The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-08-16
America Met Unprecedented EDents During Japanese War
Suffered Worst Defect and Won
 Greotest Victories During the Years Between Pearl H0rbor, Nip Surrender
(By United Press)

America suffered It's most terri ble defeat and won one of its proud- est victories in the Philippines.
 The Philippines pears of the Pacific-were the first islands the Japanese seized when they started their infamous drive in 1941. And there the American flag was crum- pied in defeat--as General Mac- Arthur put it--"spat upon in the
 The recapture of the Philippines was the goal of American fighting men in the Pacific for almost three years.
 Sneak Attack by Japs
 On the morning of December 8, Ho4l, the islands were dozing un- der the bright tropical sun. Fili- pino workers were driving their sturdy water- -buffaloes in the fields, working on the big plantations, har- vesting the sugar-beet, the hemp and cocoanut. ].
 Then--just as at Pearl Harbor, without warning-a fleet of planes Eoofned in out of the western sky over the biggest island of Luzon. The first target was the big Amer acan air base-Clark. Field where hundreds of American airplanes were lined up, fueled and ready to take of.
 From there the planes struck out at the important harbor city of Dayao on Mindanao island, and they dropped their bombs at six other strategic points throughout the main islands.
 Before the natives or the Ameri- can troops had time to rally to the threat--the Japs were swarming ashore on the northern and vest ern coasts of Luzon. The big guns from their warships protected these first amphibious landings-and an umbrella of fighter planes kept the American fighters at bay.
 During that first day the enemy started pushing southward in an ef- fort to strike at Manila before de- fense forces could organize.
 Other divisions landed southeast and southwest of Manila. And far to. .the south transports disgorged invaders on the islands of Mindanao.
 Valiant Defense
 --Ainericans and Filipino forces under General Douglas MacArthur bitterly contested the enemy ad- vance, And small American air koroe-crippled the enemy attacks and sabotage = stabbed at the Jap- nnese hordes in an effort to stem tte tide of conquest.
 It-.was in the early days of De- pember that Captain Colin Kelly be- came Americas first war hero. He died in an attack that crippled the Dapanese battleship Haruna.
 But individual acts of lleroism pould not stop the Japanese ava eanche.
 For without the American battle fleet, which lay smoking in Pearl Harbor, the United States could not send achievements to the embat- tied Philippines garrisons.
 And the defending Americans and Filipinos learned in time that they would have to fight without hope of help. The battle those troops fought in the bitter spring of 1942 was a battle of time time to give the American Navy 8 chance to recon struct and rebuild time to give the American home front a chance to build the planes, the tanks and the guns which would make final victory possible.
 The Japanese continued to pour endorsements ashore on Luzon, and the weight of their numbers steadily pushed the Americans back on Manila.
 Manila Raped
 The day after Christmas, General MacArthur declared the capital an open city. He withdrew all his troops and anti-aircraft guns.
 The next day Japanese planes att tackled defenseless Manila for four hours. Civilian casualties were heavy, and many homes and build ings were destroyed in the residen- tial district.
 The bandy legged Japanese legions occupied Manila and the nearby base at Cavite on January second without opposition. But Gen. eral MacArthur succeeded in slip | ping most of his forces to the north | west. where they took up their ilis- toric stand at the base of Bataan Peninsula.
 Five days later - in January = the battle of the Peninsula began - the battle that was to blaze the | name "Bataan" across the heart of | America as a synonym for unsur- passahle heroism.
 Day by day the Allied food sup plies dwindled = medicine became scarce -- the fighters ran out of |