Posted on 05/31/2021 11:49:07 AM PDT by ocrp1982
Video by a Filipino Saluting the USA Military and Memorial Day.
Thank you...my father fought in The Battle of Leyte
The Battle Of Midway 1942: Told From The Japanese Perspective
The bravery of sailors in small boats against giant battle ships, the drama of Halsey, and pilots fighting on low fuel and out of ammunition. It was a magnificent victory!
I am in complete awe your father and others who fought those days. True heroism!
Historians like to argue whether or not it was necessary to invade the Philippines at all. Mainly they like to use it to tar MacArthur. And they do have a point in it.
But I can only imagine the even greater levels of atrocities the Japanese would have inflicted on the Filipinos after they slaughtered every last Allied POW following the news of the Atom bomb drops. And an intact Japanese Army still operating in the Philippines might have encouraged Tokyo to fight on. It was a close run thing.
Thank you for the post and thank you for making this Memorial Day a thoughtful experience.
BTTT
“Historians like to argue whether or not it was necessary to invade the Philippines at all.”
I think my father was only 17...and on a big Navy ship...he never spoke of it...my great uncle told me after my father died.
If you want the read the authoritative view on the entire four-day Battle of Leyte, you should read the Battle of Leyte Gulf by Cutler.
If you want to read specifically about the Battle of Samar, you should read The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by Hornfischer
Recently read a three part history of the Pacific war. Had a long section on Leyte with a lot I was not aware of.
They have no point.
I was reminded and still shocked that the taking of just Leyte resulted in over 17,000 US soldiers being killed plus the sailors.
The Japs did have the Philippines and they were making Filipino lives miserable and they did have a whole bunch of surviving Americans prisoner but the Phillipines served no strategic value like Guam, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, Tinian etc. No strategic value is the same reason Formosa was by passed.
The prisoners at Cabanatuan could have been rescued by other means.
It looks like McArthur’s personal war with our sons to me.
Pelilu was equally wasteful and without merit. That Jap garrison could have been starved to death easily.
I guess you had to be there to understand. The other thing I never quite understood was why Leyte?
Only for those unfamiliar with maps of the Southwest pacific circa 1944.
Particularly since at the time we invaded the Philippines we had no idea if the atomic bombs would even work. As far as anyone knew we would be hitting the Japanese home islands in a massive invasion.
Yes. I fat-fingered the f-d keys! So sue me! lol
Not a WWII war in the pacific expert by any means but, the first thought that occurred to me is, the people who claim the Philippine Islands were not of strategic importance might want to consult with the Japanese Imperial Army about that subject because it’s pretty damned obvious the Imperial Japanese disagreed with that assessment. As did the US Pacific Command.
So, on that subject, I will defer to the military leaders on both sides of that war who obviously disagreed with that assessment.
NO problem. Thank you for posting. Very good presentation.
After I looked at the video, it was apparent the left of Gulf in the name.
It did not sound right, so I ran it through duckduckgo.com and verified that I remembered correctly.
I make lots of posting errors.
My grandmother’s best friend growing up, was an Army nurse in Manila before WWII, when Manila fell she went Corregidor, when Corregidor was captured, she spent 2 years in Japanese POW camp. She wrote a (self published) book about that time, called “To the Angels”. She had very strong feelings about the Japanese then.
When she retired she was a Lt. Colonel. Unheard of rank for Women in the Army then.
She died in San Antonio.
I wrote:
“After I looked at the video, it was apparent the left of Gulf in the name.”
Should have read:
After I looked at the video, it was apparent “they” left “off” Gulf in the name.
—
Mine is worse than yours, smile.
I found her book on Amazon. To The Angels by Denny Williams.
$18.23 & 3.99 S&H. I ordered it just now. Thank you.
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