These guys are money, as many of you know. We are so fortunate and privileged to be associated with them. Tonight, we welcome our two guests. Westra,lls, and kayla of the Minnesota West Community and technical college, the coauthors of great wartime escapes and rescues. Ill start by saying they had me in grade school. I was a fourthgrader when hollywood released the great escape, starring Steve Mcqueen and james garner, richard. And borough, and charles bronson, among others. It quickly became a tv staple all of the guys in my class fell in martinsburg, missouri fell in love with it. We played it out in recess. All of us wanted to be mcqueen. I think i ended up with the attenborough role. Get executed at the end of the movie. Of course, mcqueen survives. What we didnt realize then and what we probably didnt care about was that the movie was based on a true story, the escape of 76 allied soldiers and in 1944. From germany the film pretty much gave us the reallife tragic ending to that s
One of the most daring rescue missions ever accomplished by U.S. Special Forces took place on Jan. 30, 1945, as the 6th Ranger Battalion freed hundreds of POWs held by the Japanese.
As General Douglas MacArthur’s campaign on Luzon was underway, news of the Palawan massacre produced a call to action to save thousands of Allied POWs and civilian internees from a similar fate. With the extraordinary assistance of Filipino guerrillas, four daring raids were launched behind Japanese lines to liberate those camps.
In conjunction with our last article about the Great Raid at Cabanatuan last year, here is a comprehensive historical read to commemorate the most successful POW rescue mission in U.S. military history. At this moment, a historic brotherhood was born.