The Doomed Horse Soldiers of Bataan

Download or read book The Doomed Horse Soldiers of Bataan written by Raymond G. Woolfe and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-05-26 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the last mounted American troops to see action in battle, when, in late 1941, six-hundred men and their horses held off the Japanese invasion of Luzon in the Philippines just long enough to allow General Douglas MacArthur's forces to withdraw to Bataan. The 26th continued to fight on horseback until late February 1942 when, tragically, they were ordered dismounted and their horses and mules transferred to the Quartermaster's center and slaughtered for food for the defenders. It is on record that the 26th troopers refused to accept meat rations from their animals, regardless of their own starvation. This stirring account of a little-known aspect of the Philippine campaign is military history at its best.