A DIFFERENT TIME, A DIFFERENT WAR
Daily Journal, Park Hills, MO/Published Aug 15, 2005
Editors Note: This is the first of a four-part series about the role
Francis R. Schilli, formerly of Farmington, played in one of World War II's most daring
missions. The 6th Ranger Raid on Cabanatuan has been the subject of several books and is
now the subject of a new movie, "The Great Raid." This series of articles were
first published in the Daily Journal in March of 2003 and were written by the late Joe
Layden
In January of 1945 Francis Schilli, a farm boy from Ste. Genevieve County, found himself
in the steaming rain forest of the Philippines. He had enlisted in the Army in September
of 1940. This was more than a year before the outbreak of war.
It was a different time ... a different war but any discussion of "Special Ops"
brings memories flooding back for Schilli who was part of a daring special operation of
World War II. It was an operation so important, General Douglas MacArthur would say at the
time, "No incident in this war has given me greater pleasure."
Schilli's outfit had started as mule skinners called 98th Field Artillery Battalion,
Pack." The mules just didn't work out in the jungle and rain forest. The trucks, like
6x6s, could move better there than the mules, so they disbanded that outfit," Schilli
said.
Seated in the visitor's room at St. Francois Manor on Old Jackson Road in Farmington where
he now lives, he recounted a story of men in war. (Schilli is now a resident of a nursing
home in Perryville.)
By January 1945 the former Pack Battalion had been training for more than a year as a
Ranger group patterned after the British Commandos. Led by a rock-hard Lt. Colonel named
Henry Mucci, they now proudly carried the title of the 6th Ranger Battalion.
Mucci and the men had been itching for a fight. Mucci once sent a message to headquarters
that said, "Here we are with the g----- bullets and no Japs." So it is no wonder
when called to 6th Army headquarters by Commanding General Walter Kurger, Mucci jumped at
the chance for a real mission.
******The Mission******
That mission was to travel almost 33 miles in four days behind Japanese lines. They were
to bring back alive more than 500 prisoners of war held in a hellish camp deep in the
jungles and rice paddies of Luzon. Among these POWs, barely able to hold onto life, were
some of the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March, men who had been captured
in 1942 on Bataan and Corregidor.
Escapees from other Japanese POW camps had described massacres in those camps. American
officials became convinced that as their drive to take back the Philippines moved forward,
the men held by the Japanese faced a certain death.
Schilli remembers the day Mucci addressed his men. "He told us where we were going.
He said it would have to be secret. We could not tell anyone about it. Then he told us he
would not force anyone to go. He asked for a show of hands of the men who would be a part
of it," Schilli said.
"Every hand in the place went up including mine," Schilli added with a clear
sense of pride.
"Even when Mucci told the married men that they really did not have to go, not one
man backed out," he added.
Mucci left his men that day by saying, "One other thing, there'll be no atheists on
this trip. I want you to swear an oath before God. Swear that you'll die fighting rather
than let any harm come to those prisoners."
Why would anyone volunteer for a mission so clearly filled with danger in every step?
To men like Francis Schilli the answer is easy. "I was there to serve my country and
do my duty. These men had suffered a long time at the hands of the Japanese. It was our
duty to our country to free them!"
Tuesday: PART II The MARCH.
Editor's Note: There have been several books written on the raid. The most recent are
"Ghost Soldiers" by Hampton Sides published by Anchor Books; "The Great
Raid on Cabanatuan: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor", by William
B. Breuer, published by Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated. Both of these have passages
that refer to the actions of Francis R. Schilli. In addition there is "Raid on
Cabanatuan" by Forrest Bryant Johnson, published by A Thousand Autumns Pr. There is
also a movie in the works titled "The Great Raid" that was released this
weekend. There is no one Web site devoted to the raid, but there are several that will be
found in a search for "raid on Cabanatuan" by Forrest Bryant Johnson, published
by A Thousand Autumns Pr. There is also a movie in the works titled "The Great
Raid" that was released this weekend. There is no one Web site devoted to the raid,
but there are several that will be found in a search for "raid on Cabanatuan"
that have information on the event.
Man Played a Role in 'The Great Raid'
Daily Journal, Park Hills, MO/Published Aug 16, 2005
Editor's Note: This is the second in a four-part series about the role
Francis R. Schilli, formerly of Farmington, played in one of World War II's most daring
missions. The 6th Ranger Raid on Cabanatuan has been the subject of several books and is
now the subject of the movie "The Great Raid". Their mission: Bring back alive
500 prisoners of war. This series of articles was first published in the Daily Journal in
March of 2003 and was written by the late Joe Layden.
Francis R. Schilli and 120 of his fellow 6th Rangers stepped off on their mission at 2
p.m. on Jan. 28, 1945, into the 100 degree heat with 90 percent humidity heading for a
fight at a place called Cabanatuan (KA-ba-na-TWAHN) Camp in the northern part of the
island of Luzon.
Their mission was to travel almost 33 miles in four days behind Japanese lines. They were
to bring back alive more than 500 prisoners of war stuck in a prison camp deep in the
jungles and rice paddies of Luzon.
The rangers were lead by Lt. Col. Henry Mucci and were pledged to "die fighting
rather than let any harm come to the POWs.
It was hard going. They had to drink a lot of water to stave off dehydration in the
tropical heat. They ate K-rations and carried with them some chocolate bars to give the
prisoners in the camp. They formed a single line that stretched back 100 yards.
Looking at a photo of the men crossing a river, Schilli who in 2003 lived in St. Francois
Manor on Old Jackson Road in Farmington, pointed to the line of men and said, "I'm in
there somewhere but I have no idea where. I do remember crossing that river. We were
worried about being out in the open like that."
The river crossing was a major concern to Mucci and the other officers of the battalion.
It meant that men were out in the open with little cover should they be attacked. A single
lone observation plane could doom the entire mission.
The route was difficult. If they were not in the forest they were making their way through
muddy rice fields. Mucci felt staying off the roads reduced the chance they would be
discovered.
Dressed in dull green and soft caps, the men carried weapon of their choice along with two
bandoleers of ammo, some grenades and a knife.
During the march the men encountered many events that could have doomed the mission. There
were the over-friendly Filipinos who Mucci was sure would give away their position. There
were also barking dogs warning the locals that the men were coming.
"The people (Filipinos) were very nice to us. They gave us food and water and even
found places for us to stay. But Mucci was always afraid that all this attention would
attract the Japanese or some of the pro-Japanese natives who would lead the enemy to us.
It didn't happen that way but the Colonel was worried," Schilli said.
Mucci was so concerned that he told the Filipinos to stay away from the troops and stop
being so friendly. When the dogs came barking, the Filipinos put them in canvass bags to
quiet them.
"We trusted him (Mucci) and Captain (Robert) Prince. They were both good men and did
a good job for us." Prince would serve as the assault commander during the raid.
"I do remember one thing that happen on the way there.
"We were walking along and suddenly we heard a sound like 'fezzzzzzes' and then a
'blop' We hit the dirt. The same sound came again. We thought they had spotted us and
these were incoming rounds. When nothing exploded, I got up and started looking around and
there ... about five feet from where I hit the dirt ... was a dead bird. Several had
fallen in the area. They were large birds ... I don't know what kind.
"I read not long ago that even today the Army can't explain where those birds came
from or what caused them to die.
"We really thought that was the start of it," Schilli said, remembering it with
a bit of a smile.
Even when they got to the final stop before the raid, they faced yet another a major snag.
It seems that several thousand Japanese troops had moved into the area of Cabanatuan Camp
to spend the night. A band of guerrillas had been working in the area. The Japanese had
been moving up troops to fight the advancing Americans. Many of them had been using the
camp for a base. Luckily for the Rangers, the major force that moved into the area, moved
out the next day.
It was here the Rangers teamed up with a group of Filipino guerrillas. These guerrillas
played a vital role in the mission, including holding off a sizable Japanese force while
the Rangers took the POWs and headed back. These brave men would hold a bridge and a road
that blocked the Japanese from bringing in tanks and troops to destroy the raiders.
So here they were ... 121 Americans and maybe 100 Filipino guerrillas, 33 miles behind
enemy lines with little contact and no support from the outside world. In the 10 miles
around them there were thousands of Japanese troops moving to fight an advancing American
force. But the Rangers had made it, and the enemy had no idea they were there.
Wednesday : Part III THE RAID
Rangers Prepare for Most Daring Rescue of World War II
Daily Journal, Park Hills, MO/Published Aug 17, 2005
Editor's Note: This is the third in a four-part series about the role
Francis R. Schilli, formerly of Farmington played in one of World War II's most daring
missions. The 6th Ranger Raid on Cabanatuan has been the subject of several books and now
a newly released film "The Great Raid. This series of articles was first published in
the Daily Journal in March of 2003 and was written by the late Joe Layden.
******The Raid*******
It was time for the 6th Rangers to move, Commanding office Lt. Col. Henry Mucci decided.
The sun had set. The calm of the light blue tropical sky belied the violence that was
about to rip through rice fields just outside the Philippine city of Cabanatuan on the
island of Luzon.
The 6th Rangers were about to pull off the most daring rescue of World War II. There, in
the POW camp they were moving to attack, were more than 500 men who had survived the
Bataan Death March only to end up for three years in a hell called Cabanatuan Camp.
Francis R. Schilli, who just two years before had been an Army mule skinner, was in the
30-member Company F about to play a key role in the raid. Company F was sent to cover the
back of the prison camp along the east fence. "We went in through some high congo
grass ... it was sharp and tough and would cut you just like a knife. Then we moved under
a road and into a ditch alongside a road that ran on the side of the camp. The road was
used by the Japanese and the Filipino so they (the Japanese) were used to seeing movement.
The Ranger's Commanding office had one more trick in his bag. At the suggestion of a
Filipino guerrilla leader, the Colonel had arranged for a fly-over of American planes to
distract the guards while the Rangers moved into place for the attack.
"I remember seeing those planes. They were P-61. They were kind of funny looking and
as they flew over we just smiled at each other because we knew what they were doing,"
Schilli said.
"At one point we were near a guard tower and I looked up. There was one of the guards
leaning out of the tower looking down. He was so close I could see he had glasses on. I
would have shot him right there but they had told us not to make any disturbances. I guess
he didn't see us and we slipped on past him.
"There were two pillboxes at the back and we moved past them and took up positions at
the back of the camp. It took .... I'd say about an hour and a half to make our way back
there." Schilli said. The planes made their last pass and all was ready.
Schilli, looking out the window of the room in Farmington Manor, where he (lived at the
time of the interview) seemed to relive for a moment those minutes before the attack.
"I was looking through a fence like that one," he said as he viewed the scene
outside the window.
"I was looking into the building ... 35 to 40 feet away. They had the windows open. I
could see them (Japanese soldiers) talking and drinking. They were getting ready for bed
and some were playing games. They were just a few, 35 to 40, feet away."
It was up to Schilli's Company F. Lieutenant John Murphy to fire the first shot. Murf, as
he was known, "was just a few feet away from me. When he fired, we opened up and
riddled the buildings with all kinds of fire. Whenever we would get some fire back we
would open up in that direction and silence it.
"The buildings were on fire and you could see the Japanese against the light. It
didn't take long to put them down," he said.
While the fighting was going on, Captain Robert Prince and his men rushed in the front
gate shooting at the Japanese and at the same time running to get the Americans out of the
camp.
"I never got into the camp. Our job was to cover the rear because they did not want
any surprises while they were getting the prisoners out.
"I did talk to some of the guys after the raid and they said they had a hard time
convincing the prisoners that this was real and that they were now free," he said.
There are many accounts of the POWs refusing to go because they could not grasp who these
invaders were. The Rangers, not dressed nor carrying weapons used by the forces in 1942,
appeared to be strangers to the POWs. In addition, many of the POWs suffered from night
blindness.
One story tells of a POW refusing to go until he heard a voice with a Midwest accent.
"Where are you from," he asked a Ranger. "Oklahoma," came the answer.
"Oklahoma is good enough for me. Say give me a lift, I can't see a thing,"
shouted the POW as he now rushed to freedom.
With Schilli during the entire operation was his long-time buddy Roy Sweezy. The pair
would play another role in the battle.
A Japanese soldier had gotten to a knee mortar and starting firing it. The first shell hit
near the gate and wounded the company doctor. He would later die of those wounds. Several
other Americans were hit by flying shrapnel from the shell.
Schilli and Sweezy quickly moved into the area of the mortar and sent blasts of gun fire
toward the mortar position.
"We hit him right away and silenced the mortar," Schilli said.
The battle raged for a little more than a half hour. "They shot off a red flare and
it meant we were to pull out. I was fighting the rear guard and was about the last man to
leave the camp area," he said.
The Loss of a Friend
It was then the darkest part of the raid took place for Schilli.
"We ran down through the rice field and jumped into a ditch. It was about that deep
in mud and water," he said holding his hand about two feet off the floor.
"Someone yelled 'Where is Roy?' and I said 'He's right behind me!' "
"I looked around and saw him standing on the top of the ditch.
"I can still see him there," he said, as his mind flashed back nearly 58 years.
"There was shooting from behind us. We turned and fired back. We must have hit them
because it stopped. Roy and I stood up. Then a few feet away I saw the flash of a gun and
Roy fell.
"The fire came from one of our own men. He was nervous and I guess when we stood up
he just fired out of reaction. I was about a foot away from Sweezy when he was hit. It
could have been me.
"It was clear Roy was not going to live, but I made up my mind he was not going to
die without being baptized. The other guys agreed and I poured some water over his head
and said a prayer. The other guys said some prayers ... I don't know what faith they
were," Schilli, himself a devoted Catholic, remembered. You could see that even after
nearly six decades, the loss of his friend still hurt him deeply.
The others took off, but Schilli stayed with his friend not wanting to leave him there for
the Japanese. "There were a couple of Filipinos there. I asked them if they would get
him out of there and they said they would.
"That's the last time I saw him. I never knew what happened to him, that is until a
few years ago when I saw a photo of a grave stone there with his name on it in a cemetery.
I guess they kept their word and brought him out," Schilli said, still deeply
troubled, but with some closure knowing his buddy had come back.
Thursday, Part IV: The Return to Base
SCHILLI HELPED RELEASE PRISONERS IN 'THE GREAT RAID'
Daily Journal, Park Hills, MO/Published Aug 18, 2005
Editors Note: This is the fourth in a four-part series about the role
Francis R. Schilli, formally of Farmington, played in one of WWII most daring missions.
The 6th Ranger Raid on Cabanatuan has been the subject of several books and now a newly
released film "The Great Raid." This series of articles was first published in
the Daily Journal in March of 2003 and was written by the late Joe Layden.
The Return to Base
The loss of his friend had hurt Francis Schilli but he knew he must go on. He like the
other men in the 6th Rangers had sworn an oath to "fight to the death rather than let
any harm come to the prisoners."
No matter how much the former farm boy from Ste. Genevieve wanted to stay behind, he could
not. The raid had freed the POWs, now the job was to bring them home.
Spending that time with Roy Sweezy, his fallen buddy, meant Schilli was left behind.
"When I came out of that ditch I was lost for a time. I didn't have any idea where
the others had gone, but I knew to just keep moving. After a while I found them and we
started the trip out," he said, with a bit of a smile on his lips.
Once out of the camp, hundreds of Filipino farmers showed up with ox carts and loaded the
freed POWs on board for the trip back to safety. Many of the former prisons refused the
ride because they wanted to "walk to freedom!"
It took about 20 to 30 hours to get back to American lines. Returning was a somewhat
shorter trip. The 6th Army had taken another town a few miles closer to the convoy of
Rangers and former POWs. The line of men now stretched almost 600 yards along the trail.
The trip was somewhat uneventful ... that is as uneventful as a 33-mile trip with hundreds
of men deep behind enemy lines can be.
"There was one thing that happened, I remember," Schilli said.
"We were nearing the American lines when we came upon a village. We were stopped
there because the village was held by a group of pro-Japanese Filipinos guerrillas. They
were not going to let us through the village.
"After some time the colonel told them that either they let us all through or he was
going to call in the American artillery and 'This village will be leveled.'
"Well, they opened the road and we moved through," Schilli said.
Then with a quick smile he said, "A few years ago at a reunion I was talking with the
colonel and asked him if he would have called in the artillery. He told me it was all a
bluff. We didn't have artillery support because our radio wasn't working." Colonel
Mucci has since passed away.
Schilli didn't have much contact with the rescued POWs. "I was part of the group
providing protection around them. Our job was to make sure if there was an attack that it
did not reach them.
"I did see them. They were just skin and bones. It was hard to believe." he
said.
"I do remember a couple of times after we got back to base, a few of them came over
from the hospital to visit us. One was a Hawaiian who had been there (in the Philippines)
working. He came over one day. I was in a group he was talking to. I remember hearing him
tell some of stories about the camp," Schilli said.
If you ask Francis Schilli how he feels today about the raid he tells you, "I'm very
proud to have had a part in it. I am proud to have helped in the rescue of those men. I am
proud to have done my duty to my country."
His pride clearly shows when he is asked to sign one of the several books written about
the raid. "Sixth Ranger Francis R. Schilli," the autograph reads.
The raid was carried out with two Rangers being killed, the company doctor and Schilli's
buddy Roy Sweezy. Several wounded Rangers made it back and recovered at the base hospital.
Sixth Army commander General Walter Krueger later decorated all the Rangers with Lt. Col.
Mucci and Captain Prince receiving the Distinguished Service Cross. The other officers
were awarded the Silver Star and the enlisted men, the Bronze Star. A few of the Rangers
and Alamo scouts were sent back to the US to meet President Roosevelt, Chief of Staff Gen.
George Marshall, and made numerous speeches throughout the United States.
Returns Home
After the war Schilli left the Army in August of 1945 and returned to the Ste. Genevieve
area. He married and had four children. He moved to Farmington in 1965. Schilli operated
his own farm equipment repair business. "I worked in Ste. Genevieve, Farmington and
even in Fredericktown over the years," he said.
Like so many World War II veterans, time has taken its toll. Today (in 2003 when this
story was first written) at 86, he travels about the nursing home in a wheelchair. While
his hearing is reduced, his mind is still sharp. When he tells the story of the raid, he
is modest, yet you can sense the pride of the accomplishment he holds.
Schilli has attended several reunions of the group. "Each time there are fewer of us.
I lost one of my best friends recently. I'm not going to the next reunion. It is in
Michigan and that's a little too far for me now," he said with a tinge of sadness in
his voice.
Francis R. Schilli clearly fits to the mold of his generation. He was a common solider
who, like so many others, displayed uncommon courage. He refuses the title of
"Hero" saying, "We had a job to do and we did it. It was our duty." |
