Post by Karl Welteke on Oct 9, 2023 13:53:48 GMT 8
Platero, a Great Raid Landmark
Like many people I know about the famous Great Raid, the rescue of the POWs from Cabanatuan on the 30th Jan. 1945. The village of Platero was where the Raiders and their partners staged the rescue from. I wanted to see it, went there, took these pictures and make this presentation. Some pictures are from the book Ghost Soldiers and Wikipedia. The picture descriptions have comments from a gone US Military webpage.
For this forum presentation I chose these 12 images. If you are interested I posted 28 images in this Photobucket album:
app.photobucket.com/u/PI-Sailor/a/8eee0422-0fa9-4371-95ba-ef220ce4288d?field=TITLE&desc=asc
When the album opens, click on the first picture or the one you would like to view, then click the icon “i” and that will open the title and description of the image or images.
-#00 to #02 images motivated me to make this trip.
Here is a paragraph copy of the gone military website: The Rangers entered Platero at dusk and were met by the town's inhabitants, who greeted them with a choral welcome and a sumptuous meal. While most of the column was resting, planning and reconnaissance continued. Mucci's officers and noncommissioned officers worked with Filipinos to convert a one-¬story wooden building into an emergency hospital while the Alamo Scouts and guerrillas completed their reconnaissance, verified maps and aerial photographs, and selected provisional firing positions.
00 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
00a Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
01 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
0 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
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-#03 and #04 are two Google Earth maps of Platero and the greater area. Note, on #image #03, the Google Earth map, I underlined relevant locations of the Great Raid. Also I learned later that the location: “Balancarin” does not exist and it is really the barrio Balingkare Sur I’ll be looking for in my next presentation. I wanted to get a feel of crossing the Pampanga river and that is why I wanted to walk to the river.
03 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
04 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
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-#05 to #12 images are a round of pictures, right to left, (counter clock wise) from a pile of gravel next to the Pampanga River where the Raiders may have crossed.
Here is a paragraph copy of the gone military website: On the first leg of its march to the objective, the column advanced along a well concealed, narrow dirt trail that cut through tall grass and bamboo. After marching a half mile, the force reached the Pampanga River and split into three elements. Pajota and Joson led their men across the river and headed toward their blocking positions, while Mucci led the main body across the river and toward the compound. Although Mucci's aerial photograph showed only short grass, rice paddies, and shallow ponds covering the two miles between the river and the objective, high grass covered almost half the distance and gave the Rangers concealment to within about a mile of the compound. It was 1800 and twilight when Mucci's force reached the far side of the grassy area. Stretching before them to the south for more than a mile lay a treeless, shrub-less plain of rice paddies and ponds. Only a single nipa hut a mile ahead broke the flatness of the horizon.
05 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
07 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
08 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
-#13 to #19 images are of people of Platero, the east end where I had parked. They were very friendly and did not know how much their elders in WWII helped in this operation.
Here are 2 paragraphs copied of the gone military website: Most of the Rangers and liberated POWs were at or approaching the Pampanga River by 2030, forty ¬five minutes after the raid began. All men except those who were at the roadblocks or on other security missions were across the river by 2045, and Prince fired the flare to signal Joson and Pajota to withdraw. Joson withdrew immediately, sending half his men to provide security around Platero, the first barrio Mucci's column would pass through on its march to friendly lines. The other half of Joson's men would provide flank security for the column when it left Platero. Pajota was unable to withdraw when Prince gave the signal because his men were still battling the Japanese on Cabu Creek. Pajota's fight continued until shortly after 2200 when the exhausted Japanese ended their attack. His guerrillas had virtually destroyed a Japanese battalion without suffering any fatalities or serious wounds. They then withdrew by marching around the battlefield in a southeasterly direction and established themselves as a rear guard on the Pampanga to protect Mucci's column from pursuit.
As successful as the infiltration and raid had been, the Rangers' mission would not be fully accomplished until they safely brought the liberated POWs to friendly lines. All means were taken to assure their safe deliverance. Carabao carts that had been requisitioned from local civilians were awaiting the POWs on the south bank of the Pampanga River. The column's first stop was in Platero, where it reorganized and ate. There, guerrilla doctor Carlos Layug treated the sick and wounded. Food and water were provided by local people, and the hospitality and concern the Filipinos displayed in Platero would be shown again by other civilians in other barrios during the remainder of the return march. Those ex¬ POWs who were able to walk went under Ranger escort to Balincarin as soon as they could be assembled. The first of them left Platero at 2100.
13 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
14 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
17 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
18 Platero, The Great Raid Landmark
-#20 to #23 images are from Platero near the Barangay Hall. I went there to find out about the village Balincarin. All the written materials say that Capt. Dr. Fisher died in Balincarin Village. But the people I asked were not able to tell me, they did not know that village.
Here is a paragraph copy of the gone military website: What little enemy resistance still remained twelve minutes after the attack began dwindled to a few scattered shots, and the Rangers began leading the first POWs from the compound. Unfortunately, during this phase of the operation, the Rangers suffered their first casualties when a Japanese light mortar fired three rounds toward the front gate and wounded six men. Alamo Scout Rounsaville and battalion surgeon Captain James C. Fisher were among the casualties. Fisher would die before he reached friendly lines.
The school is named after one of the Guerrilla Leaders, who also may have been the first post war Governor of Nueva Ecija.