A main selection of the Military Book Club and a selection of the History Book Club With his parting words, “I shall return,” General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of more than 22,000 men. For the next … men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing more than 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur’s headquarters in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.
This book establishes how Volckmann’s leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesize the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita’s forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in “blind” during their counter-invasion, reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would undoubtedly have cost more lives, materiel, and potentially stalled the pace of the entire Pacific War.
Second, this book establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine and the true “Father” of Army Special Forces—a title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank of the European Theater of Operations. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two army field manuals: Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, though today few realize he was their author. Together, they became the US Army’s first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to the army chief of staff, Volckmann outlined the concept for Army Special Forces. At a time when US military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army’s first special operations unit—the 10th Special Forces Group.
Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, his name absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and in much of the Army Special Forces literature. Yet as modest, even secretive, as Volckmann was during his career, it is difficult to imagine a man whose heroic initiative had more impact on World War II. This long overdue book not only chronicles the dramatic military exploits of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine.
Mike Guardia, currently an officer in the US 1st Armored Division is also author of Shadow Commander, about the career of Donald Blackburn, and an upcoming biography of Hal Moore.
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A must read for anyone affiliated with Special Forces. Volckman, maybe more so than Aaron Banks, can be considered the doctrinal father of current Special Forces. Along with Never So Few, this book covers the real way a guerilla war is conducted. Highly recommended.
Very well written story of survival as a guerilla fighter in the Philippines.
A very interesting look at a mostly forgotten officer who worked under very challenging conditions behind the lines during rhe Pacific during WW2. Escaping during the surrender of the Army in the Phillipines as ayoung Captain, he went on to organize a guerilla force of over 20 thousand and went on to work on the early development of the Army’s Special Forces. As a young lieutenant when he was a Colonel still on active duty, I would have lived to share drink with him at the O’club.
Useful info for people interested in the subject.
Not a tremendously long book, this book does do an excellent job of covering the actions of Captain (and eventually General) Russell W. Volkmann in waging guerrilla warfare against the Japanese in Northern Luzon and his role in the eventual establishment of the US Army Special Forces. Well done.
A disappointing history because it focuses mainly on guerrilla organizational activities in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation and tells the reader almost nothing of how and why they succeeded in disrupting the Japs. Also, almost a third of the text deals with events that occurred after the war was over. Two little-known facts that did emerge were that a number of the soldiers who escaped from Bataan preferred to hide out in the mountains and simply wait for the American return; and, how easily turncoats and fifth columnists who aided the Japs were able to change course after the Japanese defeat and convince people that many of the guerrillas were war criminals
True story of a soldier fighting the Japanese in the jungles of the Philippines in WWII. Great book for WWII buffs.
Author Mike Guardia makes some interesting claims about the focal character, Russell Volckmann, but the book does not deliver on these claims. Over half of the book is given to Volckmann’s escape from Bataan and taking over the command of the guerrilla action in north Luzon. Discussion focuses on his organizational decisions and proceeds, skipping months at a time, until he is reunited with his superiors when the U.S. invaded north Luzon. No sense of guerrilla combat operations is discussed until after halfway into into the book. Now the reader realizes that the author has developed his material topically. Next comes a chapter on combat which is actually a general description of guerrilla maneuvers. Abruptly the discussion of combat is done and the author moves on to Volckmann’s post-WWII career. The author claims that Volckmann led an organization that destroyed 50,000 enemy soldiers and led to the surrender of Yamashita, the tiger of Malay. This should be an amazing story. Nevertheless, we do not get a sense of the terror or dread that the Japanese must have had of Volckmann or why Yamashita offered to surrender to Volckmann. In this year, I also have read Peter Fitzsimmon’s book on Nancy Wake, and Sarah Helm’s book on Ravensbrück. Both books handled difficult topics to research so long after the events. Both are great, though imperfect, five-star reads. This work needs help with using the compass. “Itogon” is repeatedly spelled as “Igoten.” Perhaps Volckmann had it wrong, but we are not told. With so many places names, the book needs its own set of maps to show the progress of action. Finally, the book needs to rebuild combat operations and show what these deadly guerrillas did. Instead the author merely provides the standing orders Volckmann gave them. Attempting to account for the 50,000 soldiers Yamashita lost would really light up this book. If Russell Volckmann accomplished what the author says he did, he should have a book and a movie to raise him to the level of Major Richard Winters of Band of Brothers. Volckmann’s story should be that impressive. This work, however, merits two stars for not delivering the acclaim that Volckmann deserved.
I was based on Luzon in the ‘80s and was familiar with the “battleground.” Great history and very informative.