Battle for the Liberation of Manila
| Battle for the Liberation of Manila | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Map of the Capture of Manila (February 3 to March 3, 1945) | |||
| Conflict: World War II, Pacific theater | |||
| Date: February 3 – March 3, 1945 | |||
| Place: Manila, Philippines | |||
| Outcome: Allied victory | |||
| Combatants | |||
| United States | Japan | ||
| Commanders | |||
| Robert S. Beightler (37th Infantry Division) Verne D. Mudge (1st Cavalry Division) Oscar W. Griswold (U.S. XIV Corps) Joseph M. Swing (11th Airborne Division) | Iwabuchi Sanji (Manila Naval Defense Forces) | ||
| Strength | |||
| 35,000 US troops | 16,000 Japanese sailors, marines, and Army troops | ||
| Casualties | |||
| 1,010 killed, 5,565 wounded, 100,000 Filipino civilians killed | 16,000 killed | ||
| |||
The Battle for the Liberation of Manila from February 3 to March 3, 1945, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city, ended almost three years, 1942-1945, of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines and its so-called Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Its capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
Pincer Drive to the Capital
On January 9, 1945, the U.S. Sixth Army under Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger waded ashore on Lingayen Gulf and began a rapid drive south.Three weeks later on January 31, the U.S. Eighth Army of Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, together with the 188th Glider Regiment of Col. Robert H. Soule, a component of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division under Maj. Gen. Joseph M. Swing landed at Nasugbu in southern Luzon unopposed, and began moving north. Meanwhile, the 511th Regimental Combat Team of Lt. Col. Edward H. Lahti parachuted into Tagaytay Ridge, ahead of the landing forces, and spearheaded the northern advance.
By February 2, the rapid drive to Manila by U.S. forces began, as units were fortunate to find intact bridges and shallow rivers everywhere they went.
Santo Tomas Internees Liberated
Next day, February 3, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division under Maj.Gen. Verne D. Mudge pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila, and seized a vital bridge across the Tuliahan River, which separated them from the city proper. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C. Chase's 8th Cavalry Brigade, the first unit to arrive in the city, began a daring drive towards the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas which was turned into an internment camp.Since January 4 , 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university’s main building was used to hold civilian POWs and classrooms for sleeping quarters. Out of 4,255 prisoners, 466 died in captivity, three were killed while attempting to escape on February 15 , 1942, but one made a successful breakout in early January, 1945.
At 9:00 p.m., a lead jeep crashed into the main gate, triggering a firefight, and its driver, Capt. Manuel Colayco, a USAFFE guerrilla officer, became the known first allied casualty for the city's liberation. Simultaneously, a single M4 Sherman tank of the 44th Tank Battalion rammed through the university walls, while four others entered through the Calle Espaņa entrance. American troops and Filipino guerrillas immediately followed and after a brief skirmish, freed many of the internees.
The Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building, as hostages, exchanging pot shots with the Americans. Next day, February 4, they negotiated with the Americans to allow them to rejoin Japanese troops to the south of the city. The Americans allowed this to save the hostages, allowing them to only carry their rifles, pistols and swords. That same day, a patrol from the 37th Infantry Division came upon more than 1,000 prisoners of war, mostly former defenders of Bataan and Corregidor held at Bilibid Prison, which was abandoned by the Japanese.
On the morning of February 5, forty-seven Japanese were escorted out of the university to the spot they requested. Each group saluted each other and departed. The Japanese were unaware the area they requested was near the American-occupied Malacaņang Palace, and soon afterwards were fired upon and several were killed including Hayashi. Later in the afternoon, the survivors of the same group returned to Santo Tomas, captured as prisoners in the same day.
But 3,785 prisoners: 2,870 Americans, 745 British, 100 Australians, 61 Canadians, 50 Dutch, 25 Poles, 7 French, 2 Egyptians, 2, Spanish, one Swiss, one German, and one Slovak were finally liberated.
The Japanese Defense
As the Americans converged on Manila from different directions, the bulk of the defending enemy troops had earlier engaged on a tactical move to the outskirts on orders of General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commander in chief of Japanese forces in the Philippines. Yamashita had withdrawn his main forces to Baguio City, where he planned to hold back U.S. forces in northern Luzon, poised for the invasion of Japan.In 1942, President Manuel L. Quezon declared Manila an open city, while in 1945, he did not, Yamashita had not intended to defend Manila; he thought he could not feed about a million city residents, and defending a large area with vast tracts of flammable wooden buildings remained doubtful.
However, Rear Admiral Iwabuchi Sanji, who was entrusted with the holding of the city, and committed to defending it to the last man, disobeyed Yamashita and ordered his Manila Naval Defense Forces a motley assembly of sailors, marines and Army troops into the city, after discovering several good defensive positions, including Intramuros and nearby buildings. After intermittently blowing up every outline facility having even marginal value, like bridges and footpaths, Iwabuchi had set up minefields, barbed wire, interlocking trenches, and hulks of trucks and trolleys, which would create bottlenecks and traps into the sandbagged buildings. He then ordered his poorly trained troops into the defensive zone.
Encirclement and Massacres
Earlier on February 4, 1945, General MacArthur announced the imminent recapture of the capital while his staff planned a victory parade. But the battle for Manila had barely begun. Almost at once the 1st Cavalry Division in the north and the 11th Airborne Division in the south reported stiffening Japanese resistance to further advances into the city.Following the initial American breakthrough on the fourth, fighting raged throughout the city for almost a month. The battle quickly came down to a series of bitter street-to-street and house-to-house struggles. In the north, General Griswold continued to push elements of the XIV Corps south from Santo Tomas University toward the Pasig River . Late on the afternoon of February 4, he ordered the 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry, to seize Quezon Bridge, the only crossing over the Pasig that the Japanese had not destroyed. As the squadron approached the bridge, enemy heavy machine guns opened up from a formidable roadblock thrown up across Quezon Boulevard forcing the cavalry to stop its advance and withdraw after nightfall. As the Americans pulled back, the Japanese blew up the bridge.
On February 5, the 37th Infantry Division began to move into Manila and Griswold divided the northern section of the city into two sectors, with the 37th responsible for the western half and the 1st Cavalry responsible for the eastern part. By the afternoon of the 8th, 37th Division units had cleared most Japanese from their sector, although the damage done to the residential districts was extensive. The Japanese added to the destruction by demolishing buildings and military installations as they withdrew. The most bitter fighting which proved costliest to the 37th occurred on Provisor Island, a small industrial center on the Pasig River. The Japanese garrison, probably less than a battalion, managed to hold off Beightler's infantrymen until February 11.
Mudge's 1st Cavalry Division had an easier time, encountering little opposition in the suburbs east of Manila. Although the 7th and 8th Cavalry fought pitched battles near two water supply installations north of the city, by February 10, the cavalrymen had extended their control south of the river. That night, the XIV Corps established for the first time separate bridgeheads on both banks of the Pasig River.
The final attack on the outer Japanese defenses came from the 11th Airborne Division, under XIV Corps control since February 10. The division had been halted at Nichols Field on the 4th and since then had been battling firmly entrenched Japanese naval troops, backed up by heavy fire from concealed artillery. The airfield finally fell to the paratroopers, the next day, but the acquisition allowed Maj. Gen. Swing's division to complete the U.S. encirclement of Manila on the night of February 12.
In an attempt to protect the city and its civilians, MacArthur placed stringent restrictions on U.S. artillery and air support. But massive devastation to the urban area could not be avoided. Iwabuchi's sailors, marines and Army reinforcements initially resisted American infantrymen armed with flamethrowers, grenades and bazookas - now faced direct fire from tanks, tank destroyers, and howitzers, who attacked one building after another and killed the Japanese -and trapped civilians- inside the structures.
Subjected to incessant pounding - and facing certain death, the beleaguered enemy troops took out their anger and frustration on the hapless civilians caught in the grisly crossfire, committing acts of senseless brutality, which later would be known as the Manila massacre, joining a litany of war crimes. An orgy of barbaric rapes, mutilations and massacres on the defenseless populace accompanied the battle for control of the city, which now lay practically in ruins.
Intramuros Devastated
The fighting for Intramuros from February 23-28, became the fiercest but crucial battleground. Already decimated by bombing, American artillery tried to root out the Japanese defenders who used as cover to good effort, the centuries-old stone ramparts, underground edifices, the Sta. Lucia Barracks, Fort Santiago, and villages within the city walls.
The last pocket of Japanese resistance at the Finance Building, which was already reduced to rubble, was flushed out by heavy artillery on March 3.
"That the artillery had almost razed the ancient Walled City could not be helped. To the XIV Corps and the 37th Division at this state of the battle for Manila, American lives were understandably far more valuable than historic landmarks. The destruction stemmed from the American decision to save lives in a battle against Japanese troops who had decided to sacrifice their lives as dearly as possible," a U.S. battle report stated.
Before the fighting ended, MacArthur summoned a provisional assembly of prominent Filipinos to Malacanang Palace and in their presence declared the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be permanently reestablished. "My country kept the faith," he told the gathered assembly. "Your capital city, cruelly punished though it be, has regained its rightful place - citadel of democracy in the East."
Aftermath
The battle left 1,010 U.S. soldiers dead and 5,565 wounded. An estimated 100,000 Filipinos were deliberately killed by retreating Japanese forces. About 16,000 Japanese soldiers died, mostly sailors from the Japanese Manila Defense Force.In the month-long battle, the Americans and Japanese inflicted worse destruction on Manila than the German Luftwaffe had visited upon London, which resulted not only in the destruction of the city, but the death toll was comparably horrifying to the 78,150 killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in August,1945, and the 84,500 who died in the Firebombing of Tokyo by the U.S. Air Force in 1945.
Historical Significance
The battle for Manila was the first and fiercest urban fighting in the entire Pacific War, from the time MacArthur started his leapfrogging campaign from New Guinea in 1942, leading to the invasion of Japan in 1945. Few battles in the closing months of World War II exceeded the destruction and the brutality of the massacres and savagery of the fighting in Manila.In this category, Manila joined the company of Warsaw as the most devastated cities of World War II.
Filipinos lost an irreplaceable cultural and historical treasure in the resulting carnage and devastation of Manila, remembered today as a national tragedy. Manila, once touted as the "Paris of the Orient" and regarded by historians as a heritage city and famed as a living monument to European culture and colonization for more than 300 years was wiped out.