Hi,

During the beginning of WWII the US would suffer defeat in the Philipeans and 96 thousand American and Philippean soldiers would be surrenderd to the Japanese. Most of those soldiers would never go home. The Philippeans had the largest concentration of modern Military Aircraft and equipment out side of the US (excluding Hawai). The Philippeans would be attacked 6 hrs after Pear Harbor. MacArthor had fought for his Rainbow War Plan which called for the offensive action by the US forces in the Philippeans in case of war with Japan. He knew the Japanese had airfeilds on Formosa and he had enough planes (B-17s and P-40s) to hurt the Japanese before they had the chance to lauch the attack that would wipe out his airforce..... But he did not send the orders...
He would later change the plans back to the original WPO (war plan orange) which would see the American forces retreating into Batan.... Having changed plans the US did not have time to move supplies and only amunition was moved......
Batan was surrenderd becuase the troops were starving..... they were not beaten.....

I feel Mac lost the Philippeans..... He made alot of mistakes, first loosing his airfoce...... Then guessing correctly where the Japanese would land but holding back his best trained soldiers and only putting poorly equpped and trained Philippean soldiers on the beach.... Lastly changing back to WPO when it was too late...

What do you guys think?

Gray

Gray,
I think you hit the nail square on the head. MacArthur convinced the War Department that he had enough trained troops to fight an aggressive campaign in the Philippines. By November of 1941 he had a large number of Filipino troops but they were neither well trained or Equipped. He seemed to be in shock when the decisive use of the Air force could have been used. He let it mostly be destroyed on the ground instead of attacking Formosa. Wainwrights brilliant rearguard action saved the army in its pull back to the Bataan Peninsula. By then the U.S. Navy was not in a position to resupply then Phillipine army. I think with a few strategic descissions(sp?) the army would have held out longer. But like most Nations who fought the first 6 months of the Pacific war we were unprepared for it. We underestimated our enemy and paid for it.
Some good books are;
"Corregidor the end of the line" by Eric Morris
"Bataan our last ditch" by John Whitman
"Hero of Bataan"(about Wainwright) by Duane Schultz
"But not in Shame" by John Toland
"The Eagle and the Rising Sun" by Alan Schom
"The Ragged Rugged Warriors" (the airwar in the first 6 months) by Martin Caidin
brian

Macarthur is one of the most interesting characters in US History. Some truely inspirational things and other incredibe blunders. Couple all that with an ego the size of China and it made for an interesting century. He blew it in the Phillipines, but his method of island hopping was brilliant. In Korea his Inchon landing was a miracle yet his failure to anticiapte (or accept) that Communist China would enter the war a major blunder. He revised and goverened Japan btwn the wars in such a marvelous manner, yet his ego gave him the impresssion he was like an "emporer" and he sqabbled with the President of the US doing what he wanted contrary to directives from the Commander in Chief.

I've been AWOL for a while but I'll jump back in here. I'm not at all the P.I. could have been held, but I do think it could have been defended better. MacArthur didn't really do as much as he might have to resist the landings in the first place. The Navy isn't blameless as their subs, that should have been more effective against the invasion forces, didn't really do much of anything. I wonder why the provisional tank forces, mainly M3 Stuarts, weren't better used considering how bad Japanese tanks were. All in all a pretty poor showing by all concerned, except the individual soldiers who did their best. I have felt for quite some time that while the Japanese are quite often accused of having "victory disease" the Americans had "defeat disease." They were pretty much defeated before they began because they were so mentally unprepared for the war.

Brian, BSPRU, I'm curious of your opinion of But Not in Shame? I'm NOT a big fan of John Toland after reading his, IMHO, p.o.s. book Infamy about Pearl Harbor. I know that early in his career he was considered a balanced historian but he later veered to what, many people, consider to be a Japanese apologist. I wonder if BNIS is balanced or pro Japanese?

I don't believe that the U.S. forces could have held out indefinately at Bataan. They could have Moved there a 3-4 weeks earlier. Prebuilt some defensive position and moved more supplies in. Forced all civilians out. The Navy could have been more aggressive. Also MacArthurs best ground force, the USMC was left on Corrigedor and could have been rotated into the fighting. And the armored units mentioned could have been used better
Homma was hamstrung when the Japanese prematurely pulled his best troops out for the invasion of Malaya to keep to their timetable. The Japanese had to reinforce the Bataan campaign to finally knock out the defensive positions.
Hind sight gives me a chance to second guess what should of happened.
Toland's book is fairly straight forward about the first six of the war in the Pacific. He paints a more sympathetic picture of individual Japanese then most of his contemporaries.
brian
Another book to read is "MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines" by Richard Connaughton