On May 5, 1942, The commander of the U.S. Forces in the Philippines, General Jonathan Mayhue Wainwright, sent a final telegram to Washington, in which he said:
"Please tell the nation that my troops and I myself have done all that humanity can do, and that we have defended the fine traditions of the United States of America and its army ... With deep regret and infinite pride in my tenacious army, I went to meet the Commander of the Japanese Army... Goodbye, Mr. President! ”
After the telegram was sent, General Wainwright led his army and surrendered to the Japanese army! At this time, it was only nearly a month before the end of the "Bataan Peninsula Campaign", and the US military was defeated so quickly in the Philippines that it was indeed unexpected!
Of course, General Wainwright was not the first American general to surrender in this battle, and before that, Bataan's defender commander, General Edward King, had already taken the lead in leading 70,000 Bataan defenders to surrender to the Japanese army!
This is the largest contingent in the history of the US military to surrender, and it is arguably the biggest defeat that has humiliated the United States in the entire Second World War.
But the question is, how can the US military, which claims to be "invincible in the world," be hit so hard? Moreover, what was the final result of these American soldiers who surrendered?
In this article, let's talk about the biggest surrender of the US military in World War II - the Battle of the Bataan Peninsula between Japan and the United States!
In the early morning of December 8, 1941 (Manila time), the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Just 10 hours after the incident, the U.S. Far East Air Force deployed at Pampaga Clark Airfield in the Philippines was also suddenly attacked by the Japanese army.
Japanese warplanes continued to indiscriminately bomb Clarke Airfield, smashing the 20 B-17s and 60 P-40s lined up at the airport to pieces.
In just a few tens of minutes, more than a hundred American planes were easily destroyed by the Japanese army, and the American Asian fleet had to flee to Java in a hurry after seeing this scene!
In order to control the sea lines of communication in Southeast Asia, the Japanese army began to land in Apali, Vigan, and Legazpi in the Philippines from December 10, and advanced towards Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
However, the US-Philippine coalition army could not withstand the fierce attack of the Japanese army at all!
Although in the last joint attack of the Far East Air Force, the Us aircraft damaged two Japanese transport ships, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, the Battleship Nagato, a destroyer, and a mine-laying ship, these attacks still did not effectively stop the Japanese attack!
At this time, MacArthur can be said to have been stretched, he originally expected to block all the Japanese troops on the seashore, but now it seems that this idea is very unrealistic.
Subsequently, the pipe general had to abandon the original plan and withdraw his troops to the Bataan Peninsula near Manila to redeploy the defensive line.
The Bataan Peninsula, 25 miles long and 20 miles wide, was a typical small island where MacArthur concentrated more than 90,000 U.S.-Philippines troops in preparation for a protracted war with the Japanese.
On January 10, 1942, Masaharu Honma, commander of the Japanese 14th Army, ordered the attack on Bataan to begin! However, this attack failed due to masaharu Honma's carelessness!
Honma Masaharu originally expected that the U.S.-Philippine coalition on the island would not exceed 30,000 people, and when the cannon sounded, they would definitely flee, but who knew that the U.S.-Philippine army on the island not only did not flee, but also launched a fierce attack on the Japanese army.
Two days after the fierce battle, the Japanese 65th Brigade, which was responsible for the main offensive task, was annihilated by the American and Filipino troops, and Honma Masaharu was forced to order the attack to stop!
In the next few battles, Honma Masaharu's troops suffered heavy losses! However, it is not only Masaharu Honma who is uncomfortable, but also the US-Philippine coalition army is not much better!
Figure | Masaharu Honma
Because the U.S.-Philippines army had lost most of its supplies in the previous retreat, the problem of insufficient supplies occurred shortly after the start of the war. In addition, due to the harsh environment here, many people have contracted malaria.
Therefore, it can be seen that the fall of the Bataan Peninsula is only a matter of time!
In such a critical situation, Roosevelt, in order to save face and avoid letting MacArthur take prisoners of the Japanese army, came to a "temporary change of generals", replacing the five-star general MacArthur with Lieutenant General Wainwright, that is, the American general we mentioned at the beginning who surrendered to the Japanese army!
On the night of March 12, 1942, MacArthur quietly left Coregidore Island with his family and several U.S. Far East Army officers in four PT-34 torpedo boats commanded by Captain Barkley.
After landing on the north shore of Mindanao, MacArthur, pale and blackened, expressed deep gratitude to Barkley and offered to apply for the Silver Star Medal for his givers.
MacArthur escaped, but the tens of thousands of U.S.-Philippine coalition troops trapped on the Bataan Peninsula became fish under the knife of the Japanese army.
When Hideki Tojo heard the news of MacArthur's escape, he was furious, because he had thought of capturing MacArthur alive and then escorting him to the streets of Tokyo, but unfortunately this cunning old guy ran too fast.
MacArthur eventually fled to Australia because Roosevelt had given him the right to go to Australia as commander-in-chief of the newly formed Allied forces in the Southwest Pacific. This "tacit understanding" between the generals is really breathtaking!
On April 3, the Japanese reinforced two more divisions and began a final general offensive against the Bataan Peninsula!
Faced with the fierce attack of the Japanese army, MacArthur, who was far away in Australia, actually issued an order to Wainwright to counterattack the whole line. But Wainwright had no way of carrying out his whimsical orders, because the Bataan front had completely collapsed.
Under the powerful Japanese offensive, only a few officers and men retreated to the island of Koregidor. On 8 April, General Edward King, commander of the Bataan garrison, saw that there was no point in resisting any longer, so he offered the Japanese the terms of the surrender agreement.
The next morning, General Edward King officially surrendered to the Japanese with a bataan garrison of more than 70,000 men. This is the largest contingent in the history of the US military to surrender, and at this point, the Bataan Peninsula has officially fallen!
Subsequently, the news of the surrender of the Bataan Defenders to the Japanese army reached Washington, and the American high-ranking people were shocked.
However, in view of the actual situation of running out of ammunition, President Roosevelt did not strictly order Wainwright, who insisted on clinging to The Island of Corregidor, to resist desperately, but authorized him to make his own decisions according to the actual situation on the battlefield.
This is actually a hint to Wainwright: Even if you surrender to the Japanese army, I will not blame you!
And it turns out that General Wainwright really did just that!
Figure | MacArthur and General Wainwright
After the Japanese occupation of the Bataan Peninsula, Honma Masaharu was determined to bring the Philippine campaign to a perfect end!
After that, he mobilized more than 100 cannons and surrounded the island of Koregido, which was only 80,000 square meters, and shelled continuously for three weeks.
The island occupies an important geographical position, as early as the 9th century, Spanish colonialists occupied the island, and equipped the island with a 250 mm caliber cannon with a range of more than 2000 meters.
Later, the Americans took a fancy to the island and in 1889 defeated the Spanish army on the island and occupied it. After that, the U.S. military spent a lot of money to build a series of military facilities on the island, such as the Millsburg Fortress, barracks, hospitals, reinforced concrete batteries and so on.
In 1941, the Japanese wanted to capture Manila, but the island was blocked, so the Japanese carried out a large-scale air raid on the island.
In the first air raid operation alone, the Japanese dropped more than 60 tons of bombs on the island, and then bombed for 9 consecutive days, and the island was almost turned upside down. Therefore, the island is also known as "the most shelled island in the world"!
The Japanese artillery shelling not only destroyed the American artillery positions on the island, but also destroyed the water supply facilities! Faced with such a dilemma, the U.S. military has only two choices: either fight to the death, or raise your hand and surrender!
But the results of both are likely to be the same, but the meaning may be different!
History proves that General Wainwright chose the latter, because perhaps in his view, the Japanese army should not be difficult for prisoners of war. So, after sending a telegram to Washington, Wainwright led his troops to surrender.
Of course, realistically speaking, although the Bataan Peninsula Campaign was lost, it delayed the Japanese attack on the US Pacific base and won valuable time for the subsequent counter-offensive preparations.
However, these surrendered American and Filipino soldiers were not treated as well by the Japanese army as General Wainwright thought; on the contrary, they were treated extremely cruelly.
Nearly 80,000 Japanese prisoners of war were forcibly escorted to a prisoner-of-war camp 120 kilometers away, without water or food along the way, and were brutally slaughtered by the Japanese army along the way.
On this 120-kilometer journey, 15,000 people unfortunately died tragically, and the cruelty of the Japanese army's methods was simply breathtaking.
And this is the famous "Bataan Death March" in the history of World War II.
The crushing defeat of the U.S. military in the Philippines also became the most memorable humiliation in MacArthur's life, and he vowed to avenge the snow. Therefore, when he left the Philippines, he said to the Filipino people: "I will come back!" ”
Two years later, his wish finally came true!
On October 20, 1944, MacArthur led his troops to land on Leyte Island, and then accompanied by the President of the Philippines, he gave a fierce speech in the heavy rain: "Filipino people, I, five-star U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur is back!" ”
And his return means that the end of the Japanese army will soon come!