Replies

-11:05 AM: Postmaster at Aparri reports incoming aircraft by telephone to Fort Stotsenburg.

-11:05 AM: Brereton instructs B-17’s to return to Clark and all fighter cover to return to refuel and for the pilots to have chow.

-11:10 AM: USAFFE issues statement that Clark Field had not been bombed.

-11:27 AM: Radar station at Iba picks up an incoming strike and relays message to Far East Air Force Air Warning at Nielson Field.

-11:40 AM: Report of incoming strike received at Neilson. 18 fighters — two squadrons of the 24th P.G. at Nichols — were scrambled and sent to patrol Manila Bay and Bataan. The third squadron was held back, possibly in reserve.

-11:45 AM: Campbell sends teletype to Clark advising of incoming strike. Message not received. Campbell then attempts direct radio contact with Clark and fails. Campbell calls Clark on the telephone and speaks with a junior officer (name no longer known) who takes message and states he will pass it along.

-11:55 AM: Sutherland calls Brereton to check on status; advised by Brereton that “a bombing mission would be sent out in the afternoon”.

-12:00 AM: Japanese air strike on Iba Field. 53 Mitsubishi bombers and 53 Zeros strafe the field, destroying all 16 P40’s stationed there and the Philippine’s lone radar station. (Some accounts list 18 P-40’s as being destroyed.) Total of 86 aircraft destroyed?

-Japanese air strike on Clark. 54 Mitsubishi bombers and 36 Zeros destroy the 17 B-17’s and other aircraft remaining at the field.”

The is absolutely no excuse for this. NONE WHATSOEVER.

Brereton, with twelve hours warning of what happened on Oahu has no excuse for not keeping fighters in the air during daylight hours. No excuse for not having them dispersed. No excuse for not being ready. He should have been relived by MacArthur immediately.

This disaster, second only to Pearl Harbor, is but the first of a string of bungles that are going to occur in the Philippines.

MacArthur is not directly responsible for the specific losses at Clark and Iba, but he created the lax attitude in the Philippines. And US and Filipino troops are going to pay dearly for that laxity.

MacArthur was convinced that Japan would not attack until spring 1942. He had no evidence that I am aware of, and plenty of evidence to the contrary. He was wrong.

Because of that, and because of Douglas MacArthur’s inadequate understanding of modern warfare, most of what is going to happen in the next four months on Luzon will be his fault. Poor command, poor planning, an almost criminal handling of logistics. Inadequate use of his resources.

The Philippines were going to fall in the end, but without MacArthur and his giant sized ego they would have lasted twice, or three times as long. Tying up large numbers of Japanese troops and throwing a huge monkey wrench into their schedule.

MacArthur was convinced that Japan would not attack until spring 1942. He had no evidence that I am aware of, and plenty of evidence to the contrary.

The only compound word I can think of to describe the mess that is coming starts with “cluster” and ends with a word not appropriate for this forum.

Note to the other readers of these threads, I am coming to truly despise MacArthur the more I learn about the Philippines campaign. His conduct of the campaign was so bad it overshadows, for me, the rest of his career. I will be ranting about him multiple times until September 2015.

Let me put it this way, given the size of their egos, massive publicity machines, and their corresponding lack of any actual ability to do the job they gave been given, Barack Obama could be a reincarnation of Douglas MacArthur.

MacArthur was definitely the worst combat commander of a large US field army since George McClellan.

/rant