Soviet Union

Remembering Simo Häyhä, The Deadliest Sniper in History

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the passing of the deadliest sniper in history. During the Ruso-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40, Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper and competitive shooter, racked up 505 confirmed kills, some put the number as high as 542 in just 100 days of combat.

The Finnish soldiers called him “The Magical Shooter”, the Soviet soldiers had a more apt nickname for him. They called him the “White Death”.

After being seriously wounded in the war, Häyhä would live quietly as a farmer until he passed away in 2002 at the age of 96.

Early Life:

Häyhä was born on December 17, 1905, in Rautjärvi, Viipuri Province, Finland, in a Lutheran heritage family of farmers as the second youngest among eight children.

Prior to joining the military, he was an accomplished hunter, shooter, and skier although he made his living as a farmer. He first joined the Finnish military in 1925 at age 17 as a member of the Finnish voluntary militia White Guard (Suojeluskunta), similar to the U.S. National Guard.

After his service, he returned to farming but he purchased his issued rifle, as Finnish soldiers were given the option to, an early series SAKO M/28-30 (Sn.35281/Civil Guard district number S60974). The rifle was a Finnish variant of the Mosin–Nagant rifle, known as “Pystykorva”, the Spitz, chambered in the Finnish Mosin–Nagant cartridge 7.62×53R. The Finns nicknamed it “The Spitz” since the front sight resembled a Spitz dog breed.

Häyhä lived near the Finnish base and was a frequent competitor in the shooting sports that the Finns would conduct there. And reportedly, his house was full of competitive shooting trophies. He was able to shoot and hit 16 targets at about 150 meters in a minute using a bolt-action rifle.

War With the Soviet Union:

The Russians wanted a war with Finland and tried to provoke the Finns in late November 1939 with a massive artillery bombardment of the border. Josef Stalin tried to blame the Finns for some untold “aggression” which fooled no one in the rest of the world.

On November 30, the Soviets invaded Finland with over 160,000 troops. Although severely outnumbered, the Finns were well led and prepared. Stalin had purged his officer corps in 1937 and executed thousands of his officers. The result was he had politically loyal but tactically inept leaders. And they would pay the price in Finland.

Another factor was the Russians weren’t prepared for the winter war. Their troops wore the green greatcoat of the military. This made them stand out perfectly, silhouetted against the white snow. It made snipers like Häyhä pick them off with ridiculous ease.

With the cold, ranging from -20C to -40C, the Finns would allow the Soviets to attack on the roads and then envelop them and attack from the rear, causing huge casualties. Häyhä was called back into service, serving under the 6th Company of JR 34 on the Kollaa River.

At one point Häyhä and his fellow troops, just 32 in all were facing 4000 Soviet troops. And amazingly enough, they held their ground. In the early days of the fighting, a Soviet sniper had killed three junior platoon leaders and an NCO. Häyhä’s platoon leader told him to take out the sniper.

As the sun was setting, the Soviet sniper considered the day’s fighting done and carelessly abandoned his position. As he did so, the fading sunlight glinted off his sniper scope. Häyhä put a round right thru his face. Later another Soviet sniper kept his unit pinned down, once again, Häyhä was summoned for and began to search out his quarry. Using another Finnish lieutenant as a spotter, Häyhä took him out with a single shot from 400 meters.

Soviet commanders then sent a countersniper out to get him but he too was dispatched with a single shot. The Soviets answered with a mortar barrage down on Häyhä’s position. When he began to take out the Soviet artillery spotters with ease, they unleashed a massive artillery barrage on the Finnish positions.

Unlike most snipers, Häyhä didn’t fire from the prone position, he preferred sitting up. He was a diminutive 5’3, so still didn’t offer a big target. But he’d pile up the snow in front of him and then pack down or pour water on the snow in front of his muzzle. That way, the enemy couldn’t see the telltale disturbance and blasting of the snow.

He’d place his gloves on the snow and place his rifle on top of them to lessen the recoil. But perhaps the most amazing thing about his exploits is that Häyhä eschewed the use of telescopic sights, doing all of his shooting with just the iron sight of the rifle. He also would fill his mouth with snow, so enemy snipers couldn’t see his breath. In one day he once killed 25 Soviet soldiers.

Häyhä with his precision rifle given to him after his exploits.

A Finnish Army document detailed how deadly Häyhä’s sniping was on the Soviets during the Winter War. On December 22, 1939, he was given credit for 138 kills in 22 days; on January 26, 1940, it mentions the total count as 199 with another 61 kills in 35 days; on February 17, 1940, his total had risen to 219 with another 20 kills in 22 days; and finally on March 7, 1940, on the day after he was severely wounded, the Finns listed the total number of kills as 259 with another 40 kills in 18 days. He was credited with almost the same number of kills with a submachine gun.

Häyhä had developed his knack for competitive shooting with his days as an accomplished hunter to hone his craft in the most deadly fashion. And he had learned to be spot-on with his range estimation, something he’d practiced hard at. With his rifle zeroed at 150 meters, he could estimate and make the changes needed faster and more accurately than his enemy could.

He was a hero in the Finnish army and was presented a special rifle, a custom-built precision weapon gifted by a Swedish businessman and friend of Finland, Eugen Johannson.

The Russians finally got to Häyhä when a Soviet sniper sent an explosive bullet into the cheek of Häyhä on March 6, 1940. It tore off his jaw and most of his left cheek. Amazingly enough, he survived and regained consciousness on the day the war ended. He had to endure 26 surgeries on his face, which took several years. He never fully recovered his speech. Finnish Field Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim elevated Häyhä from the rank of alikersantti (Corporal) to vänrikki (Second lieutenant).

After the war, he returned to farming, becoming a very successful dog breeder and moose hunter, and lived to the ripe old age of 96, passing away on April 1, 2002. He was asked a few years before his death how he became such an expert sniper…he replied, “practice.”

Photos: Wikipedia, Video: Weird History/YouTube.com

On This Date, in1941, Operation Barbarossa, Germany Invades USSR

“When the attack on Russia starts, the world will hold its breath” Hitler

In June of 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. The Germans had the largest invasion force in history with about 4 million men in the attacking force. They attacked along a 2900 mile front, with about 600,000 vehicles and another 600,000 horses.

The initially obliterated the unprepared Soviet Red Army and took nearly 5,000,000 prisoners, most of whom never lived thru captivity. Nearly 3.3 million Russian prisoners died in captivity under the German rule, who regarded them as lesser human beings.

And when the Germans did attack, Josef Stalin was in a quandary of his own making. He had purged the Red Army in the late 1930s of nearly every effective leader in the military. Between 1937-39, Stalin obliterated his own High Command to preserve his own hold on power. The Soviet High Command did not owe their positions of power to Stalin, therefore they must be removed. And that he did. Three out of five Marshals, 11 deputy commissars of defense, 13 of 15 Army commanders and every military district commander including all of the naval and air force commanders were shot or disappeared without a trace.

Combined with a modernization program that wasn’t yet completed, the Soviet Union couldn’t have been more unprepared for war with Germany as she was in June 1941. The old cavalry officers ran the army, they had aligned themselves with Stalin during the Revolution and now enjoyed favored status. Discipline was rigid, harsh and based on fear. So, the key of any military force, initiative, suffered mightily. Absolute adherence to orders was the rule of the day.

Yet the Red Army was massive. In June of 1941, they had 151 rifle divisions, 32 cavalry divisions, 38 mechanized brigades and a fleet of 12,000 aircraft. The navy consisted of four fleets and three flotillas.

One area that Red Army was quickly modernizing in was their armament industries. They had the year before begun fielding, albeit in very few numbers the very good KV-1 and the outstanding T-34. Both fielded 76mm guns and were easily a match for anything the Germans would throw at them in the summer of 1941. In the air, the Soviets began building the excellent ground-attack aircraft, the IL-2, the “Sturmovik”.

For the Germans, the pact with the Soviets was always seen as temporary and one of convenience. Hitler had never wavered from his belief that the “Russians would have to be dealt with” when discussing it with his generals. The summer of 1940, the time was ripe but for the holdout of Great Britain,

The German blitzkrieg has smashed the armies of the French, Belgians, and Dutch as well as the British Expeditionary Force. But instead of suing for peace, Britain was fiercely holding out and that would throw his plans into a holding pattern. But the plans, which took many months were finalized and the troops slowly eased into position for the attack which was to begin at 0300 on Sunday, June 22, 1941.

Barbarossa: June 22, the longest day of the year, where the Germans attacked from the Baltic to the Carpathians and absolutely stunned the Russians who were taken completely by surprise. The German troops consisted of three major army groups. Army Group North under Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb, Army Group Center under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, and Army Group South Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt.

In the German Army Group Center, progress was very quick. The Russians had no cohesion or organized defenses. Most of the bridges over the Bug River were captured intact. The Germans were surprised by the lack of the Russian preparedness.

The massive fortress at Brest Litovsk was taken by June 26. The Luftwaffe, conducted early air raids of the Russian airfields inflicted horrible losses on the Red air force and had air superiority over the battlefield.

The Germans had surrounded a huge pocket of Soviet troops around Minsk. It took until July 9 to clear the pocket but by then, Army Group Center had destroyed 22 infantry divisions, 3 cavalry divisions, seven armored divisions and six motorized brigades. The Germans also captured 2500 tanks, 1400 guns, 250 aircraft and 300,000 men.

The Russian bombers far from the frontier had escaped the early German raids and in accordance with their rigid doctrine took off for the front where they were savaged by the German fighters. Over 500 were shot down. In the first two days of fighting, the Russians lost 2000 aircraft.

In Army Group North, the Germans moved around Leningrad and determined to take it to stop the Soviet fleet, they were stopped and were forced to lay siege to it. It would prove to be a very long and bloody one on both sides.

Drive to Kiev, Army Group South’s Offensive in Ukraine: As the German armies smashed across the endless steppes, Hitler switched the focus from the drive on Moscow, despite the insistence of his generals, to the wheatfields and industries of Ukraine. The battle of Kiev was the largest disaster in the history of the Red Army and yet when the battle was over, the Red Army was still intact and remarkably getting stronger.

With half of Army Group Center swinging around Kiev, Army Group Center moved out from their bridgehead across the Dniepr. It took until September 16 to encircle the Red Army forces around Kiev, but once they did, they hammered the Russians with tanks, artillery, and air attacks.

The vicious fighting left the Soviet troop concentrations smashed. The Germans took nearly a quarter of a million prisoners. Total losses for the Red Army were 452,720 men and 3,867 artillery pieces. After Kiev, the Germans moved into the Crimea where the Soviets counter-attacked with the 9th and 18th Armies. The Germans encircled them and annihilated both. The Red Army lost another 106,332 men captured, 212 tanks destroyed or captured in the pocket alone as well as 766 artillery pieces of all types. The death or capture of two-thirds of all Southern Front troops in four days caused the collapse of the Soviet left flank. This allowed the Germans to capture Kharkov on October 24.

Germans Close on Moscow: Despite the horrendous losses, the Russians still had 83 divisions in the defense of Moscow. But only about a quarter of them were effective fighting forces.

The Germans once again encircled four Soviet armies around Vyazma, the 19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd Armies. And the disastrous results continued. Another 500,000 men taken prisoner. This left Stalin with just 90,000 men and 150 tanks to defend Moscow.

But the Russian weather began to smile on them, in October the rains came and turned the roads into seas of mud. The German tanks with their narrow tracks had trouble navigating the morass but the wider tracked T-34s were able to maneuver easily. This coupled with the German supply lines, stretched to the limit across the vast areas of the Soviet Union was slowing down the advance.

This caused the Germans to halt the advance in order to reorganize. This brief respite was a welcome one to the Soviets. Their intelligence confirmed that the Soviets had nothing to fear from the Japanese on their eastern borders, so they shipped 30 fresh divisions from Siberia to the defense of Moscow. They also added 1000 tanks and 1000 aircraft.

When the ground hardened due to the arrival of cold weather in November, the Germans renewed their attack. They crossed the Moscow canal in an attempt to encircle the city. German reconnaissance elements got within 15 miles of Moscow where they claimed they could see the spires of the Kremlin in the distance.

Another German advance recon unit captured Khimki and a bridge over the Moscow-Volga Canal, just 5 miles from the city. That would be as close as the Germans would get. The first blizzards then hit. The Germans were ill-prepared for winter, the bad weather grounded the Luftwaffe and the stretched supply lines limited any offensive action the Wehrmacht attempted.

Fresh troops poured into the Soviet sector from the east. Their troop strength had swelled to 500,000 men. They launched a massive counter-attack during the Soviet Winter Counter-Offensive. The combination of the winter weather,, stretched supply lines and the fresh troops which it seemed the Red Army had an endless supply, turned the tide. The Red Army pushed the Germans back 100-250 km back from Moscow. The Battle for Moscow was a Soviet victory.

The hope for a quick victory over the Soviet Union was dashed. The Germans lost 830,000 men since the invasion. They were now locked in a battle of attrition with a foe with a seemingly limitless supply of men and material.

Hitler then committed a complete blunder by declaring war on the United States shortly after Pearl Harbor. Now America’s industrial might would be facing the Germans on the Western Front while the Soviets would push them from the east. It was a battle they could not win, as time would play it out.

Photos: Wikipedia

For a detailed account of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, I highly recommend the book, “Barbarossa, The Russian-German Conflict, 1941-1945” by Alan Clark

Germany Planned to Stockpile Vast Cold War Chemical Munitions

The West German military during the Cold War planned to stockpile vast amounts of chemical weapons to stave off a Soviet Union invasion into the west. They also planned on using them, despite long-time denials by the government.

War, Auschwitz, chemical weapons: never again. This was what the newly formed Federal Republic of Germany swore after the horrors of two World Wars. The German Empire had, after all, been responsible for the first ever use of poison gas during World War I, and the majority of chemical weapons were developed by German chemists — including Zyklon B, which the Nazi regime used until 1945 to commit mass murder during the Holocaust.
Yet less than 20 years later, the West German government planned to break this taboo. In 1961, West Germany initiated a debate in top-secret meetings with NATO. It called for the United States not to be the only country with the deterrent and retaliatory capability of chemical agents.
“We cannot do without such a means,” Friedrich Foertsch, the inspector general of Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, said at the time. In the event of a Soviet attack, NATO anticipated a swift chemical weapons strike via the Warsaw Pact countries.
The documents that have now been disclosed and made available to a team of journalists from German regional public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, attest that in 1963 West Germany Defense Minister Kai-Uwe von Hasse secretly asked the US to supply his government with chemical weapons.
The US Department of State, however, expressed serious reservations. “That was very serious business. The political problem would be immense,” remembers Matthew Meselson, a chemical weapons expert who was an adviser to the US government at the time.
“This was a really hot potato, and only the president could decide that.”
Washington considered the proposal in detail but in 1966 ultimately decided against a transfer. The US did, however, leave open the possibility of making chemical weapons available to its allies in the event of a war.
Concurrently, from 1962 until at least 1968, a small group of high-ranking Bundeswehr officers were making detailed plans for a possible chemical weapons attack — on the instructions of the inspector general, and in consultation with defense ministers and deputy ministers. The documents show the military suggested procuring 14,000 tons of chemical weapons for the Bundeswehr from the US and, if war broke out, using artillery and the air force to deploy them against Warsaw Pact troops.

West Germany was forbidden to possess chemical weapons at the time and the recent document that has brought into the light the desire to not only possess but use these highlights the fears of a Soviet invasion back then.

Officially the German government owns no chemical weapons.

To read the entire article from Deutsche Welles, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Irving Isaacson, OSS Agent Who Spied on the Soviets Dies at 102

Irving Isaacson was one of America’s OSS operatives during World War II serving with the Dutch, but after the war, he traveled across Europe and spied on the Soviets. He passed away last week in Maine at the age of 102.

Like his wife, who died three years ago, Irving Isaacson did what he knew to be right regardless of how difficult the task might be and rarely worried about the uncertain future that lies before all of us.
“I was so blessed to have both of my parents. They were both fearless and I think it was the war that taught both of them that,” said Isaacson’s son Mark Isaacson of Cumberland, referring to World War II.
“They didn’t worry about tomorrow or what was going to happen in the future.”

Family members said that Irving Isaacson died at Hospice House in Auburn on Wednesday. The Auburn native and well-known lawyer, whose practice was based in Lewiston, was 102.
His law firm, Brann and Isaacson, still carries on today, a practice that he actively participated in until he finally retired at the age of 95.
Isaacson’s wife, Judith Magyar Isaacson, died in 2015 at the age of 90.
The couple first met in Leipzig, Germany, which had been destroyed in 1945. At the time, Isaacson was serving in the Army as an intelligence officer for the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS – the wartime predecessor of the CIA.
Jutka (Judith) Magyar was a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as well as the slave labor camp in Hessisch-Lichtenau, Germany, where people were forced to work in an underground munitions factory.
After being liberated by American troops in 1945, she was waiting to be transported back to her native Hungary when she met Isaacson.
He fell in love with her on the spot.
“She was tall and beautiful. He was short, rugged and cute,” his family wrote in his obituary. “They were married in the bombed out Nuremberg City Hall on Dec. 24, 1945. They were married and had three children.

Once asked how long they were married, he said, “not long enough.” He served with OSS in Holland with the Dutch, something his son said he loved. After the war, he traveled around Europe and kept tabs on the Russians, befriending many of them during their drinking escapades in the towns of conquered Europe after 1945.

He wrote a book on his experiences, “Memoirs of an Amateur Spy.”

To read the entire article from Portland Press Herald, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

Jonathan Wainwright, Hero of Corregidor, Rescued By OSS August 1945

When President Roosevelt ordered General Douglas MacArthur to Australia to take over command of the Allies South West Pacific Area on March 12, 1942, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright inherited command of the US and Filipino forces on the Philippines.

After the surrender of the American and Filipino forces in the Philippines in May of 1942, the POWs were spread around the Japanese Empire. As the war moved to a close, the Americans feared the POWs were ripe for murder as the Japanese had done to Americans in the Philippines. So the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the forerunner to the CIA and the U.S. Army Special Forces was tasked to rescue Wainwright in Manchuria before that could happen.

The mission was a particularly daring one, the men had to worry about the Japanese forces on one side and advancing Russians who could hold the Americans hostage on the other.

American Defeat in 1942: A third generation cavalry officer, Wainwright’s father had been killed in the Philippines in 1902, his grandfather died during the Civil War. He had the unenviable job of trying to hold Manila Bay from the Japanese with no relief force coming to his aid.

Less than a month later, on April 9, Major General Edward King, unbeknownst to Wainwright surrendered the 70,000 troops on Bataan. On May 5, the Japanese attacked Corregidor and were advancing on a tunnel where 1000 wounded American and Filipino troops were hospitalized.

Fearing a slaughter, Wainwright considered the unthinkable. He’d surrender the troops on Corregidor, but he hoped to spare the rest of the troops under MG William Sharp on Mindanao that so that they could fight on. The Japanese, when hearing this stormed out of the meeting. Either all of the Americans would surrender or none at all. Wainwright gave in and then it was Sharp who was placed in a bad spot. Had his troops continued fighting, he was worried that the prisoners would be murdered.

Wainwright announces U.S. surrender on Corregidor with Japanese censors standing by.

Sharp surrendered as well and the Americans with Wainwright as the senior American POW. Many of Sharp’s men, the majority of them Filipino joined the guerrillas. The POWs suffered terribly under the brutal treatment of the Japanese who considered surrender as unmanly. Wainwright was not spared any mistreatment and suffered along with his fellow POWs.

They were kept in Luzon, Formosa and finally in Manchuria where they were in 1945. The war had turned and the Japanese were in full retreat. And America was worried about her POWs.

The OSS Steps In: In 1945, the OSS had set up specially constructed teams to infiltrate ahead of the allied advance and assist with the freeing of Allied POW camps. They had already used them in Germany but for China, the logistics were much, more difficult in terms of the distances that needed to be covered.

OSS named these six-man teams, “Mercy Missions” and assembled nine teams to insert into China and Manchuria in the hunt for the POW camps. Of these teams, the one code-named “Cardinal” would be the key. Cardinal would parachute into Manchuria, 900 miles from the base in Chunking.

The two atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan on August 6 and August 9 and the collapse of Japanese resistance seemed imminent. The Russians, eager to gobble up as much land as possible, invaded Manchuria on August 8. No one knew how the Japanese army in Manchuria, still over a million men strong, would react.

The team was commanded by Major Robert F. Hennessy. Major Robert F. Lamar, a physician, was second in command. With four other OSS operatives, the men inserted into Manchuria in August 1945 near the POW camp at Hoten. The camp commandant advised Hennessy that Wainwright was not at this camp but at another in Sian, 100 miles farther north.

Hennessy sent Lamar and Sgt Harold Leith an OSS operative fluent in both Russian and Chinese to Sian to locate Wainwright. After a long trek to Sian, the two OSS men arrived on August 19. The then had a confrontational meeting with the camp commandant. But eventually, Wainwright was brought before them.

The general stood before the stunned OSS men, emaciated and in tattered clothing. “Are you really Americans?” he asked. “General, you are no longer a prisoner of war. You’re going back to the States,” Lamar said.

Wainwright’s nightmare was far from over, now he was conflicted believing his country thinking the worst of him for surrendering his troops. He didn’t know at the time that he was recommended for the Medal of Honor earlier in the U.S. but the man who left him behind, MacArthur was vigorously against it, claiming Corregidor should have been held and it was squashed.

Wainwright thought he’d return to the United States in disgrace. He asked a bit hesitantly, “what do the people in the states think of me?” The OSS men tried to explain to the General that he was considered a hero at home, but the general was unconvinced.

Lamar was in a quandary. His radio wasn’t working and the Russians had cut the telephone lines. Worried that the general would be kidnapped by Japanese troops still everywhere, he decided that he’d leave Leith with Wainwright and he’d return by train to the camp at Hoten and try to arrange vehicles to escort all of the POWs from Sian to Hoten for exfiltration to Chunking.

Lamar arrived in Mukden, outside of Hoten, but the Russians had arrived and were in a drunken rampage. They were not interested in helping the Americans at all. Three days passed. Leith and Wainwright believed Lamar was killed before he could report the site of the POWs which included LTG Arthur Percival, the British commander at Singapore.

It was then that a Russian convoy driving American Lend-Lease trucks appeared at the camp. Using Leith as an interpreter, Wainwright explained the dilemma to the Russian Commander. The Russian explained that he was on his to link up with Russian troops in Mukden and Wainwright and the POWs were welcome to accompany them, …if they provided their own transportation.

Wainwright quickly converted from emaciated POW to a General Officer. He ordered the camp commandant to furnish the POWs with the needed vehicles. Enroute the trucks were stuck in the mud. The Russian commander stopped a train and ordered it to take the POWs to Mukden. He also promised to send more support as soon as they reached their comrades.

The train broke down and the men were stuck once again. But the Russian train did arrive and the Russians escorted the men to Mukden, arriving on August 27 at 1:30 a.m. after taking three days.

The OSS men had two aircraft waiting to whisk Wainwright, Percival and a few others immediately to Chunking. There he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal as tears flowed down his cheeks. He was not in disgrace but revered by his country.

He flew to Tokyo where he had an emotional reunion with MacArthur. The two men embraced and shared a whispered moment.

But Wainwright’s story doesn’t end there. On September 2, 1945, with 250 American warships at anchor in Tokyo Bay, Wainwright and Percival stood onboard the battleship USS Missouri. MacArthur stood by a small table with Wainwright and Percival in positions of honor right behind him. MacArthur directed the representatives of the Japanese Empire to sign the formal articles of surrender.

When they had finished, MacArthur sat down and signed the document. He gestured to Wainwright to come forward and accept the pen. A second pen was handed to Percival.

Generals Wainwright and Percival stand behind General MacArthur at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

Wainwright then traveled to the Philippines where he was a witness to the Japanese surrender of the brutal commander LTG Tomoyuki Yamashita. His vindication was now complete.

Congress eventually righted another wrong and awarded Wainwright the Medal of Honor. It was dated September 19, 1945.

Citation:

Distinguished himself by intrepid and determined leadership against greatly superior enemy forces. At the repeated risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in his position, he frequented the firing line of his troops where his presence provided the example and incentive that helped make the gallant efforts of these men possible.

The final stand on beleaguered Corregidor, for which he was in an important measure personally responsible, commanded the admiration of the Nation’s allies. It reflected the high morale of American arms in the face of overwhelming odds.

His courage and resolution were a vitally needed inspiration to the then sorely pressed freedom-loving peoples of the world.

Wainwright passed away in 1953 in San Antonio, TX from a stroke and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

(For further reading, search the OSS website and read an excellent take on the operation in World War II magazine)

Photos: US Archives