Mike Guardia - American Guerrilla: The Forgotten Heroics of Russell W. Volckmann

Map of Lingayen Gulf and the immediate vicinity on the western coast of Luzon. The Lingayen beachfrom Dagupan City in the east, to the Agno River delta in the westmarks the site of the 11th Infantrys first defensive position.

With his parting words I shall return, General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet amongst those who capitulated to the Japanese, a young Army Captain named Russell William Volckmann refused to surrender. At the outset of World War II, Volckmann served as the Executive Officer of the 11th Infantry Regiment (11th Division). Rather than surrender,Volckmann disappeared into the jungles of North Luzon and raised a guerrilla 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. During the interim, he established radio contact with MacArthurs Headquarters in Australia and directed the Allied forces to key enemy positions. Officially designated the United States Armed Forces in the PhilippinesNorth Luzon (USAFIP-NL), Volckmanns guerrilla unit decimated the Japanese Fourteenth Army. When General Tomiyuki Yamashitathe commander of the Japanese occupation forcefinally surrendered, he made the initial surrender overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.

Volckmann was also the first to develop the Armys official doctrine of counterinsurgency and to articulate the need for a permanent force capable of unconventional warfare. His diligence in this regard led to the creation of the Army Special Forces. Surprisingly, Volckmann has not received credit for either of these accomplishments. Despite this mans contributions, he remains virtually forgotten by history.

This book seeks to establish two premises. First, it explores how Volckmanns leadership was critical to the outcome of the Philippines Campaign. His ability to synthesize the realities and necessities of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashitas forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Russell W. Volckmann, the Allies would not have received the intelligence necessary to launch an effective counterstrike. Had he not funneled his intelligence reports to MacArthur and coordinated an Allied assault on the Japanese enclaves, the Americans would have gone in blind reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would have undoubtedly 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 Forcesa title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank.* In 1950, Volckmann authored two Army field manuals: FM 3120, Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and FM 3121, Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare. Together, these manuals became the Armys first complimentary reference set outlining the precepts for special warfare and counterguerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to General J. Lawton Collins, the Army Chief of Staff, Volckmann outlined the operational concepts for Army Special Forces. At a time when U.S. military doctrine was conventional in its outlook, Volckmann marketed the idea of guerilla warfare as a critical and strategic force multiplier for any future conflict. In doing so, he ultimately won the blessings of the Army Chief of Staff and secured the establishment of the Armys first special operations unit: the 10th Special Forces Group.

The story of Russell W. Volckmann commands a unique place within the military historiography of World War II. Military histories of the Philippine Campaign are told predominately within the context of conventional warfare. Several books have been written about MacArthurs triumphant return to the Philippines, the Army Rangers at Cabanatuan, U.S. Sixth Army operations on Luzon, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. However, the guerrilla war remains largely forgotten. Aside from a few published memoirs, such as Laphams Raiders, and official Army publications such as General Charles A. Willoughbys, Guerrilla Resistance

*Aaron Bank was an Army officer and a former operative in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Movement in the Philippines, the historiography of the guerrilla war in the Philippines is comparatively narrow. Survey texts on American military history often relegate the guerrilla conflict to only a paragraph or two.

Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure throughout modern military history. The Oxford Companion to American Military History and Oxford Companion to World War II have no entries for either Volckmann or the USAFIP-NL. His name is absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and what little history there is on Volckmann is often incorrect or misleading.* Many books cite Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, but do not recognize Volckmann as the author. Because field manuals are considered intellectual property of the Army, their authors are not credited upon the manuals releasealthough the Army does maintain a record of who writes them. For this reason, few know that Volckmann was the man behind FMs 3120 and 3121. My contribution to the broader historical literature, therefore, is an account that not only chronicles the military career of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership contributed to the Japanese defeat in the Philippines and paved the way for counterinsurgency and special warfare doctrine.

Research for this project began in February 2007. When I made the decision to write a biography on Russell Volckmann, I understood that there would be a narrow selection of adequate secondary sources. As such, my book is composed almost entirely of primary source material.

The first step I took in obtaining primary source material was to contact the surviving members of the Volckmann family. At first, I had no indication of how much or what kind of material they possessed or even how many family members were still living. My first reference to this end was the United States Military Academys Registry of Graduates and Former Cadets. This is a directory of every West Point graduate from 1802 until the present day. Included with each graduates entry is a paragraph that gives: (a) date of birth, (b) date of death (if applicable), (c) all active duty assignments, (d) time of separation or retirement, and (e) the graduates last confirmed address. If a graduate is deceased, the