John D. Lukacs, in his book ‘Escape from Davao’ (2010), ten American prisoners of war (POWs) and two Filipino convicts from the Davao Penal Colony recorded ‘the most daring prison break of the Paci…
John D. Lukacs, in his book ‘Escape from Davao’ , ten American prisoners of war and two Filipino convicts from the Davao Penal Colony recorded ‘the most daring prison break of the Pacific War’ on April 4, 1943.
It was the bonds of camaraderie and trust between the American POWs and the Filipino convicts that eventually led to the hatching of a plan to breach the fortress-like security of the colony. On April 4, 1943, Sunday, ten U.S. POWs and two Filipinos executed the escape plan. Against the odds and facing the prospect of crossing swamps that hosted crocodiles, the group, despite a few risky hitches, pursued the idea after they had slipped away from the sight of Japanese sentries.
Of the eight Americans cited in Lukacs’ account, seven of them were spirited out of Mindanao for Australia, the headquarters of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, by submarine. Except for 2nd Lt. Leo Boelens who died in Japanese hands in January 1944, and Capt. William Edwin Dyess, who perished in a California plane crash in December 1943, and the other escapees survived the war. Benigno de la Cruz and Victorio Jumarong, the Filipinos who helped in the escape as chaperons, also survived.
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