours on January 30, 1945,
when sudden gunfire from outside the camp wiped out all of the
Japanese guards in the towers. It was MacArthur's 6th Ranger Battalion
under the command of Lt. Col. Henry Mucci - aided by guerrillas -
walking into camp. They quickly obtained carabao carts and sleds for
the bedridden prisoners.
That evening 511 internees were moved many miles down the road to the
west in the moonlight with hardly a shot fired. Early the next morning
they arrived at a transportation center, where prisoners were placed
aboard trucks and ambulances and taken to Lingayen Gulf; then they
were transferred to planes and flown to Manila. After suffering from
more than three years of intentional neglect by the Japanese Imperial
Army, they were finally "free men."
No prisoners were lost in the operation; there were two casualties
among the Rangers: Capt. James Fischer, the doctor, was killed by
mortar fire near the main gate of camp.
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