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Invasion of the Philippine Islands

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAt the start of WW2, the Philippine Islands were United States territory as per the 1898 Treaty of Paris. The archipelago was home to 19 million people, and was at a strategic location between Japan and the South Pacific. Because of the importance, the retired Army General Douglas MacArthur, currently serving as a Field Marshal in the Filipino military, was called back into service by President Franklin Roosevelt, and was given resources to mobilize Philippine defenses in case of a Japanese attack. MacArthur was given US$10,000,000 and 100 B-17 Flying Fortress Bombers. MacArthur deployed most of his defenses on the northern island of Luzon and southern island of Mindanao, forming what he called "key or base point of the US defense line".

ww2dbaseIn the American capital of Washington DC, Henry Stimson and George Marshall believed that a strong presence of American air power in the Philippine Islands would discourage Japanese aggression. On 15 Nov 1941, George Marshall proudly said in a press conference that "the greatest concentration of heavy bomber strength anywhere in the world" were gathered at the Philippine Islands, ready to not only counterattack any attacks on the islands but also to strike at the Japanese home islands and set the "paper" cities of Japan on fire. When a reporter noted that the B-17 bombers lacked the range necessary for a round trip between Clark Field in Philippine Islands and the Japanese capital of Tokyo, Marshall indicated air fields at Vladivostok would be shared by the friendly Soviet government. Marshall would grossly overestimate Soviet Union's friendliness.

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ww2dbaseMacArthur anticipated Japanese aggression as early as late Nov 1941 when Japanese aircraft were seen over northern Luzon. In early Dec, Japanese bomber formations were observed flying within 20 miles of Lingayen Gulf beaches and returning to Taiwan, presumably making trial runs in preparation for the attack. As a precaution, orders were given to move the 27th Bombardment Group B-17 bombers southward to Mindanao, out of range of the Japanese bombers. This move was delayed, however, as the pilots were invited to a big party held in the honor of Major General Lewis Bereton, an event to be held what was to become the night before the Japanese attack, at the hotel in Manila that was also MacArthur's residence. When the party ended at 0200 hours Manila time, it was 0800 hours at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii when the first Japanese aircraft dropped their torpedoes. As it was too dark for coordinated offensive operations for the Japanese, the Americans and the Filipinos had precious hours to prepare preemptive air strikes and strengthen ground defenses (furthermore, at dawn, an unexpected heavy fog over Taiwan would further hamper Japanese air operations). As it would turn out, this opportunity was forfeited. While Bereton did his best in getting his aircraft in the air to prepare for MacArthur's approval to attack the invasion fleet or the Japanese bases on Taiwan, MacArthur never gave the order. By 1100 hours, American aircraft began to land to refuel, and it was not until then, at about 1120 hours, that MacArthur gave his approval, but then it was too late. At 1235 hours, Japanese Army fighters reached the airfield at Iba on the western coast of Luzon, destroying a flight of P-40 fighters in the process of landing. A short time later, the Del Carmen airfield to the southeast was also attacked, with its outdated P-35A fighters forming little resistance against the more modern Japanese fighters. These attacks would repeat themselves, within days destroying MacArthur's air force. On 10 Dec, with air superiority achieved, General Masaharu Homma ordered the invasion to set forth. Starting on 20 Dec, the Japanese Army landed on Mindanao and then Luzon, quickly capturing airfields and other key strategic positions.

ww2dbaseIn Washington on 14 Dec, Chief of Staff Marshall, who had not seen the Philippine Islands since he was a first lieutenant in Manila in 1915, summoned Brigadier General Dwight Eisenhower to assess the situation. Eisenhower told Marshall, essentially, to abandon the archipelago for the time being:

General, it will be a long time before major reinforcements can go to the Philippines, longer than the garrison can hold out with any dirblet assistance, if the enemy commits major forces to their reduction. Our base must be in Australia, and we must start at once to expand it and to secure our communications to it.

ww2dbaseThree airstrips at Luzon were taken very quickly, while the Lingayen Gulf region fell on 22 Dec. Between 22 and 28 Dec, an additional 43,110 Japanese troops arrived via the beaches at Lingayen Gulf despite poor weather and rough seas. As an open city Manila fell quickly, giving Japan the use of the naval bases at Manila Bay. The troops who landed at Mindanao marched toward Davao, which was captured on 20 Dec. A seaplane base was immediately set up at Davao to provide local air superiority, and then the work to establish Davao as the staging point for the next invasions further south began; the Japanese landing force at Mindanao only consisted of 57,000 men, but it had little difficulty fighting American and Filipino forces.

ww2dbaseOn 24 Dec, 7,000 troops from Japanese 16th Division landed at Mauban, Atimonan, and Siain on the shores of Lamon Bay at eastern Luzon island. The Filipino 1st Regular Division opposed the Lamon Bay landings fiercely and slowed the Japanese advance, but ultimately would not be able to hold the line.

ww2dbaseWhile Japanese troops advanced across Luzon, President Manuel Quezon of the Philippines requested President Roosevelt to grant the Philippine Islands their independence so that he could announce Philippine neutrality. Quezon's 8 Feb message said that:

after nine weeks of fighting not even a small amount of aid has reached us from the United States. Help and assistance have been sent to other belligerent nations,... but seemingly no attempt has been made to transport anything here.... [T]he United States has practically doomed the Philippines to almost total extinction to secure a breathing space.

ww2dbaseDespite the harsh truth told from his Filipino counterpart, Franklin Roosevelt refused the request for independence and neutrality. Partly, Roosevelt turned down the request knowing the Japanese would not acknowledge such a late statement of neutrality. However, he did grant MacArthur the permission to surrender Filipino troops (but not Americans).

ww2dbaseImmediately following capturing key cities, naval bases, and airstrips, nine ships with 4,000 troops departed from the main Philippine Islands for Jolo of the Sulu archipelago on 22 Dec. Jolo would fall on Christmas Day, 25 Dec, providing a forward base for supporting the attacks on Borneo. Another seaplane base was also set up at Jolo to form local air superiority.

ww2dbaseIt was surprising that with MacArthur predicting the attack to take place (though he thought the attacks would come later, in spring of 1942) down to the accurate prediction of Japanese landing sites, MacArthur was unable to react properly to the Japanese attacks. MacArthur was said to be in shock, unable to give commands to his staff officers. When he finally got himself together, he ordered troops to resist the Japanese at the landing sites, which Lieutenant Harold Johnson (later chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff) called a "tragic error". Johnson believed that, in hindsight, instead of putting the inexperienced Filipino soldiers at the beaches only to be routed by the Japanese, they could have had been transporting food and other supplies to Corregidor where they would be badly needed later on. Some historians believed that the stockpiling of supplies on Bataan should had been done even earlier, for the retreat to the Bataan Peninsula had been in the design of the "Rainbow 5" plan all along. ww2dbaseThere were discrepancies in regards to the orders given to the bombers present in the Philippine Islands. According to Brereton, he requested immediate bombing missions to attack Taiwan to discourage further Japanese air strikes, and blamed Sutherand, MacArthur's Chief of Staff, for not giving the authorization to do so. According to Sutherland, however, he did authorize the bombers to launch, but it was Brereton who delayed the action as he had little intelligence on Taiwan and did not know where to strike.

ww2dbaseWith Japanese forces bearing down on Manila, MacArthur ordered his North Luzon Force to fight a delay-action campaign, confronting the Japanese advance troops and slowly retrograding as they destroyed key bridges. The US 26th Cavalry Regiment, also known as the Philippine Scouts, performed admirably as rearguards. The unit was, for the most part, led by American officers but manned by Filipino troops. Fighting on horseback, they disrupted Japanese advances by attacking swiftly and surprisingly, and withdraw with speed before the Japanese counterattacked. On 16 Jan, troops of the Philippine Scouts performed the last cavalry charge in American military history. Troop F under the command of Lieutenant Ramsey was given the order to secure the village of Morong. They were surprised to discover that the Japanese were entering the village from the other side when the American-Filipino force arrived. Without thinking, Ramsey ordered his troops to charge forward. Stumping horses and point-blank shooting drove off the larger Japanese force, and they held the ground for some time before falling back toward Bataan.

ww2dbaseMeanwhile, the South Luzon Force marched toward the Bataan Peninsula with the goal to unite the two forces together for a stand-off at the island of Corregidor. "Again and again, these tactics would be repeated. Stand and fight, slip back and dynamite", MacArthur would note after the war in his memoirs, describing the delay-action retrograde maneuver performed by the North Luzon Force to provide time for South Luzon Force to march northward. MacArthur's hard-drinking General Jonathan Wainwright performed the maneuvers perfectly, succeeding in delaying the advancing Japanese troops under the command of Homma.

ww2dbaseAfter MacArthur's troops retreated across the Bataan to Corregidor, under Washington's orders he left for Australia on 22 Feb 1942. He mistook Washington's intention (and Washington allowed him to misinterpret the messages) that when he reached Australia he would be greeted by a major American army, and he would be able to lead this army and return to the Philippines right away. There was no army, in fact, Australia did not even have enough defenses to protect itself. Upon arrival at Australia, he made the following note to journalists:

The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.

ww2dbaseThough rather casually noted, "I shall return" became the powerful symbol which was the spiritual center of Filipino resistance. "It was scraped in the sands of the beaches, it was daubed on the walls of the barrios, it was stamped on the mail, it was whispered in the cloisters of the church", recalled MacArthur. "It became the battle cry of a great underground swell that no Japanese bayonet could still."

ww2dbaseOn Bataan, the American soldiers felt they were abandoned by their own government to fight a war on their own. "We are the battling bastards of Bataan," they mocked, "no papa, no mama, no Uncle Sam." Nevertheless, they fought valiantly. "They asked no quarter and they gave none.... They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stank. And I loved them", noted MacArthur.

ww2dbaseThe US and Filipino troops fought on fiercely, forcing Homma to pause his offensive on 8 Feb 1942 and request for additional reinforcements, which was approved two days later, and troops of the Japanese 4th Division from Shanghai, China slowly trickled in. The fresh troops, helped the dwindling US-Filipino morale, began to have an effect. From mid-Mar, Japanese artillery and aircraft began to bombard Corregidor daily. On 9 Apr, General Edward King of the US II Corps surrendered all troops on the Bataan Peninsula.

ww2dbaseJapanese atrocities started even before all of the Philippine Islands were taken. United States Marine officer Lieutenant Michael Dobervich, a prisoner of war in the Philippine Islands, remembered his treatment.

We drove along through the very congested road (Dobervich was forced to drive a captured US truck). We saw the beginning of the looting, bayoneting, face slapping.... It was hard to take. The stragglers were either bayoneted or shot.... Americans from general to private had to salute every and any Jap or suffer a blow with the rifle or a slap.... I arrived at camp on 11 April 1942.... [We had to] stand for sixteen hours in the terrific heat.... I saw several soldiers come back from a working party that were dead.... I had ten of my men die in my presence coming back from working parties, too sick and beyond recovery.... At this particular burial they piled about thirty bodies into one large pit.... Before the covering started, one of the dead bodies began to move; it was a feeble effort... to raise its head. The Jap guard ordered this Marine of mine to strike the head with a shovel. He hesitated and that enraged the guard so that the bayonet was thrust at him, so he was forced to obey.

ww2dbaseAs Lieutenant Dobervich would put it, "words cannot describe the conditions (of the camp)". Dobervich's experience was part of the Bataan Death March, a sixty mile march forced upon captured Filipino and American soldiers. 2,330 Americans and somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 Filipinos died during the march up the peninsula, and thousands more in the camps such as the one Dobervich was kept in.

ww2dbaseAt 1030 hours on 6 May, Wainwright surrendered at Corregidor. The last US troops in the Philippine Islands surrendered on Mindanao on 12 May, and organized resistance in the islands would soon wane.

ww2dbaseSources:

Clayton Chun, The Fall of the Philippines, 1941-42

Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences

William Manchester, American Caesar

Gordon Rottman, World War II US Cavalry Units: Pacific Theater Dan van der Vat, The Pacific Campaign

Wikipedia

World War II Plus 55



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