Quote:
Originally Posted by Devilsadvocate
I've read all of the Hyperwar stuff on the reinforcement of the Philippines and none of it adds up to the four US divisions, 44 submarines, and 1,000 planes you previously claimed.
Your conclusion that 400 aircraft were "scheduled" to arrive in March, 1942, is in error. The quotation says that "By March, 1942, the War Department planned to have 165 bombers and 240 fighters based in the Philippines." That includes units already there in 1941, and doesn't mean all those planes would be delivered in one month, nor does it mean that deliveries would continue at 400 planes a month.
Nice try, but there is no way the Philippines would be garrisoned with 1,000 modern combat aircraft by the fall of 1942. And Mac's pipe dream of 200,000 well-trained Filipino troops can be discounted. In actual fact, he barely was able to mobilize 80,000 poorly equipped and untrained Filipino troops, which despite their undoubted courage, were more or less worthless against the Japanese troops.
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I should have said that there would have been 400 aircraft in the PI by March, 42, but as was further quoted: "Within a few months, this number would have been RAISED CONSIDERABLY." Hap Arnold said that "We must get every B-17 availiable to the Philippines as soon as possible."
"His statement was not an exaggeration. On the outbreak of war there were 913 U. S. Army aircraft scattered among the numerous overseas bases. This number of aircraft included 61 heavy, 157 medium, and 59 light bombers and 636 fighters. More than half of the total of heavy bombers and one sixth of the fighters were already in the Philippines.43 Within a few months this number would have been raised considerably." Added to this number were B-24 Liberators that were now coming off the assembly lines. These too were slated for duty in the far east.
Your blanket condemnation of the fighting abilities of the Filippino troops is highly incorrect and defies logic. The largely untrained Filippino's fought very well at Abucay Hacienda, Layac Junction and a number of other places during the long double retrograde manuever onto the Bataan peninsula. Later they proved their worth during the Battle of the Points and throughout much of the campaign on Bataan, as they held most of the line there. As far as numbers go, IIRC, the final number was 137,000 men overall at MacArthur's command, because many of the divisions were never fully mobilized given the historical time frame.