Battling bastards of Bataan

The Battling Bastards of Bataan A Chronology of the First Days of World War II in the Philippines

JOHN G. DOLL

MONOGRAPH 36

THE BATTLING BASTARDS OFBATAAN

John G. Doll

MERRIAM PRESS Bennington Vermont

2002

The Battling Bastards of Bataan Monograph Series Editor: Ray Merriam The views expressed are solely those of the author.

Fourth Monograph Edition Copyright Š 2002 by the Merriam Press

All rights reserved.

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"Toul Pocket, Bataan" by Stanley Dersh. This painting depicts an ~; American-Filipino counterattack in mid-February 1942 which wiped out the Japanese salients pushed into the American front and postponed the struggle for Bataan for another two months. This painting was later used for propaganda purposes on a U.S. Army poster.

The Battling

Bast~rds

of Bataan

..

Chapter 1 ................................................ 1ntroduction

4

Chapter 2 ............................................ December 1941

9

Chapter 3 .............................................. January 1942 23 Chapter 4 ............................................. February 1942 38

Dedication

Chapter 5 ................................................. March ,1942 44 Chapter 6 .................................................. April 1942 50

To all of the Battling Bastards, both American and Filipino.

May they always be remembered.

We are the battling bastards of Bataan, No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam; ; No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces; No pills, no planes, no artillery I pieces; And nobody gives a damn.

Chapter 7 ............................................ May/June 1942 58 Chapter 8 .................................................... Epilog~e~ Q6 Bibliography...........................................................

68

Addendum.............................................................

69

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-Frank Hewlett Associated Press International

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The Battling Bastards of Bataan

(HAPTER 1

IntllductiaD Today, most people who give any thought at all to the start of the American involvement in World War II, automatically think about 7 December 1941, and Pearl Harbor. From there, their thought process probably goes on to the heroic actions at Wake and Midway and then on to Guadalcanal and the rest of the war in both Europe and the Pacific.

However, there was a much bigger operation that took place during the first few months of the war that involved some Regular Army units, thousands of untrained foreign troops, and even some National Guard units. This was the gallant but futile defense of the Philippine Islands.

The Philippine Archipelago is made up of over seven thousand islands of which Luzon was the most important in the late 1930s. This island is almost forty thousand square miles in area and is largely mountainous with many peaks reaching six thousand feet and some going as high as ten thousand feet. Between the mountains are large flat plains, the most populous of which stretches from the coast in the area of Lingayen Gulf, southeast to Manila.

These islands became an American colony as a result of the SpanishAmerican War of 1898. Promises of independence had been repeatedly made but in the early 1930s the Filipino people were given the promise of total independence by 1946. The political hopes of the country centered upon an ex-lawyer, Manuel Quezon, who became the first president of the Philippine Commonwealth in 1935. It was his job to prepare the country for independence.

Shortly after his inauguration, he went to Washington to invite the American Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, to come to the Philippines after his retirement and help him build the country's defense force so that when full independence did come, the islands would have a proper army. In 1936, MacArthur went into voluntary retirement and became the head of the new Philippine Army with the rank of field marshal.

In 1940, as part of the general call-up of National Guard units in the United States, two tank battalions (the 192nd and the 194th from Maywood, Illinois, Brainerd, Minnesota, and Salines, California) and the 200th Coast Artillery Battalion from New Mexico were sent to the Philippines for what was to be a one year training tour.

But the clouds of war were gathering and in May 1940, the dependents of all u.s. servicemen in the Philippines were ordered back to America. Those who lived east of the Mississippi River were scheduled to leave for New York on 5 May aboard the USS Republic while those who lived west of the river were to leave on 12 May, headed for San Francisco aboard the USS Washington . As was the custom, the officers held a formal going-away party, or despedida, at the Army/Navy Club in Manila to bid farewell to the departing wives. Shortly after it was over, Colonel (later Brigadier General) William E. Brougher wrote what was certainly to become a very prophetic poem entitled "Despedida" : This place is doomed. Termites boring in; A rift appears! I shall no longer stay For I am old and have no single strength 4

General Douglas MacArthur, right, with Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright, on 10 Dctober1941.

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American soldiers move down a street in the Philippines before the war.

The Battling Bastards of Bataan BATAN

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New Filipino recruits being instructed in the use of the Browning .3D¡caliber machine gun M1917A1.

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, Filipino mortar squad assembling an 81-mm Mortar M1 during training in the Philippine Islands in 1941.

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To pit against the thing that's sure to come.

A glorious buenvenida may be held One glad uncertain day, but some of us Who love this grand old Club will not be here.

The whistle blows! I must be going now.

Farewell, old Army and Navy Club, farewell!

Perhaps you knew The Despedida to the ladies was Our Despedida too.

On 26 July 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered that the fledgling Philippine Army (still untrained and more than a little unequipped) be entirely incorporated into the U.s. Army for the duration of the "tension" with Japan. At the same time, Field Marshal MacArthur was recalled to active duty as a major general. The next day he was promoted to lieutenant general, and several months later to full general.

But what was this tension all about? Because of their strategic location, the Philippine Islands had become a focal point for. .the Japanese because if 5

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