1.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
2.
Pacific War
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The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in the Pacific and East Asia. It was fought over a vast area that included the Pacific Ocean and islands, the South West Pacific, South-East Asia, and in China. The Pacific War saw the Allied powers pitted against the Empire of Japan, the formal and official surrender of Japan took place aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. In Allied countries during the war, The Pacific War was not usually distinguished from World War II in general, or was known simply as the War against Japan. Japan used the name Greater East Asia War, as chosen by a decision on 10 December 1941. Japanese officials integrated what they called the Japan–China Incident into the Greater East Asia War, in Japan, the Fifteen Years War is also used, referring to the period from the Mukden Incident of 1931 through 1945. The Phayap Army sent troops to invade and occupy northeastern Burma, also involved were the Japanese puppet states of Manchukuo and Mengjiang, and the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime. The official policy of the U. S. Government is that Thailand was not an ally of the Axis, Japan conscripted many soldiers from its colonies of Korea and Formosa. To a small extent, some Vichy French, Indian National Army, Germany and Italy both had limited involvement in the Pacific War. The German and the Italian navies operated submarines and raiding ships in the Indian, the Italians had access to concession territory naval bases in China, while the Germans did not. After Japans attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war, mexico, Free France and many other countries also took part, especially forces from other British colonies. Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main areas of conflict in the Pacific War, China, the Central Pacific, South East Asia, U. S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War, the Pacific theater and the China Burma India Theater. However these were not operational commands, in the Pacific, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area. In 1945, for a period just before the Japanese surrender. By 1937, Japan controlled Manchuria and was ready to move deeper into China, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident on 7 July 1937 provoked full-scale war between China and Japan. In August 1937, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to fight about 300,000 Japanese troops in Shanghai, the Japanese continued to push the Chinese forces back, capturing the capital Nanking in December 1937 and committed which was known as Nanking Massacre. In March 1938, Nationalist forces won their first victory at Taierzhuang, but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by Japanese in May. In June 1938, Japan deployed about 350,000 troops to invade Wuhan, the Japanese achieved major military victories, but world opinion—in particular in the United States—condemned Japan, especially after the Panay incident
3.
Lingayen, Pangasinan
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Lingayen, officially Municipality of Lingayen is a 1st class municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. It is the municipality and the seat of government of the province of Pangasinan. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 103,278 people, Lingayen was a strategic point during World War II. It is also the birthplace of former President Fidel V. Ramos, the Augustinian missionaries and the Spanish conquistadores drew a plan of Lingayen in 1614 and Lingayen was founded. The founders named the town Lingayen at the suggestion of natives themselves, the tree was exceptionally big, tall, and spreading, that the surrounding trees were just drafts in comparison. Passers-by developed the habit of looking back and back again at this corpulent tree until it would vanish from their rear view, when they arrived home and were asked what way they took in returning they would simply say through Liñgayen. The word Liñgayen was from the Pangasinan language word meaning to look back. Since then up to the present time the town bears its name as Lingayen, Lingayen became the capital of Pangasinan when the province became an encomienda. During World War II, Lingayen was where the Allied armies landed during the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf and its long beach served as runway for several attack planes. It is located along the Lingayen Gulf, the Agno River and it has a land area of 62.76 square kilometers consisting of 32 barangays and also have 7 sitios. Its terrain is flat, suitable for farms and fisheries, Lingayen weather is cool from December to February, warm from March to April, and the wet season is between May and October. Lingayen is politically subdivided into 32 barangays, Lingayen poblacion has two portions, architecturally and culturally different from each other, Spanish and American because of the large influence of both two major colonizers. The older portion influenced by Spanish is located in the southern part, the infrastructure that the Spanish planned was all town buildings face each other around a town plaza. The buildings include the Three Kings Parish Church and the Municipal Hall, the American one built near the Lingayen Gulf consists of many provincial government buildings including the Provincial Capitol and Urduja House, all located in the Capitol Grounds. Agriculture, livestock and fishing are the industries of the town. Major crops include rice, corn, tomato, mongo, watermelon, livestock rising are predominant in the southern barangays where vast, long stretch of pasture lands can be found. The major fishing ground is the Lingayen Gulf within the territorial waters of fifteen kilometers from the shoreline classified as the municipal fishing ground. Fisheries can be found in every barangay, other major industries include making of world-class bagoong and bocayo, vinegar, furnitures, crafts made of bamboo and shingles made of nipa
4.
Lingayen Gulf
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The Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching 56 km. It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union, the Agno River drains into Lingayen Gulf. The gulf has numerous islands, the most famous of which are in the Hundred Islands National Park and this tourist attraction features 123 islands, the majority of which are small in size. The largest island is Cabarruyan Island, which constitutes the municipality of Anda, Pangasinan, the shore from Labrador to San Fabian is characterized by a long grey-sand beach. Other well-known beaches are at Bolinao and San Fernando City, the waters of Lingayen Gulf are murky due to its sandy bottom. Coral reefs were all but destroyed by dynamite fishing, although efforts are made to restore some, a number of cities are found along the gulfs coast such as Dagupan City and Alaminos City in Pangasinan, and San Fernando City in La Union. Lingayen, the capital of Pangasinan, also lies on the shores of the gulf, the gulf has five major river sources. Flowing from the province of Pangasinan in the south are the Agno, Dagupan, from the east in the province of La Union flow the Aringay and Bauang rivers. During World War II, the Lingayen Gulf proved an important theatre of war between American and Japanese forces. Following the defeat, the next day General MacArthur issued the order to retreat from Luzon, for the next three years, the gulf remained under Japanese occupation prior to the Lingayen Gulf Landings. At 09,30 on 9 January 1945, the U. S, on January 9,2008, Gov. Amado Espino, Jr. and Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas established an annual commemoration to honor the war veterans. The resolution named January 9 as Pangasinan Veterans’ Day, fishing and salt-making are the primary industries on Lingayen Gulf. In fact, the name Pangasinan literally means “place where salt is made”, salt is collected from seawater through evaporation, leaving the crystalline salt behind. The Lingayen Gulf is also home to the 1200 megawatt Sual Power Station, the Philippines largest coal power plant
5.
Luzon
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Luzon (/luːˈzɒn/, Tagalog pronunciation, is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. It is ranked 15th largest in the world, with a population of 52.99 million as of 2015, it is the fourth most populous island in the world, containing about 53% of the countrys total population. Luzon may also refer to one of the three island groups in the country. The name Luzon is thought to derive from the Tagalog word lusong, from just before the first millennium, the Tagalog and Kapampangan peoples of south and central Luzon had established several Indianized kingdoms, notably among them those of Tundok and Namayan. The Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the first Philippine document written in 900AD, names places in and these kingdoms were based on leases between village rulers and landlords or Rajahs, to whom tributes and taxes were levied. These kingdoms were coastal thalassocracies based on trade with neighboring Asian political entities at that time, some parts of Luzon were Islamized when the Sultanate of Brunei expanded its realms from Borneo to the Philippines and set up the Kingdom of Maynila as its puppet-state. In addition, other kingdoms like the Wangdom of Pangasinan had become tributary states to China and were largely Sinified kingdoms, certain kilns were renowned over others and prices depended on the reputation of the kiln. Of this flourishing trade, the Burnay jars of Ilocos are the large clay jar manufactured in Luzon today with origins from this time. The Yongle Emperor instituted a Chinese Governor on Luzon during Zheng Hes voyages, China also had vassals among the leaders in the archipelago. China attained ascendancy in trade with the area in Yongles reign, in the 1500s, people from Luzon were called Lucoes and were actively employed in trading, seafaring and military campaigns across Southeast Asia. The Portuguese were the first European explorers who recorded it in their charts as Luçonia or Luçon, edmund Roberts, who visited Luzon in the early 19th century, wrote that Luzon was discovered in 1521. Many people from Luzon had active-employment in Portuguese Malacca and his father and wife carried on his maritime trading business after his death. Another important Malacca trader was Curia de Raja who also hailed from Luzon, the surname of de Raja or diraja could indicate that Regimo and Curia, and their families, were of noble or royal descent as the term is an abbreviation of Sanskrit adiraja. Pinto noted that there were a number of Lucoes in the Islamic fleets that went to battle with the Portuguese in the Philippines during the 16th century, the Sultan of Aceh gave one of them the task of holding Aru in 1540. Pinto also says one was named leader of the Malays remaining in the Moluccas Islands after the Portuguese conquest in 1511, pigafetta notes that one of them was in command of the Brunei fleet in 1521. However, the Luções did not only fight on the side of the Muslims, pinto says they were also apparently among the natives of the Philippines who fought the Muslims in 1538. On Mainland Southeast Asia, Lusung/Lucoes warriors aided the Burmese king in his invasion of Siam in 1547 AD, at the same time, Lusung warriors fought alongside the Siamese king and faced the same elephant army of the Burmese king in the defence of the Siamese capital at Ayuthaya. Scholars have thus suggested that they could be valued by all sides
6.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
7.
Commonwealth of the Philippines
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It replaced the Insular Government, a United States territorial government, and was established by the Tydings–McDuffie Act. The Commonwealth was designed as an administration in preparation for the countrys full achievement of independence. During its more than a decade of existence, the Commonwealth had a strong executive and its legislature, dominated by the Nacionalista Party, was at first unicameral, but later bicameral. In 1937, the government selected Tagalog–the language of Manila and its surrounding provinces–as the basis of the national language, womens suffrage was adopted and the economy recovered to its pre-Depression level before the Japanese occupation in 1942. The Commonwealth government went into exile from 1942 to 1945, when the Philippines was under Japanese occupation, in 1946, the Commonwealth ended and the Philippines claimed full sovereignty as provided for in Article XVIII of the 1935 Constitution. The Commonwealth of the Philippines was also known as the Philippine Commonwealth and it had official names in Tagalog, Kómonwélt ng Pilipinas and Spanish, Mancomunidad de Filipinas. The 1935 constitution specifies the Philippines as the short form name and uses the Philippine Islands only to refer to pre-1935 status. Under the Insular Government, both terms had official status, the pre-1935 U. S. territorial administration, or Insular Government, was headed by a governor general who was appointed by the president of the United States. In December 1932, the U. S. Congress passed the Hare–Hawes–Cutting Act with the premise of granting Filipinos independence, provisions of the bill included reserving several military and naval bases for the United States, as well as imposing tariffs and quotas on Philippine exports. The bill, however, was opposed by the then Philippine Senate President Manuel L. Quezon and was rejected by the Philippine Senate. A Constitutional Convention was convened in Manila on July 30,1934, on February 8,1935, the 1935 Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines was approved by the convention by a vote of 177 to 1. The constitution was approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 23,1935, on 17 September 1935, presidential elections were held. Candidates included former president Emilio Aguinaldo, the Iglesia Filipina Independiente leader Gregorio Aglipay, Manuel L. Quezon and Sergio Osmeña of the Nacionalista Party were proclaimed the winners, winning the seats of president and vice-president, respectively. The Commonwealth Government was inaugurated on the morning of November 15,1935, the event was attended by a crowd of around 300,000 people. The new government embarked on ambitious nation-building policies in preparation for economic, a proper evaluation of the policies effectiveness or failure is difficult due to Japanese invasion and occupation during World War II. Japan launched an attack on the Philippines on December 8,1941. The Commonwealth government drafted the Philippine Army into the U. S. Army Forces Far East, Manila was declared an open city to prevent its destruction, and it was occupied by the Japanese on January 2,1942. Meanwhile, battles against the Japanese continued on the Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor and this government participated in the Pacific War Council as well as the Declaration by United Nations
8.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
9.
Empire of Japan
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The Empire of Japan was the historical Japanese nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 to the enactment of the 1947 constitution of modern Japan. Imperial Japans rapid industrialization and militarization under the slogan Fukoku Kyōhei led to its emergence as a world power, after several large-scale military successes during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Pacific War, the Empire also gained notoriety for its war crimes against the peoples it conquered. A period of occupation by the Allies followed the surrender, Occupation and reconstruction continued well into the 1950s, eventually forming the current nation-state whose full title is the State of Japan or simply rendered Japan in English. The historical state is referred to as the Empire of Japan or the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan in English. In Japanese it is referred to as Dai Nippon Teikoku, which translates to Greater Japanese Empire and this is analogous to Großdeutsches Reich, a term that translates to Greater German Empire in English and Dai Doitsu Teikoku in Japanese. This meaning is significant in terms of geography, encompassing Japan, due to its name in kanji characters and its flag, it was also given the exonym Empire of the Sun. After two centuries, the policy, or Sakoku, under the shoguns of the Edo period came to an end when the country was forced open to trade by the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. The following years saw increased trade and interaction, commercial treaties between the Tokugawa shogunate and Western countries were signed. In large part due to the terms of these Unequal Treaties, the Shogunate soon faced internal hostility, which materialized into a radical, xenophobic movement. In March 1863, the Emperor issued the order to expel barbarians, although the Shogunate had no intention of enforcing the order, it nevertheless inspired attacks against the Shogunate itself and against foreigners in Japan. The Namamugi Incident during 1862 led to the murder of an Englishman, Charles Lennox Richardson, the British demanded reparations but were denied. While attempting to exact payment, the Royal Navy was fired on from coastal batteries near the town of Kagoshima and they responded by bombarding the port of Kagoshima in 1863. For Richardsons death, the Tokugawa government agreed to pay an indemnity, shelling of foreign shipping in Shimonoseki and attacks against foreign property led to the Bombardment of Shimonoseki by a multinational force in 1864. The Chōshū clan also launched the coup known as the Kinmon incident. The Satsuma-Chōshū alliance was established in 1866 to combine their efforts to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu, in early 1867, Emperor Kōmei died of smallpox and was replaced by his son, Crown Prince Mutsuhito. On November 9,1867, Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his post and authorities to the Emperor, however, while Yoshinobus resignation had created a nominal void at the highest level of government, his apparatus of state continued to exist. On January 3,1868, Satsuma-Chōshū forces seized the palace in Kyoto. On January 17,1868, Yoshinobu declared that he would not be bound by the proclamation of the Restoration, on January 24, Yoshinobu decided to prepare an attack on Kyoto, occupied by Satsuma and Chōshū forces
10.
Second Philippine Republic
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President Manuel L. Quezon declared the national capital Manila an open city, and left it under the rule of Jorge B. The Japanese entered the city on January 2,1942, japan fully captured the Philippines on May 6,1942, after the Battle of Corregidor. Its first director-general was Benigno Aquino, Sr, the pro-Japanese Ganap Party, which saw the Japanese as the saviours of the archipelago, was absorbed into the KALIBAPI. However, the Philippine Executive Commission refused this option and chose to make the Philippines a republic instead, during his first visit to the Philippines on May 6,1943, Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō promised to return independence to the Philippines as part of its propaganda of Pan-Asianism. This prompted the KALIBAPI to create the Preparatory Committee for Philippine Independence on June 19,1943, a draft constitution was formed by the Preparatory Commission for Independence, consisting of 20 members from the KALIBAPI. The Preparatory Commission, led by José P. Laurel, presented its draft Constitution on September 4,1943, former President Emilio Aguinaldo and General Artemio Ricarte raised the Philippine flag, the same one used during the Philippine–American War, during the inauguration. On the same day, a Pact of Alliance was signed between the new Republic and the Japanese government that was ratified two days later by the National Assembly, the event was also referred to as the Tokyo Conference. However, the Conference marked a point in Japanese foreign policy. It was also the start of efforts to create a framework that would allow for form of diplomatic compromise should the military solution fail altogether. However these moves came too late to save the Empire, which surrendered to the Allies less than two years after the conference. During his term in office, Laurel was faced with problems that the country was experiencing, such as the following, Shortages of food, clothing, oil. Heavy Japanese military presence throughout the entire region, Japanese control of transportation, media, and communications. Laurel attempted to show that the independence of the republic was genuine by rectifying these problems, prioritizing the shortages of food, he organized an agency to distribute rice, even though most of the rice was confiscated by Japanese soldiers. Manila was one of the places in the country that suffered from severe shortages. The people were forced to cultivate private plots which produced root crops like kangkong, the Japanese, in order to raise rice production in the country, brought a quick-maturing horai rice, which was first used in Taiwan. Horai rice was expected to make the Philippines self-sufficient in rice by 1943, the first issue in 1942 consisted of denominations of 1,5,10 and 50 centavos and 1,5, and 10 Pesos. The next year brought replacement notes of the 1,5 and 10 Pesos while 1944 ushered in a 100 Peso note, in 1945, the Japanese issued a 1,000 Pesos note. This set of new money, which was printed even before the war, anti-Japanese newspapers portrayed stories of going to the market laden with suitcases or bayong overflowing with the Japanese-issued bills
11.
Jesse B. Oldendorf
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Jesse Barrett Oley Oldendorf was an admiral in the United States Navy, famous for defeating a Japanese force in the Battle of Leyte Gulf during World War II. He also served as commander of the American naval forces during the phase of the Battle of the Caribbean. In early 1942, a group of senior Navy officers empaneled by President Franklin D. Roosevelt assessed him as one of the 40 most competent of the 120 flag officers in the Navy. Jesse Barrett Oldendorf was born in Riverside, California on 16 February 1887 and he graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1909, standing 141st in a class of 174, and was commissioned in 1911. He also served on the Panama Canal hydrographic survey ship USS Hannibal, during World War I, Oldendorf spent a few months on recruiting duty in Philadelphia. From June to August 1917 he commanded the armed guard on the USAT Saratoga. The ship sank as a result of a collision in New York and he then became a gunnery officer aboard the troop transport USS President Lincoln, which was sunk by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-90 off Ireland on 31 May 1918. From August 1918 to March 1919 he was engineering officer of the USS Seattle, in July he was briefly executive officer of the USS Patricia. Between the great wars, Oldendorf did a stint in charge of recruiting station Pittsburgh, acted as an inspector in Baltimore. In 1920 he was assigned to the patrol yacht USS Niagara, from 1921 to 1922, Oldendorf was stationed on the USS Birmingham in the Caribbean, while acting as flag secretary to Special Service Squadron commanders Rear Admiral Casey B. Morgan, Captain Austin Kautz and Rear Admiral William C, from 1922 to 1924, Oldendorf served as aide to Rear Admiral Josiah S. McKean, commandant of the Mare Island Navy Yard. Oldendorf attended the Naval War College from 1928 to 1929 and then the Army War College from 1929 to 1930, from 1930 to 1935, he was the navigator of the battleship USS New York. Following the normal pattern of alternating duty at sea with shore duty, then following this teaching assignment at the Academy, Oldendorf returned to sea duty serving as executive officer of the battleship USS West Virginia from 1935 to 1937. From 1937 to 1939 Oldendorf directed the section of the Bureau of Navigation. From 1939 to 1941, Oldendorf commanded the cruiser USS Houston, in September 1941 he joined the staff of the Naval War College, where he taught navigation until February 1942. On 31 March 1942, Oldendorf was promoted to rear admiral, in August 1942 he was transferred to the Trinidad sector where anti-submarine warfare was his primary duty. From May through December 1943, Oldendorf commanded Task Force 24 which was assigned all Western Atlantic escorts and his flagships during this period were destroyer tender USS Prairie and fleet tug USS Kiowa. Oldendorf was reassigned to the Pacific theater in January 1944, where he commanded Cruiser Division 4 from his flagship USS Louisville
12.
Douglas MacArthur
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Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and he received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur, Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army. During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, in 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the 42nd Division. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U. S, Military Academy at West Point, where he attempted a series of reforms. His next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny, in 1925, he became the Armys youngest major general. He served on the martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was president of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the United States Army, as such, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D. C. in 1932, and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He retired from the US Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines, MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his air forces on 8 December 1941, MacArthurs forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia, upon his arrival in Australia, MacArthur gave a speech in which he famously promised I shall return to the Philippines. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor, after more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japans surrender on 2 September 1945, aboard USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, as the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951 and he later became Chairman of the Board of Remington Rand. A military brat, Douglas MacArthur was born 26 January 1880, at Little Rock Barracks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to Arthur MacArthur, Jr. a U. S. Army captain, Pinkney came from a prominent Norfolk, Virginia, family. Two of her brothers had fought for the South in the Civil War, Arthur and Pinky had three sons, of whom Douglas was the youngest, following Arthur III, born on 1 August 1876, and Malcolm, born on 17 October 1878. The family lived on a succession of Army posts in the American Old West, conditions were primitive, and Malcolm died of measles in 1883. In his memoir, Reminiscences, MacArthur wrote I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write—indeed and this time on the frontier ended in July 1889 when the family moved to Washington, D. C. where Douglas attended the Force Public School
13.
Walter Krueger
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Walter Krueger was an American soldier and general officer in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his command of the Sixth United States Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II and he rose from the rank of private to general in the United States Army. Born in Flatow, West Prussia, Krueger migrated to the United States as a boy and he enlisted for service in the Spanish–American War and served in Cuba, and then re-enlisted for service in the Philippine–American War. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1901. In 1914 he was posted to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and his regiment was mobilized on 23 June 1916 and served along the Mexican border. After the United States commenced hostilities with Germany in April 1917, Krueger was assigned to the 84th Infantry Division as its Assistant Chief of Staff G-3, and then its chief of staff. In February 1918, he was sent to Langres to attend the American Expeditionary Force General Staff School, between the wars, Krueger served in a number of command and staff positions, and attended the Naval War College at his own request. In 1941, he assumed command of the Third Army, which he led in the Louisiana Maneuvers, as an army commander, Krueger had to grapple with the problems imposed by vast distances, inhospitable terrain, unfavorable climate, and an indefatigable and dangerous enemy. In the Battle of Luzon in 1945, his largest, longest and last battle, Krueger retired to San Antonio, Texas, where he bought a house and wrote From Down Under to Nippon, an account of his campaigns in the Southwest Pacific. His retirement was marred by family tragedies and his son James was dismissed from the Army in 1947 for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. His wifes health deteriorated, and she died of cancer in 1956 and his daughter Dorothy stabbed her husband to death in 1952. She was sentenced to imprisonment by a court-martial, but was freed by the Supreme Court in 1957. Walter Krueger was born in Flatow, West Prussia, then part of the German Empire and he was the son of Julius Krüger, a Prussian landowner who had served as an officer in the Franco-Prussian War, and his wife, Anna, formerly Hasse. Following Juliuss death, Anna and her three children emigrated to the United States to be near her uncle in St. Louis, Walter was then eight years old. In St. Louis, Anna married Emil Carl Schmidt, a Lutheran minister, the family subsequently settled in Madison, Indiana. Krueger was educated at the Upper Seminary School in Madison, as a teenager, he wanted to become a naval officer, but when his mother objected he decided to become a blacksmith instead. On 17 June 1898, Krueger, along many of his fellow high-school students. He reached Santiago de Cuba a few weeks after the Battle of San Juan Hill, mustered out of the volunteers in February 1899, he returned home to Ohio, planning to become a civil engineer
14.
Tomoyuki Yamashita
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Tomoyuki Yamashita was an Imperial Japanese Army general during World War II. The accomplishment earned Yamashita the sobriquet The Tiger of Malaya, after the war, following a trial in Manila, he was found guilty of war crimes and executed by hanging for his troops conduct during the Japanese defense of the occupied Philippines in 1944. Yamashita was the son of a local doctor in Osugi. He attended military schools in his youth. In November 1905 Yamashita graduated from the 18th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and he was ranked 16th out of 920 cadets. In December 1908 he was promoted to lieutenant and fought against the German Empire in Shantung, in May 1916 he was promoted to captain. He attended the 28th class of the Army War College, graduating sixth in his class in 1916 and he married Hisako Nagayama, the daughter of retired Gen. Nagayama, in 1916. Yamashita became an expert on Germany, serving as assistant military attaché at Bern, Switzerland, in February 1922 he was promoted to major. In 1922, on his return to Japan, Maj. Yamashita served in the Imperial Headquarters, while posted to the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, Yamashita unsuccessfully promoted a military reduction plan. Despite his ability, Yamashita fell into disfavor as a result of his involvement with political factions within the Japanese military, as a leading member of the Imperial Way group, he became a rival to Hideki Tōjō and other members of the Control Faction. In 1927 Yamashita was posted to Vienna, Austria, as a military attaché until 1930 and he was then promoted to the rank of Colonel. In 1930 Col. Yamashita was given command of the elite 3rd Imperial Infantry Regiment and he was promoted to major-general in August 1934. After the February 26 Incident of 1936, he fell into disfavor with Emperor Hirohito due to his appeal for leniency toward rebel officers involved in the attempted coup. He realized that he had lost the trust of the Emperor and he was eventually relegated to a post in Korea, being given command of a brigade. Yamashita was promoted to lieutenant-general in November 1937, from 1938-40 he was assigned to command the IJA 4th Division which saw some action in northern China against insurgents fighting the occupying Japanese armies. In December 1940 Yamashita was sent on a clandestine military mission to Germany and Italy. Such strategies caused much friction between himself and Gen. Hideki Tojo, the War Minister, who was not keen on implementing these proposals, on 6 November 1941 Lt. Gen. Yamashita was put in command of the Twenty-Fifth Army. On 8 December he launched an invasion of Malaya from bases in French Indochina, Yamashita remarked that only a driving charge would ensure victory in Malaya
15.
Battle of Luzon
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The battle resulted in a U. S. and Filipino victory. The Philippines were considered to be of strategic importance because their capture by Japan would pose a significant threat to the U. S. As a result,135,000 troops and 227 aircraft were stationed in the Philippines by October 1941, however, Luzon—the largest island in the Philippines—was captured by Imperial Japanese forces in 1942 during their campaign to capture the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur—who was in charge of the defense of the Philippines at the time—was ordered to Australia, a few months after this, MacArthur expressed his belief that an attempt to recapture the Philippines was necessary. Pacific Commander Admiral Chester Nimitz and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King both opposed this idea, arguing that it must wait until victory was certain, MacArthur had to wait two years for his wish, it was 1944 before a campaign to recapture the Philippines was launched. The island of Leyte was the first objective of the campaign and this was followed by the attack on Mindoro, and later, Luzon. Before U. S. forces could launch the attack on Luzon, airbases in particular had to be established in order to provide the advancing troops with air support. Troops under Brigadier General William C, dunckel captured the island of Mindoro, with the assistance of the 7th Fleet. By 28 December, two airbases were controlled by the U. S. and were ready to assist in the attack on Luzon, with the capture of Mindoro, U. S. forces were positioned south of Luzon. However, MacArthur intended to land his forces at Lingayen, further north and this would place his troops close to several roads and railways on Luzon, which led to Manila—the main objective—through the plains in the center of the island. U. S. aircraft constantly made reconnaissance and bombing flights over southern Luzon, in addition, transport aircraft were used to make parachute drops with dummies. Minesweepers were used to clear the bays of Balayan, Batangas, and Tayabas, located to the south of Luzon, the assault on Luzon was launched, as planned, on 9 January 1945, codenamed S-day. The Japanese forces reported more than 70 Allied warships entering the Lingayen Gulf, pre-assault bombardment of Japanese shore positions from these ships began at 7,00. The landings were commenced an hour later, the landing forces faced strong opposition from Japanese kamikaze aircraft. The escort carrier Ommaney Bay was destroyed by an attack, while a destroyer. Aircraft from the 3rd Fleet assisted the landings with close air support, the landings at the Lingayen Gulf on 9 January were carried out by the 6th Army under the command of General Walter Krueger. Approximately 175,000 troops from the 6th Army landed along the 20-mile beachhead within a few days, XIV Corps under General Oscar Griswold then advanced south toward Manila, despite Kruegers concerns that his eastern flank was unprotected and vulnerable if the Japanese forces attacked. However, no attack occurred, and the U. S. forces did not meet much resistance until they reached the Clark Air Base on 23 January
16.
Battle of Baguio (1945)
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The Battle of Baguio occurred between 21 February and 26 April 1945, and was part of the greater Luzon campaign during the Allied liberation of the Philippines at the end of World War II. During the battle, American and Philippine forces recaptured the city of Baguio on the island of Luzon from a Japanese occupation force, one of the last tank engagements of the Philippine campaign took place during the battle. Baguio later became the scene of the surrender of Japanese forces in the Philippines in September 1945. Prior to World War II, Baguio was the capital of the Commonwealth of the Philippines. In 1939, the city had a population of 24,000 people, most of whom were Filipinos, along with other nationalities, including about 500 Japanese. Following the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941, the Japanese used Camp John Hay, in October 1944, American soldiers landed on Leyte, beginning the liberation of the Philippines. In early January 1945, American forces landed at Lingayen Gulf, thereafter, the American Sixth Army conducted two campaigns, one against the Japanese forces east of Manila, and the second against Yamashitas forces in northern Luzon. By late March, the city was within range of American artillery, president José P. Yamashita and his staff relocated to Bambang. During the Allied drive towards Baguio from the west, a battle was fought at Irisan Gorge. In mid-April,7,000 civilians, including foreign nationals, among them were five cabinet members of the Second Republic, Brigadier General Manuel Roxas was freed, the other four were captured as collaborators. On 22 April, Major General Noakata Utsunomiya, who had left in command of the defense of Baguio by Yamashita. On 24 April, the first Allied forces – a patrol of the 129th Infantry Regiment – entered Baguio, Yamashita, along with 50,500 men of the Shobu Group, held out against the American advance in northern Luzon until 15 August 1945. U. S. Army footage of the battle of Baguio via Archive. org
17.
Battle of Kirang Pass
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Aritao is a second class municipality in the province of Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 37,115 people, the ethnic minority called Isinai were the original residents of this town. Aritao is politically subdivided into 22 barangays, in 1942, Japanese troops entered Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. A monument to the gallantry of the Japanese and Filipino soldiers during World War II, located at Barangay Kirang, municipality of Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya. Built in 1978 by the Rakunsankai Society of Japan, it was rebuilt using a black glazed stone. Also offers a view of reforested mountains and hills. Aritao High School Immaculate Conception Academy Saint Teresitas Academy Nueva Vizcaya Institute Santa Clara High School Aritao also has a lot of schools for primary, and for the college level, the Colegio de Aritao is for vocational courses like caregiving. It is located at the Saint Teresitas Academy campus, Philippine Standard Geographic Code Philippine Census Information Local Governance Performance Management System
18.
Raid at Cabanatuan
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The Raid at Cabanatuan, also known as The Great Raid, was a rescue of Allied prisoners of war and civilians from a Japanese camp near Cabanatuan City, in the Philippines. On January 30,1945, during World War II, United States Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts, after the surrender of tens of thousands of American troops during the Battle of Bataan, many were sent to the Cabanatuan prison camp following the Bataan Death March. The Japanese transferred most of the prisoners to other areas, leaving just over 500 American and other Allied POWs, in late January 1945, a plan was developed by Sixth Army leaders and Filipino guerrillas to send a small force to rescue the prisoners. A group of over a hundred Rangers and Scouts and a couple hundred guerrillas traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. In a nighttime raid, under the cover of darkness and a distraction by a P-61 Black Widow, hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute coordinated attack, the Americans suffered minimal casualties. The Rangers, Scouts, and guerrillas escorted the POWs back to American lines, the rescue allowed the prisoners to tell of the death march and prison camp atrocities, which sparked a new rush of resolve for the war against Japan. The rescuers were awarded commendations by MacArthur, and were recognized by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A memorial now sits on the site of the camp. After the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941 by Japanese forces, it entered World War II to join the Allied forces in their fight against the Axis powers. On March 12,1942, General MacArthur and a few officers, on the orders of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, left the American forces. The Japanese had initially planned for only 10, 000–25,000 American, although they had organized two hospitals, ample food, and guards for this estimate, they were overwhelmed with over 72,000 prisoners. By the end of the 60-mile march, only 52,000 prisoners reached Camp ODonnell, with an estimated 20,000 having died from illness, hunger, torture, or murder. Later with the closure of Camp ODonnell most of the soldiers were transferred to the Cabanatuan prison camp to join the POWs from the Battle of Corregidor. One method of the execution was to round the prisoners up in one location, pour gasoline over them, the Cabanatuan prison camp was named after the nearby city of 50,000 people. The camp had first been used as an American Department of Agriculture station, when the Japanese invaded the Philippines, they used the camp to house American POWs. It was one of three camps in the Cabanatuan area and was designated for holding sick detainees, occupying about 100 acres, the rectangular-shaped camp was roughly 800 yards deep by 600 yards across, divided by a road that ran through its center. One side of the camp housed Japanese guards, while the other included bamboo barracks for the prisoners as well as a section for a hospital. Nicknamed the Zero Ward because zero was probability of getting out of it alive, eight-foot high barbed wire fences surrounded the camp, in addition to multiple pillbox bunkers and four-story guard towers
19.
Battle of Manila (1945)
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The one-month battle, which culminated in the massacre of over 100,000 civilians and complete devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater. Along with the loss of lives, the battle also destroyed architectural and cultural heritage dating back since the citys foundation. The battle ended the almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines, the citys capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthurs key to victory in the campaign of reconquest. On 9 January 1945, the Sixth U. S. Army under Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger waded ashore on Lingayen Gulf, MacArthur ordered Krueger to advance rapidly to Manila. The 37th Infantry Division, under the command of Major Gen. Robert S. Beightler, headed south. After landing at San Fabian on 27 Jan. the 1st Cavalry Division, free the internees at Santo Tomas. Take Malacanang Palace and the Legislative Building, meanwhile, the 11th A/B Divisions 511th Regimental Combat Team of Col. Orin D. Hard Rock Haugen parachuted onto Tagaytay Ridge on 4 February, Yamashita had withdrawn his main forces to Baguio City, where he planned to hold back the Filipino and U. S. forces in northern Luzon, poised for the invasion of Japan. In 1941, General Douglas MacArthur had declared Manila an open city before its capture, however, Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji, commander of the 31st Naval Special Base Force, was committed to following the naval program, rather than the army program of abandoning the city. Prior to being promoted to Admiral, Sanji had commanded the battleship Kirishima in 1942 when she was sunk by a US Navy task force off Guadalcanal, Iwabuchi had 12,500 men under his command, designated the Manila Naval defence Force. Iwabuchi was joined by 4500 army personnel under the command of Col. Katsuzo Noguchi and they built defensive positions in the city, including Intramuros, cut down the palm trees on Dewey Blvd. to form a runway, and set up barricades across major streets. Iwabuchi formed the Northern Force under Noguchi, and the Southern Force under Capt. Takusue Furuse. Before the battle began, he issued an address to his men went, We are very glad. Now, with what remains, we will daringly engage the enemy. We are determined to fight to the last man, on 3 February, elements of the U. S. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C, since 4 January 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university’s main building had been used to hold civilians. Out of 4,255 prisoners,466 died in captivity, colayco died seven days later in Legarda Elementary School, which became a field hospital. At 9 PM, five tanks of the 44th Tank Battalion, headed by Battlin Basic, the Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi, gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building as hostages, and exchanged pot shots with the Americans and Filipinos
20.
Battle of Corregidor (1945)
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The Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor, 16–26 February 1945, pitted American forces against the defending Japanese garrison on the island fortress. The Japanese had captured the bastion from the United States Army Forces in the Far East during their 1942 invasion. When the last American and Filipino troops on the peninsula surrendered on 9 April 1942, the tunnel network that ran through the islands hills afforded protection to the defending garrison, but much of the defense activity had to be carried out in the open. By 4 May, many of the guns had knocked out, the water supply was low. Consequently, American planners thought it merited a separate attack, macArthurs strategy was to make a combined amphibious and airborne assault—among the most difficult of all modern military maneuvers—to retake the island. Although this particular plan of action had been used to effect during the Luzon landings. As small as it was, at just over five square miles, complicating the strategy, was that the paratroopers were required to land on a hill known as Topside, the islands foremost dominant terrain feature. MacArthurs staff balked at the proposal, but on the other hand, from Topside, the Japanese could dominate all possible amphibious landing sites. The American premise was that the Japanese would certainly not expect an airborne landing on such an unlikely target, the honors for recapturing the Rock went to the 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team of Lieutenant Colonel George M. Jones and elements of Major General Roscoe B. Woodruffs 24th Infantry Division, the units which undertook the capture of Mindoro island. On 23 January 1945, the bombing to soften up the defenses on Corregidor commenced. Daily strikes by bombers of the United States Army Air Forces continued until 16 February. Estimated figures since the campaign started up to 24 February showed 2,028 effective sorties. The softening up, or gloucesterizing, of the island of Corregidor lasted for three more days, on 14 February, while assisting minesweeping operations prior to landings on Corregidor Island, USS Fletcher was hit by an enemy shell and set afire. Watertender First Class Elmer Charles Bigelow fought the blaze, contributing greatly to saving his ship, for his valor and personal sacrifice he was awarded the Medal of Honor. At sunrise on 16 February, attacks by Consolidated B-24 Liberators, Gen. Rikichi Tsukadas Kembu Group at the two tiny go-point areas of Topsides western heights. However, some paratroopers were blown back into Japanese held territory, no troopers drowned, although some who were unable to climb the cliffs through hostile territory, or had fallen close to the rocks, had to be rescued near Wheeler Point. Despite the grueling air and naval bombardment that left the defending troops dazed and scattered, they vigorously rallied, at one point that same morning, they threatened to drive a salient into the paratroopers tenuous foothold on Topside
21.
Invasion of Palawan
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The Invasion of Palawan was fought by U. S. As the elements of the U. S, eighth Army of Lt. Gen. Robert L. The primary objectives were to complete the isolation of the central Philippine islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol, Gen. Eichelberger chose the 41st Infantry Division of Maj. Gen. Jens A. Doe to conduct the Palawan, Zamboanga and Sulu operations. Like most of the Philippine Islands, Palawan was a site for an invading force. Well over 200 mi in length and up to 30 mi wide, the reefs, sand banks. Farther inland, the coastal plain gave way to forested mountains that offered great defensive potential to Japanese forces. The 186th Regimental Combat Team of Brig. Gen. Harold H. Haney—the assistant 41st Division commander—was the principal combat unit entrusted by Gen. Doe to carry out the Palawan invasion, a naval task force of cruisers and destroyers from the 7th Fleet under Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid—which was Gen. Macarthurs naval command—would protect the forces on their movements to shore. Troops and supplies would be carried by elements drawn from a 7th Fleet component command. The Palawan landings were to be undertaken by the amphibious task force of Rear Adm. William M. Fechteler. After two days of air strikes by the U. S. Eichelberger, who watched from a B-17 heavy bomber flying overhead. Gen. Sōsaku Suzukis 35th Army—would not put up a fight at Puerto Princesa and had withdrawn into the hills to the northwest, more disturbing was the revelation of a massacre of approximately 150 American prisoners of war the previous December. A few men miraculously survived immolation and escaped the shooting, sheltered by natives until the Americans landed, they emerged during the battle to tell their horrifying tale, which only hardened American resolve to end Japanese rule over the island. The 186th RCT encountered little opposition until its third day ashore on 3 March when fierce fighting erupted as soldiers entered the hills that lay about 10 mi north of the harbor, five days of savage combat eliminated the strongly defended Japanese pockets. In the weeks that followed, Gen. Eichelberger also directed smaller units of the 186th RCT to seize the islands situated to the northern and southern parts of Palawan. On 9 March, a 186th RCT reconnaissance team landed on Dumaran Island to the northeast of Palawan, then on 9 April a month later, Company F, 186th Infantry, landed on Busuanga Island, killed 10 Japanese, and reported the island secured. Subsequently, the regiment also seized nearby Culion and Coron, to the south, parties from the 2nd Battalion landed on Balabac on 16 April and at Pandanan on 22 April. U. S. Army forces lost 12 killed and 56 wounded, while Japanese dead numbered almost 900 and another 140 wounded, meanwhile, airfield construction began almost immediately on Palawan
22.
Battle of the Visayas
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The Battle of the Visayas was fought by U. S. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the portions south of the archipelago. Panay Island was the first objective, recalled Gen. Eichelberger, Filipino guerrillas stood stiff, resplendent in starched khaki uniforms and ornaments and decked in battle gear. The regiment proceeded to seize the airfield at Barrio Tiring, Cabatuan, the Iloilo International Airport is currently located on the same area in Cabatuan, Iloilo. The regiment also proceeded to seize the airfield at Mandurriao district, the Japanese were holed up in Iloilo City, and the 40th Division easily swept these Japanese outposts in two days. Mopping up operations by the guerrillas and 2nd Battalion of the 160th Infantry Regiment continued, guimaras and Inampulagan islands, between Panay and Negros, were seized on the same day Iloilo fell,20 March and the next day, respectively with no opposition. On 29 March, a platoon from Company F, 185th Infantry under 1st Lt. Aaron H. The Japanese guards were surprised, and the bridge was secured for several hours before reinforcements arrived, on 9 April, all three regiments of the 40th Division pushed east into the rugged, mountainous interior of the island. The Japanese resisted stubbornly, aided by booby-trapped terrain, defended their positions by day. Soon, the 40th Division started using small infiltrating units to creep past tank traps and minefields, on 23 May, at Hacienda San Jose, San Carlos, Medal of Honor awardee, Staff Sgt. Sjorgens unit, Company I, subsequently received a Presidential Unit Citation for its heroic action, by 4 June, the Japanese began a general withdrawal, retreating further into the unexplored mountains of Negros. Eight weeks later, the 40th Division overcame these final defenses, about a week into the Panay and northwestern Negros operations, Operation VICTOR II, the seizure of Cebu, Bohol, and southeastern Negros, was underway. The Americal Division under Maj. Gen. William Howard Arnold was tasked by Gen. Eichelberger for the operation. Some 14,500 Japanese troops held Cebu, but 2,000 Japanese soldiers under Maj. Gen. Takeo Manjome were contained in northern Cebu by about 8,500 guerrillas under Lt. Col. James M. Cushing. One-third of the Japanese forces in Cebu were combat-ready, with a network of formidable defensive positions around the city. On 26 March 1945, at 08,28 on Talisay Beach, four miles west of Cebu City, Japanese resistance was light, but Japanese mines destroyed ten of the first fifteen landing tracked vehicles that moved ashore, effectively stopping the advance. Subsequent landing waves stacked up behind the first that created a traffic jam. Some two hours later, the traffic lessened as troops cautiously picked their way through the dense minefield, the next day,27 March, the Americal Division moved into already devastated Cebu City, as the Americans began a rapid advance
23.
Battle of Leyte
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Japan had conquered the Philippines in 1942. Controlling it was vital for Japans survival in World War II because it commanded sea routes to Borneo and Sumatra by which rubber, for the US, capturing the Philippines was a key strategic step in isolating Imperial Japans military holdings in China and the Pacific theater. It was also a matter of pride for MacArthur. Those relief forces were non-existent, Roosevelts true intentions in ordering MacArthur to flee the Philippines had been to prevent his capture by the Japanese, still, MacArthur had vowed that he would return to the Philippines. He repeatedly stated that it was an obligation of the US to liberate the Philippines as soon as possible. In March 1944, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordered MacArthur to plan an attack on the southern Philippines by the end of the year, halsey then recommended a direct strike on Leyte, canceling other planned operations, and the Leyte invasion date moved forward to October. Leyte, one of the islands of the Philippines, has numerous deep-water approaches and sandy beaches which offered opportunities for amphibious assaults. American air forces based on Leyte could strike at enemy bases, a heavily forested north-south mountain range dominates the interior and separates two sizable valleys, or coastal plains. The larger Leyte Valley extends from the northern coast to the eastern shore and contains most of the towns. This continued south to the port of Ormoc City, then along the shore to Baybay town. The road then turned east to cross the mountainous waist of the island, below these towns, the mountainous southern third of Leyte was mostly undeveloped. High mountain peaks over 4,400 ft, as well as the jagged outcroppings, ravines, the timing late in the year of the assault would force combat troops and supporting pilots, as well as logistical units, to contend with monsoon rains. Japanese troop strength on Leyte was estimated by US intelligence at 20,000, preliminary operations for the Leyte invasion began at dawn on 17 October with minesweeping tasks and the movement of the 6th Rangers toward three small islands in Leyte Gulf. Although delayed by a storm, the Rangers were on Suluan, on Suluan, they dispersed a small group of Japanese defenders and destroyed a radio station, while they found Dinagat unoccupied. The next day, the third island Homonhon, was taken without any opposition, on Dinagat and Homonhom, the Rangers proceeded to erect navigation lights for the amphibious transports to follow. Meanwhile, reconnaissance by underwater demolition teams revealed clear landing beaches for assault troops on Leyte, independently, the 21st Infantry Regiment on 20 Oct. landed on Panaon Strait to control the entrance to Sogod Bay. Following four hours of naval gunfire on A-day,20 October. X Corps pushed across a 4 mi stretch of beach between Tacloban airfield and the Palo River,15 mi to the south, XXIV Corps units came ashore across a 3 mi strand between San José and the Daguitan River
24.
Battle of Panay (1945)
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The Battle of the Visayas was fought by U. S. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the portions south of the archipelago. Panay Island was the first objective, recalled Gen. Eichelberger, Filipino guerrillas stood stiff, resplendent in starched khaki uniforms and ornaments and decked in battle gear. The regiment proceeded to seize the airfield at Barrio Tiring, Cabatuan, the Iloilo International Airport is currently located on the same area in Cabatuan, Iloilo. The regiment also proceeded to seize the airfield at Mandurriao district, the Japanese were holed up in Iloilo City, and the 40th Division easily swept these Japanese outposts in two days. Mopping up operations by the guerrillas and 2nd Battalion of the 160th Infantry Regiment continued, guimaras and Inampulagan islands, between Panay and Negros, were seized on the same day Iloilo fell,20 March and the next day, respectively with no opposition. On 29 March, a platoon from Company F, 185th Infantry under 1st Lt. Aaron H. The Japanese guards were surprised, and the bridge was secured for several hours before reinforcements arrived, on 9 April, all three regiments of the 40th Division pushed east into the rugged, mountainous interior of the island. The Japanese resisted stubbornly, aided by booby-trapped terrain, defended their positions by day. Soon, the 40th Division started using small infiltrating units to creep past tank traps and minefields, on 23 May, at Hacienda San Jose, San Carlos, Medal of Honor awardee, Staff Sgt. Sjorgens unit, Company I, subsequently received a Presidential Unit Citation for its heroic action, by 4 June, the Japanese began a general withdrawal, retreating further into the unexplored mountains of Negros. Eight weeks later, the 40th Division overcame these final defenses, about a week into the Panay and northwestern Negros operations, Operation VICTOR II, the seizure of Cebu, Bohol, and southeastern Negros, was underway. The Americal Division under Maj. Gen. William Howard Arnold was tasked by Gen. Eichelberger for the operation. Some 14,500 Japanese troops held Cebu, but 2,000 Japanese soldiers under Maj. Gen. Takeo Manjome were contained in northern Cebu by about 8,500 guerrillas under Lt. Col. James M. Cushing. One-third of the Japanese forces in Cebu were combat-ready, with a network of formidable defensive positions around the city. On 26 March 1945, at 08,28 on Talisay Beach, four miles west of Cebu City, Japanese resistance was light, but Japanese mines destroyed ten of the first fifteen landing tracked vehicles that moved ashore, effectively stopping the advance. Subsequent landing waves stacked up behind the first that created a traffic jam. Some two hours later, the traffic lessened as troops cautiously picked their way through the dense minefield, the next day,27 March, the Americal Division moved into already devastated Cebu City, as the Americans began a rapid advance
25.
Battle of Simara (1945)
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The Battle of Leyte Gulf is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history. It was fought in waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon, from 23–26 October 1944, between combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Imperial Japanese Navy mobilized nearly all of its major naval vessels in an attempt to defeat the Allied invasion but was repulsed by the U. S. Navys 3rd. The IJN failed to achieve its objective, suffered heavy losses. The majority of its surviving ships, deprived of fuel, remained in their bases for the rest of the Pacific War. It was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks, by the time of the battle, Japan had fewer aircraft than the Allied forces had sea vessels, demonstrating the difference in power of the two sides at this point of the war. S. 5th Fleets Fast Carrier Task Force captured most of the Mariana Islands and this offensive breached Japans strategic inner defense ring and gave the Americans a base from which long-range Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers could attack the Japanese home islands. The Japanese counterattacked in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the U. S. Navy destroyed three Japanese aircraft carriers and approximately 600 Japanese aircraft, leaving the IJN with virtually no carrier-borne air power or any experienced pilots. For subsequent operations, Admiral Ernest J. U. S. Army General Douglas MacArthur championed an invasion of the Philippines, which also lay across the supply lines to Japan. Leaving the Philippines in Japanese hands would be a blow to American prestige and an affront to MacArthur. However, Nimitz and MacArthur initially had opposing plans, with Nimitzs plan centered on an invasion of Formosa, Formosa could also serve as a base for an invasion of mainland China, which MacArthur felt was unnecessary. Nimitz eventually changed his mind and agreed to MacArthurs plan and it was also estimated that an invasion of Formosa would require about 12 divisions of U. S. Army soldiers and Marines. It was eventually decided that MacArthurs forces would invade the island of Leyte in the central Philippines, amphibious forces and close naval support would be provided by the 7th Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Thomas C. The 7th Fleet at this time contained units of the U. S. Navy, the U. S. 3rd Fleet—commanded by Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. with Task Force 38 as its main component—would provide more distant cover and support for the invasion. A fundamental defect in this plan was there would be no single American naval admiral in overall command, Kinkaid and his 7th Fleet fell under MacArthur as Supreme Allied Commander Southwest Pacific, whereas Halseys 3rd Fleet reported to Nimitz as C-in-C Pacific Ocean Areas. This lack of unity of command, along with failures in communication, was to produce a crisis, by coincidence, the Japanese plan, using three separate fleets, also lacked an overall commander. The American options were apparent to the IJN, the plans were for complex offensive operations committing nearly all available forces to a decisive battle, despite this substantially depleting Japans slender reserves of fuel oil. The Japanese command therefore put Shō-Gō2 into action, launching waves of air attacks against 3rd Fleets carriers, following the American invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese Navy made the transition to Shō-Gō1
26.
Battle of Negros (1945)
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The Battle of the Visayas was fought by U. S. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the portions south of the archipelago. Panay Island was the first objective, recalled Gen. Eichelberger, Filipino guerrillas stood stiff, resplendent in starched khaki uniforms and ornaments and decked in battle gear. The regiment proceeded to seize the airfield at Barrio Tiring, Cabatuan, the Iloilo International Airport is currently located on the same area in Cabatuan, Iloilo. The regiment also proceeded to seize the airfield at Mandurriao district, the Japanese were holed up in Iloilo City, and the 40th Division easily swept these Japanese outposts in two days. Mopping up operations by the guerrillas and 2nd Battalion of the 160th Infantry Regiment continued, guimaras and Inampulagan islands, between Panay and Negros, were seized on the same day Iloilo fell,20 March and the next day, respectively with no opposition. On 29 March, a platoon from Company F, 185th Infantry under 1st Lt. Aaron H. The Japanese guards were surprised, and the bridge was secured for several hours before reinforcements arrived, on 9 April, all three regiments of the 40th Division pushed east into the rugged, mountainous interior of the island. The Japanese resisted stubbornly, aided by booby-trapped terrain, defended their positions by day. Soon, the 40th Division started using small infiltrating units to creep past tank traps and minefields, on 23 May, at Hacienda San Jose, San Carlos, Medal of Honor awardee, Staff Sgt. Sjorgens unit, Company I, subsequently received a Presidential Unit Citation for its heroic action, by 4 June, the Japanese began a general withdrawal, retreating further into the unexplored mountains of Negros. Eight weeks later, the 40th Division overcame these final defenses, about a week into the Panay and northwestern Negros operations, Operation VICTOR II, the seizure of Cebu, Bohol, and southeastern Negros, was underway. The Americal Division under Maj. Gen. William Howard Arnold was tasked by Gen. Eichelberger for the operation. Some 14,500 Japanese troops held Cebu, but 2,000 Japanese soldiers under Maj. Gen. Takeo Manjome were contained in northern Cebu by about 8,500 guerrillas under Lt. Col. James M. Cushing. One-third of the Japanese forces in Cebu were combat-ready, with a network of formidable defensive positions around the city. On 26 March 1945, at 08,28 on Talisay Beach, four miles west of Cebu City, Japanese resistance was light, but Japanese mines destroyed ten of the first fifteen landing tracked vehicles that moved ashore, effectively stopping the advance. Subsequent landing waves stacked up behind the first that created a traffic jam. Some two hours later, the traffic lessened as troops cautiously picked their way through the dense minefield, the next day,27 March, the Americal Division moved into already devastated Cebu City, as the Americans began a rapid advance
27.
Battle for Cebu City
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The Battle for Cebu City was a major engagement of World War II that occurred between March 26 and April 8,1945, during the second Philippines Campaign. The battle resulted in an Allied victory over the occupying Japanese Army, after launching their campaign to recapture the Philippines at Leyte in October 1944, the Allies followed up that victory by dispatching troops to Luzon in January 1945. A month later, General Douglas MacArthur, overall commander of Allied forces in the Pacific, General Robert L. Eichelbergers Eighth Army was then tasked with conducting a series of amphibious landings in the southern Philippines on islands between Mindanao and Luzon, including Cebu. Prior to the war, Cebu had been the Philippines second-most important industrial center, the island was garrisoned by a force of between 14,500 and 15,000 Japanese troops. These were situated mainly in Cebu City and on the central east coast, drawn from the 35th Army, the majority of these troops were support troops who had been supporting the evacuation of Luzon, and who were formed into combat units. There were also several naval units on the island, including the 33rd Special Base Force. Following a preliminary bombardment, the battle began on March 26,1945, under the leadership of Major General William H. The 182nd came ashore southwest of the city, while the 132nd landed at a gravel beach to the northeast opposite a palm grove. Meeting no Japanese opposition, the U. S. forces nevertheless suffered heavily from mines and it was the first time in the Philippines campaign that U. S. troops had encountered such weapons. As further waves landed, engineers and infantry began clearing lanes through the mine fields, the Americal Division slowly forced its way off the beach and moved inland against only small pockets of Japanese resistance that were carrying out delaying actions. The main body stopped for the night about 1.5 miles from Cebu City, on March 28, more significant fighting broke out as the Americans captured the airfield, as well as Mactan Island in Cebu Harbor. At this time, Japanese resistance grew more determined and heavy fighting followed, around 8,500 local Cebuano guerrilla and irregular forces, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel James M. Cushing took part. Units fought on the outskirts of Cebu, capturing Pari-an on March 29, many did not make it and were trapped within Piers One and Two. Led by Major Rijome Kawahara, after further fighting these forces were defeated, Kawahara was killed while trying to cross the makeshift bridge towards Mandaue City. Reportedly, he was killed by a sniper after being incapacitated by mortar, Kawahara was posthumously promoted to the rank of colonel. After the war, his body was returned to Japan where it was buried in Sapporo, during the final stages of the battle, the mountainous parts of Cebu were also bombed and cleared. A series of battles were fought during this time, the most famous of which is the Battle of Gochan Hill. Forces finally took the hill, having destroyed at least 85 pillboxes, in early April two battalions from the Americal Divisions third regiment, the 164th, were dispatched to Cebu as reinforcements
28.
Battle of Mindanao
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It was part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the southernmost portions of the archipelago, like most of the Philippine Islands and other similar places the U. S. It boasted a long and irregular coastline, and the topography was generally characterized as rugged, rain forests and numerous crocodile-infested rivers covered the terrain, the rest by either lake, swamp or grassland. These grassland regions—along with dense groves of trees, a source of hemp fiber—offer the worst obstacles, limiting vision. The few roads in Mindanao further complicated the problem of movement, the generously named Highway 1 cut across the southern portion of the island, from just south of Parang on Illana Bay in the west to Digos on the Davao Gulf in the east and then north to Davao. Artillery and anti-aircraft batteries extensively ringed the coastal shoreline defenses, on 10 March 1945, the U. S. Eichelberger had misgivings about the projected timetable and his Eighth Army staff came up with a more effective plan. Ground operations were assigned to X Corps, under Major General Franklin C, Sibert, with Major General Roscoe B. Woodruffs 24th Infantry Division and Major General Clarence A. Martins 31st Infantry Division as the combat units. Five days later, the 31st Division was expected to be in Parang,20 miles south, located near Highway 1, on the same day Eichelbergers forces were ordered to invade Mindanao, remnants of Major General Jens A. The slow construction of the airfield at Palawan posed a problem for tactical air support augmenting the Zamboanga operation, soon thereafter, Marine Aircraft Groups Zamboanga under Col. Clayton C. Jerome was flying sorties off the airstrip to cover naval bombardment and landing preparations off Zamboanga City. After the bombing of the areas by the 13th Air Force and a three-day bombardment by the U. S. Navy. Japanese opposition to the landings were minimal, and the 41st Division troops quickly captured the city, the next day,11 March, the Americans encountered strong resistance when they attacked Japanese positions in the hills overlooking the coastal plain. On 23 March, after fighting, the center of the Japanese line finally broke. The 186th Infantry replaced the 163rd and continued the attack, the 54th Japanese IMB was forced to pull out a week later, harried by guerrilla units, retreating through the peninsula and into the jungle. After some time, mopping-up operations resulted in 220 Americans killed, compared to 6,400 Japanese dead, alongside the Zamboanga operation, smaller units of the 41st Division invaded the Sulu Archipelago, a long stretch of islands reaching from the Zamboanga Peninsula to north Borneo. Rapidly taken in succession were Basilan, Malamaui, Tawi-Tawi, Sanga Sanga, on 15 April, strong resistance at Jolo was encountered. Anchoring their stubborn defense around Mount Daho, some 3,750 Japanese troops held off the 163rd Infantry, by 22 April, the Allies took the position after hard fighting and the rest of the Japanese troops fled and held out in the west for another two months
29.
Battle of Bukidnon (1945)
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Bukidnon is a landlocked province in the Philippines located in the Northern Mindanao region. Its capital is the city of Malaybalay, the province borders, clockwise starting from the north, Misamis Oriental, Agusan del Sur, Davao del Norte, Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, and Lanao del Norte. According to the 2015 census, the province is inhabited by 1,415,226 residents, the name Bukidnon means highlander or mountain dweller. The province is considered to be the food basket of Mindanao, being the producer of rice. Products from plantations in the also include pineapples, bananas. Situated within Bukidnon is Mount Dulang-dulang, the 2nd highest mountain in the country, with an elevation of 2,938 metres located in Kitanglad Mountain Range. Mount Kitanglad, Mount Kalatungan, Mt. Maagnaw, Mt. Lumuluyaw and Mt. Tuminungan, there are no seaports in the province because the place is landlocked. To get to Bukidnon, one must travel by land from Cagayan de Oro City or from Davao City, a proposed domestic airport site in the municipality of Don Carlos has already been on the talks since 2008 and in 2013, the proposal was finalized. Construction date is yet to be determined, Bukidnon became a part of Misamis in the latter part of 1850. The whole area was then called Malaybalay and the people were known as Bukidnons, the Philippine Commission, then headed by Commissioner Dean C. Worcester, Secretary of Interior, proposed the separation of Bukidnon from Misamis Province, on August 20,1907, the Philippine Commission Act No.1693 was enacted the Province of Agusan and sub-province of Bukidnon. Bukidnon became a province on March 10,1917 by virtue of the creation of the Department of Mindanao. In 1942, invading Japanese troops entered Bukidnon, Mt. Capistrano was a civilian evacuation area in the World War II. In 1945, the province was liberated from Japanese occupation by Filipino, when the civil government divided central Mindanao into provinces at the turn of the 20th century, the groups included in the province of Bukidnon are the Talaandig and the Manobo. All contributed massive acculturation among the indigenous tribes, most of those who moved to the mountains and forest continued to hold on their ancestors’ cultural heritage. The wide variety of Filipino groups now thrives in the province, Bukidnon is a landlocked plateau in North Central Mindanao. It is bounded on the north by Misamis Oriental and Cagayan de Oro City, on the south by North Cotabato and Davao City, on the east by Agusan del Sur and Davao del Norte, and west by Lanao del Sur. It lies between parallels 7°25 and 8°38 north latitude and meridians 124°03 and 125°16 east longitude, Malaybalay City, the capital town, is about 850 kilometres by air from Manila and 91 kilometres by road from Cagayan de Oro City
30.
Battle of Davao
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The Battle of Davao was fought by Allied forces during World War II. It is part of Operation VICTOR V, an operation against Japanese forces in Mindanao. The battle was the engagement of the Mindanao Campaign. Davao was among the first cities in the Philippines to be occupied by Japanese troops in 1942, with its navy decisively crushed at the battle of Leyte Gulf six months earlier, the Japanese in Mindanao were now cut off from their main bases in Luzon. The Allies had already much of Central Mindanao, having destroyed several Japanese units in Malaybalay. By this time the Allies are preparing for the assault in Davao City, artillery and anti-aircraft batteries extensively ringed the coastal shoreline defenses. Soldiers from the American 8th Army are yet to land from their ships steaming in the Davao Gulf heading towards Davao City, with Allied assistance, separate large-sized Philippine guerrilla units were already being formed in eastern and southern Davao Province in anticipation for the upcoming battle. Defending the city was the role of the Japanese 100th Division under Gen. Harada, the center, overlooking Libby Airdrome, was manned by three battalions. The battle began on 27 April when the first Americans units of Gen. Roscoe B, woodruffs 24th Division reached what is now Digos, then part of Sta. By the time the division reached Digos, the Americans quickly overrun the Japanese defenses who were prepared only to repel an assault from the sea westward, the 24th Division immediately turned north and headed toward Davao City. Up to a point, X Corps had bypassed the main Japanese defenses of the 100th Division, which was inland on higher ground, Filipino soldiers of the guerrilla 108th Division cleared the Davao Gulf coast for fifteen miles south of Digos. On 30 April, the 21st Infantry attacked toward Mintal, a chronicler for the 24th Division wrote, The soldiers of the 24th Infantry, considered the post-Davao operations to be the hardest, bitterest and, most exhausting battle of the ten island campaigns. In addition to the tenacious defense put up by the Japanese, to the foot soldiers fighting in the Davao province, the word abaca was synonymous with hell. In the abaca fields, visibility was rarely more than ten feet. No breeze ever reached through the expanse of green, and more men - American, Filipino. The common way for scouts to locate a position in abaca fighting was to advance until they received machinegun fire at a range of three to five yards. For the next two months, in such an environment, the 24th Division fought the Japanese, while the infantry sought out the Japanese defenses, platoons and squads worked through the abaca and surrounding jungle to seek out enemy bunkers and spider holes. In this way, fighting progressed slowly, but the Americans, at Libby Airdrome and the village of Mintal, some 5 mi west of Davao City, the 21st Infantry Regiment got assailed from three sides in a concentrated attack by a numerically stronger enemy. Individual acts of heroism often spelled the difference between victory and defeat in the desperate fighting
31.
Convoy Hi-71
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Convoy Hi-71 was one of the World War II Hi convoys of fast tankers and troop transports from Japan to Singapore. Personnel losses were high because heavy seas prevented rescue of crewmen from sunken ships, Japanese shipping through the South China Sea carried much of the food sustaining the Japanese population, the petroleum fueling Japans aircraft and warships, and the raw materials for World War II. As Allied forces converged to fulfill Douglas MacArthurs promised return, Japan implemented Operation Shō to defend the Philippines, convoy Hi-71 carried Imperial Japanese Army troops, weaponry and supplies from the home islands of Japan to reinforce the Philippines. As the convoy departed the Mako naval base in the Pescadores on 17 August, it was reinforced by another destroyer, two submarine wolfpacks were waiting in the convoy path. USS Spadefish and Redfish operated as Doncs Devils, under command of Glynn R. Donaho, the other three submarines were Rasher, Bluefish and Raton. Redfish found the convoy on the evening of 17 August, and maneuvered into position to four torpedoes at a large ship. Eiyo Maru was hit by a torpedo at 0524 on 18 August, Asakaze and Yūnagi were detached to escort the damaged ship back to Takao as a typhoon developed with force 12 winds from the southeast. Picuda and Spadefish were unable to locate the convoy in the deteriorating visibility, the convoy became scattered and disorganized in heavy weather and darkness. Rasher observed nine successive aircraft contacts to the north on the afternoon of 18 August and that dark, rainy night Rashers radar picked up thirteen ships of convoy Hi-71 proceeding at 13-knot and protected by six escorts. After a surfaced approach to 2,800 yards, two torpedoes were launched at Teiyō Maru at 2122. Both torpedoes hit, and the tanker loaded with gasoline exploded into a column of flame 1,000 feet high, the escorts fired wildly and laid depth charge patterns astern of Rasher. In a second surfaced approach to 3,300 yards Rasher launched a spread of six bow torpedoes at 2310. Three torpedoes hit and sank the transport Teia Maru, killing 2,665 Japanese soldiers, Rasher swung hard left to launch four stern torpedoes at 2214. Three torpedoes hit and sank the escort carrier Taiyō, and the torpedo was heard exploding on a more distant ship. Rasher pulled away to reload torpedo tubes and the split into two groups. Rasher followed three large ships with one kaibōkan moving northwest while Bluefish intercepted the remaining ships continuing southwesterly, at least one torpedo hit Awa Maru, and Hayasui burst into flame and sank stern first after being hit by two or three torpedoes at 0320. The fourth torpedo was heard exploding on a distant ship. Rasher then swung right to launch two stern torpedoes
32.
Formosa Air Battle
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The Formosa Air Battle took place between October 10 and 20,1944, off the eastern coasts of the Ryukyu Islands, Formosa, and Luzon. It was fought by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and the approaching Task Force 38 of the United States Third Fleet and was one of a series of air raids on Japan during the Pacific War. The attacks served to prevent Japanese aircraft from participating in the Battle of Leyte Gulf later that month, the battle was a major victory for the US Navy, with its superior pilot training and aircraft proving decisive. Japanese air power in the region was exhausted after the engagement, giving the Americans air superiority, the Japanese had contingency plans prepared for a number of eventualities, including one in response to attacks on Formosa—Shō-Gō2. Third Fleet started carrier-launched raids against Formosa on October 12,1944, the Japanese response was to send waves of aircraft against the U. S. carriers. On October 13, the cruiser USS Canberra was seriously damaged by a torpedo bomber, for one of the first times in the war a kamikaze aircraft was used, which lightly damaged the carrier USS Franklin. By the following day the forces based on the island were all. In the fighting, the light cruiser USS Houston was damaged by a torpedo, while the carrier USS Hancock. Over three days the Japanese lost approximately 500 aircraft and many ships, almost their entire air strength in the area, american losses in aircraft amounted to 89. Imperial Japanese Navy Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service,1,251 fighters/bombers, 1st Air Fleet, based in Manila, Philippines,144 fighters/bombers. 2nd Air Fleet, based in Takao, Taiwan,358 fighters/bombers, 3rd Air Fleet, aircraft carriers based,275 fighters/bombers. 3rd Fleet, based in Kisarazu, Chiba,237 fighters/bombers, 12th Air Fleet, aircraft carriers based,237 fighters/bombers. United States Navy Third Fleet Task Force 38,17 aircraft carriers,6 battleships,4 heavy cruisers,10 light cruisers,58 destroyers, first Aircraft Carrier Group, USS Cabot, USS Cowpens, USS Hornet, USS Monterey, USS Wasp. Second Aircraft Carrier Group, USS Bunker Hill, USS Hancock, USS Independence, Third Aircraft Carrier Group, USS Essex, USS Langley, USS Lexington, USS Princeton. Fourth Aircraft Carrier Group, USS Belleau Wood, USS Enterprise, USS Franklin, USS San Jacinto
33.
Battle of Leyte Gulf
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The Battle of Leyte Gulf is generally considered to be the largest naval battle of World War II and, by some criteria, possibly the largest naval battle in history. It was fought in waters near the Philippine islands of Leyte, Samar and Luzon, from 23–26 October 1944, between combined American and Australian forces and the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Imperial Japanese Navy mobilized nearly all of its major naval vessels in an attempt to defeat the Allied invasion but was repulsed by the U. S. Navys 3rd. The IJN failed to achieve its objective, suffered heavy losses. The majority of its surviving ships, deprived of fuel, remained in their bases for the rest of the Pacific War. It was the first battle in which Japanese aircraft carried out organized kamikaze attacks, by the time of the battle, Japan had fewer aircraft than the Allied forces had sea vessels, demonstrating the difference in power of the two sides at this point of the war. S. 5th Fleets Fast Carrier Task Force captured most of the Mariana Islands and this offensive breached Japans strategic inner defense ring and gave the Americans a base from which long-range Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers could attack the Japanese home islands. The Japanese counterattacked in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the U. S. Navy destroyed three Japanese aircraft carriers and approximately 600 Japanese aircraft, leaving the IJN with virtually no carrier-borne air power or any experienced pilots. For subsequent operations, Admiral Ernest J. U. S. Army General Douglas MacArthur championed an invasion of the Philippines, which also lay across the supply lines to Japan. Leaving the Philippines in Japanese hands would be a blow to American prestige and an affront to MacArthur. However, Nimitz and MacArthur initially had opposing plans, with Nimitzs plan centered on an invasion of Formosa, Formosa could also serve as a base for an invasion of mainland China, which MacArthur felt was unnecessary. Nimitz eventually changed his mind and agreed to MacArthurs plan and it was also estimated that an invasion of Formosa would require about 12 divisions of U. S. Army soldiers and Marines. It was eventually decided that MacArthurs forces would invade the island of Leyte in the central Philippines, amphibious forces and close naval support would be provided by the 7th Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Thomas C. The 7th Fleet at this time contained units of the U. S. Navy, the U. S. 3rd Fleet—commanded by Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. with Task Force 38 as its main component—would provide more distant cover and support for the invasion. A fundamental defect in this plan was there would be no single American naval admiral in overall command, Kinkaid and his 7th Fleet fell under MacArthur as Supreme Allied Commander Southwest Pacific, whereas Halseys 3rd Fleet reported to Nimitz as C-in-C Pacific Ocean Areas. This lack of unity of command, along with failures in communication, was to produce a crisis, by coincidence, the Japanese plan, using three separate fleets, also lacked an overall commander. The American options were apparent to the IJN, the plans were for complex offensive operations committing nearly all available forces to a decisive battle, despite this substantially depleting Japans slender reserves of fuel oil. The Japanese command therefore put Shō-Gō2 into action, launching waves of air attacks against 3rd Fleets carriers, following the American invasion of the Philippines, the Japanese Navy made the transition to Shō-Gō1
34.
Battle of Ormoc Bay
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The battles resulted from Japanese operations to reinforce and resupply their forces on Leyte and U. S. attempts to interdict them. After gaining naval control over the Western Pacific in mid-1944, the Allies attacked the Philippines in October, landing troops at Leyte Gulf on the east side of Leyte on 20 October 1944. The island of Leyte was defended by about 20,000 Japanese, for the Japanese, maintaining control of the Philippines was essential because their loss would enable the Allies to sever their oil supply lines from Borneo and Sumatra. The Imperial Japanese Navy responded to this attack with a fleet attack that led to the Battle of Leyte Gulf from 23–26 October. In this massive naval engagement, the Japanese Navy was destroyed as a strategic force, Ormoc City at the head of Ormoc Bay on the west side of Leyte was the main port on the island and the main destination of the convoys. Decryption of messages sent using the PURPLE cipher alerted the Allies to the concentration of Japanese shipping around Leyte, however, by the first week of November the picture was clear, and the Allies began to interdict the convoys. On 8–9 November, the Japanese dispatched two convoys from Manila to Ormoc Bay, the convoys were spaced one day apart so that the destroyers escorting the first convoy could double back and escort the second. However, the convoys were spotted on November 9 and attacked by land-based aircraft of the Fifth Air Force, on 10 November the 38th Bomb Group, based on Morotai, sent 32 B-25 Mitchells escorted by 37 P-47 Thunderbolts to attack TA-4 near Ponson Island. But the Japanese transports had been able to put ashore the 10,000 soldiers they had been carrying, on 11 November, U. S. 3rd Fleet commander Admiral William F. Halsey ordered an attack by 350 planes of Task Force 38 on the combined convoys. Four destroyers — Shimakaze, Wakatsuki, Hamanami and Naganami — and four transports Mikasa Maru, Taizan Maru, Seiho Maru and Tensho Maru were sunk, rear Admiral Mikio Hayakawa went down with Shimakaze, and some 1,000 sailors from the 8 ships were killed. Convoy TA-5 left Manila on 23 November for Port Cataingan and Port Balancan, of the six transports, five were sunk by air attack. Bad weather in late November made air interdiction less effective, an Allied patrol plane radioed a message to the division noting that a surfaced Japanese submarine was south of Pacijan Island and heading for Ormoc Bay. The division headed south to intercept, and, at 01,27 on 28 November, waller disabled I-46 with her first shots and, unable to submerge, she could only return fire with her deck guns until she sank at 01,45. Two transports, Shinsho Maru and Shinetsu Maru, escorted by three vessels, Subchasers Nos.45 and 53 and Patrol Boat No. 105, left Manila on 27 November and they were attacked by American PT boats in Ormoc Bay on the night of 28 November and by air attack as the survivors left the area. All five ships were sunk, but not before they were able to unload most of its supplies to the troops on Leyte. Another U. S. destroyer sweep on the night of 29–30 November in search of a reported convoy resulted only in the destruction of a few barges. A convoy of three transports departed Manila on 1 December, escorted by destroyers Take and Kuwa under the command of Lieutenant Commander Masamichi Yamashita, two groups of transport submarines also took part in the operation
35.
Convoy Hi-81
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Convoy Hi-81 was the designation for a formation of Japanese transports that carried soldiers bound for Singapore and the Philippines during World War II. The transports were escorted by a force of surface combatants including the escort carriers Shinyo. Over the course of a four-day convoy battle in November 1944 nearly 7,000 Japanese were killed in action while the Americans sustained no casualties, Convoy Hi-81 was under the command of Rear Admiral Tsutomu Sato of the Eighth Escort Fleet in the escort ship Etorofu. Shinyo was commanded by Captain Shizue Ishii and the Akitsu Maru was actually serving as a ferry in the convoy. The other Japanese vessels known to have part in the mission was the seaplane tender Kiyokawa Maru, the destroyer Kashi. There was also the submarine chaser No,156, five oilers, Arita Maru, Toa Maru, Hishidate Maru, Marii Maru, Otowasan Maru and three landing craft depot ships, Shinshu Maru, Kibitsu Maru and Mayasan Maru. The rest of the convoy would then continue on to Singapore, Convoy Hi-81 left Imari Bay, Japan on November 14,1944. Rear Admiral Sato led his fleet southwest into the Yellow Sea so as to south along the occupied Chinese coast. After stopping for the night in Ukishima Channel, off the Gotō Islands, United States Navy code breakers had informed Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood of the convoy only a few days prior to November 14 and he sent two submarine wolfpacks to the Yellow Sea. One was under Commander Gordon W. Underwood and the other under Commander Charles E. Loughlin, underwoods pack included his boat, the USS Spadefish, the Peto and the Sunfish. The other three submarines were Loughlins Queenfish, the Picuda and Barb, Commander Loughlins pack was the first to make contact with the Japanese. At about 11,50 am on November 15, the Queenfish was lined up for an attack on the carrier Akitsu Maru. The torpedoes had hit aft and amidship on the side, detonating the magazine and causing the vessel to keel over. In response Captain Ishii launched some of his twenty-seven depth charge-equipped Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers to search for the Queenfish, the USS Barb, under Lieutenant Commander Eugene B. Fluckey, is credited with making an attack the same day on Junyo though she was not part of Convoy Hi-81 and was in company with three other ships, one a cruiser. Because of this some American accounts cite Junyo as having been sunk, after the sinking of Akitsu Maru, on November 16 Rear Admiral Tsutomu headed for Strange Island off the coast of Korea to shelter there for the day. Meanwhile, at Moji, Convoy Mi-27 left port with orders to catch up with Convoy Hi-81, Mi-27 included five escorts and eight transports led by CD134. None of these vessels would make it to the area in time
36.
Action of 24 July 1945
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The Action of 24 July 1945 was one of the final naval battles during the Pacific Theater of World War II. In an attempt to destroy as many allied ships as possible, the Action of 24 July 1945 concerns the battle between a convoy of U. S. Navy warships off Luzon and the Japanese submarine I-53 and her kaitens. The convoy included eight other escorts, the submarine chasers PC-1251, PC-803, PC-804, PC-807, SC-1306, and SC-1309, and these vessels were tasked with delivering six LSTs and the troopship Adria. Underhill found the convoy off Buckner Bay, Okinawa on or about 21 July and and that day, on 24 July, a Japanese bomber—scouting for I-53—appeared. Newcomb ordered his ships to battle stations but the bomber remained outside the ships range, forty-five minutes later, the convoy was sailing southwest when Commander Saichi Oba released his six kaiten and sent them forward. Other accounts say that there were at least eight kaiten involved in the attack only a single Japanese submarine participated. The kaiten were presumably manned by Sub-Lieutenant Jun Katsuyama, Ensign Toyooki Seki and Flight Petty Officers 1st Class Tsutoma Kawajiri and they were armed with a 3,000 lb explosive, equivalent to two torpedoes, and once released could not be retrieved. To divert the American convoy into the path of the kaiten, Oba released a dummy mine which was observed and engaged by the guns of Underhill. After several direct hits, the mine was determined to be a dud by the Americans, at this time, one of the submarine chasers lost power and had to be towed by PCE-872. Shortly thereafter, a contact was made, so Underhill. The destroyer escort is credited with sinking one of the kaiten at this point while another attacked PC-804 and it missed the chaser and the kaiten turned around for a surface attack on Underhill. But as soon as the submarine was out of water. Newcomb ordered a ramming maneuver because the kaiten was too close for his guns to bear, Underhill then sailed right over the kaiten and it exploded at 15,15 along with the escorts boilers and readied ammunition. Underhill was torn in two, the bow section of the ship sank with all hands, the aft section remained afloat until being sunk by American gunfire the following day. All 122 survivors were wounded in action and each received a Purple Heart. Newcomb was killed and he was awarded the Silver Star. Two of the remaining American warships depth charged the area for an hour after Underhill was destroyed, the last of the American survivors were picked up after at least an hour of being in the water though rescue operations continued until 18,30 that night. Most of the survivors were in need of urgent medical assistance which they received on PC-803, the engagement was one of the last in the Pacific War and was one of the few victories of the Japanese kaiten program
37.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
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Amphibious warfare
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Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted using ships boats as the method of delivering troops to shore. Amphibious warfare includes operations defined by their type, purpose, scale, all armed forces that employ troops with special training and equipment for conducting landings from naval vessels to shore agree to this definition. Since the 20th century an amphibious landing of troops on a beachhead is acknowledged as the most complex of all military maneuvers, an amphibious operation is both similar and different in many ways to both land, naval and air operations. Historically, within the scope of these phases a vital part of success was based on the military logistics, naval gunfire. Another factor is the variety and quantity of specialised vehicles and equipment used by the force that are designed for the specific needs of this type of operation. The purpose of operations is always offensive, but limited by the plan. Landings on islands less than 5,000 km2 in size are tactical, usually with the objectives of neutralising enemy defenders. Such an operation may be prepared and planned in days or weeks, a strategic landing operation requires a major commitment of forces to invade a national territory in the archipelagic, such as the Battle of Leyte, or continental, such as Operation Neptune. Such an operation may require multiple naval and air fleets to support the landings, although most amphibious operations are thought of primarily as beach landings, they can take exploit available shore infrastructure to land troops directly into an urban environment if unopposed. In this case non-specialised ships can offload troops, vehicles and cargo using organic or facility wharf-side equipment, tactical landings in the past have utilised small boats, small craft, small ships and civilian vessels converted for the mission to deliver troops to the waters edge. Preparation and planning the naval landing operation requires the assembly of vessels with sufficient capacity to lift necessary troops employing combat loading, the military intelligence services produce a briefing on the expected opponent which guides the organisation and equipping of the embarked force. First specially designed landing craft were used for the Gallipoli landings, helicopters were first used to support beach landings during Operation Musketeer. Hovercraft have been in use for naval landings by military forces since the 1960s, recorded amphibious warfare goes back to ancient times. The Sea Peoples menaced the Egyptians from the reign of Akhenaten as captured on the reliefs at Medinet Habu, the Hellenic city states routinely resorted to opposed assaults upon each others shores, which they reflected upon in their plays and other expressions of art. In 1565, the island of Malta was invaded by the Ottoman Turks during the Great Siege of Malta, forcing its defenders to retreat to the fortified cities. A strategic choke point in the Mediterranean Sea, its loss would have been so menacing for the Western European kingdoms that forces were raised in order to relieve the island. But it took four months to train, arm, and move a 5, then, Philip II, King of Spain decided to train and assign amphibious-assault skilled units to the Royal Armada
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United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
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Royal Australian Navy
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The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the colonial navies were integrated into a national force. Originally intended for defence, the navy was granted the title of Royal Australian Navy in 1911. Britains Royal Navy continued to support the RAN and provided additional blue-water defence capability in the Pacific up to the years of World War II. Then, rapid expansion saw the acquisition of large surface vessels. In the decade following the war, the RAN acquired a number of aircraft carriers. Today, the RAN consists of 47 commissioned vessels,3 non-commissioned vessels, the current Chief of Navy is Vice Admiral Tim Barrett. The Commonwealth Naval Forces were established on 1 March 1901, two months after the federation of Australia, when the forces of the separate Australian colonies were amalgamated. As a result, the force structure was set at one battlecruiser. On 10 July 1911, King George V granted the service the title of Royal Australian Navy. The first of the RANs new vessels, the destroyer Yarra, was completed in September 1910, in this time the focus of Australias naval policy shifted from defence against invasion to trade protection, and several fleet units were sunk as targets or scrapped. By 1923, the size of the navy had fallen to eight vessels, following the outbreak of the Pacific War and the virtual destruction of British naval forces in south-east Asia, the RAN operated more independently, or as part of United States Navy formations. As the navy took on a greater role, it was expanded significantly and at its height the RAN was the fourth-largest navy in the world. A total of 34 vessels were lost during the war, including three cruisers and four destroyers, after the Second World War, the size of the RAN was again reduced, but it gained new capabilities with the acquisition of two aircraft carriers, Sydney and Melbourne. The RAN saw action in many Cold War–era conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region and operated alongside the Royal Navy and United States Navy off Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Since the end of the Cold War, the RAN has been part of Coalition forces in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, operating in support of Operation Slipper and it was also deployed in support of Australian peacekeeping operations in East Timor and the Solomon Islands. The strategic command structure of the RAN was overhauled during the New Generation Navy changes, the RAN is commanded through Naval Headquarters in Canberra. The professional head is the Chief of Navy, who holds the rank of Vice Admiral, NHQ is responsible for implementing policy decisions handed down from the Department of Defence and for overseeing tactical and operational issues that are the purview of the subordinate commands
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Sixth United States Army
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Sixth Army is a field army of the United States Army. It is headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, the Sixth Army saw extensive service in the South Pacific during World War II, including in New Britain, New Guinea, and the Philippines. Postwar it served stateside training army forces till its inactivation during force reduction in 1995, the army was reactivated in 2007. The Sixth United States Army was activated in January 1943, commanded by Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, following the completion of Cartwheel, Sixth Army joined Australian Army and other US forces on the north coast of New Guinea. In September 1944, Sixth Army was relieved from operations in New Guinea by the Eighth United States Army, on 20 October 1944, X Corps and XXIV Corps, under Sixth Army, invaded Leyte in the Philippines. By December, Leyte was secured, and the Sixth Army was relieved again by Eighth Army to prepare for the invasion of Luzon. As a prelude to invasion, the island of Mindoro was invaded by the Western Visayan Task Force comprising the 19th. Sixth Army took part in the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945 with the units of I. Sixth Army units fought south until they met up those of Eighth Army advancing from around Manila, Sixth Army then continued to clear the north of Luzon until the end of the war. Sixth Army was to have provided the forces for the first phase of the invasion of Japan. Occupation duty then followed for a short while until Sixth Army returned to the United States, Sixth Army then took responsibility for training of Army forces from part of the continental United States, until it was inactivated as part of force reductions in June 1995. In 2007 it was decided that US Army South will be redesignated as US Army South under the Army modularization program and it is garrisoned at the Old Brooke Army Medical Center building at Fort Sam Houston. The Sixth U. S. Army is portrayed prominently in the 1953 film War of the Worlds, in the film, the 6th Army Commander is portrayed by actor Les Tremayne. In the TV Show, One Day at a time, Schneiders uniform has a 6th US Army Patch - indicating wartime service. List of former commanders of 6th United States Army and United States Army South at United States Army South website Sixth U. S. Army Fort Ord California Born of War. Dedicated to Peace The short film Big Picture, This is Sixth Army is available for download at the Internet Archive A film clip AIR ASSAULT TACTICS is available at the Internet Archive
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Masaharu Homma
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Masaharu Homma was a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Homma commanded the Japanese 14th Army which invaded the Philippines and perpetrated the Bataan Death March, after the war, Homma was convicted of war crimes relating to the actions of troops under his direct command and executed by firing squad on April 3,1946. Homma was born on Sado Island, in the Sea of Japan off Niigata Prefecture and he graduated in the 14th class of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1907, and in the 27th class of the Army Staff College in 1915. Homma had a respect for, and some understanding of. In 1917 he was attached to the East Lancashire Regiment, and in 1918 served with the British Expeditionary Force in France, from 1930 to 1932, Homma was again sent as a military attaché to the United Kingdom, where his proficiency in the English language was useful. He was also assigned to be part of the Japanese delegation to the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932 and served with the Press Section of the Army Ministry from 1932 to 1933. He was given a command again, as commander of the IJA 1st Infantry Regiment from 1933 to 1935. In 1937, Homma was appointed aide-de-camp to Prince Chichibu, a brother of Emperor Shōwa, with him, he made a diplomatic tour in Europe which ended in Germany. There he attended the Nuremberg rally and met Adolf Hitler, with whom the prince tried to boost relations and he then served as the commander of the Taiwan Army of the Imperial Armed Forces, and composed the lyric of the military song Taiwan Army. Yamaguchi Yoshiko was invited to sing the song to boost Taiwanese morale, after the fall of Nanking, he declared publicly that unless peace is achieved immediately it will be disastrous. Homma was removed from his position at the front lines, and he was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1938. With the start of the Pacific War, Homma was named commander of the 43, 110-man IJA 14th Army and he ordered his troops to treat the Filipinos not as enemies but as friends, and respect their customs and religion. In one instance, on his approach to Manila, Homma stopped his columns and ordered the men to clean up and tighten formations, knowing that unkempt soldiers are likely to loot. There was also a growing subversion within Hommas command by a group of insubordinates. Homma failed to give credence to the possibility that a retreat into the Bataan Peninsula by Filipino-American forces might succeed in upsetting the Japanese timetable. By the time he recognized his mistake, his best infantry division had been replaced by a trained reserve brigade. Rather than waste his men in furious frontal assaults, he tried to outmaneuver the American forces and this brought criticism from superiors who believed he had been contaminated by Western ideas about conserving the lives of his men. Worried about the offensive in Luzon, Hirohito pressed Army Chief of Staff Hajime Sugiyama twice in January 1942 to increase troop strength
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United States Army
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The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. After the Revolutionary War, the Congress of the Confederation created the United States Army on 3 June 1784, the United States Army considers itself descended from the Continental Army, and dates its institutional inception from the origin of that armed force in 1775. As a uniformed service, the Army is part of the Department of the Army. As a branch of the forces, the mission of the U. S. The branch participates in conflicts worldwide and is the major ground-based offensive and defensive force of the United States, the United States Army serves as the land-based branch of the U. S. Section 3062 of Title 10, U. S, the army was initially led by men who had served in the British Army or colonial militias and who brought much of British military heritage with them. As the Revolutionary War progressed, French aid, resources, a number of European soldiers came on their own to help, such as Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, who taught Prussian Army tactics and organizational skills. The army fought numerous pitched battles and in the South in 1780–81 sometimes used the Fabian strategy and hit-and-run tactics, hitting where the British were weakest, to wear down their forces. Washington led victories against the British at Trenton and Princeton, but lost a series of battles in the New York and New Jersey campaign in 1776, with a decisive victory at Yorktown, and the help of the French, the Continental Army prevailed against the British. After the war, though, the Continental Army was quickly given land certificates, State militias became the new nations sole ground army, with the exception of a regiment to guard the Western Frontier and one battery of artillery guarding West Points arsenal. However, because of continuing conflict with Native Americans, it was realized that it was necessary to field a trained standing army. The War of 1812, the second and last war between the United States and Great Britain, had mixed results. After taking control of Lake Erie in 1813, the U. S. Army seized parts of western Upper Canada, burned York and defeated Tecumseh, which caused his Western Confederacy to collapse. Following U. S. victories in the Canadian province of Upper Canada, British troops, were able to capture and burn Washington, which was defended by militia, in 1814. Two weeks after a treaty was signed, Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans and Siege of Fort St. Philip, U. S. troops and sailors captured HMS Cyane, Levant, and Penguin in the final engagements of the war. Per the treaty, both sides, the United States and Great Britain, returned to the status quo. Both navies kept the warships they had seized during the conflict, the armys major campaign against the Indians was fought in Florida against Seminoles. It took long wars to defeat the Seminoles and move them to Oklahoma
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