Guerrilla Resistance
* Aaron Bank was an Army officer and a former operative in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Movement in the Philippines , the historiography of the guerrilla war in the Philippines is comparatively narrow. Survey texts on American military history often relegate the guerrilla conflict to only a paragraph or two.
Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure throughout modern military history. The Oxford Companion to American Military History and Oxford Companion to World War II have no entries for either Volckmann or the USAFIP-NL. His name is absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and what little history there is on Volckmann is often incorrect or misleading. * Many books cite Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare , but do not recognize Volckmann as the author. Because field manuals are considered “intellectual property” of the Army, their authors are not credited upon the manuals’ release—although the Army does maintain a record of who writes them. For this reason, few know that Volckmann was the man behind FMs 31–20 and 31–21. My contribution to the broader historical literature, therefore, is an account that not only chronicles the military career of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership contributed to the Japanese defeat in the Philippines and paved the way for counterinsurgency and special warfare doctrine.
Research for this project began in February 2007. When I made the decision to write a biography on Russell Volckmann, I understood that there would be a narrow selection of adequate secondary sources. As such, my book is composed almost entirely of primary source material.
The first step I took in obtaining primary source material was to contact the surviving members of the Volckmann family. At first, I had no indication of how much or what kind of material they possessed— or even how many family members were still living. My first reference to this end was the United States Military Academy’s Registry of Graduates and Former Cadets . This is a directory of every West Point graduate from 1802 until the present day. Included with each graduate’s entry is a paragraph that gives: (a) date of birth, (b) date of death (if applicable), (c) all active duty assignments, (d) time of separation or retirement, and (e) the graduate’s last confirmed address. If a graduate is deceased, the Registry gives the names of any known next of kin.
* For example, there are two books that claim Volckmann was in the OSS. This is not true, however, as neither he nor any of his guerrillas ever fell under OSS jurisdiction.
From this, I discovered that Volckmann’s eldest son, Russell Jr., also attended West Point. With his name and contact information in hand, I began the research process by conducting a series of interviews with Russell Volckmann, Jr. Aside from the wealth of information he gave me concerning his father’s life and career, he informed me that the family had, in fact, retained many of Volckmann’s personal effects. Directing me to his son, Christopher, and half-brother, William, he indicated that the family had kept Volckmann’s personal papers, letters, and several newspaper clippings. The most important resource, however, was Volckmann’s war diary . This well-written and thoroughly documented journal is a day-by-day account of his adventures in the Philippines from 8 December 1941 until 16 June 1944.
When I received the diary from the Volckmann family, they informed me that they had never found any entries beyond 16 June 1944. However, after conducting extensive archival research, I concluded that Volckmann simply stopped writing after this date. By June 1944, his guerrilla force, USAFIP-NL, had an effective record keeping system that contained more details than Volckmann could feasibly fit into a journal.
My next priority was to visit the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Arriving at
* Aaron Bank was an Army officer and a former operative in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Movement in the Philippines , the historiography of the guerrilla war in the Philippines is comparatively narrow. Survey texts on American military history often relegate the guerrilla conflict to only a paragraph or two.
Volckmann himself remains a shadowy figure throughout modern military history. The Oxford Companion to American Military History and Oxford Companion to World War II have no entries for either Volckmann or the USAFIP-NL. His name is absent from every major biography on MacArthur, and what little history there is on Volckmann is often incorrect or misleading. * Many books cite Operations Against Guerrilla Forces and Organization and Conduct of Guerrilla Warfare , but do not recognize Volckmann as the author. Because field manuals are considered “intellectual property” of the Army, their authors are not credited upon the manuals’ release—although the Army does maintain a record of who writes them. For this reason, few know that Volckmann was the man behind FMs 31–20 and 31–21. My contribution to the broader historical literature, therefore, is an account that not only chronicles the military career of Russell Volckmann, but analyzes how his leadership contributed to the Japanese defeat in the Philippines and paved the way for counterinsurgency and special warfare doctrine.
Research for this project began in February 2007. When I made the decision to write a biography on Russell Volckmann, I understood that there would be a narrow selection of adequate secondary sources. As such, my book is composed almost entirely of primary source material.
The first step I took in obtaining primary source material was to contact the surviving members of the Volckmann family. At first, I had no indication of how much or what kind of material they possessed— or even how many family members were still living. My first reference to this end was the United States Military Academy’s Registry of Graduates and Former Cadets . This is a directory of every West Point graduate from 1802 until the present day. Included with each graduate’s entry is a paragraph that gives: (a) date of birth, (b) date of death (if applicable), (c) all active duty assignments, (d) time of separation or retirement, and (e) the graduate’s last confirmed address. If a graduate is deceased, the Registry gives the names of any known next of kin.
* For example, there are two books that claim Volckmann was in the OSS. This is not true, however, as neither he nor any of his guerrillas ever fell under OSS jurisdiction.
From this, I discovered that Volckmann’s eldest son, Russell Jr., also attended West Point. With his name and contact information in hand, I began the research process by conducting a series of interviews with Russell Volckmann, Jr. Aside from the wealth of information he gave me concerning his father’s life and career, he informed me that the family had, in fact, retained many of Volckmann’s personal effects. Directing me to his son, Christopher, and half-brother, William, he indicated that the family had kept Volckmann’s personal papers, letters, and several newspaper clippings. The most important resource, however, was Volckmann’s war diary . This well-written and thoroughly documented journal is a day-by-day account of his adventures in the Philippines from 8 December 1941 until 16 June 1944.
When I received the diary from the Volckmann family, they informed me that they had never found any entries beyond 16 June 1944. However, after conducting extensive archival research, I concluded that Volckmann simply stopped writing after this date. By June 1944, his guerrilla force, USAFIP-NL, had an effective record keeping system that contained more details than Volckmann could feasibly fit into a journal.
My next priority was to visit the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. Arriving at
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