Philippines campaign (1941–1942)
The Philippines campaign (Filipino: Kampanya sa Pilipinas, Spanish: Campaña en las Filipinas del Ejercito Japonés, Japanese: フィリピンの戦い, romanized: Firipin no Tatakai), also known as the Battle of the Philippines (Filipino: Labanan sa Pilipinas) or the Fall of the Philippines, was the invasion of the American territory of the Philippines by the Empire of Japan and the defense of the islands by United States and the Philippine Armies during World War II.
For the Allied campaign against the Japanese in the Philippines of 1944–1945, see Philippines campaign (1944–1945).
The Japanese launched the invasion by sea from Formosa, over 200 miles (320 km) north of the Philippines. The defending forces outnumbered the Japanese by a ratio of 3:2 but were a mixed force of non-combat-experienced regular, national guard, constabulary and newly created Commonwealth units. The Japanese used first-line troops at the outset of the campaign, and by concentrating their forces, they swiftly overran most of Luzon during the first month.
The Japanese high command, believing that they had won the campaign, made a strategic decision to advance by a month their timetable of operations in Borneo and Indonesia and to withdraw their best division and the bulk of their airpower in early January 1942.[8] That, coupled with the defenders' decision to withdraw into a defensive holding position in the Bataan Peninsula and also the defeat of three Japanese battalions at the Battle of the Points and Battle of the Pockets, enabled the Americans and Filipinos to hold out for four more months. After the Japanese failure to penetrate the Bataan defensive perimeter in February the Japanese conducted a 40-day siege. The crucial large natural harbor and port facilities of Manila Bay were denied to the Japanese until May 1942. While the Dutch East Indies operations were unaffected, this heavily hindered the Japanese offensive operations in New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, buying time for the U.S. Navy to make plans to engage the Japanese at Guadalcanal instead of much further east.[9]
Japan's conquest of the Philippines is often considered the worst military defeat in U.S. history.[10] About 23,000 American military personnel and about 100,000 Filipino soldiers were killed or captured.[11]
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 via dispatching all the forces stationed in the country and other neighboring nations
Solomon Islands
Lieutenant General , commanding general, United States Forces in the Philippines (USFIP)
Jonathan M. Wainwright
Major General , commanding general, Philippine I Corps
Albert M. Jones
Major General , commanding general, Northern Luzon
Edward P. King
Major General , commanding general, Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays/Philippine Coast Artillery
George F. Moore
Major General , commanding general, Southern Luzon/Philippine II Corps
George M. Parker
Major General , commanding general, Visayan-Mindanao Force Philippines
William F. Sharp
Brigadier General , chief of staff to Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright
Lewis C. Beebe
Brigadier General , commanding general, Quartermaster Corps in the Philippines
Charles C. Drake
Brigadier General , chief of staff to Major General Edward P. King
Arnold J. Funk
Brigadier General , deputy chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur and commanding general of the Service Command Area † (died 9 May 1944 in a prisoner-of-war camp)
Allan C. McBride
Brigadier General , adjutant general, United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE)[73]
Carl H. Seals
Brigadier General , commanding general, 1st Provisional Tank Group
James R.N. Weaver
Philippine Constabulary
Headquarters-
Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays
Philippine Division
Provisional Tank Group
[85]
commanded by Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton; also commanded by Brig General Harold Huston George {Killed in flying accident Australia April 30, 1942}
Far East Air Force
5th Air Base Group
V Bomber Command
19th Bomb Group (Heavy)
Day of Valor
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ASIN
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ISBN
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ISBN
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Connaughton, Richard
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They Fought With What They Had: The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, 1941–1942
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ISBN
Jackson, Charles; Bruce H. Norton (2003). I Am Alive!: A United States Marine's Story of Survival in a World war II Japanese POW Camp. Presidio Press. 0-345-44911-8.
ISBN
Martin, Adrian R. (2008). Operation Plum: The Ill-Fated 27th Bombardment Group and the Fight for the Western Pacific. Texas A&M University Press. 978-1-60344-019-6.
ISBN
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ISBN
(2001) [1958]. The Rising Sun in the Pacific 1931 – April 1942, vol. 3 of History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Castle Books. ISBN 0-7858-1304-7.
Morison, Samuel Eliot
Morris, Eric (2000). Corregidor: The American Alamo of World War II. Cooper Square Press. 0-8154-1085-9.
ISBN
Nish, Ian Hill (2002). . Praeger. ISBN 978-0-275-94791-0.
Japanese Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period
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ISBN
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ASIN
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ISBN
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ISBN
Young, Donald J. (1992). The Battle of Bataan: A History of the 90 Day Siege and Eventual Surrender of 75,000 Filipino and United States Troops to the Japanese in World War. McFarland & Company. 0-89950-757-3.
ISBN
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ISBN
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ISBN
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ISBN
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The Fall of the Philippines
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Philippine Islands
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Reports of General MacArthur
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ISBN
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Colonel
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