Post by moroni on Aug 10, 2011 23:31:03 GMT -5
I have been asking this question for a while now and as we know there has been a lot of "what if"during the Bataan campaign.
What if the Philippine Army was trained to the level of the Scouts?, What if the original War Plan Orange 3 was immediately put to effect and food, supplies and materiel were all stocked piled in Bataan and not defend the beaches? What if the the B-17's bombed the Air bases at Formosa immediately after the attack on Pearl? And so on...
Well I still have one "What If?" and i thought that maybe anybody can help me with this one.
Quoting from John W. Whitman's book, Bataan our last ditch, under Chapter Eighteen.
"The Japanese Retreat"
"Bloodied and realizing it was Futile to continue the Offensive, General Homma prepared to withdraw his 14th Army from the entire front up to as much as 10 kilometers. Commanders and Staffs huddled over maps and climbed hills searching for good defensive terrain. The Japanese were concerned that a Filamerican offensive might push out of Bataan into Luzon's central plains"...
On February 8, General Homma called a meeting of his staff at his San Fernando Headquarters....
"General Maeda, chief of staff to the 14th Army and presiding as chairman of the meeting, called the assembled officers to order. He opened with the description of the Japanese Army's plight. No word was then available from the two infantry battalions fighting near Quinauan Point. The third battalion that has disappeared behind Wainwright's main line was dying in the Tuol Pockets. General Nara's repeated attempts to break the new Filamerican line at Trail 2 had collapsed in bloody ruins. To the experienced eyes of the Japanese staff, the situation was not merely desperate, it was catastrophic".
In page 380 of the same Chapter,
"Now the Japanese had pulled up exhausted. The instinctive desire for revenge, to strike out and retaliate for all the previous hurt, swept over the Filamerican. A member of Mcarthur's staff noted that moral was high and the army wanted to take the offensive. There appeared to be no enemy opposition along the east coast except dead Japanese and tons of abandoned equipment. Japanese prisoners gave the empression that moral was low."
What if the Filamerican army did break out? Was there any plans to do so? I understand that the Japanese planes was a concern. But what if?
What if the Philippine Army was trained to the level of the Scouts?, What if the original War Plan Orange 3 was immediately put to effect and food, supplies and materiel were all stocked piled in Bataan and not defend the beaches? What if the the B-17's bombed the Air bases at Formosa immediately after the attack on Pearl? And so on...
Well I still have one "What If?" and i thought that maybe anybody can help me with this one.
Quoting from John W. Whitman's book, Bataan our last ditch, under Chapter Eighteen.
"The Japanese Retreat"
"Bloodied and realizing it was Futile to continue the Offensive, General Homma prepared to withdraw his 14th Army from the entire front up to as much as 10 kilometers. Commanders and Staffs huddled over maps and climbed hills searching for good defensive terrain. The Japanese were concerned that a Filamerican offensive might push out of Bataan into Luzon's central plains"...
On February 8, General Homma called a meeting of his staff at his San Fernando Headquarters....
"General Maeda, chief of staff to the 14th Army and presiding as chairman of the meeting, called the assembled officers to order. He opened with the description of the Japanese Army's plight. No word was then available from the two infantry battalions fighting near Quinauan Point. The third battalion that has disappeared behind Wainwright's main line was dying in the Tuol Pockets. General Nara's repeated attempts to break the new Filamerican line at Trail 2 had collapsed in bloody ruins. To the experienced eyes of the Japanese staff, the situation was not merely desperate, it was catastrophic".
In page 380 of the same Chapter,
"Now the Japanese had pulled up exhausted. The instinctive desire for revenge, to strike out and retaliate for all the previous hurt, swept over the Filamerican. A member of Mcarthur's staff noted that moral was high and the army wanted to take the offensive. There appeared to be no enemy opposition along the east coast except dead Japanese and tons of abandoned equipment. Japanese prisoners gave the empression that moral was low."
What if the Filamerican army did break out? Was there any plans to do so? I understand that the Japanese planes was a concern. But what if?