Military history of the Philippines during World War II

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In September 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan had allied under the Tripartite Pact. In July 1940 the US banned the shipment of aviation gasoline to Japan, and by 1941 shipments of scrap iron, steel, gasoline, and other materials had practically ceased. Meanwhile American economic support to China began to increase.

In April 1941 Japan and the USSR signed a neutrality pact and Japan increased pressure on the French and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia to cooperate in economic matters. On July 22, 1941, Japanese forces occupied the naval and air bases of southern Indochina. The Philippines was almost completely surrounded.

US Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall stated, "Adequate reinforcements for the Philippines, at this time, would have left the United States in a position of great peril, should there be a break in the defense of Great Britain."

1 The Commonwealth of the Philippines
2 The Army Philippine Commonwealth
3 The Far Eastern Command
4 Naval Forces
5 Mobilization and Reinforcement
6 Material and Training Deficiencies
7 The Japanese decide to attack
8 List of conflicts
9 See also
10 External links

[edit] The Commonwealth of the Philippines

The implications of the Senator Quezon (later President of the Philippines) on the future defense of the Philippines with the establishment was disasterous. In 1931, Senator Quezon, sent a delegation to the United States to petition the independence of the Philippines. This commission was successful in establishing a date for independence to be 10 years form the ratification by the Philippine Senate. However, Quezon rejected this, until finally in order to parlay for a clause to guarantee the removal of all American forces in the Philippines. This clause was included in 1933, and ratified by the Philippine Senate in 1934. In 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was established under the jurisdiction of the United States. During this period of transition, the Philippine Constabulary was vested an ever increasing interest in defending the boarders of the Philippines. The forces of the US Army settled around 10,000. However, the US army had spent millions constructing Forts, and air strips throughout Luzon. This included the Harbor defenses in Corregidor Island in Manila Bay and at Grande Island in Subic Bay. There were also bases at Nichols Air Station, now Villamor Airbase, Nielson Air Base, now Makati city (Ayala and Buendia Avenues lay over the original landing strips), at Fort William Mc Kinley (now Fort Andres Bonifacio, and the American Cemetery), Camp Murphy, now present day Camp Crame in Quezon City, at Camp O'Donnell in Tarlac, and a series of airbases in Pampanga including Angeles, as well as Camp Wallace in La Union, the Naval Station in Sangley Point, Cavite City . Other fields in Tugegarao, Aparri, Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Legaspi, Bataan, and Del Monte in Davao were also built using US Funds prior to the 1935 and during the first years of the provisional Commonwealth.

[edit] The Army Philippine Commonwealth

However, the ever approach date for Philippine Independence and US Military withdrawal was approaching, and this resulted in a draw back of funds from the US Military directly to support it's expansion. Instead 12 Million US dollars were provided to the Commonwealth for the establishment of the Philippine Army. In the early years of the Commonwealth, the Philippine Army was composed of an Active Duty and Reserve Component. However, the Active Duty component was the Philippine Constabulary, which was a para-military organization representing the active duty military force of the Philippines. This was referred to as the 1st Philippine Division later at the outbreak of the war. Further, many of the officers of the Philippine Army and Philippine Army Air Corps came from the members of the Constabulary and Air Constabulary.

[edit] The Far Eastern Command

On July 25 US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson requested that US President Franklin D. Roosevelt issue orders calling the military forces of the Commonwealth into active service for the United States. Stimson explained, "All practical steps should be taken to increase the defensive strength of the Philippine Islands."

The following day President Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets within the United States and issued orders to absorb the forces of the Philippine Army. That same day the War Department created the US Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) command, with jurisdiction over the Philippine Department and the military forces of the Commonwealth. At the same time MacArthur was recalled to active duty and designated as the commander of USAFFE.

[edit] Naval Forces

At the outbreak of war the United States Navy's Asiatic Fleet was stationed at Cavite Naval Base in Manila Bay. Also stationed there was the Offshore Patrol.

[edit] Mobilization and Reinforcement

MacArthur ordered the mobilization of the Philippine Army beginning on September 1. Elements of 10 Filipino reserve divisions were to be called into the service of the United States Army by December 15. Battalions were never organized by the time of the Japanese invasion in December. However, a force of a hundred thousand or more Filipinos was raised.

On August 14 Brigadier General Leonard T. Gerow argued that the Philippine Department could not resist a Japanese attack. He thus recommended that the Philippines be reinforced with anti-aircraft artillery, modern aircraft and tanks. On August 16, MacArthur was informed that by September 5 he could expect the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment (AA), the 194th Tank Battalion (Company B) and a company of the 17th Ordnance Battalion.

On September 5 Army Chief of Staff General Marshall asked MacArthur if he wanted a National Guard Division, probably the 41st. MacArthur replied that he did not need any additional divisions. MacArthur stated, "Equipment and supplies are essential. If these steps are taken, I am confident that no such backing, the development of a completely adequate defense force will be rapid."

During September and October, in addition to the above-mentioned reinforcements, MacArthur received the 192nd Tank Battalion and 75 self-propelled 75 mm gun mounts.

MacArthur strove to reorganize the Philippine Division from a square formation into a triangular formation. This plan involved shipping an American infantry regiment and or complementing Stotsenburg and allow USAFFE control of 2 American combat teams. These plans also involved the formation of 4 tactical commands, each of corps level, along with various additional support units.

By November the War Department had approved additional reinforcements of 1,312 officers, 25 nurses and 18,047. The 34th Infantry Regiment was scheduled to ship out on December 8, 1941 from San Francisco. By December 5 55 ships were enroute from San Francisco carrying 100,000 ship-tons of cargo en route to the Philippines. Onboard were the personnel and equipment of the 26th Field Artillery Brigade, including the 147th Field Artillery, 75 mm, Truck Drawn, Regiment of the South Dakota National Guard, and the 148th Field Artillery, 75 mm, Truck Drawn, Regiment of the Idaho National Guard, and the 2d Batallion of the 131st Field Artillery, 75 mm, Truck Drawn, Regiment of the Texas National Guard. These units were diverted after the declaration of war to other locations.

When the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place, there were several air elements enroute. This included 52 A-24 dive bombers of the 27th Bombardment Group (L), 18 P-40 of the 35th Pursuit Group, 340 tons of bombs, 9,000 drums of aviation fuel. There were also 2 light field ground echelon of the 7th Bombardment Group (H), which arrived in the Philippines and were relocated to Mariveles after the evacuation of Manila. The air echelon squadrons of the 7th were enroute to the Philippines and arrived at Pearl Harbor on the morning of Dec 7 1941 and consisted of the: 9th, 463rd, 492nd, and 493d Heavy Bombardment Squadrons. The air ecehlon was diverted back to the US and then was routed to Java through Australia.

[edit] Material and Training Deficiencies

The Philippine Army received clothing that was of poor quality. Their rubber shoes would wear out within 2 weeks. There were shortages of nearly every kind of equipment. There were shortages of blankets, mosquito bars, shelter halves, entrenching tools, gas masks, and helmets.

During August, MacArthur had requested 84,500 Garand rifles, 330 .30-caliber machine guns, 326 .50-caliber machine-guns, 450 37 mm guns, 217 81 mm mortars, 288 75 mm guns, and over 8,000 vehicles. On September 18, he was informed that, because of lend-lease commitments, he would not receive most of these items. As a result, the Philippine Army was forced to continue using Lee-Enfield and Springfield Rifles.

The shipment of supplies depended upon the US Navy's limited cargo capacity. In September, the Navy announced its intentions to convert three transports into escort carriers, but this was not done after MacArthur observed that the loss of three transports would delay his reinforcements by more than two months.

Then the army approved requests for 105 mm howitzers, 75 mm pack howitzers, 75 mm guns, .30-caliber machine guns, 37 mm guns, 10 250 ft station hospitals, 180 sets of regimental infirmary equipment, jeeps, ambulances, trucks and sedans. By November, there were 1,100,000 tons of equipment, intended for the Philippines, piled up in US ports. Most of this never reached its destination. Meanwhile, the Navy did manage to transport 1,000,000 gallons of gasoline to the island. Much of this fuel would be stored on the Bataan Peninsula.

In 1941, many Filipino units went into battle without ever having fired their weapons. Many of the troops had never even seen an artillery piece fired. The 31st Infantry Division (PA) signal officer was unable to establish radio communication with units in the same camp. Commander of the Philippine 31st Infantry Division, Colonel Bluemel states, "The enlisted men are proficient in only two things, one, when an officer appears, to yell attention in a loud voice, jump up, and salute; two, to demand 3 meals per day."

Training and coordination were further complicated by language barriers. Enlisted Filipinos often spoke one language (such as Bikol or a Visayan language), their officers would speak another (such as Tagalog), and the Americans would speak English. There were some first sergeants and company clerks who could neither read nor write.

[edit] The Japanese decide to attack

The Japanese viewed all the lands of Asia to be the rightful property of the Imperial Japanese Government and the Emperor. The land invasion into Korea, China and parts of Russia which had begun at the turn of the 20th century had been taking an upswing. However, the Japanese had been kept from realizing their goal of unify or dominating the Asian lands by the presence of military foreign military forces in the Philippines (United States), Hong Kong, Malaysia (United Kingdom), and the Dutch East Indies. Japan had hoped that they could strike fast and hold off reinforcements long enough to broker a peace accord from a position of strength such as they did during the Russo Japanese War.

Central to the Japanese goals was taking of all Asian lands, however, to be successful US, UK, and Dutch forces were to be attacked simultaneously to prevent their ability to reinforce and aid their Asian possessions. Pivotal to the Japanese decision to attack was a tremendous need for crude oil as a result of economic sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands were weakening the Japanese economy. The leaders of Japrcean were faced with a choice: End the war in China and their plans for Asian conquest, so as to end the sanctions, or declare war on three large military forces. The current war against Britain, and Holland, and the strain of providing aid by the United States to these countries was seen as an opportunity by the Japanese to extend their "rightful" place as a ruler of Asia.

The Japanese government decided to seize resources under the control of Britain, the United States and the Netherlands. Japan had already placed over ten divisions in Formosa (Taiwan), which was once part of the Philippines. Japanese military planners argued that the British (and the USSR should they decide to declare war) would be unable to effectively respond to a Japanese attack, given the threat posed by the Third Reich.

(See Battle of the Philippines (1941-42) for details of successive events.)