Could MacArthur have defeated the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1942?
I've heard it said it was a lost cause, with there being too few regular US forces and the Filipino forces being unprepared and under-equipped.
Armchair generals of Veeky Forums, were you MacArthur what would you have done to defend the Philippines?
Hid in my dugout and wait for a boat so I can run away to Australia
No, the US government decided to abandon the Philippines at the first shot.
And the forces present were inadequate to defend it?
No. Attempting to defend the Philippines was a lost cause. The Japanese were determined to take it, and they had surprise on their side. The terrain itself is not very defensible, the archipelago is not like the fortifications at Normandy or a typical flat land battle. If the Japanese found trouble in one place, they could just float by or move around to a better position.
>were you MacArthur what would you have done to defend the Philippines?
Prepared to blow it up when tension was building before Japan attacked, and prepared evacuation plans. Noped the fuck out of there and let them take it, then come back after the war had actually started.
t. named after MacArthur. [spoiler]I hate my name.[/spoiler]
Not him but yes that's right. History proved it.
Not a bad idea.
Pretty much, doesn't help that the P-40 can't dogfight with a Zero and relies entirely on dive and zoom tactics
was p-40s all they had?
Pretty much, they were supposed to get Aircobra's I believe but the Philippines was overrun before that could happen
>Forces were inadequate to defend it.
>Flips have been trained by Americreaturas since 1930.
>Amerinegroes fucking outnumbered the invasion force sent against them.
Amerisplaining is funny, always, this is at par with "We won Vietnam" shit."
Instead of memetexting can you go into how the Filipino forces were up to the task?
Only one of the flip "divisions" was even outfitted for an army role, the others were reserves with vintage krags and a police division
>Americreaturas
Sorry but /pol/ memes instantly discredit you here.
>Amerimutt
>/pol/
Jesus fuck the amount of newfags is staggering.
Fuck that treacherous piece of shit, despite us flips being a """protectorate"""" of amerilards that fuck turned tail and fled and then comes back acting all heroic and shit.
>The terrain itself is not very defensible
are you retarded? the terrain provides optimal conditions for conducting a protracted, guerilla warfare.
Flips, were, and are stupidly nationalistic despite being extremely regionalistic.
>Amerinegroes fucking outnumbered the invasion force sent against them.
t. brainlet
On paper the Philippines had over 500,00, men so I can see where he got that impression
>Paper strength.
Not even.
The USAFFE plain outnumbered the Nip Invasion force.
In addition MacArthur has been mobilizing the islands since September in light of the aggression of the Nips across SEA, including his infamous decision to ignore War Department plans which ended up stretching the defenses of the archipelago.
>P-40 can't dogfight with a Zero
In fact, the P-40 had excellent turning characteristics and was one of the few fighters that could reasonably dogfight with a Zero.
> Could MacArthur have defeated the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1942?
No. He knew the U.S. had hung the Philippines out to dry and no rescue was coming.
> what would you have done to defend the Philippines?
I’d have used the time to train the Filipino forces (and select American officers) in partisan / guerrilla warfare and had them move weapons, ammo and gear to scattered caches throughout the islands prior to the invasion, which would allow them to carry on an unconventional war against the Japanese until the U.S. could liberate the islands.
But due to the terrain, logistics and political situation, the U.S. forces really had no other option then to fight a delaying / attritional battle for a long as possible.
>The USAFFE plain outnumbered the Nip Invasion force.
t. still a brainlet and Wiki-certified too
Finally, a sensible asnwer thick-ass jungles, mountains and dengue oughta stop the nips.
Wouldn't that be pretty hard to pull off? IIRC only commies knew gorilla tactics and strategy at the time.
guerilla tactics have been utilized by flip forces during the phil-am war, or as I like to call it the war against american imperialist aggression.
A lot of those from the regular armies of the USAFFE and the Philippine Commonwealth - both enlisted and officers- who escaped the surrender actually did guerilla shit, going around the islands setting up cells of guerillas across the Philippines.
All of them weren't even trained for it and improvised along the way. They ended up becoming masters of it, namely the likes of Ramon Magsaysay (who later on became president of the Philippines) and Wendell Fertig (pictured).
Wendell Fertig was a straight up badass. He was just an engineering corps colonel but he led the most successful guerilla group in Southern Philippines that in 1952 he was invited in a committe which led to the groundwork of the founding of the US Army Special Forces.
>IIRC only commies knew gorilla tactics and strategy at the time
Nah, the only thing the HUKBALAHAP had going for them is that they were the largest guerilla force in the Philippines. Most guerilla forces were localized armies that operated independently. Meanwhile the Philippine Communist Party had plenty of experience running a countrywide underground movement following their outlawing by the Philippine Legislature in 1932. When Japs BTFO the Commonwealth and the Americans, the Communists emerged from the chaos, seized lots of weapons lying around, and pretty much turned the Luzon countryside into green hell for the Japs.
No it really couldn't dogfight with a Zero, every single allied airman who flew them against Zeros agrees with that assessment and that's why they'd try to attack from altitude diving down instead of trying to outmaneuver a Zero
The U.S. actually had quite a bit of experience fighting _against_ guerrilla forces in the various Banana Wars in Central America (and earlier, in the Philippines itself) but none of this translated up to high command, which still thought exclusively in terms of conventional warfare, until much later in the war.
But had MacArthur or someone saw the writing on the wall and prepared the Philippines to fight am inevitable guerrilla war against the Japanese, it would have been very successful.
There was a large and loyal (or at least strongly anti-Japanese) population on a huge island chain with hundreds of islands and a bazillion miles of coastline that could be secretly resupplied and supported by submarine and the U.S. had the manufacturing and military capability to make it work.
>No it really couldn't dogfight with a Zero
That a Zero had a tighter turning radius then a P-40, doesn’t mean it was invulnerable.
Real life isn’t a video game.
Even if they could have put up a decent fight, they were thousands of miles away from resupply. The Japanese controlled all the seas around them so they easily could have staved them out even if they didn't just overrun them anyway.
I didn't say it was invulnerable, Zeros are notoriously flimsy, I said it's a fucking terrible idea to get into an extended dogfight with one and just about every air commander in the Pacific agrees with that assessment
> > P-40 can't dogfight with a Zero
> I didn't say it was invulnerable
>that's why they'd try to attack from altitude diving down instead of trying to outmaneuver a Zero
>This makes Zeros invulnerable
No
the US denied Macarthur's request to reinforce the filipinos as well as giving them better equipment and vehicles to properly defend Philippines.
Actually the Philippines were being reinforced constantly and a large shipment of aircraft and munitions were sailing to the Philippines when it was attacked.
>Americans
>conducting guerilla war
where's chow bro, i swear if supply is cut off im surrendering