Survival, Resistance, and Escape on Palawan | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (2024)

World War II Posters, Office of War Information, Record Group 44: Records of the Office of Government Reports, National Archives.

Incredibly, some American POWs managed to survive the Japanese massacre at Camp 10-A near Puerto Princesa, Palawan on December 14, 1944.

At nightfall some of those who somehow survived wandered into the jungle and others attempted to swim across Puerto Princesa Bay. Radioman 1^st Class Joseph Barta spent 10 days hiding in the jungle and evading Japanese patrols, before being safeguarded by guerrillas. Marine Private First Class Glenn McDole hid in the camp garbage dump.

Captured after the fall of Corregidor, Marine Sergeant Rufus W. Smith had been with McDole when they escaped out a hole at the back of their shelter, after one of the medics, who was on fire, warned them what was happening. Smith recalled that nine men made it to the beach from that trench, but only he and McDole survived. Japanese search parties looked for survivors. Two Japanese patrol boats roamed the beach and “were shooting at anybody and anything that moved.”

Smith recalled that “there were men on fire and being shot and bayoneted” as he crawled back up the cliff and stayed “under a bunch of overlapping grass and weeds.” After the four men hiding below Smith’s position were killed, Japanese soldiers lined up and bayoneted the grass every few feet looking for survivors. Smith added, “One of them stepped on me, but the bayonet missed me, so, again, I got by okay.”

In the evening after everything quieted down, Sergeant Smith heard the Japanese count of 149 killed. He believed that he was the only one left alive. As “soon as it got good dark,” he eased down the cliff and then into the water, swimming under the water as far as he could.

Marine Sergeant Douglas Bogue recalled, “I took refuge in a small crack among the rocks, where I remained, all the time hearing the butchery going on above.” He observed that “the stench of burning flesh was strong.” Sergeant Bogue concluded, “By the Grace of God I was overlooked.”

A handful of survivors of the massacre swam across the bay to the Iwahig Penal Colony. The distance was about five miles, but battling the current in the bay, some had to swim farther. They were naked and exhausted, weak and delirious. Army Private First Class Eugene Nielsen had been shot twice and was badly cut up. Swimming “somewhere around midway or beyond,” Marine Sergeant Rufus Smith had been bitten by a shark on his arm and shoulder, but he managed to get “loose from him.” Running into an old fish trap, Smith rested briefly, avoiding a Japanese patrol boat, and then continued his swim across the bay. Albert Pacheco and Edwin Petry had hidden in a cave. Petry later reported, “The crabs ate on us pretty good down there.” When the high tide forced them out, they too swam the bay.

Reaching the far shore, they stumbled through the swamp. Nielsen ran across a Filipino wielding a bolo knife, who offered him water. Nielsen told him, “I think I am the only one alive from the Palawan prison camp.” The man replied, “You have friends here.” The Filipino led him to a jungle hideout used by local guerrillas.

When Nielsen got to the hideout, he discovered that the guerrilla group had already located Pacheco and Petry. Over the course of the next few days they located a couple more Americans. Glenn McDole made the swim after three days of hiding; exhausted, he had been clinging to a fish trap in the bay until he was picked up by a sympathetic fisherman who called, “Hey, Joe, you a POW?” McDole answered, “I was, but no longer.”

After swimming the bay, Smith rested on the beach for hours hoping to regain his strength before continuing inland. Starting out, he “stumbled and fell a lot, [and] tore a lot of skin off me.” He spotted a shack on the side of the mountain near the boundary of the Iwahig Penal Colony, and he worked his way to it, figuring that he would “find some friends there.” He encountered Filipinos and noted, “Six of them got together, and they convinced me they were friendly.” He recalled that he started to relax after one of them pulled a .45 caliber pistol and then pitched it to him. They also fed him, treated his wounds, and got him clothes, hospital pajamas, to wear.

The guerrillas belonged to the Palawan Special Battalion. Guerrilla organizations in the province initially formed in 1942 when the Japanese landed after the fall of Corregidor in May 1942. The Japanese did not occupy the entire island and, instead, established garrisons at Puerto Princesa and in the villages along the provincial highway. The Japanese pattern was to control the towns and send out patrols to other parts of the province on foot and by boat, often during harvest to seize rice.

In response to the arrival of Japanese troops, the lightly-armed Philippine Constabulary in the province dispersed to the hills and began to organize, initially in a company of about 80 riflemen. Other units arose during the occupation ranging from miners armed with clubs, pistols, and makeshift grenades to a group near Puerto Princesa led by a Philippine Commonwealth Army Reserve officer who was also the former provincial governor. At first there was a mixed degree of cooperation between the groups. Then, in late 1942, General Douglas MacArthur’s General Headquarters (GHQ), Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) tasked the various guerrilla elements to fuse, becoming part of the Sixth Military District located on Panay, and “to build an intelligence net.” Then in 1943, the guerrillas on Palawan were consolidated and reorganized in 1943 as the Palawan Special Battalion, part of the 65^th Infantry Regiment, Sixth Military District.

The Sixth Military District gave the battalion two major missions. The first was intelligence gathering to “give us fresh, accurate and fast enemy information.” To do so, the battalion was tasked to organize operatives in different parts of Palawan Province, inducting them into the Army just like its other enlisted men. The second mission was to organize a rifle battalion, calling to arms all available enlisted men and reservists and deploying them to cover important towns.

With new direction, and to meet the organizational requirements, the Palawan Special Battalion grew quickly. In September 1943, the battalion strength was 31 officers and 268 enlisted men. By late 1944, the battalion under the command of Major Pablo P. Muyco consisted of 57 officers and 1058 enlisted men. The Palawan Special Battalion was organized into a battalion headquarters, four geographically oriented infantry companies, and supporting medical, transportation, signal, boat, and military police elements more typically associated with a regiment. The guerrillas, whether recruited by or inducted into the battalion, were considered members of the Philippine Army, serving with the Armed forces of the United States. They were paid in what was considered to be guerrilla or emergency currency.