The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1945-08-15

tleships-almost half the U. s.
Nays backbone-and 10 other
ships were sunk or damaged and
more than 5000 men killed or miss
ing.
For the next six months the news
was like q bad dream.
Strike simultaneously
Striking simultaneously at the
Philippines, Singapore. Hong Kong,
the Dutch East Indies and the
islands in the Pacific. the warriors
of Nippon seemed swarming every
where at once. Armed with their
legend OF invincibility, schooled In
Jungle warfare and feemingly d.
rected with faultless precision, the
Japanese stretched their empire
thousands OF miles In a scant three
months.
Hawaii lay under the dread OF
invasion, Alaska was In danger.
japanese submarines prowled the
Pacific coast and California had the
filters and once was actually she'll
ed.
But new epics Of American hero
ism were being written.
The death march of Bataan. the
saga from the thirst-parched lips
OF Rickenbacker and others like
him adrift for days and weeks on
the Pacific. The cockiness OF
Chennault's Avg, the Flying Tig-
ers. .Doolittle's unheard-of stunt,
flying two-motored bombers on the
Hornet over Tokyo. The resource
fulness Of Bulkeley's PIT crews.
Fortitude In the malsrial jungles OF
New Guinea and the leech-infested
mud OF Burma. "A war under saw
age conditions against savage men.
Dispatches from Bataan gave the
frst inkling OF how the modern
American soldier was facing up
to this. He was cocky, slanKy.
humorous, ingenious. brave.
Not Soft
To Tojo's great surprise, Ameri-
cans had not grown soft.
Thailand, a supposedly independ-
emit buffer for British Singapore,
was the first to fall. Bangkok.
weakened by Japanese political IN
filtration, capitulated on the sec.
ond day Of the war.
Guam. tho U. s. island whose
Notifications had only been talked
about, fell on the fourth day. For
the first time since 1912 q conquer
or's flag waved over American soil.
Wake was next after an epic IL
day defense by fewer than 400
Marines.
Hong Kong. the British crown
colony, was attacked from the Chi
nese mainland. The teeming Asia
tic city fell on Christmas Day. Some
OF its handful OF Canadian and
British defenders were bayoneted
after being taken prisoner.
Planes Caught
| Repeating their success OF Pearl
Harbor, Japanese air strikes caught
lines of parked American planes
on airfields around Manila, and the
invasion of the Philippines started
on Dec. 10 with a landing at APART
at the northern tip OF Luzon. Other
landings followed in the Legaspi
area southeast OF Manila and Lin.
gayen Gulf. north of the capital.
With Filipino troops loyalty raj.
lying about him, Gen. Douglas Mac.
Arthur began his delaying battle.
Manila was declared an open city
the day after Christmas, but the
Japanese bombed 1t numerically.
Manila, where Dewey wrote his
tory in another generation, was oc-
cupied by the Japanese on Janu-
airy 2, and Macarthur gathered his
little army OF $4,000 Americans
and Filipinos into the tight Jungle
grit Peninsula OF Bataan.
Epic Of Batasn
The Americans dug in among the
banyan roots and began writing the
epic OF Bataan. A few patched up
planes were their only air force.
submarines slipped in at night
their only supply, horsemeat their
fare.
They repealed many bloody
charge. Capt. Arthur Wermuth be-
came the FIRST "one man army" OF
the war. But on April IL Bataan
surrendered.
1t. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright
still held out for nearly a month OF
blood and suffering, after MacAr-
thur was ordered out to prepare
the defense OF Australia and for 4
counter-offensive the Japanese
pounded the bare little rock with
bombers and artillery, then landed.
and Corregidor gave up on May 9.
The survivors Joined the death
March to prison camps.
BY then the Japanese had spread
over all Malaga, the Dutch East
Indies and virtually all Burma.
The loss OF Singapore was thu
| greatest blow to British prestige
since Dunkerque two years before.
The Japanese piled on their wooden
landing boats into the scarcely de-
Tended marshy coast Of Malaga at
Kota Bharu on Dec. s. the date the
war began in the Far East.
Two days later they struck their
second great blow at Allied naval
power when their bombers pouno-
ed on two OF Britain's proudest
battleships, the Prince Of Wales
and the Repulse and sank them of
the Malaga coast.
Having robbed Singapore OF Its
naval shield, the Japanese leapfrog.
ged down the coast and infiltrated
British lines in the jungle At night,
to the amazement OF British gen
erals who never had believed an
attack on Singapore from the land
ward side was possible.
Brave But Outclassed
Australians, British and Indians
we're brave but outclassed in this
type of warfare. The japanese beat