MWSA Review

American Guerrilla is the fascinating, and little known story of Russell Volckmann, a U.S. Army officer who evaded capture by the Japanese when the Philippines fell to them in December of 1941. In the ensuing 3 years, Volckmann managed to raise a resistance army in the mountains, and jungles which harassed, and killed Japanese soldiers, creating havoc, and disarray in their ranks for the remainder of the war, and the reader is allowed to relive his daring adventure by reliving an almost daily account of pertinent events in diaries, letters, and official archived documents.
 
The book is meticulously researched, with facts verified by exhaustive sleuthing on the part of the author. A chronological account of the hardships, and challenges dealt with by Volckmann, and his followers is detailed page after page. The book is not a snapshot overview of this part of the war, but a fine work of investigative history. It is a fine study of the obscure origins of the U.S. army's Special Forces. Highly recommended for military history buffs that are looking for those elusive undercurrents, that are too often passed over in favor of the more spectacular.

Reviewed by: Bob Flournoy (2011)

Author's Synopsis

A main selection of the Military Book Club and a selection of the History Book Club.
 
With his parting words "I shall return," General Douglas MacArthur sealed the fate of the last American forces on Bataan. Yet one young Army Captain named Russell Volckmann refused to surrender. He disappeared into the jungles of north Luzon where he raised a Filipino army of over 22,000 men. For the next three years he led a guerrilla war against the Japanese, killing over 50,000 enemy soldiers. At the same time he established radio contact with MacArthur's HQ in Australia and directed Allied forces to key enemy positions. When General Yamashita finally surrendered, he made his initial overtures not to MacArthur, but to Volckmann.
 
This book establishes how Volckmann's leadership was critical to the outcome of the war in the Philippines. His ability to synthesize the realities and potential of guerrilla warfare led to a campaign that rendered Yamashita's forces incapable of repelling the Allied invasion. Had it not been for Volckmann, the Americans would have gone in "blind" during their counter-invasion, reducing their efforts to a trial-and-error campaign that would undoubtedly have cost more lives, materiel, and potentially stalled the pace of the entire Pacific War. 
 
Second, this book establishes Volckmann as the progenitor of modern counterinsurgency doctrine and the true "Father" of Army Special Forces- a title that history has erroneously awarded to Colonel Aaron Bank of the ETO. In 1950, Volckmann wrote two Army field manuals: Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare, though today few realize he was their author. Together, they became the Army's first handbooks outlining the precepts for both special warfare and counter-guerrilla operations. Taking his argument directly to the Army Chief of Staff, Volckmann outlined the concept for Army Special Forces. At a time when U.S. military doctrine was conventional in outlook, he marketed the ideas of guerrilla warfare as a critical force multiplier for any future conflict, ultimately securing the establishment of the Army's first special operations unit-the 10th Special Forces Group. 
 
Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure in modern military history, his name absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and in much of the Special Forces literature. Yet as modest, even secretive, as Volckmann was during his career, it is difficult to imagine a man whose heroic initiative had more impact on World War II. This long overdue book not only chronicles the dramatic military exploits of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership paved the way for modern special warfare doctrine.