page_title: History of Clark Air Base
section_title: Japanese attack
hierarchical_section_title: History of Clark Air Base / World War II: the 1940s / Japanese attack
caption_attribution_description: English: Lieutenant Colonel Boyd David "Buzz" Wagner (1916–1942), an American aviator and the first United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) fighter ace of World War II.
context_page_description: The history of Clark Air Base, Philippines, dates back to the late 19th century when it was settled by Filipino military forces. The United States established a presence at the turn of the century.
context_section_description: On 8 December 1941, General Douglas MacArthur, who recently had been called back to active service and placed in command of all U.S. and Philippine forces, had known of the attack on Pearl Harbor since about five in the morning, but insisted on delaying any hostile act by the forces under his command until the Japanese committed an overt attack on the Philippines, this was in accordance to instructions received from General George Marshall in Washington.  It is also likely that MacArthur was influenced by his close friend Philippine President Manuel Quezon, who wanted the Philippines to remain neutral and thus be spared Japanese attack. Major General Lewis H. Brereton, Far East Air Force Commander, met with Major General Richard Sutherland, MacArthur's Chief of Staff, and argued in vain that his bombers at Clark should be allowed to strike military targets on Taiwan, the location from which everyone felt the Japanese attack would come. Meanwhile, the B-17s at Clark were loaded first with anti-ship ordnance. Later, that order was rescinded and different bombs were uploaded for use against Japanese airfields on Taiwan. Eventually, Brereton got permission to send one B-17 on a reconnaissance mission to the north. When the attack on Clark Field came, maintenance crews were in the process of preparing the one reconnaissance plane, changing the bomb loads in the other B-17s, and refueling the fighters, which had just come in from patrol. The aircrews were eating lunch. They were sitting ducks.
  On 8 December 1941, the US Far East Air Force consisted of the 19th Bombardment Group (Heavy) under Colonel Eugene L. Eubank at Clark and the 24th Pursuit Group under Colonel Orrin L. Glover, also at Clark. The 19th had 
  3 B-17s assigned and consisted of the 28th and 30th Squadrons (8 B-17s and 2 B-18s) at Del Monte Field on Mindanao, a total of 13 craft
  the 24th Pursuit Group with its outmoded 18 P-35s was at nearby Del Carmen Field, now Basa Air Base, 18 craft
  the 24th Group consisted of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron (18 P-40Es) at Iba and the 17th and 21st Squadrons, with 18 P-40Es each, at Nichols Field, Manila, now Villamor Air Base, a total of 54 craft
  the 2nd Observation Squadron also had O-46 and O-52 aircraft at Clark
  Philippine Army Air Corps assets were old and few: 42 PT-13 trainers, 12 P-26 fighters, and three B-10s, a total of 57 craft.
  The total number of available military airplanes at that moment was over 142 aircraft (not counting the O-46s and O-52s). Within a few hours, despite heroic efforts, almost all of these aircraft, with the exception of the ones deployed to Mindanao, were gone.
  Captain Boyd Wagner, a native of Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, was Commander of the 17th Pursuit Squadron on 8 December 1941, when the Japanese attacked Clark Field, and became one of the first American pilots to engage the enemy in the air. Later in the month, he became the first American World War II ace when he downed his fifth Japanese aircraft. Wagner High School and Wagner Middle School were named for Captain Wagner, who offered Americans a rare "bright" spot in the otherwise bleak news they were receiving about the defense of the Philippines.
  Following the Japanese air attacks on Clark Field and other military areas in the Philippines on 8 December 1941, and the subsequent landing of Japanese ground forces on Luzon, General Douglas MacArthur activated War Plan Orange. This plan called for the gradual withdrawal of American and Philippine forces south past several defensive positions (one of which ran through Tarlac, just north of Clark) to the Bataan Peninsula, where they could await reinforcements from Hawaii and the U.S. The defense of Bataan in the face of vastly overwhelming numbers and terrible battle conditions proved beyond a doubt the capabilities of the untested Allied forces. At one point during this period in early 1942, Philippine Brigadier General Vicente Lim established his headquarters in a pigpen.
  After the collapse of American/Filipino defense lines on Bataan and the decisions to declare Manila an open city to end the defe
caption: Major Boyd D. Wagner
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