{"id":12099,"date":"2016-02-19T21:53:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T03:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12099"},"modified":"2016-02-19T21:53:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T03:53:28","slug":"the-bad-ass-files-donald-blackburn-unconventional-warrior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/19\/the-bad-ass-files-donald-blackburn-unconventional-warrior\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bad-Ass Files: Donald Blackburn, Unconventional Warrior"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blackburn\"<\/h1>\n

\u201cWith a regiment of nearly 5,000 guerrillas at his back, Blackburn began a campaign that systematically destroyed the Japanese 14th Army within the Cagayan Valley.\u201d<\/em><\/h3>\n

THE FIRES ON<\/strong> Bataan<\/a> burned with a primitive fury on the evening of April 9, 1942, illuminating the white flags of surrender against the nighttime sky.<\/p>\n

Woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and ill-equipped, the battered remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the wrath of the Rising Sun. Yet among the chaos and devastation of the American defeat, U.S. Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn<\/a>\u00a0refused to lay down his arms.<\/p>\n

Together with fellow captain Russell Volckmann<\/a>, he escaped into the mountainous jungles of North Luzon. The two soon raised a private army of over 22,000 men against the Japanese.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlackburn\u2019s Headhunters\u201d<\/h2>\n

The Cagayan campaign received a boost in 1944 with the arrival of the Sixth U.S. Army<\/a>. A composite unit known as Task Force Baker (consisting of elements from the 6th Ranger Battalion<\/a> and the\u00a0510th Engineers<\/a>) rendezvoused with Blackburn\u2019s men in June 1945 and together the two forces cleared the Japanese from Aparri<\/a>, the largest enemy-held seaport on the Luzon.With a regiment of nearly 5,000 guerrillas to start with, Blackburn began a campaign that systematically destroyed the Japanese 14th Army<\/a>\u00a0within the Cagayan Valley<\/a>. He launched his insurgency by eliminating Japanese spies in the towns along the Cagayan River. With the enemy\u2019s \u201cfifth column\u201d neutralized, his growing force mounted raids on Japanese garrisons, supply depots, and fuel dumps throughout the region.<\/p>\n

As the Pacific War drew to a close, the Sixth transferred its authority over the island to the Eighth Army<\/a>. Blackburn\u2019s Headhunters, as they became known, were given one final mission. By late summer 1945, the Japanese in North Luzon were in disarray. Desperate to make a last stand, a small Japanese force under generals\u00a0Kizo Mikami\u00a0and Yutaka Marauka built a defensive perimeter around the town of Mayayao<\/a>. Eighth Army\u2019s XIV Corps<\/a> feared that the contingent would disrupt the U.S. 6th Division\u2019s supply lines. Blackburn was ordered to wipe out the enemy.<\/p>\n

From July 15 until Aug. 9, 1945, under the cover of mortar attacks and P-38 Lighting<\/a> air strikes, Blackburn\u2019s men stormed the Japanese redoubts and pacified their defenses. A few days later, he received the greatest news he\u2019d heard in four years: Japan had surrendered; the war was over. While discussing terms of surrender with Blackburn\u2019s headquarters, Mikami\u2019s chief of staff produced a map of Japanese forces in the Cagayan Valley. A red circle had been drawn around the location of Blackburn\u2019s own HQ. But if the Japanese knew where the American-Filipino army was located, why didn\u2019t they attack it? \u201cToo many guerrillas,\u201d the enemy officer replied. Based on the frequency and ferocity of the guerrilla raids, Mikami estimated that Blackburn must have had at least 10,000 fighters under his command. \u201cI never had more than two battalions (about 3,000 men total) at one time,\u201d he revealed. The enemy officer was speechless.<\/p>\n

Read the Remainder at Military History Now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWith a regiment of nearly 5,000 guerrillas at his back, Blackburn began a campaign that systematically destroyed the Japanese 14th Army within the Cagayan Valley.\u201d THE FIRES ON Bataan burned with a primitive fury on the evening of April 9, 1942, illuminating the white flags of surrender against the nighttime sky. Woefully outnumbered, outgunned, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2280,4569,2770,1583,475,1286,4418,1898,1899],"tags":[750,3018,4727,259,3823,2742,3122],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}