The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-16


 bullets, machine guns, equipment = everything but courage.
 By the middle of March, soldiers began to drop from malnutrition, and from Malaria, for the supplies of qlinine were running low.
 After March only half the pa- tients with Malaria could be given quinine. And later as high as 30 per cent of a typical regiment had Malaria, and 30 per cent had dysen- tery.
 MacArthur Assumes Command
 Towards the close of this heroic campaign, General Macarthur was ordered to Australia to assume corn- mand of Allied forces in the South west Pacific, leaving Lieut.. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright in command on Bataan.
 Arriving in Australia on March 17, 1942, his first thought was of the men he had left behind him. And in a ringing statement he told them:
 T shall return"
 Back on Bataan the doomed forces fought on, their ranks rid- dled by disease, and hampered by the presence of 25.000 starving civ- ilians.
 From Bataan about $500 men and nurses escaped to a rocky, island fortress in Manila Bay Corregi- dor and General Wainwright tok over what was to be the last American stand in the Philippines.
 For nearly month the men and women on Corregidor held on, ham, mered necessarily by Japanese guns and planes. But on May 5th, Japa- neSe landing barges pushed ashore on the Rock" And the next day Corregidor surrendered.
 Guerrilla Warfare
 The light of resistance fiickered out in the islands-flickered out ex- cept for the flames of guerrilla war; fare which kept burning through the three years of Japanese occu- patton.
 The world heard little from the Philippines until January, 1914, when the United States government made public the evidence of the atrocities inflicted on the American and Filipino troops after the sur- render at Bataan.
 The terrible story of the death March" of Bataan is well known by now.
 The world has heard how the Jap conquerorS herded their pris- oners like cattle, and forced them into long tortuous marches, under the broiling sun. American men fell like flies during the terrible march.
 The Japs refused to give them medicine, water or care of any sort and when they asked for help they were whipped, and sometimes buried in the thick, black soil of. Luzon.
 After that there was darkness again.
 But from his southwest Pacific headquarters, General Macarthur was planning and directing the cam paign that would take him back the campaign that led up through New Guinea to New Britain, the Admiralties, Biak,, Halmahera.
 Victorious Return
 On the second anniversary of his arrival in Australia, Macarthur re- newed his pledge to return to the Philippines.
 Two years ago when I landed on your soil Said to the people or the Philippines, whence I came II shall return.'
 Tonight repeat those words. I shall return. Nothing is more cer- tam than our ultimate reconquest ana liberation from the enemy of those and adjacent lands."
 The return came sooner than many expected it-sooner in fact than even Macarthur had dared to expect.
 In October of this year the Navy discovered that Jap strength in the Philippines was weakening.
 And 1t decided, almost overnight. that an amphibious landing on the little island of Leyte could be staged.
 And so on the morning of Oct. 18th. l944, General Macarthur re- turned to the Philippines with a sky full of planes and 8 sea full of ships-and thousands. upon thou sands of well-trained fighters. The war in the Pacific had returned to it's starting point.
 Tn @ broadcast to the people of the Philippines. and the guerrilla armies which had been fighting there all the time the general de- clared:
 ''This is the voice Of freedom, General MacArthur speaking. Peo- pie of the Philippines. have re- turned. By the grace Of Almighty 1od our force stands again on Philippine soil. soil ccnsDcgated ia the blood Of our two peoples. We AeFe come. dedicated and eonmII- |et Io destroying every 1a6iIae nf .. .|...4|