I have welcomed the opportunity to write about the guerrilla phase of Colonel Claude Thorp's life history and I am also aware that it is an opportunity to render honor and justice to the memory of a great man, a hero and a martyr.  Much as my misgivings are that my inexperience and inadequacy in the technique of writing and my poor command of the English Language may not help to do him a hint of justice, nevertheless, I am confident that I have first hand knowledge of the truths and facts and that I and determined to stich to them into the narrative. I know the revelation of the truth will know about his magnificent sacrifice they will never fail to pay him the right homage.

In the year 1940, I was appointed secretary to Col. Claude A Thorp who was then the Provost Marshal in Fort Stotsenburg. Even when the war broke on December 8, 1941, I stuck to my job so that when we were ordered to evacuate from Fort Stotsemburg, I moved to Porac with the colonel on December 24, 1941, where we met Colonel Mario Pamintuan of the Northwest Pampanga Military District who was then a Special Agent of the Provost Marshal. From Porac, Col Thorp, myself and other office personnel, immediately moved to Hermosa, Bataan, and stayed there up to January 7, 1942, on which date we moved to Bagac and Col Thorp continued his work as Provost Marshal of the Northern Luzon Forces under General King. While in Bagac Col. Thorp revealed to me that; he had submitted the idea of organizing guerrilla units to General MacArthur. On January 19, 1942, Gen MacArthur called him for a conference, but it so happened that Col Thorp had just received a bullet wound on his left leg so that he was forced to send Capt. David Miller in his stead, and the next clay, Capt Miller brought him his authority to organize guerrillas and a written memorandum signed by Adjutant General Casey.

On January 27, 1941, we left Bagac, Bataan, for Porac as our scheduled destination was Mt. Pinatubu. With us were four American officers and nine American enlisted men. The four other officers were Lts. Lapham, Cushing, McGuire, and Capt Miller, but Capt Miller was cut off from us in Little Baguio and he was never able to rejoin us.  All the officers including the Colonel were armed with tommy guns and the enlisted men with Garands, Springfields and pistols. Including some Filipinos, there were nineteen men and we were two women when we started our adventurerious journey through the Bataan and Zambales mountains. It tooks us more than forty days before we reached our destination, and during this period, we encountered all kinds of difficulties, shortage of food, water and guides, and most of the time the open sky was our shelter. In the mountains of Orani, we met some civilians who volunteered to guide us through the other side of the Olongapo highway after we explained to them our purpose. Then we met some Aetas who we persuaded to help us carry our supply and guide us. While in the vicinity of Olongapo, we found out that we were almost out of food.  While trying to find out of  the Japs to carry foodstuff to Olongapo late in the afternoon.  Colonel Thorp called the officers to a conference and they decided to intercept the food of the Japs, and they also agreed on a plan of operation. The Colonel divided the men into three groups. He with Lt. Lapham and some men would cover the road, Sgt Everett Brooks and Cpl T. Smith would take charge of the Filipinos, Lt. Charles Cushing and Lt. McGuire would take care of the dynamite and the cargodores. The fighting lasted for more than two hours. As the Colonel suspected, the Japs brought fresh reinforcement, so he ordered a retreat and they retreated to our hiding place. The Colonel was pleased when he found out that he had not lost a single man and he was sure that they were able to kill many Japs. As soon as the Colonel reached our hiding place with the men, we heard big guns around us, so he ordered that we get moving and we walked until four o'clock in the morning. When everybody could not walk any further, we halted and rest. After taking our breakfast that morning, we started walking again, but two of  the men were too weak to walk.  We had to leave them to the care of some civilians.

When we reached Floridablanca, Pampanga, Mayor Benigno Layug and his
nephew, Dr Carlos Layug came to us and Mayor Layug was given an appointment by the Colonel as a guerrilla leader and the doctor was appointed a Medical Officer. The two followed us to Porac. When we reached Baldugan, Porac, Col. Thorp sent messengers to contact Col Mario Pamintuan and on March 6, 1942, Col Pamintuan came with his wife and Mayor Marciano Dizon of Porac. Col. Thorp authorized Col Pamintuan as a guerrilla commander and organizer. That night we proceeded to Mt Timbo and Col. Pamintuan returned to his hiding place with his companions. The next day, Col. Pamintuan came again with Tomas Lumanlan and Commander Francisco Ocampo, bringing with them some arms and other supplies which they gave to Col. Thorp.  Col. Mario Pamintuan continued to supply us with our needs during our stay in the vicitnity of Porac. In Timbo, we also met Eugenio Soliman, a man who before the war was connected in the government administration of non-Christian tribes, the balugas or negritos, and Col. Thorpe also appointed him was a guerrilla leader.

While in Camp Four, Col Thorp reorganized his staff, making Capt McGuire his adjutant and Lt. Lapham his Supply Officer. He also made Col Pamintuan a member of his staff and his right hand-man. The three sons of Colonel Pamintuan, Andres, Artemio, and Mario Jr. were appointed couriers and personal body-guards of Col Thorp. Col Thorp ordered Capt McGuire and some other men to proceed to Mt. Pinatubu to prepare the Camp.

On the latter part of May 1942, a Major Barber of the Intelligence Corps came to join the Colonel's camp. He was with some soldiers and he brought with him a radio set. A few days later, Casto Alejandrino and a fellow Sampang came and volunteered their services, but only after two weeks of observation that they were given letters of authority. These two are leaders of the Hukbalahap's guerrilla faction and, as afterwards, they deliberately ignored the orders of the colonel and their faction continue to abuse their authority, their letters of authority were cancelled in August 1942.

Also, Sgt. A Bruce came to join and he was assigned to take command of a Chinese Guerrilla unit at that time operating in the mountains of Porac.

In the earlier part of May, 1942, a group of seven American Officers who escaped the Japs in the surrender of Bataan, joined our camp and became a part of our organization. These officers were Capt. Barker, Capt. Pammel, Capt. Lage, Lt Col. Smith, Lt. Ramsey, Pvt. Strickland and a Major whose name I have forgotten and cannot just now recall. Unfortunately, Capt Pammel died in camp.

After the fall of Corregidor, Col. Thorp again reorganized his staff and gave the officers new assignments. Capt. Barker was made Executive Officer and was to cover Pampanga, Lt. Ramsey was made District Commander of the Northwest Pampanga Military District and Adjutant to Capt. Barker. Sgt. T, Brooks was assigned in Tarlac, and Anderson was sent to Tayabas, Capt. Bell was given Bataan, and Zumbales was turned over to Capt. McGuire. Col. Pamintuan was made Regimental Commander of the First Regiment of the Northwest Pampanga Military District and later succeeded Lt. Ramsey as District Commaner, and was in turn succeeded by Lt. Col. Francisco Ocampo as Regimental Commander. Capt Wilbur Lage became Adjutant to Col. Thorp, Lt. Frank Young was sent on a mission to Mindanao and proceed to Australia, but we never heard of him since. Miss Lydia Hardin was appointed special agent to the Intelligence work.

In June 1942, Mr. Emilio Hernandez from Macabebe, Pampanga, and Mr. Paulino Lansing came and volunteered and were given authority to do intelligence work in the south and a letter appointing Col. Ramirez as District Commander of Southern Luzon was sent through Mr. E. Hernandez, but it seemed that he did not received the letter of authority, so the Colonel sent Capt. Spies to take charge of the south, but the latter died while on his way to f ill his job. I heard recently that Mr. Lansing was killed in action on November 1942.

Mr. Agustin Capulung was also given an authority as guerrilla leader, and all authority to organize a guerrilla unit in Pangasinan was also given to Mr. Federico Senaco as he was from that province.

On July 4, 1942, Col Thorp promulgated and issued his General Order No.1, setting forth rules and regulations for all authorized guerrillas to follow. On this date he also wrote a message to Australia, sending a copy of the message to Capt. McGuire in Zambales to be delivered to submarine that may happen to call, at the same time he sent the same message through radio. In this message he included his accomplishments to date and recommendations for the promotions of officers and enlisted men.

A general conference was called to be held on August 29, 1942, to be attended by all District Commanders and Squadron Leaders, but on the evening of August 28, 1942, our Headquarters at Timbo was raided by the Japs. The alarm came almost too late so we really a very narrow escape. We escaped to Mt. Punagalun and stayed there for a while.  In that raid, the negrito barber of the Colonel, the houseboy of Capt. Barker, named Tony, and one of Soliman's men were captured by the Japanese. Col Thorn suspected that one of our runners, a fellow name Rodriguez, a tagalog from Manila at this period residing in Sapang-bato, Angeles, Pampanga.  He sold us out to the Japs and tipped them about the conference, but luckily he got mixed up with dates.

With this incident of the raid fresh in the mind of the Colonel and his realization that in our present hiding place, we were still within the range of the treachery that seeked to destroy us, and as previous to this incident, Marcos Laxamana of Sta. Juliana, Tarlac, came trying to convince the Colonel that Patling is the safest place, and also, because the Colonel believed that there was more possibility and opportunity in Tarlac to carry out to a successful realization of his obsession to negotiate with the leaders of the Hukbalahaps for a cooperative and harmoniously planned combined action against the common enemy, so he finally decided to move to Tarlac, despite the solicitous warning of Col. Pamintuan.  On September 2, 1942, we started for Sta. Juliana, Tarlac, with Sgt. William Brooks, radio operator, as our only American companion, besides the Colonel of course. We were met by ex-Mayor Frias told Marcos Laxamana, as well as by Sgt. Everett Brooks who was commander of Tarlac at that time, in Maniangi, we stayed for at least one week and then, we started for our final destination and hide-out, in Mt. Pugadbabi, in Patling. Marcos Laxamana gave us for a guide and handy man Andres de la Cruz.  When we reached our destination and saw the headquarters built for us by Laxamana, I began to feel uneasy for I saw at once that it was not an ideal hide-out. We could easily be surrounded and we had no avenue for escape, as our rear was covered by tall mountains which were almost impenetrable. I told Laxamana about by misgivings, but he soothed me by saying that my fears were really unfounded, because he said that through connections, we could easily learn about future Japanese raids, even if the raiders were still in the town of Tarlac.

A week after our stay in our new Headquarters, I received a letter from Capt Salangsang warning us to be on the look out as the Japanese had already caught and imprisoned my guardian.  I told Col. Thorp about the letter and he said we should make preparations to move to Pangasinan.  But before we could finished our preparations, we found ourselves surrounded and caught by the Japs on October 29, 1942. Those caught besides the colonel and myself by the Japanese were Sgt. W. Brooks, Dionicia Limpin, Pvt. Magat, Fabian Franco, five balugas and other civilians. We were all hog-tied. Later, some Japs soldiers brought in Andres de la Cruz, tied up, but when the guide of the Japs, Andres Ferrer, saw this, he approached and spoke with the Jap Officer in command and Andres de la Cruz was released and they returned his gun to him. They found and took all papers the Colonel had with him.

First, they brought us to Barrio Maanot to the house of Andres Ferrer where we stayed for one day and one night. There we were investigated preliminarily,and I belived none of us revealed anything detrimental to the organization and the cause. From Maanot, we walked for two days and one night to Camp O'Donnell, and then, to Fort Stotsenburg which we reached on November 2, 1942, and, there, we stayed in the Kempei Tai house. On the early morning of November 3, 1942 , ten of us were brought to a house near Barrio Dolores, and we feared that we were about to be killed.  I learned later that the colonel pleaded for us, that was why we were not disposed, but returned to the Kempei Tai.  After a while, they took us to the prison of Fort Stotsenburg. We were placed in small room, five in each room. After a day or two, Mr. Vicente Frias was caught and put in prison with us.

After a few days, I alas surprised to see one of our men, Daniel Hernandez, come in with  Japanese soldiers. I learned later that he was made to be guide in the raid against Capt Lage and other guerrilla leaders in Tarlac, including Sgt E. Brooks, but he had deliberately misled the soldiers, so he was also imprisoned.

After about a week, we were transferred to a bigger room, but Col Thorp and his four companions remained in their small cell. On December 29, 1942, Mr. Frias and the balugas were released. Up to this time and much later, Col Thorp was in solitary confinement.

On January 4, 1943, W. Brooks was taken to Manila, but was brought back to Fort Stotsenburg after a week.

On January 22, 1943, Col Thorp with Daniel Hernandez and Fabian Franco were sent to Manila, but the two Filipinos were sent home. Before he was sent to Manila, Col Thorp was able to smuggle a letter to me.  In this letter, he told me of his suspicion that we were again betrayed by men we trusted, he meant Marcos Laxamana and Andres de la Cruz. This suspicion was confirmed to me by the interpreter of the Chief of Staff, George Isabashi, a Japanese born in the Philippine and a naturalized Filipino citizen. Also later by the confession of Marcos Laxamana to a guerrilla leader in Tarlac, before he was liquidated by the guerrilla unit in 'Tarlac.  Andres de la Cruz and Andres Ferrer are still at large. The Colonel also expressed his wish that I deliver to Col Pamaintuan his picture and identification card which were sewed at the time in the lower fold of my dress.

On February 5, 1943, I was released with the other woman, Dionicia Limpin. I was ordered to report to the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army at Fort Stotsemburg, where I was lectured and given "Spiritual Rejuvenation." I was ordered to work with their propaganda corps by making speeches. In this task, I have learned the practice of the art of deceit, as I had to be careful and using words which conveyed two different meanings.

On February 17, 1943, Sgt. Everett Broods was caught and imprisoned.

During the confinement of Col Thorp in Fort Santiago, in Manila, I have not heard much about him, except the news that now and then he was exhibited in the public to prove that he was really caught, because the people thought and belived that it was only propaganda and ruse when the Japs first claimed they caught the colonel.

Now and then, Interpreter Isabashi gave me assurances that the colonel would not be killed, but would be interned with General King and General Wainwright.

It was a cruel stroke of Fate when one day, Col. Ramirez told me that Col. Thorp, Col. Straughn and Col. Nakar, along with others were executed on October 4, 1943, in La Loma Cemetary, in Manila.

Thus ended the career of a brave patriot who started the underground movement in Luzon, but who was lucky enough to see and enjoy the fruit of his sacrifice, who would have lost the credit that rightfully belonged to him, and the memory of his noble deeds would have been entirely neglected and relegated to obscurity, were it not for the efforts of a friends, like Colonel Mario Pamintuan, of the Northwest Pampanga Military District, who with loyalty and stubborn determination had brought to light the truth about the life of Colonel Thorp and the beginning of the guerrilla movements in the Philippines.

(Sgd) Herminia S Dizon

CERTIFIED =Real COPY OF THE Original CONSISTING OF SIX PAGES,

Albert J. Robinson
1st Lt Inf AUS
24 July 1940'.