Philippines campaign (1941–1942)
The Philippines campaign, also known as the Battle of the Philippines or the Fall of the Philippines, was the invasion of the Philippines by the Empire of Japan during the Pacific War and World War II. The operation to capture the islands, which was defended by the U.S. and Philippine Armies, was intended to prevent interference with Japan's expansion in Southeast Asia.
On 8 December 1941, several hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes began bombing U.S. forces in the Philippines, including aircraft at Clark Field near the capital of Manila on the island of Luzon. Japanese landings on northern Luzon began two days later, and were followed on 22 December by major landings at Lingayen Gulf and Lamon Bay by the Japanese Fourteenth Army under Masaharu Homma. The defense of the Philippines was led by Douglas MacArthur, who ordered his soldiers to evacuate Manila to the Bataan Peninsula ahead of the Japanese advance. Japanese troops captured Manila by 7 January 1942, and after their failure to penetrate the Bataan defensive perimeter in early February, began a 40-day siege, enabled by a naval blockade of the islands. The U.S. and Philippine troops on Bataan eventually surrendered on 9 April and were then subjected to the Bataan Death March, which was marked by Japanese atrocities and mistreatment.
The campaign to capture the Philippines took much longer than planned by the Japanese, who in early January 1942 had decided to advance their timetable of operations in Borneo and Indonesia and withdraw their best division and the bulk of their airpower. This, coupled with the decision of MacArthur to withdraw U.S. and Philippine forces to Bataan, enabled the defenders to hold out for three months. The harbor and port facilities of Manila Bay were denied to the Japanese until the capture of Corregidor Island on 6 May. While offensive operations in the Dutch East Indies were unaffected, this heavily hindered operations in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, buying time for the U.S. Navy to plan to engage the Japanese at Guadalcanal rather than much further east.
Japan's conquest of the Philippines is often considered the worst military defeat in U.S. history. About 23,000 U.S. military personnel and about 100,000 Filipino soldiers were killed or captured.
Background
Japanese activity
Objectives
The Japanese planned to occupy the Philippines as part of their plan for a "Greater East Asia War" in which their Southern Expeditionary Army Group seized sources of raw materials in Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies while the Combined Fleet neutralized the United States Pacific Fleet. Five years earlier, in 1936, Captain Ishikawa Shingo, a hard-liner in the Imperial Japanese Navy, had toured the Philippines and other parts of the Southeast Asia, noting that these countries had raw materials Japan needed for its armed forces. This helped further increase their aspiration for colonizing the Philippines.The Southern Expeditionary Army was created on 6 November 1941, commanded by General Hisaichi Terauchi, who had previously been minister of war. It was ordered to prepare for war in the event that negotiations with the United States did not succeed in peacefully meeting Japanese objectives. They also included the condition of America's acceptance of their position in the Pacific as a superior force, with the testament of their occupation of China, but they did not get what they wanted. Under Terauchi's command were four corps-equivalent armies, comprising ten divisions and three combined arms brigades, including the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army. Operations against the Philippines and Malaya were to be conducted simultaneously when Imperial General Headquarters ordered.
The invasion of the Philippines had four objectives:
- To prevent the use of the Philippines as an advance base of operations by American forces
- To acquire staging areas and supply bases to enhance operations against the Dutch East Indies and Guam
- To secure the lines of communication between occupied areas in the south and the Japanese Home Islands
- To limit the Allied intervention when they attempt to launch an offensive campaign in Australia and the Solomon Islands via dispatching all the forces stationed in the country and other neighboring nations
Invasion forces
The 14th Army had two first-line infantry divisions, the 16th and 48th Divisions, to invade and conquer Luzon, and the 65th Brigade as a garrison force. The Formosa-based 48th Division, although without combat experience, was considered one of the Japanese Army's best units, was specially trained in amphibious operations, and was given the assignment of the main landing in Lingayen Gulf. The 16th Division, assigned to land at Lamon Bay, was picked as one of the best divisions still available in Japan and staged from the Ryukyus and Palau. The 14th Army also had the 4th and 7th Tank Regiments, five field artillery battalions, five anti-aircraft artillery battalions, four antitank companies, and a mortar battalion. An unusually strong group of combat engineer and bridging units was included in the 14th Army's support forces.
For the invasion, the Third Fleet was augmented by two destroyer squadrons and a cruiser division of the Second Fleet, and the aircraft carrier Ryūjō from the 1st Air Fleet. The Philippines Force consisted of an aircraft carrier, five heavy cruisers, five light cruisers, 29 destroyers, two seaplane tenders, minesweepers and torpedo boats.
Combined army and navy air strength allocated to support the landings was 541 aircraft. The 11th Kōkūkantai consisted of the 21st and 23rd Kōkūsentai, a combined strength of 156 G4M "Betty" and G3M "Nell" bombers, 107 A6M Zero fighters, plus seaplanes and reconnaissance planes. Most of these were based at Takao, and approximately a third were sent to Indochina in the last week of November to support operations in Malaya. The Ryujo provided an additional 16 fighters and 18 torpedo planes, and the surface ships had 68 seaplanes for search and observation, totaling 412 naval aircraft. The army's 5th Kikōshidan consisted of two fighter regiments, two light bomber regiments, and a heavy bomber regiment, totaling 192 aircraft: 76 Ki-21 "Sally", Ki-48 "Lily", and Ki-30 "Ann" bombers; 36 Ki-27 "Nate" fighters, and 19 Ki-15 "Babs" and Ki-36 "Ida" observation planes.
Defenses
United States Army Forces in the Far East
From mid-1941, following increased tension between Japan and several other powers, including the United States, Britain and the Netherlands, many countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific began to prepare for the possibility of war. By December 1941, the combined defense forces in the Philippines were organized into the United States Army Forces in the Far East, which included the Philippine Army's 1st Regular Division, 2nd Division, and 10 mobilized reserve divisions, and the United States Army's Philippine Department. General Douglas MacArthur was recalled from retirement by the War Department and named commander of USAFFE on 26 July 1941. MacArthur had retired in 1937 after two years as military advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth and accepted control of the Philippine Army, tasked by the Filipino government with reforming an army made up primarily of reservists lacking equipment, training and organization.On 31 July 1941, the Philippine Department had 22,532 troops assigned, approximately half of them Filipino. MacArthur recommended the reassignment of department commander Major General George Grunert in October 1941 and took command himself. The main component of the department was the U.S. Army Philippine Division, a 10,500-man formation that consisted mostly of Philippine Scouts combat units. The Philippine Department had been reinforced between August and November 1941 by 8,500 troops of the U.S. Army Air Forces, and by three Army National Guard units, including its only armor, two battalions of M3 light tanks. These units, the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment, 192nd Tank Battalion, and 194th Tank Battalion, drew troops from New Mexico, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, and California. After reinforcement, the department's strength was 31,095, including 11,988 Philippine Scouts.
MacArthur organized USAFFE into four tactical commands. The North Luzon Force, under Maj. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright, defended the most likely sites for amphibious attacks and the central plains of Luzon. Wainwright's forces included the PA 11th, 21st and 31st Infantry Divisions, the U.S. 26th Cavalry Regiment, a battalion of the 45th Infantry, and the 1st Provisional Artillery Group of two batteries of 155 mm guns and one mountain gun. The Philippine 71st Infantry Division served as a reserve and could be committed only on the authority of MacArthur.
The South Luzon Force, under Brigadier General George M. Parker Jr., controlled a zone east and south of Manila. Parker had the PA 41st and 51st Infantry Divisions and the 2nd Provisional Artillery Group of two batteries of the 86th Field Artillery Regiment.
The Visayan–Mindanao Force under Brigadier General William F. Sharp comprised the PA 61st, 81st, and 101st Infantry Divisions, reinforced after the start of the war by the newly inducted 73rd and 93rd Infantry Regiments. The 61st Division was located on Panay, the 81st on Cebu and Negros, and the 101st on Mindanao. In January a fourth division, the 102nd, was created on Mindanao from the field artillery regiments of the 61st and 81st Divisions acting as infantry, and the 103rd Infantry of the 101st Division. The 2nd Infantry of the Philippine Army's 1st Regular Division and the 2nd Battalion of the U.S. 43rd Infantry were also made a part of the Mindanao Force.
USAFFE's Reserve Force, under MacArthur's direct control, was composed of the Philippine Division, the 91st Division, and headquarters units from the PA and Philippine Department, positioned just north of Manila. The 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions formed the separate Provisional Tank Group, also under MacArthur's direct command, at Clark Field/Fort Stotsenburg, where they were positioned as a mobile defense against any attempt by airborne units to seize the field.
Four U.S. Coast Artillery Corps regiments guarded the entrance to Manila Bay, including Corregidor Island. Across a narrow strait of water from Bataan on Corregidor was Fort Mills, defended by batteries of the 59th and 60th Coast Artillery Regiments, and the 91st and 92nd Coast Artillery Regiments of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. The 59th CA acted as a supervisory unit for the batteries of all units positioned on Forts Hughes, Drum, Frank, and Wint. The majority of the forts had been built circa 1910–1915 and, except for Fort Drum and Battery Monja on Corregidor, were unprotected against air and high-angle artillery attack except by camouflage.
The USAFFE's aviation arm was the Far East Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Forces, commanded by Major General Lewis H. Brereton. Previously the Philippine Department Air Force and Air Force USAFFE, the air force was the largest USAAF combat air organization outside the United States. Its primary combat power consisted of 91 serviceable P-40 Warhawk fighters and 34 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers. Tactically the FEAF was part of the Reserve Force, so that it fell under MacArthur's direct command.
As of 30 November 1941 the strength of U.S. Army troops in the Philippines, including Philippine units, was 31,095, consisting of 2,504 officers and 28,591 enlisted.