Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

Discussions on WW2 in the Pacific and the Sino-Japanese War.
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Peter H
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Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#1

Post by Peter H » 12 Aug 2008, 13:00

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 92,00.html
Colonel Russell W. Volckmann was a lean West Pointer from Iowa. When Bataan fell in 1942 he took to the hills and organized one of the best guerrilla teams in the Philippines. By the time the U.S. forces came back, Volckmann and his band had already cleared the Japs from a large portion of northwestern Luzon's mountains.

http://www.bataandiary.com/Research.htm
United States Forces in the Philippines--Northern Luzon (USFIP-NL). Organized by Major (guerrilla Colonel) Russell Volckmann, USFIP-NL became one of the largest and best organized guerrilla operations on Luzon, and one of the most ruthless. In August 1943, when Capt. Ralph Praeger was captured, Volckmann took over his North Luzon Military District. In November 1943 Volckmann took over the remnants of Capt. Guillermo Nakar's 14th Infantry after Nakar was captured. In August 1944 he made radio contact with General MacArthur's headquarters, and in the fall of 1944 received 35 tons of supplies brought in by the submarine Seawolf. On January 9, 1945, Volckmann and his men met General MacArthur's invading forces on the beaches of Lingayen Gulf.
11th (guerrilla) Infantry Regiment, Maj. Donald Blackburn; Cagayan Valley
14th (guerrilla) Infantry Regiment, Maj. Romulo Manriquez; Nueva Vizcaya
15th (guerrilla) Infantry Regiment, Maj. Robert Arnold; Ilocos Norte
66th (guerrilla) Infantry Regiment, Maj. Dennis Molintas; Baguio area
121st (guerrilla) Infantry Regiment, Capt. Walter Cushing, Capt. William Peryam, Lt. Col. Manuel Enriquez, Maj. George Barnett; Ilocos Sur

Volckmann
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http://www.alamoscouts.org/archives2/asgk_218.jpg


Later involved in the formation of Army Special Forces after WW2:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... story3.htm

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Peter H
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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#2

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 11:29

Volckmann from his book We Remained,1954:
..the major enemy was not the Japanese but rather the spies,informers and collaborators operating for them...the effect of this extermination program had far more far reaching results than those at first evident..Not only were the loyal and sympathetic civilians soon convinved that they could now safely suppoer USAFJP,N.L.,but the so called 'fence sitters' began toppling in the right direction..
Volckmann claims his force accounted "for about fifty thousand Japanese casualties".

In January 1945 Volckmann had nearly twenty thousand men under his control--eight thousand "regulars",seven thousand "reservists",five thousand in "bolo battalions" or service units.


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Peter H
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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#3

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 11:34

On Mindanao the American mining engineer and reserve officer,Colonel Wendell Fertig,commanded around 30,000 men:

http://stackingswivel.blogspot.com/2005 ... -hero.html
He amassed over 30,000 armed men, the equivalent of an Army Corps, which included American forces who had managed to escape as prisoners of war, and fighting men of the Philippine Islands. With no formal military training and limited supplies, General Fertig conducted commando type raids against the Japanese to obtain weapons and ammunition, food, medical supplies, and communications equipment. Eventually, in spite of General MacArthur’s initial refusal to believe that any credible forces remained in the Philippines, Fertig began receiving supplies from the Commander, South West Pacific Operating Area (SWPOA) and in time, General Fertig’s forces became the best equipped and most effective irregular fighting force of World War II.

After the war, MacArthur begrudgingly promoted Fertig to Colonel and awarded him the Distinguished Service Cross, and then Fertig quietly returned to his civil engineering profession. Later, however, Colonel Fertig helped to establish the U. S. Army’s Special Warfare Center and he is today regarded as the father of the U. S. Army’s “Special Forces” organization.

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#4

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 13:16


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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#5

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 13:19

Luis Taruc,the Hukbalahap movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Taruc

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ ... 84/GRR.htm
Between March 1942 and August 1948, the Huks became a trained and experienced force, well-equipped with US
Army weapons and well-prepared for its guerrilla warfare. The initial force of 500 armed Huks which was organized into five squadrons had increased to a fully-armed guerrilla force of 20,000 men.

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#6

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 13:28

The escaped Australian POWs who joined the Filipino resistance,Bob McLaren and Rex Blow:

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A150300b.htm

From the AWM,Guerilla commanders:

L to R--The Australian Major Rex Blow,DSO,Silver Star,US Colonel Charles Hedges,Wendell Fertig
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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas

#7

Post by Peter H » 13 Aug 2008, 13:38

The recently passed away Don Blackburn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Blackburn

Later SOG Commander in Vietnam,1965-1966.

http://www.navyseals.com/brigadier-gene ... een-berets
Stationed in the Philippines before World War II, Army Lt. Don Blackburn escaped capture during the fall of Bataan in 1942.

For the next 31/2 years, he helped rally Philippine troops and jungle tribesmen to fend off the Japanese until Gen. Douglas MacArthur's forces liberated the island of Luzon in 1945.

The daring young soldier's tales of combat and survival recorded in his diary became the subject of a book, "Blackburn's Headhunters," and the 1959 film "Surrender -- Hell!"

Blackburn, who died May 24 at 91, went on to become a brigadier general who helped establish the Army's elite Special Operations Forces, better known as the Green Berets. He also served as an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff during his decorated, 31-year military career before he retired in 1971.

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#8

Post by Peter H » 14 Aug 2008, 11:18

Robert Lapham:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lapham
Lapham was the third person, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and MacArthur, to receive the Philippine Legion of Honor...The estimated 10,000 Filipinos under Lapham's command became known as the Luzon Guerrilla Armed Forces (LGAF), more informally Lapham’s Raiders. They launched a guerilla campaign of terrorism and sabotage against the occupying Japanese soldiers, yomping large amounts of equipment by hand over rugged terrain. The Japanese army put a $1 million bounty on his head.
http://www.alamoscouts.org/archives2/asgj_087.jpg
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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#9

Post by Peter H » 14 Aug 2008, 11:37

Wenceslao Quinito Vinzons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslao_Vinzons
With the help of a former guerrilla-turned-informant, Vinzons was seized by the Japanese military together with his father on July 8, 1942. He refused to pledge allegiance to his captors, and was brought to a garrison in Daet. It was there, on July 15, 1942, that Vinzons was bayoneted to death after refusing one final entreaty to cooperate with the Japanese forces. Shortly thereafter, his father, wife, sister and two of his children were also executed by the Japanese.

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#10

Post by Peter H » 14 Aug 2008, 11:47

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/ ... /p_084.jpg

"Major Guerrilla Forces in the Philippines, 1942-1945"
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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#11

Post by Peter H » 14 Aug 2008, 11:56

Lt Colonel Claude Thorp:

http://www.bataandiary.com/Research.htm
During the Battle of Bataan in January, 1942, Lt. Col. Claude Thorp, former Provost Marshall of Fort Stotsenberg, was authorized by General MacArthur to take a party of volunteers and infiltrate through enemy lines to establish a spy station in the Zambales Mountains above Clark Field. Thorp and his men observed Japanese activity on Clark Field, and radioed reports of Japanese bombers taking off to attack Bataan and Corregidor. Thorp was also authorized to organize Filipino guerrillas to sabotage Japanese operations. After the American surrenders of Bataan and Corregidor, he formed the LGF, the original "USAFFE guerrilla" organization in the Philippines. Col. Thorp divided Luzon Island into four areas and appointed a commander over each, who was charged with recruiting guerrillas and forming an effective anti-Japanese guerrilla movement in his area of responsibility.

http://www.battlingbastardsbataan.com/dizon.htm
..Col. Thorp, Col. Straughn and Col. Nakar, along with others were executed on October 4, 1943, in La Loma Cemetary, in Manila...

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#12

Post by Peter H » 14 Aug 2008, 12:03

Captain Ralph Praeger:

http://www.bataandiary.com/Research.htm
Capt. Ralph Praeger, 26th Cavalry, was commanding officer of Troop C near Baugio in northern Luzon. After the Japanese landings at Lingayen Gulf in December 1941, he marched his troop to Tuguegarao Airfield in the Cagayan Valley and attacked, destroying several Japanese aircraft. He and his men refused to surrender to the Japanese in May 1942, and Col. Thorp appointed him to organize Filipino guerrillas in North Luzon. He established his headquarters in Kabugao, Apayao and joined Marcelo Adduru's Cagayan-Apayao Force in July 1942. Praeger made radio contact with General MacArthur's headquarters in Australia late in 1942, and came under the nominal control of Lt. Col. Martin Moses in February 1943, until Moses was captured on June 3, 1943..Ralph Praeger was executed in Manila in December 1944, as General MacArthur's forces approached Luzon...

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#13

Post by Peter H » 16 Aug 2008, 03:41

John McGree

http://www.ricarangers.org/rhof/mcgee.htm

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His brother was Lt Colonel George McGree,a Merrill Marauders Battalion commander.

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#14

Post by Peter H » 16 Aug 2008, 09:35

Edwin Price Ramsey:

http://www.edwinpriceramsey.com/
..he joined the Filipino resistance and rose to command more than 40,000 guerrillas. The Japanese put the elusive American leader at first place on their death list...

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Re: Volckmann's Guerillas(and others)

#15

Post by alisonnvt » 11 Jan 2016, 09:26

Russell has a son here in the Philippines. His name is William Volckmann and he looks just like Russell. He is my grandfather by the way. So that makes me Russell's great grand daughter.

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