WW II Nurses Turned Prisoners of War | A Risky Plan | 5

0:00Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Against the Odds ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. A listener note. Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events. Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.

0:26Chief Nurse Laura Cobb grabs a sheet from a cabinet and frowns at the maroon blotch in the middle, a bloodstain from a former patient. But there's nothing she can do. The Los Baños prison camp has no more soap. She fits it around the edges of an old mattress in the camp infirmary. It's early February 1945. Cobb and her crew of Navy nurses have been captives for three years now, held at three separate Japanese prisoner of war camps. But none as awful as Los Baños, located in a remote part of the Philippines. They're fed just a single handful of plain rice per day. Every person here is slowly starving to death.

1:13Cobb herself suffers from erratic heartbeats and aching joints. A few strands of her hair fall onto the bed. She brushes them off and sighs. Malnutrition has turned her hair gray and brittle. As she's tucking in the last bit of sheet, A packet of folded papers comes loose from beneath the thin mattress. Cobb bends over to grab them, wincing in pain as her knees creak. She unfolds the papers and realizes they're pages torn from magazines. They must be remnants from when Los Baños was a college. And every last page shows a picture of food. Roast beef dripping with fat. Mashed potatoes slathered with butter.

2:01Succulent eggs. Fresh apple pie with mounds of ice cream. She's heard that other prisoners pass these images around, like dirty pictures. As Cobb takes in the images, she feels lightheaded. Her stomach seizes, as if she's swallowed needles. And yet, she can barely tear her eyes away. She stares at them until the hunger feels all-consuming. Then she crumples the papers and hurries outside. She runs behind the infirmary, where there's a long trench for garbage. Cobb flings the pages into it to banish the temptation. Thankfully, a distraction arrives a moment later. A low buzzing. It's a plane overhead.

2:49Cobb hustles over to a clearing, where she finds Nurse Basilia Torres Stewart. Stewart points up. Is it American? Cobb squints into the late morning sun. Yes, the silhouette looks familiar. Cobb feels a surge of joy. They've seen American planes before, but the sight is becoming more common. To Cobb, it means they're getting closer to the day when they'll finally be liberated. She looks back down to share her excitement with Stewart, but her colleague looks concerned. She points back toward the camp. A hundred yards away, Cobb sees a group of Japanese guards. They're barking orders at two dozen Filipino laborers holding shovels.

3:35They're digging a new trench, and quite a big one. It must be a hundred feet long. Steward turns to Cobb. Are they digging another garbage trench? Cobb says no. She was just at the other trench, and it's only half full. This trench must be for another purpose. In a flash, it hits her. With such force, she feels weak in her knees. This trench isn't for trash. It's for prisoners. The Japanese are digging a mass grave.

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4:47From Audible Originals, I'm Cassie DePeckel and this is Against the Odds. In early 1945, Allied forces invaded the Philippine island Luzon, home of Manila and Los Baños prison camp. As Allied soldiers captured more ground, the Japanese guards at Los Baños grew desperate. They'd been abusing and starving POWs for years. And if the Allies won and the prisoners testified against their captors, their war crimes would be exposed. So camp leaders at Los Baños decided to exterminate all the prisoners. Allied troops had a plan to liberate the camp, but it was complex with many moving pieces. All the prisoners could do was wait and hope that rescuers would arrive before the execution date.

5:41This is Episode 5, A Risky Plan.

5:50Navy nurse Dorothy Still clips a clothespin to the umbilical cord of a newborn baby, then reaches for the infirmary's rusty scissors to snip it. She's so weak that it takes two attempts to cut through the cord. When that's done, Dorothy fills in the date and place of birth on the newborn's birth certificate, February 20th, 1945, at the Los Baños Infirmary. Her hand shakes as she writes, this poor baby, born in this horrible place. Dorothy hadn't thought life in the camp could get worse, but then rumors started spreading that the new trench the guards had dug was for a mass grave. A new sense of desperation and hopelessness settled over the prison.

6:38As Dorothy looks at the newborn, squirming and screaming in her mother's arms, she tries to shake the thoughts of her impending death from her mind. The poor mother looks so sick and weak that even this tiny baby seems too heavy for her. So, despite the mother's protest, Dorothy picks up the infant. No, no, save your strength. You still need to push the afterbirth out. I'll wash your girl up, then you can rest with her. Dorothy totters to a wash basin made from salvaged tin roofing. It's only a few steps, but it's painful on the hard tile floor. After more than three years of captivity, Dorothy's thin shoes have almost no soul left, and her body is so starved for calories that even the fat on the bottom of her feet is gone.

7:29They ache from the pressure of every step. Dorothy lowers the bawling child into the basin full of rainwater. She worries about how scrawny the child looks. You're off to a tough start in life, aren't you, Peanut? Her starving mother probably can't produce breast milk. The infirmary has some condensed milk stashed away, but another baby was born last week, and there's barely any left. As she washes the child, Dorothy hears a plane overhead. She whispers the same prayer she always does. Hurry up. Please. But it feels empty now. They now have two newborns to keep alive, and dozens of patients on death's door.

8:15And even if they all pull through, the Japanese might murder everyone anyway. Nursing is never easy. So much is out of your control. But the constant specter of death here in the prison camp is becoming more than Dorothy can take. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Muller strikes a match in the dark and lights his cigarette. After a few puffs, the tension in his shoulders relaxes. It's been a harrowing day. He lifts his eyes and gazes northwest in the direction of Lausanne, where the raid he's been planning for so long has officially begun. It's 11 p.m. on February 22nd at the American military headquarters on Leyte, an island southeast of Lusanne.

9:05Mueller originally planned to launch the raid a few days from now, but this morning he got word from intelligence sources that made his heart stop. The Japanese had an imminent plan to kill all prisoners at Los Banos. That sent Mueller scrambling to get all the pieces of the raid in place. And there are a lot of them. First, a diversionary attack on a bridge several miles away will tie up 8 ,000 Japanese troops in the area. Second, a scout team, led by Terry Santos, will lead the first strike on Los Baños, landing at a beach 10 miles away. Third, paratroopers will jump in to secure the camp. Finally, amphibious vehicles will land at another beach, two miles away, to evacuate prisoners and troops.

9:54After getting the intelligence report, Mueller dispatched Santos' scout team. The 10-man crew set out a few hours ago. Mueller wonders how they're faring. If they're on schedule, they should be almost across the big lake near the camp. Then, they have a dangerous 10-mile trek through the jungle. The other prongs of Mueller's plan begin tomorrow morning. The paratroopers and amphibious vehicles. He's been obsessing over this plan for months, but now all he can do is wait. As he lights a second cigarette, he hears a voice. Colonel! Colonel! He squints into the dark and sees his lieutenant rushing up, waving a piece of paper.

10:39He practically skids to a halt in front of Mueller. A new report just came in. Muller snatches the paper and accepts a small flashlight from the lieutenant. He reads the memo. It's about Los Baños. A reconnaissance plane has spotted dozens of pairs of headlights streaming south toward Los Baños. The recon team said they looked like troop transport trucks. Muller finishes reading, and his eyes snap up to his lieutenant. Can we confirm the trucks are headed to Los Baños? No, we can't confirm anything. Mueller rereads the memo. His plan relies on there being only 200 guards at the camp. If hundreds more soldiers are pouring in, that means the Japanese are fortifying the camp.

11:25Or even worse, they're on their way to execute the prisoners even earlier than expected. The lieutenant asks what their options are. Should they call things off? Mueller sighs. Terry Santos' team has already set out, and they don't have a radio. We could call off the diversionary force, the planes with the paratroopers and the amphibious vehicles. They don't leave until 5 a.m. But if we do that, Santos and his men will get slaughtered. But let's say we don't call off the planes and vehicles. Won't all those soldiers die if there are suddenly far more Japanese troops there? Possibly. But then the prisoners at Los Baños have no chance.

12:08Mueller swears. This is a terrible bind. His plan was already a risky one. It didn't need this monkey wrench. He has to find out more information and then make a decision whether he's continuing with the plan or abandoning Terry Santos, his team, and the prisoners of Los Baños.

12:33Scout leader Terry Santos shields his eyes as the searchlight of a Japanese patrol boat pops on. He whispers to the four other American soldiers lying hidden on the bottom of their sailboat, Stay low, guys, but be ready. A moment later, the patrol boat's engines rev, and it chugs towards Santos' boat. Discreetly, Santos reaches down for the rifle at his feet and clicks the safety off. It's 11.45 p.m. on February 22nd, a little over seven hours until the raid on Los Baños is supposed to start. Santos' team is way behind schedule. First, they got separated from the two other sailboats carrying the rest of his team and spent time searching for them.

13:21Then, the strong breeze that was supposed to propel the sailboats quickly across the lake died. They're crossing at a crawl. And now, a Japanese patrol boat has them in its sights. Santos scans the interior of his boat as the Japanese draw closer. Everything looks like they intended, just a fishing boat crossing the lake. Santos himself is ethnically Filipino, and he's dressed like a local in an unbuttoned cotton shirt and straw hat. He's hoping he can talk his way out of this, but if the Japanese get within 20 yards, he's going to open fire. The patrol boat stops 30 yards away. It's motor idling with a low growl.

14:06Between the inky night and the Klieg light shining in his face, Santos can't make out much, but it doesn't look too large. There can't be more than 10 soldiers aboard. That gives his men a fighting chance if a gunfight breaks out. Santos hears a voice call out. Identify yourself. What's your business? Santos recites his cover story. His cousin needed help repairing his house after a recent storm. The work took longer than expected. He's returning home now because his wife is pregnant, but they're stranded due to the lack of wind. The Japanese ask several more questions, trying to poke holes in his story.

14:48In the quiet, Santos can hear the Japanese muttering to each other. The Americans in Santos' boat are looking up at him wide-eyed, but he doesn't acknowledge them. Finally, the Japanese snap off the patrol light and yell at him to hurry home. Then it chugs off. Santos exhales hard as his fellow soldiers peek their heads out. But their situation is still dire. They're hours behind schedule, a bad position for a strike that relies on precise timing. They're supposed to meet local guerrillas on the shore and proceed 10 miles inland to Los Baños. Then they have to take out the camp guards before the paratroopers drop in, or else the guards will shoot the troops out of the sky.

15:36Santos splashes his arm into the water and starts paddling, praying for the winds to pick up. Dorothy still stops to catch her breath as she crosses the infirmary at Los Baños. She's so weak that the small basin of water in her hands feels heavier than a bag of cement. It's an hour before dawn on February 23rd. Dorothy has two more hours until her night shift ends. Then she can sleep. She can't wait. She's exhausted. In fact, even standing here, she nods off on her feet, splashing water on the floor. She wakes with a start and looks around, fearful she woke the patients. Thankfully, most are still asleep.

16:24Just one man has his eyes open. Dorothy smiles at him and cracks a joke. I guess I should stop drinking whiskey during my shifts. The man chuckles softly. Dorothy feels better. Even in this ghastly place, she can still offer some comfort. She places the basin down and walks over to the cabinets to get some rags to mop up the floor. But as she passes the window, she notices something in the dim early morning light. Late yesterday, the Japanese guards assembled heavy machine guns, fortifying the camp's defenses. Dorothy's boyfriend, Thomas Terrell, was giddy. He said it must mean that American troops were close.

17:08Dorothy was cautiously optimistic. But what she sees now terrifies her. The machine gun barrels aren't turned outward in defense. They're turned inward toward the camp. Even worse, she realizes that they're positioned right near the new trench that was dug a few weeks ago. Which can only mean one thing. The slaughter they've all feared is finally at hand.

17:50Army Scout Terry Santos darts forward in the orange glow of the rising sun. He crouches as he dashes across a narrow berm of dirt, separating two rice paddies. He hates being out in the open like this. He knows from Henry Muller's intelligence reports that there's a machine gun nest 100 yards ahead, and any Japanese troops on patrol could easily spot him and raise an alarm, or shoot him dead. Thankfully, it's just 50 feet across the berm. He ducks into a stand of trees at the far end. Then he turns and waves for the other 15 members of his team to follow, three fellow scouts and a dozen guerrillas.

18:36He checks his watch. It's 6 a.m. on February 23rd, 1945, one hour before the start of the raid on Los Baños. The camp lies two miles away. While Santos waits for his team members to cross the berm, he goes over the last part of today's plan. Thankfully, the wind finally picked up last night and pushed their boat across the lake. Ashore, they met up with a group of local guerrillas. The second and third boats, with the rest of Santos' team, took hours longer to arrive. But they're all here now, approaching the camp from different directions. If everything is going according to plan, the two other parts of this operation are in motion.

19:22The paratroopers to aid the scouts, and the amphibious vehicles to evacuate the prisoners. But it all starts with Santos and his men. Just then, Santos hears a splash. He whips his head around. The last gorilla has slipped on the muddy berm and tumbled into the rice paddy. The noise might as well be a cannon shot in the still morning. Santos swings his rifle up, ready to fire. But nothing happens. Santos can't understand it. Surely the troops in the machine gun nest heard. With hand signals, he tells his men to stay put. and creeps forward to investigate. The nest soon comes into view. It's a mound of dirt that looks completely natural from the front, except for a menacing slit for the machine gun's barrel to fire bullets through.

20:17Santos scans the ground ahead. He can't afford to snap a twig or crunch a dry leaf. Meanwhile, his ears remain cocked for any sound from the nest. Slowly, he circles around and peeks in the entrance. The sight startles him. There's a single Japanese guard inside, and he's fast asleep. Santos unsheathes the knife dangling from his belt. He'll slit the man's throat. Then he catches sight of something. There's a wire on the ground, leading to a field telephone inside the nest. What if the guards at Los Baños call this soldier to check in? If he doesn't pick up, they'll know something is wrong. Santos and his team would lose the element of surprise.

21:07Santos spends several seconds agonizing over what to do. Then he sheathes his knife. He pads back out of the nest to grab his men, leaving the Japanese soldier to doze on.

21:23Nurse Mary Rose Harrington yawns and rubs her eyes as her shift finally comes to a close. It's 7 a.m., and between taking care of the fussy babies and two patients passing away, it's been a long 12 hours. Part of her wishes that she were numb to all the death, but it hasn't happened yet. Each passing still hurts, partly because it reminds her of her own, impending death. Her last task involves hanging some old, dirty bandages up to dry. Not that anything ever really gets dry in the humidity here. She grabs the basket and heads outside to the laundry line. Over on the athletic field, she sees the Japanese guards exercising in their underwear, grunting as they go through drills.

22:13As Harrington finishes up, she hears the drone of a plane and looks skyward. She's seen probably a hundred planes over the past month, and the excitement has long since worn off. But this time is different. Objects are falling from the belly of the plane. Harrington stiffens in fear. Are they being bombed? But no, it can't be that. The objects are falling too slowly for bombs. In fact, they're on parachutes. Maybe it's care packages of food. What a godsend that would be. The problem is, the objects are falling at least half a mile away. The sight deflates Harrington. How could the pilots be so off-mark?

22:59It's too painful to think about. Harrington is about to turn away when she notices something. The supposed care packages seem to be moving. She squints up, and now she's sure of it. They're not packages. They're soldiers. What's going on? But she has no time to think. A second later, gunfire explodes behind her.

23:31Army scout Terry Santos takes a running leap and scrambles up the eight-foot-high barbed wire fence surrounding the Los Baños prison camp. He swings himself over and drops to the dirt on the other side. He's in. He hears machine gun fire. Other scouts are attacking the Japanese soldier's standing guard. Santos ducks between two classroom buildings, then drops to his knees and peeks around the corner. He spots two Japanese guards. He fires and watches as they collapse to the ground. Then he runs toward the athletic field, where the guards should be doing their daily exercises, per the intelligence breathing.

24:13More specifically, he needs to reach the shed where they keep their rifles. Santos can't afford to let the guards reach them first. But as he approaches the field, Santos sees another scout closing in on the shed himself. He's just yards away. Sprinting after him are a hundred nearly naked Japanese soldiers, but in their bare feet, they're losing ground. Before Santos can register just how bizarre this spectacle is, the scout yanks a grenade off his belt and pulls the pin. He then tosses it into a gap near the roof of the shed. A few seconds later, the shed explodes in a fireball. Santos pumps his fist with excitement.

24:57Between this and the guards that his team is taking out, the armed resistance has been snuffed out. The Japanese guards that were chasing after the other scout now turn to flee. They're not getting far, though. Other scouts and guerrillas pick them off. Santos is thrilled. But a noise distracts him. From the small bunker to his left, a few Japanese guards have opened fire with a light machine gun. Two fellow scouts tumble to the ground, one screaming. Santos takes off running toward the bunker. He ducks into a patch of tall grass just to the side of the bunker. keeping his head low. Through an opening in the concrete structure, he can make out two Japanese guards inside, chatting excitedly and pointing at targets.

25:47But they don't seem to have noticed Santos, and he doubts they can hear him over the gunfire. So he pulls a grenade from his belt and hurries forward. Ten yards away, he pulls the pin, counts to three, and lobs the grenade underhand toward the opening. It's a perfect toss, hitting one guard in the head. Santos hurls himself to the ground and covers his ears. After the explosion, he peeks up. The bunker is a blackened pile of rubble. There's no way the guards survived that. Santos hurries forward to where the two American scouts fell. Thankfully, their injuries aren't fatal. One was merely grazed by a bullet.

26:32The other got hit in the shoulder, but the bullet passed through. Santos turns and runs the other direction. His main objective now is to evacuate all the prisoners before the 8 ,000 Japanese troops in the area converge on the camp. From his briefings last week, Santos knows where the barracks are. He barges into one. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dark. But then, he sees several dozen people huddled together, are staring at him, terrified. Santos beckons for them to come forward. I'm a U.S. soldier. Come on, we've got to get out of here. He expects them to cheer, then rush past him to the door.

27:14Instead, they just look at him, vacantly. One rail-thin man points to Santos' head. Why is your helmet shaped like that? I don't remember U.S. troops wearing those. My helmet? I don't know. They changed the design last year. Now let's go. The prisoners still don't move. A woman calls out to him. How do we know you're not Japanese? Listen to my accent. I'm as American as Abe Lincoln, and there are 8 ,000 Japanese soldiers nearby. If we don't move soon, they're going to hunt you down. Now go. This finally gets people moving. But instead of leaving everything behind, the prisoners start to pack. They gather up filthy, ragged clothes and worn trinkets.

28:01Santos can't believe it. A few even try to take their soiled mattresses along. When he yanks them away, they howl in protest. No matter what he says, they won't hurry. Santos runs to the door to summon other scouts. I need help in here. We've got to get these people moving. He realizes that these prisoners are so traumatized that they're not thinking clearly. So far, the Japanese guards have proved little match for the American troops. But there are thousands of Japanese reinforcements headed their way. And every second counts.