Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl W Schwamberger
"What he did not have was the transportation means to move them all into Bataan once WPOIII had again put into effect."
There is a key point. With insuffcient supplys in Battan & too little transport MacArthur needed to stall the Japanese landings to preserve his supply base. Unfortunately the Japanese struck before the US/PI army could be deployed for effective defense of the landing sites.
Had somehow a US/PI army survived, preserving air bases into the summer of 1942 then the naval & air battles that revolved around New Guniea & the Solomons would have started sooner & extended to the Phillipines.
This would be interesting variant for a stratigic level wargame of the Pacific war.
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Extremely bad luck and bad governmental decisions had much to do with the Fillipino-American soldier's lack of rations on Bataan. A large number of Allied ships loaded with food stuffs were never delivered or unloaded because they were sunk in the waters of Manila Bay. Case in point. A Vichy French ship carrying five million pounds of wheat flour, destined for Saigon was sunk by Japanese aircraft well within sight of Corregidor.
Tens of thousands of tons of rice were prohibitted from moving south into Bataan by railroad because of Fillipino governmental restrictions preventing rice from being shipped from one province to another.
What would a Fillipino-American Army that was well-supplied with a nearly two year supply of foodstuffs and ample munitions have done to the Japanese invaders in and around Bataan is an interesting question that has never been fully pursued.