re: Gen. Douglas MacArthur "dug out dug"

quote:

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Expecting an imminent attack by the Japanese and armed with the knowledge of the Pearl Harbor attack, prudent actions by those in command in the Philippines should have alleviated the chance of a total surprise attack in the Philippines, and the initiation of proper defensive, if not offensive, operations could possibly have saved the Philippines. However, the failure of General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), to initiate these and other actions directly led to the defeat of the American-Filipino forces in the Philippines during the initial phases of the Second World War, causing thousands of American and Filipino military and civilian personnel to suffer through years of brutal captivity at the hands of the Japanese.

In a matter of minutes, like at Hawaii earlier in the day, nearly all of the American combat aircraft stationed at Clark Field, the vast majority of the aircraft then stationed in the Philippines, were caught on the ground parked close to each other and destroyed in the first waves of Japanese air strikes, along with many of the aircraft crewmen. Although the pilots of the few surviving American aircraft made gallant attempts with some effect, the Japanese aircraft greatly outnumbered and out-machined the overwhelmed American pilots, leaving the skies over the Philippine Islands in nearly uncontested control of the Japanese Air Forces.[53] MacArthur's refusal to allow Brereton to attack the Japanese air bases on Formosa directly led to the American-Filipino loss of control of the skies over the Philippines.

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While I pointed out his loss of the air forces at his disposal in the Philippines was perhaps his biggest and most inexcusable failure. Even had he saved all his aircraft from the initial Japanese onslaught, the Philippines were still doomed.

1. The Philippines was totally cut off from any resupply due to the Japanese seizure of the islands of the Central Pacific. This fact alone meant that the fall of the Philippines was only a matter of when, not if. But, like i said, MacArthur's actions in the Philippines did hasten the fall. He could have held out much longer than he did.

2. The air assets available in the Philippines to MacArthur were overmatched. He had basically:
4th Composite Group
and
20th Air Base Group
and
Far East Air Force

The 4th had only two squadrons of fighters. One was equipped with the totally outclassed P-35A's and the other the better P-40. The 20th had no modern aircraft to speak of. Only the FEAF could be said to be a decent formation. but even it had less than 100 modern fighters (P40's) and and handful of modern bombers (B-17's). The rest were obsolete P-35's and even P-26 Peashooter fighters and B-18 & B-10 bombers that were not much more than flying targets for the Japanese Zeros.