"It was hell on earth." -Unnamed 11th Airborne Division trooper

After the 11th Airborne Division’s historic landings on Luzon’s southern beaches at Nasugbu on January 31, 1945, the Angels began a mad dash inland to secure the heights of Tagaytay Ridge just south of Manila. It was a sprint which 8th Army’s LTG Robert L. Eichelberger called, “an exploit that (I consider) one of the most thrilling of the entire Pacific war.”

North of Manila in the Pampanga Plains, General Walter Krueger’s 175,000-man Sixth Army had become “bogged down”, and General Douglas MacArthur placed his hopes for a breakthrough on General Eichelberger’s Eighth Army to the south.

While originally a mere reconnaissance in force, the 11th Airborne, supported by various units, fought through enemy defenses in the Aga Pass then up to the heights of Tagaytay Ridge which the Angels in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped onto on February 3, or X+4.

As the Angels spread out to secure road junctions on Highway 17 and patrol nearby towns, Generals Swing and Eichelberger set up their CPs atop the ridge at the Manila Hotel Annex. The two had a decision to make: continue securing the surrounding areas (their written orders) OR continue north into Manila (a verbal proposal given to Eichelberger by MacArthur himself).

There was no question: the Angels would push into the city.

After the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment dropped on Luzon’s Tagaytay Ridge just south of Manila, on February 4, 1945, COL Orin D. Haugen obtained permission from MG Joseph May Swing to lead the division’s push into the city.

“(Colonel Haugen) picked D Company to lead the regiment,” 1st Platoon’s 1LT Andrew Carrico recalled. “And Captain (Stephen) Cavanaugh put my platoon out in front of everybody. The tip of the spear.” Carrico then added with a smile, “My squad leaders all asked, ‘Why do we get all the dirty jobs?!’

CPT Stephen Cavanaugh traveled with 1st Platoon’s Leyte veterans as they were trucked towards Imus with the objective of finding a way across the Imus River. After reaching town’s main bridge, which had been blown, CPT Cavanaugh had 1st Platoon dismount and move west through town looking for a rumored secondary crossing, the last remaining structure across the river that could support the division’s two-and-a-half ton trucks. If it fell, so would the fast pace of the Division’s drive into the city.

Cavanaugh was apprised of an enemy camp in town around 0600 by 1LT Edwin B. Jeffrees of 2/511’s S-2. D Company’s Paratroopers carefully walked along the river until they reached a large walled courtyard containing several stone buildings. CPT Cavanaugh and 1LT Carrico quietly studied the courtyard and observed that it contained an enemy force preparing to depart the stone compound, possibly to cross the nearby dam/bridge before blowing it.

PFC James Wentik, part of the S-2 Jeep patrol which now accompanied D Company, noted, “(The Japanese) were entirely unaware of our presence and clearly did not expect us at that time since there seemed to be no effort toward security... This church yard was quite large and there could have been a couple of hundred Japanese.”

For the Division to successfuly enter Manila, the Japanese garrison would have to be destroyed.

On August 12, 1945, one of the most tragic events in the history of the 11th Airborne Division occurred on what some would consider "an insignificant airbase" at Lipa, Batangas on Luzon, Philippine Archipelago. Outside of native Filipinos, most people don't even know where Lipa is, but over 75 years ago (as of 2021) this event ripped at the heartstrings of an entire division of combat veterans who had already seen so much hell.

The 11th Airborne Division, known as "The Angels", had been fighting on Luzon since February and were heavily involved in the retaking of Manila and then southern Luzon. After nearly six months of intense fighting, the Angels were anticipating final operations as the war drew closer and closer to Tokyo's doorstep. The battle-worn division set up at Lipa to integrate replacements and prepare for a jump on either China or Japan itself. Those anticipations changed after COL Paul Tibbets and his Enola Gay crew dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.

For years now I have been reading and listening to articles and podcasts mistakenly claiming that Operation Varsity (part of Operation Plunder) was the last airborne operation of World War II. While Varsity was indeed an enormous campaign that involved over 16,000 paratroopers and thousands of aircraft, it was not THE last airborne operation of the war, though in can correctly be called the last one held on such a massive scale (Varsity was the largest single-day/single-location airborne deployment in history).

So, if that is the case, what WAS the last airborne operation of World War II? Answer: The 11th Airborne Division's Gypsy Task Force.

Much has been written about the power of faith during times of struggle, including and especially during times of war.

The saying that "There are no atheists in foxholes" holds almost universally true, though the soldiers, sailors, or airmen (or -women) may call their god by different names. It is the provenance of those called upon to fight for their country, or their deity, to find strength in faith (if they so desire), even if it is a faith they had previously forgotten or held with little regard. While in the words of General William Tecumseh Sherman "war is hell", God has the capacity to help the individual warfighter (and civilian) experience the help and strengthening hand of Heaven during his or her service.

Growing up my parents both labored to teach me the value of honoring the men and women who have or are serving in America's armed forces. My father is a veteran of the Vietnam War and my mother is a red-white-and-blue-blooded patriotic southerner whose roots go all the way back to Colonel James Barnett who fought in the 6th and 2nd Virginia Regiments which served under General George Washington during the famous Delaware River crossing at Trenton, NJ when Washington's forces rowed across the river to surprise England's Hessian mercenaries on December 26, 1776.

Colonel Barnett served his fledgling country until the war's end when he returned to Virginia to enjoy the freedoms that he and his comrades had so recently fought for. They were, and are, freedom which many in my family line have served and sacrificed to protect and defend, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, then the Civil War, at the Alamo, and in World War I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond.

While the mighty 11th Airborne Division served with distinction in World War II and Korea, the division's "theme song" did not come along until the fall of 1950 after the Angels had returned to the United States following Occupation Duty in Japan. A contest was held to encourage the composition of songs and marches that would become anthems of the 11th Airborne Division and perhaps none of the final four entries is as well-known as the marching-ballad (which I'm sure was sung in bars and pubs by Angels since 1950) titled "Down From Heaven", an original song submitted by Colonel Byron Leslie Paige (SSN 376405509, USMA 1932) of Shelby, Michigan. The music that accompanied COL Paige's lyrics was arranged by Sergeant George Whissen.

The Rat's Ass Charge is the story of one of those incredible engagements from World War II, one effected by a small, understrength and under-supported parachute companies, that equals anything that has been written about the incredible exploits of the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions in Europe.

That is not said to in any way to diminish what the Screaming Eagles and the All-Americans did "over there." Rather, it is only to point out that the 11th Airborne Division is equally deserving of attention, researching, illumination and praise. This is only a small piece of their story.

On Thanksgiving Day, 1944, after a breakfast of cold turkey and rain-soaked potatoes and fruit salad, the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment led the 11th Airborne Division's push westward into the jungles and mountains of Leyte in the Pacific Theater. Over the next 30+ days, the young paratroopers of the 511th PIR would endure the harshest of conditions including hunger, thirst, cold, monsoon rains, Banzai assaults, tropical diseases, blood and death. Many companies went over five days (one up to ten) without resupply and rations and as D Company's 1LT Andrew Carrico later noted, resorted to eating "anything we could find: dogs, roots, potatoes. When you’re hungry you’ll eat anything. Hunger was a constant gnaw in our stomachs."

The Battle for Luzon's Mount Bijang (also Bijiang), located about 40 miles south-east of Manila is one of those obscure combat engagements that the world has passed over simply because World War II was full of tens of thousands of such operations on land, the seas and in the air.

As any military historian (or even casual student) can tell you, these battles were often fought by men, frequently young men, who found deep wells of courage in the heat of battle in a mixture of adrenaline, duty, will, and an unrelenting desire to do their best for their buddies.

The Battle for Mt. Bijang is the story of one understrength parachute company in their fight to take and retain what their company commander called, "an insignificant piece of real estate" against an estimated 300 Japanese defenders. I have heard from the paratroopers who were there, including that company commander, and from my own grandfather, 1LT Andrew Carrico III who was serving as Company Executive Officer at the time and was wounded so badly that some in D Company thought he was killed. The Battle for Mt. Bijang was one of those "small-unit operations" that displays the effects of superb leadership, skilled NCOs, determined frontline fighters and one unit's unwillingness to let each other down.

THE WHITE HOUSE

WASHINGTON

August 12, 1988

It gives me great pleasure to send warm greetings to members of the 511th Parachute Infantry Association as you meet in Valley Forge for your 45th annual reunion.

Each of you has gone his separate way in the world, but--as this reunion proves once again -- your service and sacrifice together forged a bond of fellowship that time and distance cannot break. Together you confronted danger and endured terrible hardships, and together you rose to the challenge; you never faltered. Many of your brothers gave their last full measure of devotion so that others might live in freedom. Your accomplishments in defense of liberty will never be forgotten, and America's debt to you will remain far more than we can ever repay.

While the 11th Airborne Division was still outside Lipa on Luzon in early August of 1945, GEN MacArthur asked Major General Joseph Swing to form part of his Honor Guard for Japan from the 11th Airborne's troopers. General Swing passed word to his regimental commanders in the 511th and 188 PIRs and the 187th GIR to select their best troopers for the duty, with the stipulation that each trooper must be over 5’11”.

SSGT Wilbur Wilcox, a friend of my grandfather’s from D-511, said:

“The qualifications for the Honor Guard were height and combat experience. As the tallest Staff Sergeant picked, and because I had been through Leyte and Luzon, I was placed as the first man in the first rank. As the other men were picked to fill out the squad they were placed according to how tall they were.” Each regiment supplied one platoon of five squads led by two officers with sixty-six enlisted men that would guard MacArthur at the Atsugi airfield, during the surrender signings, at his Yokohama HQ (the five-story New Grand Hotel), his residence at the Sun Oil Company compound and at his home at the U.S. Embassy.

I've received several inquiries lately about what Colonel Orin D. "Hard Rock" Haugen's 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment (and the 11th Airborne Division as a whole) did while they were stationed at Dobodura, New Guinea between May and November of 1944 and thought I would paint a portion of that particular picture here.

When the regiment arrived at Oro Bay on May 28, 1944 they got their first real look at the lush green mountains of the Pacific's islands with a relatively short stop-over in Milne Bay (either at Aihoma or Waga Waga) where the Angels' transport, the much-hated SS Sea Pike, off-loaded some cargo and took on fresh water and fuel. During the activities, the dock workers regaled the fresh paratroopers with stories of the battles for New Guinea which had been raging since January of 1942, over two years earlier. Some of the workers even told the Angels that they daily patrolled the jungles around the docks just to shoot enemy stragglers.

Col. Haugen's cocky, yet inexperienced, boys ate it up, of course. 

After my grandfather 1LT Andrew Carrico of Company D passed away in October of 2016, my beloved grandmother Jane gave me some of his books on military history and leadership. They are a special part of my collection, but the funny thing is....Grandpa really disliked some of them. He was painfully aware of just how few of the tens of thousands of books published on World War II even mention the 11th Airborne Division, let alone his proud 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment (you can likely count them on two hands)

When Grandma shared Grandpa's books with me, she pointed to one with a smile and said, "Andy hated that one. It doesn't even mention the 11th." And as a historian for the 511th PIR, and the 11th Airborne as a whole, I have to agree with Andy. While researching, writing and publishing WHEN ANGELS FALL: FROM TOCCOA TO TOKYO, THE 511TH PARACHUTE INFANTRY IN WORLD WAR II, I found myself disappointed by the lack of media coverage regarding the Angels' history (I admit to some bias there).

One of the most important aspects of the Angels' history that is hardly mentioned anywhere is their incredible landings at Atsugi, Japan between August 28-30, 1945. Apart from further cementing the reality of the war's end, this made the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment the first fully-formed foreign regiment to land on Japan in the country's long history, not to mention the first Allied unit into Japan at the war's end.

Seventy-five years ago on February 23, 1945 the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 11th Airborne Division ("The Angels") conducted their famous raid on the Los Baños internment camp on Luzon, Philippines. It is, perhaps, the regiment's most well-known operation (although their history is full of incredible campaigns). At Los Baños, the Angels were willing to risk heavy losses to rescue the 2,100+ men, women and children who had been prisoners of the Imperial Japanese forces since early 1942, so roughly three years. After the 11th Airborne landed on Luzon in late January and early February of 1945, Major General Joseph May Swing was tasked with effecting a rescue of the civilians held at the camp. The problem was that in early- and mid-February General Swing's Angels were heavily engaged in the fight for Manila and therefore he could not commit a force of sufficient size to conduct the raid for now. The internees would have to wait a few weeks more.

Despite horrendous conditions in the camp under the Imperial Japanese guards, the internees at Los Baños were in good hands, some would even say miracle-effecting hands. No, I am not referring to the camp's abundance of clergy who, after arriving in July of 1944, labored to keep up the spirits (and faith) of the internees (although some refused to help with the sick in the camp). 

"This operation will remain in military history as a classic example of the use of airborne troops to achieve tactical surprise." -Lieutenant-General William P. Yarborough, 1989.

Note: This timeline is an attempt to cover the major aspects of this historic operation by date/time. It will not cover every facet or key player of the raid in detail for to do so would require (and has) an entire book. If you would like to read the full story of this mission, you may do so in my book, “When Angels Fall: From Toccoa to Tokyo, the 511^th Parachute Infantry Regiment in World War II”