Raid At Cabanatuan
Prince was mainly involved with the planning of the raid. He had to hastily create a plan using a low level of intelligence of the area. Prince built his plan around his two best weapons; surprise and confusion. One of his primary concerns was the flatness of the countryside. He knew his Rangers would have to crawl through a long, open field on their bellies, right under the eyes of the Japanese guards. At the suggestion of Juan Pajota, a Filipino guerrilla, Lt. Col. Mucci arranged for the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) to have a P-61 Black Widow night fighter buzz the camp while the men made their way across the field. It proved to be the biggest factor in achieving the element of surprise.
The Raid at Cabanatuan was depicted in the 1945 film Back to Bataan and the 2005 film The Great Raid that featured actor James Franco playing Prince. Prince was personally responsible for the rescue of approximately 500+ 'Bataan Death March' survivors through his rescue plan and direct actions. The principles of this plan are still taught today at the United States Military Academy, the greatest successful rescue to date.
Read more about this topic: Robert Prince (captain)
Famous quotes containing the word raid:
“John Brown and Giuseppe Garibaldi were contemporaries not solely in the matter of time; their endeavors as liberators link their names where other likeness is absent; and the peaks of their careers were reached almost simultaneously: the Harper’s Ferry Raid occurred in 1859, the raid on Sicily in the following year. Both events, however differing in character, were equally quixotic.”
—John Cournos (1881–1956)