Last man out : Glenn McDole, USMC, survivor of the Palawan massacre in World War II / Bob Wilbanks

Last man out : Glenn McDole, USMC, survivor of the Palawan massacre in World War II / Bob Wilbanks

McDole, Glenn.

Palawan Barracks (Concentration camp).

Palawan Massacre, Philippines, 1944.

Prisoners of war--Philippines--Biography.

Prisoners of war--United States--Biography.

World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Japanese.

Researched account by a retired journalist of the experiences of Glen McDole, a US Marine assigned to the 1st Separate Marine Battalion in Cavite. When the war broke out, he was in the Cavite Navy Yard, then sent to Los Baños, to guard American flying boats. He saw action in Corregidor and was on Fort Hughes (Caballo Island) when Corregidor was invaded by the Japanese. He became a prisoner of war and was sent to Palawan to build airfields for the Japanese.

One of the war’s worst atrocities took place in Palawan on December 14, 1944, when the prisoners of war detailed to work on the airfields were ordered into air raid shelters. The Japanese poured gasoline and set them on fire; of 150 American POWs, only 11 managed to escape. McDole was one of them, and he was assisted to freedom by Filipino guerrillas.

Wilbanks details the terrible incident and its aftermath, and also McDole’s testifying in Yokohama against his former guards. Ironically, none of the Japanese responsible for the atrocity were executed. Wilbanks tried to locate all eleven survivors, but was able to locate only four; most of the others had passed away or refused to talk about the massacre. A list of those killed is appended.

Wilbanks, Bob

Jefferson, NC : McFarland & Co., c2004

2004

23 x 16 cm.

Softbound

786418222

D 805.5 .P35 W55 2004

13832

ix, 169 p.

ill.