Posted on 12/13/2019 7:34:34 AM PST by fugazi
The United States' air and naval assets in the Philippines were mostly neutralized in the first 48 hours of the war, so smaller Japanese landings and bombing raids across Luzon Island are met with little resistance. American commanders correctly suspect that these small-scale landings merely diversions for the upcoming main assault.
Meanwhile, Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma's 43,000-man 14th Army stages at Formosa, Palau, and the Ryukyu Islands, gearing up for their main landing. Left without air or naval support, American and Filipino ground forces are now trapped with no supply lines or means of escape.
Headlines from today's edition, which can be read below:
(Excerpt) Read more at victoryinstitute.net ...
MacArthur really booted that one.
I find it interesting how great of a soldier MacArthur could be, but he also made some really poor decisions. I wonder if he was somewhere else during the war how differently things would have gone.
I think partly it’s ‘being in the right job at the right time’. Imagine if Patton hadn’t been relieved of command of the 7th Army? Would he have commanded at Salerno? Anzio? Would the US Army have permitted it’s best tank commander to lead an invasion (Italy) where tanks were merely a supporting arm? We’ve done stupider things!
Would the US Army have permitted its best tank commander to lead an invasion (Italy) where tanks were merely a supporting arm? Weve done stupider things!
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Great point. They knew Patton would not have been best utilized in Italy. And Patton hated Clark.
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