OPERATION MAVERICKS — U.S. Marines, assigned to Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, await extraction during Operation Mavericks, an operation Marines conducted to capture suspected anti-coalition forces in the vicinity of Methar Lam, Afghanistan, March 21, 2005. The battalion is conducting security and stabilization operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. James L. Yarboro

On this day in 1942, one of the most infamous chapters of military history began.

On April 9, Filipino and American forces on the island of Luzon surrendered to the Japanese. The next day, the 75,000 who surrendered began a forced march to a prison camp. They were forced to cover 85 miles in 6 days. During the entire journey, they were permitted only one meal - rice.

The list of atrocities commited during the march included:
-- One man being flattened by a tank when he collapsed in exhaustion. Other soldiers, stopped in their tracks by this horror, were hit by passing Japanese trucks.

-- P.O.W.'s being forced to stand by a fresh stream, forbidden to drink from it. When one soldier broke, ran for the stream, and fell in face first to drink, a Japanese guard drew a sword and decapitated him.

-- They were permitted to drink from a stream contaminated with a maggot-filled corpse. As they drank, the guards laughed.

Many fell and died on the road, some crying for water.

The final destination of this march was a train that would take them to the camp. Of those that survived to reach it, few lived to see General MacArthur return to liberate the island in 1945.

In the Philippines, on the national holiday of Bataan Day, large groups of Filipinos retrace the steps of the March, in solemn tribute to those who went before.

To learn more about the Bataan Death March, see:

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Websites
Wikipedia: Bataan Death March
Bataan, Corregidor, and the Death March: In Retrospect
Bataan Memorial Death March
Bataan Death March - A Survivor's Story: The Bataan Death March
Battling Bastards of Bataan
Bataan Death March - Introduction
BATAAN DEATH MARCH - Ghost of Bataan



Sgt. 1st Class Michael McNaughton greets a Bataan survivor at the memorial march's opening ceremony March 20 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. (Miriam Rodriguez)

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Today in History

1790 - The U.S. patent system is established.
1795 - H.M.S. Astraea captured French frigate Floire off Brest.
1809 - Austria declares war on France.
1862 - Union forces begin the bombardment of Fort Pulaski in Georgia.
1865 - General Robert E. Lee issues his last orders to the Army of Northern Virginia.
1902 - South African Boers accept British terms of surrender.
1912 - The Titanic begins her maiden voyage.
1930 - The first synthetic rubber is produced.
1932 - Paul von Hindenburg is elected president in Germany.
1938 - Germany annexes Austria.
1941 - U.S. troops occupy Greenland to prevent Nazi infiltration.
1942 - The Bataan death March begins.
1945 - In their second attempt to take the Seelow Heights, near Berlin, the Red Army gains one mile at the cost of 3,000 killed and 368 tanks destroyed.
1945 - Allied troops liberate Buchenwald north of Weiner, Germany.
1974 - Yitzhak Rabin replaces resigning Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir.
1981 - Imprisoned I.R.A. hunger striker Bobby Sands is elected to the British Parliament.

Birthdays
1794 - Matthew C. Perry, American naval officer, opened Japan to trade with the west.
1827 - Lew Wallace, Civil War general, lawyer, diplomat and author of Ben Hur.
1880 - Frances Perkins, U.S. labor secretary, first female cabinet member.
1903 - Clare Boothe Luce, reporter, U.S. ambassador to the Vatican.
19?? - Your humble blogger (me!)