Robert Lapham

Robert Lapham (January 1, 1917, in Davenport, Iowa – December 18, 2003, in Sun City, Arizona) was a reserve lieutenant in the US Army in World War II.

A graduate of the University of Iowa in 1939 with an ROTC 2nd lieutenant's commission in the Army Reserve, Lapham worked for the Chicago branch of the Burroughs Corporation before signing up for active duty in May 1941.

He volunteered to serve in the Philippines, arrived in Manila on June 25, 1941, and was stationed at Fort William McKinley.

After the successful Japanese attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, Lapham and his company, consisting of Filipino musicians and military policemen, withdrew along with other American military units to defensive positions on the Bataan Peninsula.

Lapham joined Major Claude A. Thorp in organizing "a raiding party that would slip through Japanese lines", with the objective of sabotaging Clark Field, and gathering intelligence for General MacArthur.

He served in the Philippines attached to the 45th Infantry (Philippine Scouts), evaded capture in the spring of 1942, and organized and led one of the largest and most successful guerrilla armies on the central plains of the northern island of Luzon.

He was promoted to major by war's end, age 28, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross by General Douglas MacArthur.

Lapham was the third person, after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and MacArthur, to receive the Philippine Legion of Honor.

Historian Norling says that Laphams's Luzon Guerrilla Army Force (LGAF) was probably the most efficient of the many guerrilla armies on Luzon.

The U.S. Guerrilla Affairs Division commended Lapham for having the best-disciplined guerrilla organization.

On January 27, 1942, along with Thorp and a dozen others, Lapham slipped through Japanese lines and headed north into the Zambales Mountains.

They attacked a Japanese convoy near Olongapo, possibly killing several soldiers, but failing to capture food and supplies.

They wandered through the mountains for a month, collecting lost American and Filipino soldiers and finally reaching Mount Pinatubo, where they established Camp Four or Camp Sanchez.

The newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel Thorp established radio communication with Bataan.

After the fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, Thorp released his approximately one hundred men from following his orders, allowing them to surrender, stay or follow their own path.

Lapham and Sergeants Albert Short and Esteban Lumyeb, decided they would journey northward as they had heard rumors that Filipino resistance to the Japanese occupation was developing there.

They made it to Lupao when Corregidor, the last American outpost in the Philippines, fell on May 6.

Sergeant Estipona and several other soldiers belonging to the Philippine Scouts reported for duty there.

Lapham left Short and Estipana there and went on with Lumyeb ten miles north to establish another camp in Umingan, Pangasinan.

Lupao and Umingan would be his bases until the end of the war.

By the end of May 1942, Lapham had 21 volunteers and Short had a similar number.

Lapham's Luzon Guerrilla Army Force (LGAF) would later dominate the resistance to the Japanese in the northern Luzon central plain.

In exchange for local support, Lapham promised that, to avoid Japanese reprisals, he would not fight near his bases and that he would control the bands of outlaws and former soldiers who were ravaging the area.

Lapham credited the desire of Filipinos to resist the Japanese for making him decide to become a guerrilla leader.

He said that only a few of the hundreds of American soldiers who escaped capture at Bataan became guerrillas.

Most died or were killed or attempted to blend into Philippine society.

According to Lapham, "Most (but not all) of the guerrilla leaders who died in the war were killed or captured in its first year while we were all learning how to operate. Those of us who had managed to eliminate or chase off spies and collaborators, who had learned how to win the support and trust of civilians, who had succeeded in establishing effective spy systems of our own, who had learned when to hide out and when to show ourselves, and who had been lucky were still alive early in 1943—and most of us then made it to the end of the war."

Among those killed was Albert Short.

Lapham was not a professional soldier and in the beginning had little concept of how to fight a guerrilla war.

He received little guidance from more experienced superiors with whom his communication was sporadic and difficult.

The organization he created was substantially different from those created by more experienced soldiers such as Major Bernard L. Anderson and Col. Russell Volckmann who also operated in northern Luzon.

Anderson and Volckmann established their bases in mountain redoubts, difficult to access and relatively safe from Japanese assault.

By contrast, Lapham established his base on the densely populated central plains of Luzon.

He said that it was much easier to obtain food and recruits on the plains than in more isolated areas.

Lapham compared his role in his region of operation to that of a medieval aristocrat.

The local people looked to him for a range of services in addition to his task of resistance to the Japanese.

His instructions to his subordinates reflect the broad responsibilities he assumed.

His "squadrons" were to "gather intelligence, harass the Japanese, catch fifth columnists and traitors, protect people from Japanese and bandit predation, treat civilians fairly and humanely, try to keep up the morale of all Filipinos, and behave yourself."

His top priority initially was to suppress banditry, thereby winning the support and confidence of the local people.

Like a medieval king, he was constantly on the move from place to place supervising his domain.