Originally Posted by Falcon Jun

Yes, the US garrison in the Philippines was caught flat footed despite having an eight-hour lead time after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere a claim that a B-17 strike at Formosa was already in the air but had to turn back to their Philippine base because of cloud cover at Formosa. It also claimed that combat patrols were launched but returned when nothing was found.

The strike and patrol had just touched down and was refueling when the Japanese air strike arrived.

As to defending the main Philippine island of Luzon, he had decided to ignore War Plan Orange at first. Dividing his forces into the North Luzon and South Luzon Forces, he hoped he could defeat the Japanese landings. When he decided to implement War Plan Orange-3, he only had enough time to withdraw the two groups into Bataan with the Northern Luzon Force forced into a series of mostly successful but bloody rear guard actions.

If the rearguard actions had failed, the Japanese would've gained entry into Central Luzon earlier and cut off the Southern Luzon Force. There would've been no Bataan and Corregidor would be standing all alone. One note, though. . . despite the rear guard actions, the US failed to transfer its stocks of fuel, ammo, food and medical supplies from its supply dumps in Manila and Clark.

That was a big factor in Bataan siege.

I have to agree, though, that Macarthur did have an imperial air around him. Love him or hate, he's still Macarthur, the American Ceasar.