Detroit evening times., 1945-10-09

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CONTINUED From Page is)
colleges and the command and general staff schools
are instructed.
We were thoroughly familiar with WAR
PLAN ORANGE, No. 3 (for WPO-3, as it was
condensed).
WPO-3, variation Of plan about 20 years
old, was this: In the event Of successful Japa-
nese landing on the main island of Luzon the
Philippine division and the Philippine army, if
unable to beat off the landings and subsequent
advances of the theoretical enemy were to fight
delaying actions and withdraw into Bataan
Peninsula.
THE plan envsioned a six-month stand on
l. Bataan, by which time aid from the United
States would arrive.
Macarthur and agreed il lOas a de-
featist plan, but feeling in the matter did
not change il.
The sparkle went out of Manila in the spring
of 1941. War coming and we all knew it. Maj.
Gen. George Grunert, then commander Of the
Philippines department, began making determined
efforts to pry more supplies out of Washington
and to bring my complement of Philippine Scouts
UP to the full statutory strength Of 10000
Another sign of uneasiness came late in the
winter when the war department directed de-
pendents of all military personnel in the Philip
pines be evacuated. This followed on the heels \
OF similar order by the navy. ="
Like most of the other wives, Mrs. VAIN
wright did not want to CO. Like most of the other
husbands, | guess, lied to her and told her it
would be just a short separation; that the trouble
would blow over. soon and we would go on living
again as people should live.
CHE did not believe me any more than the other
~ wives believed what their men were telling
them. Nor did her mother, Mrs. D. E. Holley, who
was going home with her. But we all made pre-
tense at treating the matter as lightly as other
discomforts Of army life are treated
There were farewell parties-despedidas-
called them in our uncertain Spanish-with much
false enthusiasm. | remember especially one big
one for the ladies at the Arny-Navy Club.
But when the last ship, the Washington,
pulled out from Manila, May ID, l941, there
sudden tears along the rails of the ship,
and all of the dock, waving with frozen
smiles, felt mighty bad.
went to work then in what guess was
opposition to the philosophy of WPO-3. A defense
must be active damn it, not passive 1t must
involve counterattacks, to be the kind of defense
wanted. So during the last days of May through
June and most of July we worked at perfecting
the offensive combat training of the Philippine
Division
A ROUND the end of July, 194l, Gen Grunert
"A sent word to me and to other senior officers "a
in the department to report to him the follow
ing Sunday morning at his headquarters in
Manila
| drove down from nearby Ft Mckinley that
morning and found his headquarters filled with
lot of restless old friends Generals King, Moore,
Holderness and Others
Gen. Grunert stood up after bit, cleared his
throat, and read from the paper in his hand. l
still remember the approximate words:
"Maj. Gen. Douglas Macarthur, retired, is
placed upon active duty in the grade of lieutenant
general and is assigned command of all Z. S.
Army forces in the Far East. The induction of
the Philippine army into the service of the United
States is authorized"
TOMORROW - Macarthur tells Vain.
wright there will be no Jap attack before April,
- 19l2-and the Japs hit Wainwright's ill
equipped forces the first of tragic procession
of blows.
IL. sssNxe sE4TsM