From the 1st Filipino Battalion, the 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments were formed in California. They trained with their bolos and brought them to fight in the Philippines
When Bataan surrendered, the men feverishly trained to return and fight to remove the invaders from their motherland.
With General MacArthur declaring his desire to return, the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and the 978th Signal Service Company were formed under the Allied Intelligence Bureau in Australia. Men from the Regiments were chosen into submarine missions to penetrate the Japanese enemy lines and work with the guerrillas in the various islands. General MacArthur mandated the units as top-secret.
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The book Dauntless tells of the secret missions' landings in the 2-1/2 years before the Allies return to the Philippines. It highlights the significant contribution of the Filipino people and guerrillas’ resistance to the enemy and to the planning of the Allies’ return that saved Filipino and American lives.
About the Book
Marie Silva Vallejo is to be congratulated on this extremely important contribution to the understanding World War II in the Philippines. This is the first - and definitive - book length history of Filipino Americans and their units in the US Army, and their contribution to the victory in their homeland. It is a history of their units, their incredibly dangerous missions, and of the men - and women even. Readable, this exhaustively researched and comprehensive work is truly a labor of dedication and love. Ms. Vallejo is in a unique position of having been able to research and write this history, being the eldest daughter of one of the key Filipino officers in the 1st Filipino Regiment, who saw action in Mindanao. With her background and interest, she was able to access hard to find material and interview surviving veterans. This book is full of little-known details and connections, with so much appearing in print for the first time. It will remain the standard for a long time to come. Definitely a must for any library on the Philippines in World War II, for the Filipino American experience and for military history as a whole.
- Ricardo T. Jose, Ph.D
Historian, WWII Philippines
History, University of the Philippines
BOOK CONTACTS
I. MANILA, PHILIPPINES
a. Ortigas Foundation Library +63 9474261432, (02)88088858
b. Philippine WWII Memorial Foundation +63 920921611
II. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, US
a.Eastwind Books of Berkeley +1 510-542350
Email:eastwindbooks@gmail.com
Less than ten hours after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. It catalyzed the formation of the U.S. Army’s First Filipino Battalion to fight for their motherland. Top-Secret missions penetrated enemy lines for over 2 years before the return of the Allies.
"The 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and 978th Signal Service Company were the first and only Army units to undertake such a specialized mission during the course of the Second World War.”
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US Army Intelligence and Security Command May 1985
