General Douglas MacArthur, President Osmeña, and staff land at Palo, Leyte on October 20, 1944.

The Philippines campaign codenamed Operation Musketeer I, II, and III was the American and Filipino campaign to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines during World War II. The Japanese Army overran all of the Philippines during the first half of 1942. The liberation commenced with amphibious landings on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on October 20, 1944. United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces were progressing through the islands when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on August 15, 1945, following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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By mid 1944, American forces were only 300 nautical miles from Mindanao, the largest island in the Southern Philippines, and able to bomb Japanese positions using long range bombers. American forces under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz had advanced across the Central Pacific Ocean, capturing the Gilbert Islands, some of the Marshall Islands, and most of the Marianas Islands, bypassing many Japanese Army garrisons and leaving them behind, with no source of supplies and militarily impotent.

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Aircraft carrier based warplanes were already conducting air strikes and fighter sweeps against the Japanese in the Philippines, especially their military airfields. U.S. Army and Australian Army troops under the American General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Theatre of Operations, had either overrun, or else isolated and bypassed, all of the Japanese Army on New Guinea and the Admiralty Islands. Before the invasion of the Philippines, MacArthur's northernmost conquest had been at Morotai in the Dutch East Indies on September 15th -16th, 1944. This was MacArthur's one base that was within bomber range of the Southern Philippines.

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With victories in the Marianas campaign (on Saipan, on Guam, and on Tinian, during June and July 1944), American forces were getting close to Japan itself. From the Marianas, the very long-range B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) could bomb the Japanese home islands from well-supplied air bases.

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Although Japan was obviously losing the war, the Japanese Government, and the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy, showed no sign of capitulation, collapse or surrender.

U.S. LST's (Tank Landing Ships) moored near Tacloban, Leyte Island, shortly after the invasion. They brought equipment and material to lay down a steel matting runway.

There had been a close relationship between the people of the Philippines and the United States since 1898, with the Philippines becoming the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, and promised their independence in mid-1946. The Filipino people were ready and waiting for the invasion. After General MacArthur had been evacuated from the Philippines in March 1942, all of its islands fell to the Japanese. The Japanese occupation was harsh, accompanied by atrocities and with large numbers of Filipinos pressed into slave labour. From mid-1942 to mid-1944, MacArthur and Nimitz supplied and encouraged the Filipino guerrilla resistance by U.S. Navy submarines and a few parachute drops, so that the guerrillas could harass the Japanese Army and take control of the rural jungle and mountainous areas – amounting to about half of the archipelago. While remaining loyal to the United States, many Filipinos hoped and believed that liberation from the Japanese would bring them freedom and their already-promised independence.

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On October 20th, 1944, the U.S. Sixth Army, supported by naval and air bombardment, landed on the eastern shore of Leyte, one of the islands of the Visayas island group, northeast of Mindanao. The Japanese miscalculated the relative strength of the naval and air forces, and they attempted to destroy the landing. This brought about the massive sequence of battles called the Battle of Leyte Gulf, fought from October 23rd to October 26th. The U.S. Navy effectively destroyed the remainder of the Imperial Japanese Navy and it was never able to fight a major battle after this.

U.S.Troops take cover while moving up on Japanese positions on Panay Island.

The U.S. Sixth Army advanced east. During many torrential rains and over difficult terrain, the advance continued across Leyte and onto the major island of Samar, just north of Leyte. On December 7th, 1944, the U.S. Army units made another amphibious landing at Ormoc Bay and, after a major land and air battle, the landing force cut off all Japanese ability to reinforce and resupply their troops on Leyte. Although fierce fighting continued on Leyte for months, the U.S. Army was always in control.

The Filipino guerrillas also performed valuable service in maintaining public order and in keeping the roads and highways free of congestion. After the American beachheads were established, the Leyte guerrilla groups were attached directly to the Sixth Army corps and divisions to assist in scouting, intelligence, and combat operations.

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After taking the island of Mindoro the U.S. forces landed on Luzon and pushed towards the Philippines capital Manila. Despite initial optimism, fighting in Manila was harsh. It took until March 3rd to clear the city of all Japanese troops, and the Japanese Marines, who fought on stubbornly and refused to either surrender or to evacuate as the Japanese Army had done.

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The Americans needed to establish a major harbor base at Manila Bay to support the expected invasion of Japan, planned to begin on November 1st, 1945. Resistance on Corregidor ended on February 27th, and then all resistance by the Japanese Empire ceased on August 15th, 1945, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.

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“Give me ten thousand Filipino soldiers and I will conquer the world.”

General Douglas MacArthur

Source: Wikipedia