On this day 75 years ago...Berlin is set ablaze and the Battle of Manila begins

February 3, 1945.

Armed with intelligence that the Sixth Panzer Army was moving through Berlin via the railway system on its way to the Eastern Front, the USAAF promptly launched the largest air raid on Berlin of the war. Thinking that the Germans would use the Tempelhof railyard for the move, the American commanders set their sights on the city center.

Nearly 1,000 B-17s, escorted by 575 P-51 Mustangs, attacked the Berlin railyards just before noon. Utilizing high explosive ordinance, the bombers severely damaged the districts of Friedrichstadt, Luisenstadt, and Friedrichshain. Nearly 2,900 civilians were killed, while a further 20,000 were wounded and an additional 80,000 were made homeless. The fires spread rapidly, burning for four straight days, destroying everything in their path.

By this period in the war, German anti-aircraft defenses had been severely weakened by quantity and quality of ammunition. As a result, only 36 of the nearly 1,600 U.S. aircraft were shot down.

On the other side of the world, General Douglas MacArthur's campaign to liberate the Philippines was (seemingly) reaching its climax with the start of the Battle of Manila. 35,000 men of the U.S. XIV Army Corps (Lt. General Oscar Griswold commanding) converged on the city from every approachable direction. The main Japanese force, aware that to stay in Manila would be literal suicide, pulled back to Baguio City. To hold the city, General Tomoyuki Yamashita kept a token force of some 4,500 soldiers and 12,500 sailors and marines behind as a delaying action.

Yamashita's ultimate strategy was to hold out in the mountains of northern Luzon long enough for the home islands to build up their defenses for the inevitable invasion of Japan. And so Yamashita sacrificed Manila to the Americans in order to fight the final battle in the extreme northern portion of Luzon. Despite leaving behind such a small force for MacArthur to deal with, the Japanese garrison in Manila would hold out an entire month and inflict more than 6,500 casualties on the American attackers. These 16,000+ defenders would be dead to the last man by the beginning of March.

The city of Manila itself would be razed to the ground and an estimated 100,000 Filipino civilians were killed in the month-long fighting.