What was the Liberation of the Philippines?

Answer 1

The Philippine archipelago is defended by the 35th army led by general Suzuki and by the 14th army region led by general Yamashita. The Leyte island is defended by the 16th division of general Makino.

In the month of September, seeing how week the enemy is against the harassing raids, the Americans change their target from Yap and Mindanao to Leyte. In the same move they forget Formosa and Amoy and aim at Luzon.

To prepare Roi II operation (landing at Leyte) MacArthur conquers Morotai North of Halmahera. On the other side Nimitz conquers Peleliou which was defended by the 14th Japanese division fortified in caves. September 15th the 1st Marine division lands but they need reenforcement of the 81st division to take control of the island on November 25th at the cost of 2000 Americans and all the Japaneses. The 3rd amphibic force takes the Ulithi island (in the Palaos) which will become after the Seabees' passage the 2nd biggest naval base after Pearl Harbor but only at 1700km of Manilla and 2200km of Okinawa.

Before the landing the Task Force 38 (Mitscher) bombs from the 10th to the 15th of October the bases of Ryu-Kyu, Formosa and Luzon. By these bombings 500 aircrafts and 40 cargos are destroyed while only 110 American airplanes are lost along with two damaged cruisers (even if the Japaneses reports 11 carriers, 2 battleships and 4 cruisers sunken and 28 other ships damaged).

October 17th the 7th fleet led by Kinkaid with its 700 ships and 175 000 men from the 6th army arrives in the Leyte Gulf and makes landings on the islands at the entry of the gulf. Then for 2 days the coasts are bombed by the battleships, cruisers and airplanes from the 18 carriers.

The Americans land at Leyte on October 20th 1944 with the 10th Corps (composed of the 1st cavalery division and the 24th infantry division) on the North coast: the soldiers attack Tacloban and its airport while the 24th Corps (composed of the 96th and 7th divisions) is on the South coast and attacks Dulac. During the landings only the cruiser Honolulu is damaged by a torpedo bomber. MacArthur set foot in the Philippines along with the 3rd assault wave. This major landings bring the Japaneses to two things: they send their combined fleet in the Leyte Gulf to attack the American fleet and they send ground reenforcement from Yamashita (since only one division was stationed at Leyte). The battle on the ground will continue until December but the crucials fights are here following. On December 6th the Japaneses attacks with paratroopers the American airbases. December 7th the 77th US division lands in the Ormoc Gulf behind the enemy. December 22nd the Americans land at Palompon. At May 8th 1945 the Japaneses have lost 80 600 men and the Americans only 3500.

During these fights on Leyte MacArthur and his troops lands at Mindoro on December 12th so that they can use the San Jose airport.

January 9th 1945 the 14th (37th and 41st divisions) and the 1st (6th and 43rd divisions) US Corps land on the North coast of Luzon and come down on Manilla in 3 weeks with a decoy that let Yamashita think that the next attack will come from Mindoro. General Yamashita prefers jungle fights and so he orders to his 262 000 men (divided in three groups: Tsukada, Shimbu and Shobu) to leave the city and take refuge in the near mountains. But admiral Iwabuchi stays in the city with his 17 000 soldiers and they will resist for one month (until February 3rd). January 29th the 11th Corps lands at Olongapo while the 11th Paratrooper division lands South of the strait linking Manilla Bay to the Pacific Ocean. February 4th MacArthur enters victoriously in Manilla. Finally the city is freed by the 14th Corps at the cost of 1000 deads and 5000 injured. But for the Japaneses everyone is dead except a few exceptions. The Bataan peninsula is reconquered February 21st by the 11th Corps led by general Hall who was fighting the Tsukada group. With an amphibic operation (34th regiment) and paratroopers (503rd Paratrooper regiment), Corregidor is also freed on February 27th. The mountains of Luzon are cleared of the Shimbu group (under the orders of general Yokoyama) in two months by the 14th Corps. The 1st Corps eliminates the Shobu group which had taken refuge in the North of the island. When Japan capitulates there is still 40 000 soldiers led by Yamashita and they will surrender to the 8th army which is then stationed there.

The small islands of the Philippine archipelago (Palawan, Panay, Cebu, Bohol, Negros and Tawi-Tawi) are all reconquered by about 30 landings made by the 8th army. Mindanao is attacked on March 10th by the 41st division which attacks Zamboanga and then with the help of the guerillos of colonel Fertig the 2 Japanese divisions of general Tomochika surrender on September 7th after being push back into the jungle. Borneo is also attacked by the 1st Australian Corps led by Morshead and by the 7th amphibic force. May 1st the Tarakan island (which is rich in petroleum) is reconquered. Brunei is conquered on June 10th when the 9th division attacks while the 7th Australian division conquers Balikpapan. Then MacArthur wants to free Java but Washington has other plans in mind.

For this reconquest that MacArthur wanted so much the Americans used 17 divisions and 10 000 mens died while 30 000 were injured; but what is worse is that very few Japaneses surrendered and rather killed themselves. Estimation puts the number of dead Japaneses to 150 000 -the equivalent of 23 divisions. The American officers begin to understand that the landing on Japan (Olympic and Coronet operations) will be deadly for both sides.

The Americans bombarded Manila to get the Japanese out. This caused Manila to be the 2nd most destroyed city of WW2 after Warsaw.