On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and seized the initiative in the Pacific War. At the same time, the Japanese army launched a blitzkrieg operation against Southeast Asia, and the key to victory in the war was to seize air supremacy.
With extremely high-quality Japanese pilots, with the blessing of excellent Zero fighters, they quickly defeated the Allied air power in Southeast Asia. Even the shore-based Zero fighters and troops had a 1:3 loss-to-loss ratio against the Allies, far superior to their carrier-based aviation counterparts.
The Philippines is 800 kilometers away from Taiwan, and compared with Malaya, which is connected by land, the Philippine campaign is a typical amphibious landing operation, of course, it is inseparable from naval escort and air force support.
The aircraft that provided air support to the 14th Army were divided into two parts. The 5th Flying Group of the Army under Hideyoshi Obata had a total of 307 combat aircraft of various types, of which 194 were dedicated to the Philippines.
During the operation, the 5th Flight Group was temporarily placed under the command of Honma. Army fighters have a short range and can only cover the Northern Luzon region when they take off from Taiwan, and naval aviation must be involved in the campaign.
The main aircraft carriers of the First Air Fleet all went to Pearl Harbor, and the naval aviation participating in the Philippine operations was still part of the 11th Air Fleet under Tsukahara, including Tada Takeo's 21st Air Force and Takenaka Ryuzo's 23rd Air Force, with a total of 444 fighters of various types, of which 279 were dedicated to Philippine operations.
If you add the 80 aircraft belonging to the 3rd Fleet, the Navy will have 359 combat aircraft in the Philippines. The total number of army and navy fighters is 553, and more troops can be put in at any time.
Before dawn on 8 December, the Japanese had landed on Bataan Island, occupied and renovated the airstrip on the island, and then divided their forces to occupy Kamikin Island (56 km north of Luzon) with a seaplane base. All this can be described as unconscious.
On the morning of December 8, the Taiwan Strait was filled with thick fog, spreading from west to east, and fighter jets from the Philippines were already waiting to take off at Taiwan's airports.
Forty-three bombers of the Army's 5th Flying Group had already taken off south to escort the advance party before the fog hit. However, the Navy's 11th Air Fleet, which was responsible for the main air raid mission, could not take off because of the fog at the airport.
At the same time, reconnaissance planes sent by aircraft carriers of the 3rd Fleet also sent telegrams, and the Manila area was also foggy and visibility was very low, making it difficult for bombers to find bombing targets.
The fog left Lieutenant General Tsukahara, commander of the 11th Air Fleet, at a loss, and the news that army bombers had been dispatched made him feel pins and needles. He judged that MacArthur must have received the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the army bombers took off first, which would expose the Japanese intention of launching air strikes against the Philippines, self-defeating, lure MacArthur's planes to Taiwan, and preemptively destroy these planes that could not take off. If Tsukahara's fears become a reality, the future of the Philippine strategy plan is in jeopardy.
At 9 a.m., a carrier-based reconnaissance plane of the Japanese Navy sent a telegram over the Philippines reporting: "There are broken clouds over Manila, and ground targets are clearly visible." Tsukahara, overjoyed, saw that the thick fog at Taiwan's airport gradually dispersed, and the sky became clear.
At 9:15, at Tsukahara's order, hundreds of Japanese planes took off with a shrill roar. Subsequently, several large aircraft groups that had completed marshalling in the air flew over the rough sea and pounced in the direction of Manila.
At 12:15, a group of 27 bombers of the first echelon of the Japanese army appeared in a "V" formation over the airfield. The Japanese pilots were overjoyed, and all the American planes were still on the runway of the airport.
The US 192nd Tank Battalion, which was camped near the airport, thought that this was a patrol by US aircraft. Like MacArthur, they believed that the Japanese attacks would not be successful, and that the U.S. Far East Air Force deployed in the Philippines would protect them. When they looked up and saw a large group of beautiful bombers flying in the distance, they were not flustered at all, and there were even people waving and cheering at the group.
Two squadrons of B-17 bombers and one squadron of P-40 fighters at Clark Field had just been equipped with ammunition, while the 34th Fighter Squadron at Nelson Field, which was about to arrive, had just prepared to refuel.
After the Japanese plane dropped the bomb from an altitude of 6,700 meters, it flew away without looking back. When the bombs whizzed down, the onlookers knew that they were completely wrong. The earth trembled violently, bombshells fell rapidly, and the strange whistling sound of rubbing against the air was creepy.
The US air defense units woke up like a dream, and when the "V" formation of the second echelon bomber group of the Japanese army arrived, all the anti-aircraft guns of the US air defense units opened fire. But what is depressing is that because it is not equipped with the latest anti-aircraft shells, the shells explode in the air 600 to 1200 meters below the Japanese aircraft, and they cannot cause any damage to the Japanese aircraft.
This wave of Japanese bombers bombed back and forth for 15 minutes before heading away. This time the Japanese aircraft was a standard carpet bombing, thousands of bombs fell on the airport at the same time, the smooth runway was blown out of huge craters, and many bombs directly hit the US military aircraft parked on the runway.
As soon as the two waves of Japanese bombers left, 34 Zero fighters were above the Turk airfield from the southeast, and the American troops on the ground could clearly see the big red sun emblem sprayed on the fuselage. The Zero quickly dropped the bombs it was carrying and then began strafering the entire airfield. American troops scattered, scrambling to find cover to avoid airstrikes, and many were shot and fell.
The U.S. 3rd Fighter Squadron found nothing over the South China Sea, and 12 fighters were nearing fuel and were about to land at Iba airfield just after returning home, just in time to encounter 54 Japanese bombers and 50 Zero fighters.
The 3rd Fighter Squadron counterattacked the Japanese fleet, preventing the Zero from firing at low altitudes, but Japanese bombers blew up barracks, warehouses, equipment, and communications stations. The pilots of the 3rd Squadron managed to shoot down 2 Japanese aircraft, while losing 2 themselves.
Both battalions of U.S. tank men were new units of the National Guard, and until this time they had not been trained in the combat of new tanks, so that they could not find shells after boarding tanks. During the Japanese air raid, the Americans could only fire back with 7.62 mm anti-aircraft machine guns on the turret and 12.7 mm heavy machine guns in the rear of the half-track vehicle.
The Japanese bombing lasted about 15 minutes and the strafing continued for 30 minutes. At the beginning of the war, the Far East Air Force lost 18 B-17 bombers (compared to 34 in total in the Philippines), 56 fighter jets, and 26 other aircraft, which meant that on the day of the war, the US aviation in the Philippines was reimbursed by nearly half.
The result of the US battle was that the 3rd Fighter Squadron and 3 P 40 fighters that easily lifted off from Clark Field shot down a total of 5 Japanese aircraft, and the B Company of the 192nd Tank Battalion was named Ba Jiao. Dawski's soldiers shot down 1 Zero with machine guns.
The next day, thick fog in Taiwan again forced the Japanese planes to delay the sortie. The U.S. military was able to bury the dead and deal with the aftermath. But just after dawn, Japanese aircraft began to carry out air strikes on Manila, causing great damage and casualties. Since then, Manila has been hit by air strikes almost daily.
On December 10, 52 Japanese bombers, escorted by 100 Zeros, launched a second round of air strikes against military targets in Northern Luzon. Although the 20 P-40 and 17 P-35 fighters of the US military took to the air, they were almost unable to fight back in the face of overwhelming Japanese aircraft. The Japanese aircraft split into two routes, attacking Nichols and O'Neill airfields on one side and Camp Murphy on the other.
Another Japanese line of 80 bombers, under the cover of 52 fighters, launched an attack on the Kramidi naval base and shipyard. The American anti-aircraft guns were as useless as they had been at Clark airfield two days earlier, and Japanese aircraft bombed for two hours in a row. One bomb after another, dragging red light, set off huge waves and billowing fireworks in the military port, and the entire base became a sea of fire.
The most distressing thing for the US military was that the fire spread to the base's ammunition depot, detonating more than 200 magnetic detonator torpedoes stored by the submarine force. In 1942, the US military produced only 2,000 torpedoes a year, which can be described as heavy losses. The naval base was completely destroyed, the submarine force was severely damaged, one or two were blown up, five were injured, and the homing torpedoes were fully reimbursed.
Reference: The Pacific War
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