December 7th, 1941 the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces. American forces already stationed in the Philippines as a deterrent against a Japanese invasion of the islands, were attacked by the Japanese hours after Pearl Harbor. With more than 72,000 American and Filipino soldiers fighting with outdated weapons, lacking supplies, stricken with disease and malnourishment were forced to lay down their arms to the Japanese on April 9th, 1942. This was due to the promise of reinforcements after General MacArthur and a few select officers evacuated the island on orders from the president. The Japanese however had only accommodated for 10,000 to 25,000 thousand POWs and the Us and Philippine soldiers were forced to march 60 miles to the Cabanatuan and Bataan prison camps.
On October 20th, 1944 General Douglas MacArthur’s forces landed on Leyte, as Americans prepared for the main invasion of Luzon the Japanese captors continued to execute their prisoners. Several plans were submitted for possible rescue attempts of the prisoners but most fell through simply due to logistics or possible traders amongst the ranks of the Philippine guerillas. On January 26th, 1945 major Bob Lapham, the American US Army Forces Far East senior guerrilla chief and another guerilla leader Juan Pojota, traveled from his location near the prison camp to the Sixth Army headquarters. Lapham proposed to Lieutenant General Walter Krueger’s intelligence Chief Colonel Horton White that a rescue attempt needed to be made to liberate the estimated 500 POWs at the Cabanatuan prison camp before the Japanese possibly killed them all. Colonel White gathered Lt.Col. Henry Mucci and his 6th Ranger Battalion along with 3 lieutenants from the Alamo scouts, and the special reconnaissance unit. Mucci and a reinforced company of 121 rangers under Capt Robert Prince guided by Philippine