What military reinforcement was supposed to be shipped to the Philippine Islands before the the onse

Insightful as usual, DA and thanks for the tip on the book. I'll definitely be looking out for that one.

 

Jack,

My father joined the 147th Field Artillery, Battery E in the South Dakota National Guard out of Yankton, SD in October, 1940 and was activated in November, 1940. What battery were you in? My father's name was Kenneth Schulte.

Thanks

Gary Schulte

 

Agh! A lot more stuff to review. Still, thanks for pointing us to these sites.

 

Haywood Hansell discusses in his book the original plans for the Pacific Theater. Several Squadrons of B-29s were scheduled for basement in the Phillipines. When the B-29 was ordered onto the production line before the war it was intended as an "hemisphere defense" weapon. This is in addition to what has been posted above.

 

Gary... did your father leave anything in writing describing battery operations, firing, training, ect...? I'm collecting data for a study of artillery in the 20th Century. Would be very thankfull for a look at anything he left.

 

He states the B-29.

 

Though the specifications for the plane that later became the B-29 were issued in 1940, the first prototype did not fly until September 21, 1942. The urgency of the B-29 program was such, however, that by that time, about 1,500 aircraft had already been ordered by the USAAF.

Even though this was long after the fall of the Philippines, it's possible that some of the senior USAAF officers may have tentatively envisaged basing B-29 squadrons in the Philippines when they became available (and Luzon was recaptured). I can find, however, no definite statements to that effect, and it appears the first concrete plans for deployment of the B-29 involved advanced bases in China supported by air depots in India. This turned out to be impractical for mainly logistical reasons and bases in the Marianas became to choice of the JCS for the strategic bombing campaign against Japan.

 

Carl,

I have not found anything of my father's that described anything about the actual artillery "operations". I e-mailed the USMA and they gave me the following possible sources of information as I am searching for the same type of information:Also suggest contacting the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, PA. The Institute has disbanded U.S. Army records. Contact Mr. Thomas L. Hendrix, Chief of Historical Services at Tom.Hendrix@carlisle.army.mil for further suggestions.

Another possible source is the U.S. Army Field Artillery Center and Fort Sill. Contact Dr. Boyd L. Dastrup, command historian and field artillery specialist at boyd.I.destrup@us.army.mil.

Gary Schulte
dauis2@msn.com

 

Thanks Gary. I've made a habit of asking about personal or eyewitness accounts. Amoung other things these have details on what was actually happening on the battlefield, as opposed to the schoolhouse version back at Ft Sill, or other historians interpretations. Have turned up a couple of gems this way.

 

Edward S. Miller (who wrote the definitive work on War Plan Orange) has been cited multiple times in this thread thus far, it is worth noting that he possesses a hopeless Navy bias, most likely due to the fact that he lectured at the Navy War College.

The troops that were en route to the Philippines would have proven a tremendous help in defending the islands, however the reinforcements should have been coming in from 1937 onwards, instead have only being released in mid 1941. Despite this failure on the part of the War Department to release troops for the Philippines, MacArthur had been unable to create the military infrastructure within Luzon to properly use these troops and supply them for a military campaign.

Bataan is likely to have been able to hold out had MacArthur not temporarily abandoned the plans of WPO-3, that is, the immediate delaying action to Bataan, instead he dithered for several weeks in his well-meaning but misguided 'stop them at the beaches strategy' and lost critical time that could have been spent readying Bataan for garrisoning.

 

But even if substantial re-enforcements did make it to The Philippines prior to the war breaking out, not enough supplies were available, and what little there would have been spread thinner. Any new re-enforcements would have meant more troops going into the bag, that's all. And as far as I know, there were no relevent plans to relieve the troops at Bataan and Corregidor anyway.

 

Exactly, the supply issue is what I meant when I said 'military infrastructure'.

A timely reinforcement may have been maid had all of our battleships not ended up at the bottom of Pearl Harbor. With the Navy stung, and largely inactive save for the personal initiative of some intrepid carrier commanders, there was to be no charge to relieve the garrison (though I am not suggesting their should have been). The story of reinforcement of the Philippines is just a matter of too little, too late. The War Department should have been more forthcoming with support during the 1930s in regards to preparing the Philippines, instead the FDR administration allowed personal politics in the form of animosity toward Roosevelt to get in the way of sound military preparation.

 

Ahhh, we are marching together as they say. When you said "military infrastructure," I was thinking the USAFFE as the whole entity as structured, not the getting the beans and bullets out once the shootin' war commenced.

 

You were half right I meant to imply both. However I did not do a good enough job of making that known.

I am sorry, I just finished writing a thesis on the development of War Plan Orange with specific attention to the Philippines, so I may have just felt that I had already said it (in the paper it seems, not here )

 

Okie dokie. You did seem to have a great deal of knowledge on the subject. Let me know how your thesis was received. I'll go and have a Harp now.

 

Omit

 

Hey Robert, you'd probably get better results by posting your request over on the "Military Service Record & Geneological Research" thread. Go to the home page and you'll find it there. Good luck with your search.