3 by 3.5 inches
provenance Morton Cohen
For the first ycarofitsexistence."5217th
Reconnaissance Battalion (Provisional)"
was the designation carried by the outfit
which coordinated teams of communica-
nons. wealher and demolitions experts in-
filtrated into the Philippines 10 support
guerrillasand transmit intelligence back to
Australa.(2) The teams themselves were
composite units, consisting of recon men
drawn from a
"scout column.
* communications experts from the 978th Signal. and
occasional men from Army Air Force
weather units.
Having evolved from the handful of ad
hoe agents who first penetrated the Philip-
pines in 1942-43, the battalion was for-
mally activated in Australia on October 8,
1943. It was renamed the Ist Reconnais-
sance Battalion (Special) on November
20, 1944. Because many personnel moved
to the 52171h from assagnments with the
Philippine Regional Section of the Allied
Intelligence Bureau (AlB) its full story
properly begins in 1942 The Battalion's
history is intertwined with thal of the AlB.which was formed to centralize direction
of intelligence and clandestine operations
in General Douglas MacArthur's South-
west Pacific Area (SWPA).
The Allied Intelligence Burcau
The surrender of Corregidor on May 6,
1942 imposed an information blackout
Ihroughout be archipelago. The global na-
ture of the war led to the eclipse of the
existing Army and Navy intelligence net-
works in favor of the Office of Strategic
Services Yet. Gen. Douglas MacArthur':
"E
paranoia over outside interference in his
own backyard ensured that OSS would
have no place in the Southwest Pacific
Area (SWPA) Thus two months aRer the
fall of Corregidor, SWPA Headquamers
established a parallel organization 10 OSS.
the Allied Intelligence Bureau, to coordi.
nate intelligence gathering in the occupied
Est Indies. New Guinea and the Pholip-23:25
a asmic.org
first tentative missions operated.
The Villamor Mission
The proposed intelligence net could
only be created from Filipino agents, who
would be more able to blend with the gen.
eral population. The handful of Phalippine
Scout and Philippine Commonwealth Amy
troops that had managed to be evacuated
before the fall of Corregidor were a menger
source of recruils
Nevenheless. in January 1943 the sub-
marine USS Gudgeon landed Captain Jose
A. Villamor and his small. hastily orga-
nized "Planet Party'
"al Negros Island in the
Visayanchain. Villamor, a Philippine Army
Air Corps pilot, had won the Distinguished
Service Cross in first days of the war.
Armed with $2.000 worth of gems.
S500.000 US and I S million Philippine
Commonwealth pesos, his task was 1o sur-
reptinously evaluate the pro-American
sentiment in the islands and gauge the
sirength of the guerrillas.
Villamor's fame intervened-
-his pic-
lure had appeared on the cover of Life
:)
