Monday, October 27 at 3 a.m. ET
Hosted by Oliver North
On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was bombed and America found itself at war with a tenacious new enemy: Japan. Within hours, the Japanese also attacked the Philippines, virtually wiping out the entire air force. In March of 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered a reluctant General Douglas MacArthur to retreat from his bunker on Corregidor to Australia. He left some 76,000 American and Filipino troops to fend for themselves. Upon his arrival, MacArthur vowed, “I shall return.”
As you will see in this thrilling episode of “War Stories with Oliver North,” true American and Filipino heroes emerged during the fight against the Japanese. Oliver North takes you deep inside the dungeons of Fort Santiago in the capital city of Manila, where “Miss U” aka Margaret Utinsky, a nurse turned Allied spy, was jailed. She risked her life to smuggle supplies inside Cabanatuan, the brutal POW camp.
North interviews Colonel Ed Ramsey, a self-made guerilla leader who escaped the surrender on the Bataan Peninsula and avoided the grueling march to Camp O’Donnell. Ramsey commanded a guerilla force of nearly 40,000 men. You’ll meet Fernando Apostol, a Filipino eager to join in the fight, and tank gunner John Hencke, who helped to liberate nearly 4,000 prisoners at Santo Tomas University.
On “A-day,” October 20, 1944, MacArthur and troops from General Walter Krueger's Sixth Army landed on Leyte after a successful two-year South Pacific “island hopping” campaign. North also interviews Army Colonel Robert Nett, who received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Leyte.
Fearing a massacre might take place in the Cabanatuan POW camp, General Walter Krueger ordered Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci to plan a risky rescue mission. You’ll go behind the walls of the Cabanatuan POW camp where Mucci’s Rangers pulled off a daring nighttime raid behind enemy lines.
The Philippines were declared secure in July of 1945. General Douglas MacArthur had kept his promise. The service and sacrifice of the Filipino people and the bond they forged with the American and Allied forces never wavered. The close alliance still works today in the global War on Terror.
Staff for this episode:
Executive Producer: Pamela K. Browne
Produced and written by: Steven Tierney
Editor: Chris Crater
Production Assistant: Christina Diaz
Designer: Yong Kim
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