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American Guerrilla - The Forgotten Heroics of Russell W. Volckmann-the Man Who Escaped from Bataan, Raised a Filipino Army Against the Japanese, and Became the True "Father" of Army Special Forces (Paperback)
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American Guerrilla - The Forgotten Heroics of Russell W. Volckmann-the Man Who Escaped from Bataan, Raised a Filipino Army Against the Japanese, and Became the True "Father" of Army Special Forces (Paperback)
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List price R411
Loot Price R333
Discovery Miles 3 330
You Save R78 (19%)
Expected to ship within 9 - 15 working days
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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 over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a
guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing over 50,000 enemy
soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with
MacArthur's HQ 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 ETO. 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 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 U.S. 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 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.
General
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