Battle Among the Clouds -- Overview

I am writing a script for a World War II historical fiction based on a little known but decisive Battle for Bessang Pass in the Philippines, Northern Luzon 1945. This is a revenge story. By 1945, the Filipino resistance, reinforced with American supplies and weaponry, was finally strong enough to make their Japanese tormentors and occupiers pay dearly for 4 years of brutal occupation. No where else in Asia was the resistance against the Japanese as fierce as in the Philippines, a forgotten story of which few Americans are aware.

I lived in the Philippines from 1963 to 1964 when memories of the war were still fresh in the memories of Filipinos. I was influenced by their stories of the Japanese occupation and resistance.

First here's some background for my script! The Battle for Bessang Pass in 1945 was fought by a joint American-Filipino led guerilla army, the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines - Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL), against the besieged forces Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. The battle for Bessang Pass, at 5,000 feet above sea level in the Cordillera mountains, is now commemorated in the Philippines as the Battle Among the Clouds. When finally won, the victory swung open the northern backdoor to Yamashita's defensive mountain fortress.

A Time magazine article entitled Volckmann's Guerrillas published in July 02, 1945 first reported on this secret war:

"Some 20,000 Japanese retreating up the end of northern Luzon in the Philippines were suddenly stabbed in the belly, tactically speaking, then kicked in the rear. Thirty-five miles behind the front lines a phantom U.S. force sprang on the town of Tuguegarao and, captured a major Japanese airfield. Next day another force appeared 50 miles behind this force, at the end of the Jap retreat line, to nab the final escape port of Aparri and its airfield.

On the front line the fighting was more conventional, with the U.S. 37th Division striking fast and hard along the Cagayan Valley, rolling the Japs back in front of it eight miles a day. But the forays into the Jap rear and middle were largely the work of a first-rate guerrilla outfit and its blue-eyed, sandy-haired commander."

Following the fall of Bataan in 1942, a Major Russell M. Volckmann escaped with several other soldiers the night before the start of the infamous Bataan Death March and made his way to the rugged Cordillera mountains of Northern Luzon where he formed the USAFIP-NL. With the return of American forces to Luzon in January 1945, Volkmann's division strength guerilla army graduated from hit-and-run raiders to a standing army capable of fighting pitched battles against Imperial Japanese forces. Volckmann's USAFIP-NL was commandeered and attached to the U.S. 6th Army by Lieutenant General Walter Krueger. Decidedly impressed with Volkmann and short on troops in the far Northern Luzon, Krueger ordered Volckmann and his USAFIP-NL to take the Japanese-held towns of Cervantez and Bontoc. But first taking these towns meant taking the heavily fortified Bessang Pass. These orders were to project USAFIP-NL into a fight of three months' duration among the craggy ridges and high peaks of the Cordillera mountains.

There is almost a parallel between the USAFIP-NL fight for Bessang Pass and the civil war movie story Glory about the black 54th Massachusetts regiment. Bessang Pass was the Filipino resistance shot at glory, but unlike the 54th Massachusetts regiment, the USAFIP-NL guerillas won their battle. Also there is some similarity between Volckmann and William Wallace in Brave Heart. Like Wallace, history reveals Volckmann as a morally complex individual, both ruthless and compassionate, and charismatic enough to attract men willing to die for him and a lightening rod for their moral outrage. But unlike William Wallace, Volckmann survived.

Bessang Pass, the Route

Battle Among the Clouds
Script: Bessang Pass, the Route -- First Draft

A jeep trundles over a rough, dirt road. Scrub jungle vegetation lines the side of the road. [Screen legend: Northern Luzon, Route 4, May 17 1945] In the jeep are three men. The camera zooms in succession on their faces, freezing their image briefly while legends identify them: Major George M. Barnet, United Stages Armed Forces in the Philippines-Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL), 121st Infantry Regimental Commander; U.S. Army Staff Officer O’Connell, Six Corp H.Q. observer; and the driver Segundo Vergara, United Stages Armed Forces in the Philippines-Northern Luzon (USAFIP-NL), 121st Infantry Intelligence Officer. Coming over a rise in the road, the site of dead Japanese soldiers stacked like cord wood along the side of the road greets them.

O’Connell

Stop the Jeep!

Vergara brings the jeep to an abrupt stop. The sound of buzzing flies drifts faintly from the pile of dead bodies.

O’Connell

Christ, why do your guys do that.

Barnet nods to Vergara

Vergara

Makes them easier to count. H.Q. wants accurate Jap kills.

Barnet

Monuments to the sheer joy of bloody revenge! Good for morale!

Vergara

These were stragglers trying to reach General Yamashita. It shows how bad their communications are. They walked right into us.

O’Connell

The great General Yamashita, the Tiger of Malaya, Supreme Japanese commander in the Philippines, now holed up in these mountains like an outlaw on the lam.

All three men look toward the looming mountains ahead.

Barnet

Yeh! The fortunes of war! However, Yamashita has a mountain fortress the old ‘Hole-in-the-Wall gang would envy, and Bessang pass is the back door.

O’Connell

Yamashita’s boxed in but we’re still going to have to dig him out yard by yard and our resources are stretched to the limit! It’s all part of his strategy—bog us down in the Philippines and buy time for Japan. His forces are divided into three major defensive positions, Bagio, Bontoc, and Bellette Pass. H.Q. calls it Yamashita’s defensive triangle. U.S. First Corp is attacking Bagio. With reinforcements arriving from Manila, Bagio should fall any day. General Krueger’s Sixth Corp is fighting the Japs for Ballette Pass. [Slaps Barnet on the sholder] And the USAFIP gets Bontoc. Krueger realizes there ain't no one else in Northern Luzon but Colonel Russel Volckman and his Filipino guerilla army available to take Bontoc.

Barnet

On behalf of the USAFIP, Honored [facitiously]! Unfortunately Bontoc is on the other side of Bessang Pass. Getting there is over half the battle. Well let’s go see how the posse’s doing.

Vergara

That’s the Ilocos range! The road gets rough from here!

O’Connell

Road? That’s what you call this goat track.

Barnet

Route 4. We call this section the horseshoe.

The road rises precipitously into the rugged mountains and heading east winds in an irregular horseshoe in a north to south arc. The camera pans across the towering terrain. Dominating the center of the horseshoe is Lamagan Ridge, rising from 1,000 feet to more than 5,000 feet in less than one mile. Vergara points out these features as the jeep bounces over the rutted, bolder-strewn road. The road follows a switchback around Yobu Ridge, a steep, vertical rise on North side of the road to over 4,500 feet. Around the bend, a crew Filipino soldiers with shovels and picks are clearing a land slide from the road. Vergara steers the jeep by on the right side with wheels inches from the edge of a cliff drop-off. Mountainous gorges drop steeply from the edge of the road.

Vergara

There are frequent landslides when it rains.

Barnet

Which is about every day.

O’Connell

The road must be a nightmare in the rain.

To the south, a 3 mile long Cadsu Ridge, rising from 4,500 to 6,000 feet at its peak, emerges briefly from the low, misty clouds sweeping the mountains. The steep slopes are covered with dense jungle. Guerilla soldiers appear out the mist wafting the ridge like ghost and wave from the ridge lines.

Barnet

[Shouting over the noise of the jeep] Our line stretches from Baracbac point to Cadsu Ridge [pointing as the camera pans across the landscape]. It’s taken us over a month to gain this ground. Now things get rough! Beyond Cadsu Ridge is Bessang Pass, at 5,000 feet. Bassang Pass runs through 5500 and 6000 ridge lines. The mountain sides are lousy with Jap caves, pill boxes, trenches, tunnels, and Jap artillery staring down our throats. They can dominate the whole damn country side from those ridges.

O’Connell

Sounds like your lines are already overextended. What if the Japanese counter attack.

Barnet

Without reinforcements, then we have problem. Of our five regiments, all the USAFIP has here is our 121st regiment. Our 66th is attached to U.S. First Corp in Bagio, the 15th is chasing General Araki all over Abra province, though Volckmann says we’re supposed to get a battalion of the 15th here any day. Every bit helps. The 11th is engaged at Appari and the Cagayan valley, and half the time we don’t know were the 14th is. The last time Volckmann went looking for the 14th commander Colonel Manriquez his plane nearly landed on a Jap garrison.

O’Connell

[Laughs] As soon as Bagio falls, you’ll have the 66th regiment back. What’s their motto?

Vergara

“Nowhere but Everywhere”

O’Connell

General Krueger’s H.Q. couldn’t believe the 66th’s Jap kills till they sent out a Ranger detach to personally check the reports. The Japs don’t dare move north up Highway 11 with those headhunter bastards on the loose. We’re betting Yamashita won’t be able to reinforce Bessang Pass before we can release the 66th back to Volkmann.

Barnet

Hope your right! We’ve already got our fill of Japs here.

O’Connell

I understand! What I heard was that the 121st is the USAFIP's most experienced regiment--formed by a crazy, dynamite-throwing mining operator Walter Cushing within days of the Japanese invasion in 1942.

Barnet

I don’t know about the most experienced. We’re certainly the oldest. Before the war, Cushing and I were both in the gold mining business together up in the mountains. When the Japs invaded, he formed the 121st from our miners and a group of cut off GIs and put us into action immediately.

O’Connell

McArthur’s HQ designated you the 121st.

Barnet

Right! Was never sure what it signified. The 121st meant something to McArthur’s HQ and it stuck. For a while, we reported to Lt. Colonel Horan and his 1st Provisional Guerilla Regiment, but when Corregidor fell in May 1942 and General Wainwright ordered the general surrender, Horan surrendered to the Japs—damn fool wasn’t much of a guerilla! Didn’t have the heart to go the distance.

O’Connell

Or maybe he was just a loyal soldier following orders.

Barnet

So court martial the rest of us for refusing to obey oders.

O’Connell

Water under the bridge! Things look different in retrospect. Now your heroes and damn valuable ones at that.

Barnet

Without Cushing none of us would be here. He was the heart and soul of 121st, and every Filipino native in these hills knew it. There was no stopping him! He was most tireless, hard ass bastard I've ever known; just swept the 121st along on a nine month rampage of bombings and ambushes against the Japs before they caught up with him. He was too reckless for his own good. Shot himself in the mouth rather than surrender, which really impressed the Jap bastards. After Cushing, I took over the 121st in 1943. Two Colonels, Arthur Nobel and Martin Moses, escapees from Bataan, arrived up here in the mountains, formed the USAFIP and wanted to bring the 121st into their organization. However, before that could happen, the colonels were captured in June 1943.

Vergara

They stopped for rest near a barrio and were betrayed by Filipino spies there! It was a bad year for the resistance.

Barnet

Unfortunately! The Japanese were spreading money around, and some of the locals found the temptation too much to resist. We eventually cured them of that temptation [laughs sardonically], but not until after we lost a lot of good leaders and men. For a while, the Japs had spies and collaborators everywhere. In some areas, we couldn’t send a native runner through without him being caught, tied to a pole like a pig, and carried to the Japs. After the two colonels, Volckmann assumed command of the USAFIP, and we merged the 121st with the USAFIP under his command in 1944.

Barnet

Segundo, stop the jeep before that next curve.

Muffled sound of small arms fire is audible.

Barnet

First Battalion is just round the bend. When the clouds cooperate, you can get a good view of Bessang pass area from there. We’ll walk from here. Loose the jeep, and it’s a long walk back to the coast.

A Filipino officer, Captain Peryam, approaches. Barnet greets him, shakes his hand and casually slaps him on the shoulder with less than strict military formality. “How are things going.”

Peryam

Right now, Jap fire is light but something’s up. There is troop movement on the the ridges. Vehicles are moving to the pass. We can hear them—caughing like sick bastards with that petrol rice alcohol mix they put in their trucks.

Barnet

Maybe they’ll start drinking it go blind. [Light chuckles] Any information from the Provisional Battalion.

Perayam

No! The last message we had, they were having radio problems. Battery was dying.

O’Connel

What are they using for a radio.

Barnet

An SCR-300 walkie-talkie. We started with two. If their’s is out, we’re down to one.

O’Connell

Same as the one on the jeep, range about 16 to 32 kilometers, but in these mountains who knows. Damn dry cells don’t take the humidity well. Where’s the Provisional Battalion.

Barnet

Behind Jap lines northeast of the pass. They’re our eyes and ears on the other side of the pass. Shit!

The four men move warily around the bend in the road. Paryam leads the way.

Parayam

Stay close to the cliff. From here on we’re more exposed.

On the hillside in front of them, they can see the USAFIP-NL front line. Men lay low in shallow fox holes or crouch behind rock outcrops.

Barnet

How do you like the view.

O’Connell

Not good cover. A well placed artillery barrage could wipe them off the side of the mountain.

Paryam suddenly stops. He listens, at first hearing something the others don’t hear. Then high pitched screams of men shouting from the ridge lines echoes across the mountain sides.

Parayam

Japs!

Seconds later the rumble of artillery fire reverberates from above. Explosions erupt everywhere. The Japs on the edge of the cliffs rain down machine gun fire and grenades from their pillboxes and trenches. Bullets tear over the heads of men, raking the ground around them. The abrupt change of events and magnitude of the fury and takes everyone by surprise.

Barnet

Fuck! We’re under attack. Take cover.

The front line soldiers immediately face a life and death dilemma as exploding rounds falling among them throw up clouds of dirt and stones into air: retreat to a safer position or stay put rather than get caught in the open. Their fox holes and cover, while marginally adequate against bullets and grenades, seem like little protection against the heavy artillery barrage. Across the line, men claw frantically at the dirt and gravel for better cover. Nothing in their meager arsenal is of any use against the attack. A mortar shell explodes very close to Barnet. Some men take their chances and crouch-run hopefully to more secure positions. Some are cut down in the attempt by Japanese fire, which now seems closer. Over all, they disappear from view in the billowing clouds of smoke and debree thrown up from the exploding rounds.

Vergara pushes O’Connel behind the Cliff face as shrapnel ricochets off a rock in front of his face. O’Connel crouches low.

O’Connel

Next time you bring me out here, I wanna be able walk, not crawl on my belly!

Barnet

Point taken! Our warning system broke down, and we’re out here with our asses exposed. No fucking clue they were reinforcing their position.

Barnet grabs Parayam by the sholder.

Barnet

Damn! There! Up in those rocks! We gotta get those men out of there. We can’t fight back against this. We’re moving back.

Barnet’s voice is drowned by the noise. He waves his arms and makes jerked hand jesters.

Parayam

Where are are we moving back to Sir?

Barnet

Lamagan Ridge behind us! Good cover! The Jap artillery can’t hit us with direct fire from there and they can’t move their heavier artillery from Bessang Pass after us.

Vergara

[Spits] Back to where we started. It’s taken us a whole stinking month to get this far.

Barnet waves his hand at the steep, rugged ridge line behind them, its 5,000 foot peak disappearing in the grey clouds.

Barnet

Get the jeep and O’Connel back to H.Q.

Vergara

No Sir! Request permission to stay. I don’t cut and run. Someone’s got to get the word to 1st battalion on Cadsu Ridge to pull back. 3rd Battalion on Langiatan Hill is gonna get cut off if they don’t move quick. O’Connel can take the jeep and make his own way back.

Barnet

Permission denied Damn it! You are an intelligence officer. We got runners for that. No one knows what’s goin’ on here. I want Volckmann to hear it from one his own people. Not just from O’Connel!

Barnet looks up at the clouds rolling down the mountains.

Barnet

Peryam will get the word out, we’re pulling back to Lamagan Ridge. Send runners to third and first battalion. We’re gonna be in clouds within an hour. Tell everyone to wait for the clouds before pulling back. That should give us the cover we need. Japs will be shooting blind.

Vergara

And the Japs the cover they need to bonzai attack us.

Barnet

Right! We’ll know they’re coming when the artillery fire lets up. So when we get our chance, we better move quick. That includes you Segundo and O’Connel. Parayam I’ll fire flares when its time. Go

Paryam dashes out from behind the cliff face. Rounds spit up dirt around him as he zig-zags at full run and then disappears through the smoke around a bend in the hill side. Vergara leans out from the cliff face and fires off a clip in a single burst from his Thompson submachine gun toward the Japanese lines in a vain effort to cover him.

Barnet

Hit the road you two. Keep going and don’t stop for shit.

Vergara shoulder slings his Thompson.

Vegara

Good luck Sir. I know we’ll get through this.

O’Connel

Your doing your damned best but your biting off more than you can chew. Take up defensive positions and hold tight till we can get you reinforcements. I’ll tell the brass you needed them yesterday.

The battle resounds over the hills and ridges, much of which Barnet can hear but cannot see, continues unabated. Booming explosions seem to come from every direction. Men in the forward positions cannot hold out. Rock by rock, they begin to fall back. A group of men appear from around the bend, breathing in deep gasps. Several men support others; two men carry/drag a third. Furious unbelieving rage and astonishment etched on their faces. No one has any idea what’s taking place anywhere except where they have been.

Barnet

All of you, listen! We’re not beat, no by a long shot. We go back to Lamagan Ridge. We’ll be safe there from the Jap shells. They stop us today, but tomorrow they pay. Take much more than few Jap shells to stop the brave USAFIP.

The men force smiles and cheer softly.

Barnet

Now look at the sky! See the clouds! We will be in the clouds shortly. They will protect us from the eyes of the Japanese. Wait until I fire flares. Then we move to Lamagan Ridge. I want anyone able to run to spread the word to move up and down the line. Who can run.

A soldier with a flesh wound to his thigh lurches forward with his hand raised and looks at him with intense eyes, his face dark and excited.

Barnet

No not you! You couldn’t run away from your old grandmother if she came after you with stick for breaking her eggs.

The other men chuckle. The soldier holds up a hand grenade.

Soldier

I have no eggs, only grenades. Maybe if I break these, we see how fast the Japanese run.

Barnet claps him on the shoulder. The men smile and seem emboldened.

Barnet

Save them! You will need them later. Now you go to Lamagan Ridge and take care of your wound. [Pauses] Now listen. I fire the flares. Then all men fire at the Japanese. Every second man move down the hill to our old position 100 meters below at the rock piles. There’s better cover there.

English fluency varies widely among the men. A Filipino lieutenant translates in _______ dialect to make sure the men understand. From his years living and working in mountain province, first as a mining operator and for the last three years as a guerilla leader, Barnet can understand enough of the local dialect to know whether his words are interpreted correctly.>

Barnet

That’s every second man goes to the rock pile! Then these men fire at will at the Japs while the rest of the men come down the hill. Make sure you fire over their heads. I don’t want any of our men shooting each other. Now we move out! One at a time! Now I will find Captain Parayam. You watch how I run.
[Quoting a Filipino proverb] Alertness and courage are life’s shield.

Barnet waits for an ever so brief pause in the shelling and slips out from behind the cover of the cliff face and heads off bent over at the waste in a crouch run. Bullets spit at the dust behind him. Falling mortar rounds hurl dirt and chips of rock in all directions but some how he remains untouched. The men now energized by his example, follow one by one. The lieutenant directs them by calling off different platoons. In this manner, the men seem to know which direction to run. When the lieutenant emerges from behind the cliff face, he is immediately struck down by machine gun fire through the chest and dies immediately.

Barnet looks back over his shoulder. He notices that the terrain drops steeply from stretch of the road before the cliff face he had just left. A gulley with steep sides drops from the edge of the road descends to the rock pile, a line of bolders deposited by ancient volcanic forces, where he intends to regroup his forces. Barnet realizes that the gulley provides a sheltered route to the rock pile. He curses to himself for overlooking this feature when instructing his men and ponders how he can communicate this new information to the platoon leaders on the front line.

VERGARA EVACUATES O’CONNEL

Vergara and O’Connel practically leap into the jeep parked behind the protected cliff face. Vergara takes the wheel, careening and bouncing down the steep, rough mountain road fast. The scene is a display of stunning mountain panorama flying at them in jarring motion. The Jeep rounds the curve in the horseshoe coming out from behind the shelter of cliffs. The Japs fire poorly aimed artillery fire at them from great distance. Shells strike the hill top above the road, throwing rock debree toward the road. Vergara guns the jeep. Wheels skid toward the edge but Vergara skillfully countersteers keeping it from going over the edge. A few more shells fall harmlessly behind them.

O’Connel

Jesus Christ! You’re a mad man Segundo!

Vergara

[Grins] That’s why Colonel Volckmann picked me for the job.

Coming down the steep incline from the mountains, the jeep heads toward the barrio of Butac. As they reach the eastern edge of Butoc rifle shots ring out from the hills to the south of the barrio. Several bullets stike the jeep. A rushing woosh sounds overhead and a mortar round hits the road to the right of the jeep. Vergara instinctively weaves the jeep from one edge of the road to other. The road straightens and Vergara pushes the accelerator to the floor racing through Butoc, honking the horn though the barrio appears deserted.

O’Connel

What the hell! Japs here?

Vergara

Fuck! They’re trying to flank us.

O’Connel

Damn right. They must of bypassed your positions at Bessang Pass. They’re trying to catch 121st in a pincher.

Escape from Bataan

Battle Among the Clouds
Script: Escape from Bataan -- First Draft

The setback at Bessang Pass vexed Colonel Volckmann unlike any of the numerous setbacks he had experienced since his escape from Bataan in May 1942. However, then he had no idea of what lay in store for him; now he could see the end only to have it recede from his grasp. It was clear to him that the 121st not only was undermanned for the job, but with half his army commandeered by the General Krueger and his 6th army for their various Luzon campaigns, his ability to reinforce the 121st was severely limited.

Volckmann’s main consolation was that after three hard years it was clear the Japanese would pay, though it would take longer. Throughout these years, the memory of the horrendous losses to American and Philippine forces at Bataan and desire for revenge fueled his will to continue. Every atrocity committed by the Japanese against Filipino people and his men vindicated his passion. Volckmann clearly recalled the incidents in Bataan that solidified his resolve to continue resist the Japanese even after General Wainwright issued the order to surrender on April 9.

FLASHBACK TO BATAAN

The incident as Volckmann remembered it happened during what became known as the Battle of the Pockets, in which a couple of Japanese regiments managed to push through the army lines. Before this penetration, the Japanese nightly raids and infiltration were becoming more frequent. On the night of January 29, 1942, Major Volckmann, field officer with Filipino 11th infantry division was on the battle line talking to a lean young division signal officer, Captain Donald M. Blackburn.

Volckmann

When we withdrew the 11th from our coastal positions on the Aubcay-Maubin line, we left the 3rd battalion behind as our outpost of resistance. There’s two and a half kilometers between the 3rd outpost line and our battle lines. They don’t even know where we are, and we can’t communicate with them. I don’t like it! If they’re cut off, we won’t know it.

Blackburn

It’s solid jungle. Stringing a field wire between here and them is going to be difficult. Besides, for a line over a mile, I need repeaters. Can’t get any unless I steal em off command post’s line. I’m sorry.

Volckmann

Damn, you gotta be a Colonel to rate equipment.

Blackburn

At best, were operating with World War I equipment.

Volckmann

That leaves couriers. Hell of a way to run a modern army.

In the distance, sporadic exchanges of rifle and machine gun fire erupt and grenades explode then suddenly subside. These exchanges begin again in other locations.

Volckmann

The Japs are probing our outpost lines looking for a weak spot. We’ll know soon enough if it holds.

Blackburn

With the Japs penetrating into our rear sectors, maybe it would be smarter to pull them back to Orion-Bagac line.

Volckmann

Yeh if it was my call! We haven’t even completed withdrawal to our new line, and already we’ve got a Jap regiment behind us. Damn! Slipped right by General Bluemell’s 1st Corp through an open gap while they were redeploying.

The wait is not long. Short fire fights are replaced by prolonged exchanges of fire. Mortar and artillery shell explosions reverberate across the jungle. The machine guns rattle continuously.

Volckmann

I have to check out the 3rds situation out. If they can’t hold out, we need to get them out of there.

Blackburn

Hell! I might as go with you. Nothing more useless than a signal man with no spare parts, and you may need a witness if General Brougher courtmartials you.

Volckmann

Much obliged [facitiously] Follow me. There’s an old mule path, sort of, that heads in the general direction.

The two men move into the thick green jungle, pushing aside the brush, looking for the path.

Blackburn

[Panting] Could be worse. At least we don't have fuckin' Mount Natib in the middle of our battle line any more.

Volckmann

Yeh the impassible Mount Natib! Unfortunately nobody told that to the Japs. They gain real-estate and our piece of the peninsula gets smaller. Over here!

Volckmann and Blackburn lurch into the brush, find trampled ground, and follow it in the direction of shooting, furiously pushing aside the foliage, gasping in deep breaths. They lose track of distance. Shouting up ahead! Shapes move through the trees toward them thrashing through the jungle undergrowth. Volckmann and Blackburn raise their garand rifles to their shoulders. They recognize the pie-shaped steel helmets of the Filipino 11th infantry troops.

Volckmann

Wait! They’re our men.

Filipino Lieutenant

Japs have broken through! We can’t stop them, too many! They are coming this way!

Volckmann

OK! Pull everyone back to battle lines to the east. We’ll stop them there.
The Filipino lieutenant shouts orders to the fleeing men, who need no encouragement to retreat.

Blackburn

[Mutters contemptuously.] A fucking stampede!

Volckmann

Let’s wait. Some of our men may still be out there.

As if shamed by their example, the Filipino lieutenant stops, turns around and joins them.

Volckmann

Lieutenant, are there any men still back there.

Filipino Lieutenant

There wasn’t time for a count. Too much confusion.

Volckmann

We have to know. We’re going back!

The Filipino lieutenant for an instant looks at Volckmann as if he’s crazy, then realizing he’s betraying his fear forces his face into a stone mask. The three men move cautiously and deliberately forward through the jungle. In front of them they hear the sounds of battle. The Japs are sweeping the jungle canopy with rifle and machine guy fire, trying to flush anything in front of them. The three men crouch down in a bamboo thicket.

Volckmann

They’re firing wild. They can’t see shit.

Blackburn

Neither can we.

Suddenly the firing stops. In the distance, they here faint sounds of Japanese voices, then what sound like screams. Through the jungle, it’s hard to tell direction. Then the firing resumes, a bit closer smothering all other sounds.

Volckmann

Did you hear screams. What direction

Filipino Lietenant

Yes but I cannot tell.

Blackburn

You can’t tell direction in this shit. We’ve done all we can. Let’s move back to our lines.

Volckmann

OK! Damn! Move out.

The Filipino lieutenant looks relieved and takes the lead. They retrace their path through the steamy jungle. Both Volckmann and Blackburn are breathing deeply. Their clothes soaking from perspiration. The Filipino lieutenant moves stealthfully ahead of them, not making a sound.

Barnett

Lieutenant, how you know if were going back in the right direction.

Filipino Lieutenant

When you move forward, look back over your shoulder and remember what the jungle looks like so you will know it when you return. Look for anything that’s disturbed like the parted grass here. [Pointing]

Barnett

[Grunts] All this fuckin’ jungle looks the same to me. Glad I wasn’t a boy scout here. Would never have gotten a merit badge.

In this way, they make their way back to battle lines, the naturalness of the jungle trampled and hacked the closer they get. Upon returning, Volckmann checks in at the operations tent. Captain Hunold, commander of the 3rd battalion is there with Colonel George.

Volckmann

We’ve recovered 3rd battalion. What’s their status.

Hunold

Casualties up and down the line. We lost a whole platoon in the withdrawal. They just disappeared.

Volckmann

Just disappeared?

Hunold

We’ve questioned our men. No one has a clue. They were last seen on the west edge of our sector.

Colonel George

That’s unacceptable. I want a patrol to investigate.

A Filipino non-com appears at the tent, snaps a salute, his face grim.

Non-com

Sir, we have found a survivor from the missing platoon. Wounded bad, crawled back to our lines.

Colonel George

Check it out. Report back to me.

Volckmann and Hunold follow the non-com to a med tent concealed in a shallow ravine. A soldier lays on a stretcher being administered to by a medic. He is conscious and muttering.

Volckmann

Medic! What’s his condition.

Medic

Sir, he has eleven bayonet wounds. He crawled back to our lines. He says his platoon was captured by the Japs. They interrogated them with bayonets..

The wounded man gasps and looks up imploringly at Hunold, and motions with his fingers. Volckmann and Hunold kneel next to him.

Wounded Soldier

Sir! Sir!

Hunold

Easy! Just take it easy. We can talk when you’re feeling better.

Wounded Soldier

No now please! The Japs, they tie us to trees. Question us about our battle positions. They don’t like our answers, and they stab us, in the arms, legs, stomach to make us talk. We don’t know anything about the battle positions, thank God or maybe we would a talked. They leave us there to bleed to death. But I pretend to be dead. The Japs leave. I crawl back here on my belly like a snake.

Hunold gently squeezes his hand.

Hunold

Now you rest. Save your strength. We’re gonna take good care of you. You’ll see!

Wounded Soldier

Bahala na!

Volckmann and Hunold exit the medic tent, their faces grim.

Volckmann

Bahala na?

Hunold

Come what may!

Volckmann

Bastards! I think we just got a lesson in how the Japs treat prisoners.

BATAAN, APRIL 1, 1942

The scene forwards to April 1, 1942 Bataan. American forces have been pushed to the Southern third of the Bataan peninsula. On the battle lines, starved-looking, sick, emaciated men huddle in soggy slit trenches. They are a dirty, sorry-looking lot, most suffering from dysentery, jaundice, and malaria. For the last three weeks, the men have been living off anything they could scrounge, lizards, monkeys, bark and roots. Volckmann’s headquarters is a pit dug into an embankment connected to a trench network and covered with bamboo, logs, and cut bushes to protect and conceal it. Volckmann busies himself with a map pinpointing the 11th division line and suspected Japanese positions. Captain Don Blackburn looks over his shoulder.

Blackburn

Doesn’t look like much has changed. The Japs haven’t moved in two weeks. Maybe they heard McArthur’s radio broadcast, “I shall return.” He’s on his way back here with the full might of the U.S. military and they’re scared shitless [laughs ruefully]. Anyway the lull fighting has given us a needed break. Most of the men are so weak we can hardly get more than three hours of work a day out of them.

Volckmann

Don, you can bet your ass it won’t last. The Japs are just waiting for reinforcements from Singapore.

Blackburn

Damn shame Singapore fell. Singapore was the only place a rescue could be launched from. The troops know it. All the planes and troops McArthur’s promised us are defending Australia. They’d have to run a Jap gauntlet in the Dutch Indies to resupply us.

Volckmann

Yeh, it’s hard to be optimistic.

Blackburn

Well at least you still look relatively healthy compared to everyone else. What’s your secret.

Volckmann

My balanced diet! Anything that walks, runs, creeps, crawls, or flies. Fat iguana is my favorite.

Blackburn mockingly minces like an obsequious waiter. His ragged kaki shirt drapes from his shoulders as if hanging from a clothe hanger.

Blackburn

So sorry Sir, we fresh out of iguana ! May I recommend the local escargot, with a liberal garnish of Schistosoma. Or our sea food special!

Volckmann

What’s that.

Blackburn

You see it, you eat it.

Volckmann

[Chuckles] Smart ass!

The field phone rings, a Filipino sergeant answers.

Filipino Sergeant

Sir, Division Headquarters is asking for you.

Volckmann accepts the phone. The phone call is from Brigadier General Walter E. Brougher, commander of the 11th Division (Philippine Army).

Volckmann

Thanks Santos. Captain Russel Volckmann. Over.

Brougher

Captain Volkmann, I want you to report to my headquarters. I’m sending a jeep to pick you up. Over. [Hangs up].

Volckmann hands the phone back to Sergeant Santos.

Volckmann

How you doing Santos.

Sergeant

OK Sir!

Volckmann

Lately it’s been tough on all of us and it’s gonna get tougher.

Sergeant

Tough on the Japs too. When Japs come, we sock em good. Filipino soldiers no cowards.

Volckmann slaps Santos on the shoulder.

Blackburn

What’s up.

Volckmann

General Brougher wants to see me. He didn’t say why.

Blackburn

Just don’t mention McArthur’s broadcast.

Blackburn quotes Brougher’s scathing response.

“A foul trick of deception has been played on a large group of Americans by a commander in chief and a small staff who are now eating steak and eggs in Australia.”

Volckmann

You watch your own big mouth.

Blackburn

The blame game is beginning and that usually means the end. Our brass is blaming McArthur, and our Filipino troops are blaming us for the mess we’re now in.

Before long, a jeep emerges through the jungle path that passes for a road. As the jeep pulls away with Volckmann, Blackburn sends him a salute. A Japanese fighter plane swoops out of the sky in a strafing attack. The Filipino driver swerves off the road into the jungle undergrowth as machine gun bullets whip up the dust in the road. Volckmann ducks as branches snap like whips at the occupants of the jeep. The driver nonchalantly pulls back onto the road as if dodging Japanese planes was a common occurrence. Shortly, the jeep pulls up in front of a couple of tents nestled behind a high berm.

Driver

[Pointing] HQ tent on right.

Volckmann enters the tent. The mood in the tent is all business. A telephone switch board occupies one end of the tent; a non-com works furiously at the unit while a captain barks into the speaker. A runner rushes out of the tent as another runner enters. General Brougher and several officers poor over a field map. He looks up from the map covering his desk. Volckmann salutes. Brougher is a tough looking man with a hard, square face and deep voice.

Brougher

Good to see you Russel. At ease! Glad to see you made it.

Brougher rises from his desk shakes Volkmann’s hand and slaps him on the shoulder.

Volckmann

Just Barely.

Brougher

Yeh the Jap planes! They’re just hovering in the sky like vultures waiting for something to move and swoop down on it. Sit down! [motions to a chair] So how’s it goin’ on the front.

Brougher knows damn well how it is going but Volckmann goes along with the charade.

Volckmann

There’s a lull in the fighting, which is giving the men a needed break.

Brougher

However, we all know it won’t last much longer. Most of them are sick and malnourished and can’t walk more than a 100 yards with their weapon. And we’re fast running out of ammunition, fuel, and every other form supplies. The Japs know it and they’re getting bolder. Moral is very low. But we still have a mission to accomplish, and that’s keeping the Japs bogged down in the Philippines so they can’t attack Australia. So we’re not about to give up this stinking peninsula without a fight. Every soldier out there needs to understand that and will do their duty.

Volckmann

They do General! All of them!

Brougher

Hmph! By now every man here knows that his fight is no longer about defending the Philippines. So I’m not surprised there’s talk in the ranks about surrender. Some think the Japs will treat us OK. What do you think.

Volckmann

I have my doubts!

Brougher

If there record in Manchuria and China is anything to go by, then all of us have good reason to be concerned.

Brougher

I summoned you because I have a vacancy that I need to fill. I’m appointing you Division Intelligence Officer.

Brougher addresses the other men in the tent.

Brougher

Gentleman! Meet Major Russel Volckmann, our new I.O.

Volckmann

Division Intelligence Officer! Begging your pardon Sir, I’m an infantry officer.

Brougher

Our current officer is out of commission with malaria. He recommended you. How do you feel about it.

Volckmann

Like a fish out of water.
The other men in the tent snicker at this.

Brougher

[Laughs] Well you’ll learn quick and considering our situation, it may only be a short-term assignment. General King believes Gen. Homma is about to launch an all out offensive against us, and estimates our troop efficiency is reduced to 30%. Without food and ammunition, it’s doubtful Bataan can hold out. I guess it’s no secret, there’s no rescue imminent. No planes, soldiers, and after Pearl Harbor, certainly no ships to bring em here. If Bataan falls, the Japs will move in their big guns in easy shelling distance of Coregedor.

All men in the tent listen without turning from their work. Volckmann looks pained. A sour feeling of nausea rises from his gut, and obviously shows on his face.

Volckmann

So what’s my assignment.

Brougher

General King wants an analysis of overall troop strength in Bataan fast. We aren’t going down without a fight. When the Japanese attack, King wants a counter attack. We’ve got to know our capabilities. With your first-hand experience with our frontline troops, you know the 11th division capabilities as well as anyone. You will work in communication as the 11th division’s intelligence officer with King’s staff to develop a final plan of defense.

Brougher looks back to his map as if he wants to get back to work.

From here on out your world consists of these two tents. We have the radio station next door. Major Krueger here will fill you in on your assignments.

Volckmann salutes! Krueger and Volckmann shake hands.

BATTLE AT MT. SAMAT APRIL 6

The scene jumps forward to April 6 at a jungle outpost of the 31st infantry on 2000 foot Mt. Samat. At a command post hidden within a thicket of bamboo, a 1st sergeant surveys area.

1st Seargeant

Christ! Ought to see those damn Japs coming down the hill.

Private

They look like ants coming. Man, we’re not going to be able to handle this.

A mortar shell hits command post. The private is unscathed but two sergeants with him are killed. The CO officer is wounded but tries to organize a retreat, however chaos ensues. Bombs come both from the sky as Japanese planes swoop down and from artillery turning Mount Samat into an inferno. With Japanese pressing forward, it’s every man for himself among the American-Filipino defenders. Wild-eyed men retreat in panic through the jungle brush; wounded men are left to bleed to death where they lay.

GENERAL BROUGHER’S HEADQUARERS APRIL 6, 1942

Volckmann

Sir, Just got word, the Japs have broken to Orion-Bagac line at Mount Samat west of us. General King ordered a counter-attack, only to be informed that the army of Bataan is in complete collapse.

General Brougher bows his head. All his strength seems to drain out of him, and he appears to Volckmann to age years in minutes.

Brougher

Then it’s just a matter of days before we have to run up the white flag.

Volkmann

[Choking up] America is finished in the Philippines.

Brougher

Not entirely, if we can believe McArthur. In the mean time, there are American led guerilla groups forming in Northern Luzon though its an entirely different form of warfare than we are used too. God willing, they will continue to fight on until McArthur makes good on his promise [Snorts contemptuously]. We are in radio contact with a group known as the 1st Provisional Guerilla Regiment headed by a Lt. Colonel John Horan.

Brougher reaches into his desk and hands Volckmann a report.

Brougher

This makes interesting reading. Here’s the skinny. The first guerilla activities were started by a hard-drinking Mexican-American mining manager named Walter Cushing. He formed a private army of his miners within days of the Japs invading. He recruited a group of 35 cut-off American soldiers from a U.S. air warning unit to train his men, among them a Lieutenant Robert Arnold. Cushing’s group got in radio contact with SWAP and was designated as the 121st infantry regiment. Cushing then teamed up with a Lt. Colonel Horan to form the 1st Provisional Guerilla Regiment, and Cushing’s group maintains their 121st designation. They’ve been wrecking havoc on the Japanese all throughout the mountain provinces and will continue to do so after we surrender here in Bataan.

Later that evening, Volckmann reads the report in his tent by lantern light. His attention is riveted on an account of Walter Cushing’s 121st activities in Northern Luzon. He closes his eyes and visualizes the scene as if he were there.

JAPANESE OCCUPATION OF VIGAN

On December 10, the Japanese landed their first large troop contingent at historic Spanish town of Vigan facing the China Sea in the province of Ilocos Sur. Drunken Japanese troops rampage through the street in an orgy of looting, raping and murder. Gangs of soldiers, crazed by alcohol, roam the town in search of women and loot, abducting women from the arms of their husbands and fathers. Men who object are beaten, and even killed on the spot. The movie weaves these sordid scenes into a collage of brutal depravity.

On a hill south of town, a short man no more than 5’5” of swarthy complexion scans the town with binoculars. Gun fire and faint screams filter from the town. He curses and stalks back to his car. He follows the dirt road west to Highway 6, which heads west into the mountain province of Abra. The road was clear of Japanese on his way to Vigan and he hopes for similar good fortune on his way back. He rounds the corner and encounters a Japanese scout car blocking his path.
The man, Walter Cushing, stops the car, gets out smiles and bows repeatedly. Two Japanese soldiers approach with rifles levelled at him.

Cushing

Konnichiha! Konnichiha!

Cushing taps his thumb on his chest, points at the car trunk, then at the two Japanese, in a gesture meant to translate as “in trunk! I give you!”

Cushing

Whiskey! Wiskey! Umm Good!

The two soldiers obviously understand the word “Whiskey.” One points to the trunk and shouts an order in Japanese. Cushing opens the trunk; a case of whiskey sits plump in the middle of the trunk. Cushing retrieves two bottles from the case and hands one to each soldier. The soldiers smile and seem to relax. He thinks his ruse is working, hoping they take him for a common black marketeer. One soldier slings his rifle, opens the whiskey bottle, sniffs it. He takes a swig, coughs fitfully, but in general looks pleased. The other soldier is now holding his rifle by the muzzle with the butt on the ground. The two soldiers converse among themselves in Japanese. Subtitles display their conversation.

Jap Soldier 1

What do you think he’s doing with a case of whiskey.

Jap Soldier 2

It’s obvious. He’s a black marketeer.

Jap Soldier 1

Do you want to arrest him.

Jap Soldier 2

Why bother. No one cares about black market scum. Let’s take all the whiskey. Besides, maybe fortune will favour us and we cross paths with him again.

Both Japanese soldiers laugh.

Jap Soldier 1

Next time, maybe we confiscate cigarettes.

Jap Soldier 2

[Laughs] Or nylons! Let’s make him carry the whiskey to the car so he knows who his masters are.

The first soldier points at the case and motions for Cushing to give it to him. Cushing holds up two fingers.

Cushing

No! Two only.

The soldier angrily orders Cushing in Japanese and motions to Cushing to pick up the case of whiskey.

Cushing

[Bows submissively] Sorry! Gomen! Gomen!

As Cushing reaches for the case, he surreptiously slips his hands behind the case.

Jap Soldier 2

Let’s siphon his petrol. The walk should teach this fornicator some ....

In an instant, Cushing whirls around with a 45 calibre revolver in each hand and fires point blank into the two Japanese soldiers, dropping them dead on the road.

Cushing

[Mutters to himself] Greedy bastards!

Cushing looks around and spots a farmer in a field watching him. The farmer flashes him a v-sign. Cushing smiles, and waves his 45’s. He gets back in his car and races away at full speed.

NORTHERN LUZON JANUARY 18—CANDON , ILOCOS SUR PROVINCE

First light, misty fog drifts through the street, dew glistens. In the distance, the sound of lumbering trucks approach the village. The town is empty except for the men waiting in ambush in the stores, residences, and other buildings for a half mile along the east side of the road. The Filipinos still living there had been persuaded to leave the night before. Outside in the street, Cushing listens intently. He quivers with nervous excitement. He’s dressed in kaki, with two 45 caliber revolvers in his belt, in the style of western legend Wild Bill Hickock. He chomps on a lit cigar in his mouth; primed sticks of dynamite protrude out of his back pockets.

Cushing

Here they come. Wait until I blow the first truck.

He slinks back into the shadow of a building. An outpost on the edge of town signals as the truck convoy approaches. When the lead truck reaches the center of town, Cushing reaches for a stick of dynamite, touches the fuse to his cigar, and expertly tosses it in front of the lead vehicle. The exploding dynamite flips the truck on its side.

Every man fires at once on the convoy from point blank range of fifteen to thirty feet. Cushing rushes into the street waving a 45 revolver in each hand.

Cushing

Give it to em boys. They’d do the same to you

The column is almost instantly annihilated.

NORTHERN LUZON--TAGUDIN, ILOCOS SUR PROVINCE

Several miles south of town, three cars approach an S curve in the road. Cushing and his men had barely settled into their ambush positions in the grass along side the road when the lookout signals the approach of the cars. The men open up on the small caravan in a murderous fire of small arms. Unknown to Cushing’s guerillas, the cars contain a Japanese command group headed by Major General Hara. Hara leaps from the car during the attack and runs across the field. A farmer at work in the field grasps the situation and kills the general with his bolo knife. Cushing removes the yellow patch and silver star of a Japanese major general from the dead general shirt and pins it onto his own shirt.

Cushing

Look boys! I’ve just been promoted to a Jap general. [men hoot and cheer]

NORTHERN LUZON--BANGUED, ABRA PROVINCE

Late night, several men crawl through grass outside a long low building, sleeping quarters for the local Japanese garrison. Each man positions himself under a window waiting for the signal, holding bundles of dynamite sticks. Cushing at the edge of the perimeter, flickers a flash light on and off. The men light the fuses and hurl their dynamite bombs through the windows and run. For a couple seconds, excited voices come from within the building, then the dynamite explodes, ripping the building apart in a cloud of dust and debris.

GENERAL KING ISSUES ORDER TO SURRENDER APRIL 8

An excited Major Russel Volckman corners General Brougher.

Volckmann

Sir I know King is ordering a general surrender. However, I have request. I read your report on the resistance in the north. I’m still in good health and still have a lot of fight left in me. I want to make my way north to join the guerillas.

Brougher

Russel, getting there is a tough road. Even if you get out of Bataan, you’d have to make it through central Luzon, all rice fields, flat as a pancake, and crawling with Japs. With the Filipinos, it’s hard to tell who you can trust--too many fifth columnist, spies, and then there are the communist HUKs. With the HUKS, no telling whether they’ll help you or kill you.

Volckmann

I was stationed in Bagio and know the country up there. I believe I could make myself useful.

Brougher

Well it looks like your current duties here as intelligence officer are finished. You are welcome to try. I’ll report you missing in action. Good luck and God bless you.

That evening Volkmann explains his plan to Captain Blackburn.

Volckmann

Look Don, I going to try to escape, work north to the mountains and join up with Lt. Colonel Horan and his 1st Provisional Guerilla Regiment. I know I don’t want to spend the rest of the war in a prison camp. I have a pretty good idea how the Japanese will treat prisoners.

Blackburn

You mean our men who were trapped on the outpost line back in January and captured.

Volckmann

Yeh and tortured them to death. They tied them to trees and questioned them about our battle lines, jabbing them with bayonets. None of them new a God damned thing about our battle lines. They left them for dead but one man crawled back to our lines with eleven bayonet wounds to tell the story.

Blackburn

It’s been a fucked up mess. It’s hard to accept, all we’ve been through for nothing--just ignominious defeat, and there’s no honor or dignity in that.

Volckmann

There’s still much to be done—scores to be settled with the Japs, and we can’t do it from within a Jap prison Camp. This is our crucible, one meant to test the metal in our being. Can we take the heat and exit stronger than we entered.

Blackburn appears solemn and silent for a few seconds.

Blackburn

Surrender Hell! Let’s get out of here. Now!

Volckmann

We'll make our way into 1st sector west of here. It’s been quiet for a while. Grab your stuff but keep it light—some emergency rations, quinine.

An hour later, Volckmann and Blackburn slip over a bank into a dry river bed and slowly crawl away from the camp into the night.