The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1942-01-02
Reds Reported Within Artillery Range Of Mozhaisl<
Manila

CONTINUED from Pxge ~
value Of planes and ships and
other fighting equipment.
American Filipino troop S
were said to be occupying strong
positions north of the city and
were holding Manila Bay fortifi-
cations to prevent use of the
harbor by the enemy.
Japanese air activity was re-
ported to be somewhat less in
tense than for several days.
Meanwhile heavy fighting
continued on the ground in the
past "a hours with repeated en-
envy attacks from the north.
The japanese first entering
Manila were reported to be linn
tied to a size necessary for police
duties and maintenance of order,
the War Department said.
Explaining the withdrawal
from the city, the communique
said that a radical readjustment
of the defense lines and a con-
solidation of defense forces
north Of Manila was made nee
essary by the tactical situation
in the vicinity of the capital
presumably the relentless drive
of enemy forces northward from
their landing places in the
southeast, at Atimonan and else
where.
MANEUvER SUCCEEDS
This maneuver was success
fully accomplished in the face
of strong enemy opposition" the
war department said. "The con-
sequent shortening of our lines
necessarily uncovered the road
to Manila and made possible the
japanese entrance into the city.
LAS it had been previously
declared an open city, no close
defense within the environs of
the city was possible
The communique likewise an
nounced that a small enemy
force had landed on the island
of Jolo in the Sulu archipelago,
in the extreme southwest Phil
ippines, near British north
Borneo.
Jolo is the center of the land
of the war-like Moros, Moham-
medan Filipins. There and on
the larger nearby island of Min
danao, General John j. Pershing
and other famous American mil
itary figures first won fame in
fighting to subdue the fierce
tribesmen three decades or more
ago.
The last stand in the fight
for the Philippines apparently
had started.
The terrain difficult ter
rain for the most part - evil
IDENTIFY was of Macarthur S
choosing, and he fought on
shortened lines, which tended to
offset somewhat the enemy's
heavy numerical superiority by
narrowing the front on which
the Japanese can attack.
Only the barest details of the
situation in the Philippines were
mentioned in the war depart
ment's communique last night.
This much, however, could be
pieced together:
While major battle was rag
ing, Macarthur succeeded in
consolidating his two armies
the one that had been doggedly
fighting the Japanese hordes
north of Manila, and the one
that had been forced back inch
by inch by the enemy drive on
the Philippine capital from the
southeast.
The exact position of the
American-Filipino line after this
audacious maneuver was not in
Dictated in the communique, but
military observers thought they
had good idea. Their con-
clusion was that the front
which may well be narrowed
further-now extended from a
point somewhere Immediately
south of Manila northward so
to rs miles through Bulacan
province and thence westward to
the coast.
Their assumption was that
both flanks were now firmly an
chored on the shores of the
South China Sea. with the forti-
fications on Corregidor and adj
joining islands providing the
pivotal protection for the de-
tenders rear.
Much of the country along
the new battle front is jungle,
a fact calculated to reduce the
effectiveness of the heavy SUI
periority in armored and mech
anizcd equipment which the
Japanese have built up in the
three weeks of their invasion
campaign. 1t also should ham,
per the operations of the jap
anese air force which heretofore
has been dominating the high
ways in the daylight fighting
on the front north of Manila
The war department reported
that "all available forces have
now been united. In addition