Douglas MacArthur ' s escape from the Philippines The escape of Douglas MacArthur from the Philippines began on 11 March 1942 , during World War II , when he left Corregidor Island in a PT boat . After travelling for two days through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships , he reached Mindanao . From there , MacArthur and his party flew to Australia , ultimately arriving in Melbourne on 21 March . This was the occasion of his famous speech in which he declared , " I came through and I shall return . " Douglas MacArthur was a well - known and experienced officer with a distinguished record in World War I , who had retired from the United States Army in 1937 and had become a defense advisor to the Philippine government . He was recalled to active duty with the United States Army in July 1941 , a few months before the outbreak of the Pacific War between the United States and the Empire of Japan . By March 1942 , the Japanese invasion of the Philippines had compelled MacArthur to withdraw his forces on Luzon to Bataan , while his headquarters and his family moved to Corregidor Island . The doomed defense of Bataan captured the imagination of the American public , and MacArthur became a living symbol of Allied resistance to the Japanese . Fearing that Corregidor would fall , and MacArthur would be taken prisoner , President Franklin D . Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to go to Australia . A submarine was made available , but MacArthur elected to break through the Japanese blockade in PT boats . He set out after sunset on 11 March , and after two days of being bounced about in rough seas , and nearly being spotted by a Japanese warship , he reached Cagayan on Mindanao . From there , MacArthur and his party flew to Australia from Del Monte Field in a pair of Boeing B - 17 Flying Fortress es . The staff he brought with him , who became known as the " Bataan Gang " , would become the nucleus of his General Headquarters ( GHQ ) Southwest Pacific Area ( SWPA ) . Background . Douglas MacArthur was a well - known and experienced officer . The son of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur , Jr . , who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his services in the American Civil War , MacArthur had graduated at the top of the U . S . Military Academy class of 1903 . He was an aide - de - camp to his father from 1905 to 1906 , and to President Theodore Roosevelt from 1906 to 1907 . During World War I he commanded the 84th Brigade of the 42nd ( Rainbow ) Division in the fighting on the Western Front . After the war he served as Superintendent of the U . S . Military Academy , and as Chief of Staff of the United States Army . He retired from the United States Army in 1937 , and became a field marshal in the Philippine Army . His job was to advise the Philippine government on defense matters , and prepare the Philippine defense forces for the day when the Philippines became fully independent . When he was recalled from retirement in July 1941 to become commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East ( USAFFE ) at the age of 61 , he united the Philippine and United States Armies under one command . MacArthur faced an enormous task in getting the Philippine Army ready for war . The Philippines had no navy at all , but , on a visit to the United States in 1937 , MacArthur lobbied the Navy Department for the development of PT boat s — small , fast boats armed with torpedoes — for which he believed that the geography of the Philippines , with its shallow waters and many coves , was ideally suited . The Philippine Navy acquired three , known as Q boats , after President Manuel L . Quezon . In August 1941 , the U . S . Navy created Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three , under the command of Lieutenant ( junior grade ) John D . Bulkeley . It was a half - strength squadron , with only six PT boats instead of the normal twelve , numbered 31 to 35 and 41 . It arrived at Manila in September 1941 . Soon after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines , MacArthur , in accordance with the pre - war plan , declared Manila an open city , and ordered his forces on Luzon to withdraw to Bataan . The Philippine government , the High Commissioner ' s office and MacArthur ' s USAFFE headquarters moved to Corregidor Island . Although the dependants of U . S . military personnel had been sent back to the United States , MacArthur was , until his recall from retirement , a Philippine government employee , so his family had remained in the Philippines . MacArthur ' s wife , Jean MacArthur , and young son , Arthur MacArthur IV , went with him to Corregidor . Arthur celebrated his fourth birthday on Corregidor , on 21 February 1942 . When an aide asked about Arthur ' s possible fate , MacArthur replied : " He is a soldier ' s son . " Most of the United States Asiatic Fleet retired to the south of the Philippines . A small force was left behind under the command of Rear Admiral Francis W . Rockwell consisting of the submarine tender , the submarine rescue ship , gunboat s , and , minesweeper s , and , five tugboats , three small patrol boats , and the PT boats of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three . The loss of Manila and the U . S . Naval Base Subic Bay meant that fuel and spare parts became scarce . The PT boats relied on " Canopus " and the floating dry dock for assistance with maintenance . Despite this , Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three continued to patrol . On 17 December , , and rescued 296 survivors from SS " Corregidor " , which had been carrying refugees to Australia when it struck a mine and sank in Manila Bay . A week later , ran aground while patrolling south of Manila Bay , and was set on fire to prevent her being salvaged by the Japanese . met a similar fate a month later , after its engines failed and it drifted onto a reef . The PT boats attacked enemy barges off Luzon on the night of 23 January 1942 , a small Japanese warship on 1 February , and a small vessel , probably a fishing trawler , on 17 February . Decision . In a message to President Franklin D . Roosevelt in Washington , D . C . , on 11 February , MacArthur announced that he and his family intended to " share the fate of the garrison " . Three days later , the Chief of Staff of the United States Army , George C . Marshall , urged MacArthur to send his family away , but MacArthur ignored this part of the message . In Washington , the possibility that Corregidor would fall and MacArthur would be taken prisoner was considered . MacArthur was America ' s most experienced general , but would be of little use in a prisoner of war camp . Moreover , he had become a living symbol of Allied resistance to the Japanese . The brave but doomed defense of Bataan had captured the imagination of the American public , who saw MacArthur as the only Allied general who knew how to fight the Japanese . Secretary of State Cordell Hull raised the possibility of MacArthur ' s evacuation . Brigadier General Dwight Eisenhower wrote in his diary : On 23 February , MacArthur received a message that had been drafted by the President , Secretary of War Henry L . Stimson and Marshall . It read : MacArthur responded with a request that he might select the time of his departure . " Unless the right moment is chosen for this delicate operation , " he wrote , " a sudden collapse might occur . " " With regard to the actual movement , " he went on , " I deem it advisable to go to Mindanao by combined use of surface craft and submarine , and thence by air , further movement by submarine being too time consuming . " Marshall replied that the President would allow him to choose the time and method of his departure . MacArthur inspected the PT boat squadron on 1 March . With air cover provided by his four remaining Curtiss P - 40 Warhawk s , MacArthur and his wife Jean took a half - hour ride on " PT - 41 " . Although the sea was tranquil , Jean still felt queasy . Ostensibly , the purpose of MacArthur ' s visit was presenting Bulkeley with the Distinguished Service Cross for sinking an " unidentified 5 , 000 - ton enemy ship with torpedoes without serious damage to his ship or casualty to his crew " , but afterwards MacArthur took Bulkeley aside and asked him if it would be possible to make the journey through uncharted waters at night in PT boats . Bulkeley told him that it would be " a piece of cake . " When some days passed without any further word on the matter , follow - up messages were sent on 6 and 9 March . MacArthur replied that he planned to depart on 15 March , when the submarine was scheduled to arrive at Corregidor . However radio broadcasts in the United States calling for MacArthur to be placed in charge in Australia had been picked up by MacArthur ' s headquarters in Corregidor , and it had to be assumed that the Japanese had heard them too . There were ominous signs : Japanese surface patrols had been stepped in the Subic Bay area , and there were reports of Japanese destroyers heading north from the southern Philippines . MacArthur therefore elected not to wait for the " Permit " , but to leave as soon as possible , by PT boat on the night of 11 March . Major General Jonathan Wainwright would be left in command . Of the decision to depart by PT boat rather than wait for the submarine , Lieutenant Robert B . Kelly , Executive Officer of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three , and commander of " PT - 34 " , later recalled : Escape . Preparations . Bulkeley and his crews overhauled the PT boats for the voyage . All of the engines had performed hard war service , and had been operated for double the recommended mileage . As a result , they were reduced to operating at half speed . Since there were no replacement parts , the gasket s , which normally would have been discarded , had to be carefully cleaned and replaced . Each PT boat would carry twenty 55 - gallon drum s of additional fuel on the deck . This reduced the top speed of the boats to about . To make room for the passengers , Bulkeley had to leave 32 of his men behind , who would be sent to fight as infantry on Bataan . MacArthur ' s chief of staff , Major General Richard K . Sutherland , drew up the passenger lists . Rockwell and his chief of staff , Captain Herbert Ray , were ordered to accompany MacArthur . They were already under orders to return by submarine , but this was switched to accompanying MacArthur when his date of departure was brought forward . A United States Army Air Corps officer , Major General Harold H . George , was requested by the United States Army Air Forces . MacArthur was accompanied by his family : his wife Jean , four - year - old son Arthur , and Arthur ' s Cantonese " amah " , Ah Cheu . MacArthur later defended his decision to take her instead of an American nurse . " Few people outside the Orient , " he wrote , " know how completely a member of the family an " amah " can become , and Ah Cheu had been with us since Arthur ' s birth . Because of her relationship to my family , her death would have been certain had she been left behind . " In case a doctor was needed , Major Charles H . Morhouse was summoned from Bataan to accompany the party . The remaining thirteen were members of MacArthur ' s staff . They were loyal and experienced , and some of them had been with MacArthur for years . Creating a new staff in Australia would have taken time , while taking his existing one would enable him to commence work soon after arrival in Australia . They would be more valuable there than in the Philippines . Sutherland included two of his own men : his assistant , Lieutenant Colonel Francis H . Wilson , and his stenographer , Master Sergeant Paul P . Rogers . Rogers , who was promoted from private that day , was the only enlisted man on the list , which he typed . A number of men gave him letters to post . Because there was no food for the passengers on the PT boats , Jean and MacArthur ' s aide - de - camp , Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L . Huff , packed tins of food into four duffel bag s , one for each PT boat . Huff removed the four - star rank number plates from MacArthur ' s car so they could be used in Australia , and took a mattress for the MacArthurs to lie on . Stories later circulated that it was full of cash or gold . Other stories had it that furniture from MacArthur ' s residence in the Manila Hotel had been loaded on board the PT boats , even , in one version of the story , the piano . In fact , each passenger was limited to one piece of luggage weighing or less . Jean took a small suitcase with some clothes . It sported a label from the Hotel New Grand in Yokohama , where she stayed during her honeymoon . Ah Cheu wrapped her possessions in a handkerchief . MacArthur took nothing . PT boat voyage . Only " PT - 41 " , which carried MacArthur and his family , departed from Corregidor ' s North Dock . The passengers of the remaining boats were taken to Bataan in launches and boarded their PT boats there . While his family boarded , MacArthur spoke to Major General George F . Moore , the commander of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays . " George , " he told him , " keep the flag flying . I ' m coming back . " " PT - 41 " departed at 19 : 45 on 11 March and joined the other three 15 minutes later . A navy minelayer led the PT boats through the protective minefield in single file . The boats then assumed a diamond formation , with " PT - 41 " in the lead and " PT - 34 " bringing up the rear . If attacked by the Japanese , " PT - 41 " was to flee while the other three boats engaged the enemy . The seas were moderate , but most of the passengers quickly became seasick . MacArthur later recalled : During the night , the four boats became separated . Bulkeley spent time looking for the other three boats , but was unable to find them in the darkness . At dawn he gave up , and headed for one of the alternative hiding places . Kelly ' s " PT - 34 " was the first to reach the rendezvous point , a cove on Tagauayan Island , two hours late at 09 : 30 . There was no sign of the other boats , and Rockwell was far from convinced that Kelly had the correct island . Some repairs were made , and the boat was refueled by hand pumps from the drums . Two men were posted atop the island ' s tallest hill to watch out for the Japanese and the other boats . " PT - 32 " , which had only two good engines , had straggled behind the others . Around dawn , Schumacher spotted what appeared to be a Japanese destroyer heading towards him . He jettisoned his fuel drums so he could increase speed and run from it . He ordered his crew to man the . 50 - caliber machine guns and get ready to launch torpedoes . General Akin prepared to toss a barracks bag filled with code books overboard . However , as the light improved , and the vessel drew closer , another look though the binoculars revealed that it was not a Japanese destroyer at all , but " PT - 41 " , carrying an angry Bulkeley . Schumacher was ordered to recover the drums he had jettisoned , but this proved to be a time consuming task , and a dangerous one in broad daylight , and it had to be abandoned after only a few drums were recovered . Bulkeley had his gunners sink the rest . The two boats then hid for the day in a nearby cove . In the afternoon , " PT - 41 " and " PT - 32 " made their way to Tagauayan , where they found " PT - 34 " . There was a discussion about whether to proceed to Mindanao , or wait for " Permit " . Bulkeley warned that the seas might even be higher . But , since there was no assurance that the submarine would make it , MacArthur decided to continue , departing in daylight at 18 : 00 so as to be sure to meet their air transport there . Since " PT - 32 " had no fuel to make Mindanao , its passengers were divided between " PT - 41 " and " PT - 34 " . Soon after they had departed , " PT - 35 " belatedly arrived at rendezvous point . Akers found the crew of " PT - 32 " there , and discovered that the other two boats had been and gone . He therefore set out for Cagayan de Oro as well . At 19 : 00 , about an hour after they had left Tagauayan , " PT - 34 " and " PT - 41 " spotted a Japanese cruiser . Bulkeley made a sharp turn due west , and headed at top speed , about , into the setting sun . Whether because of the high waves , the glare of the sun , or simple inattentiveness , the cruiser did not spot them . After midnight , the weather began to worsen , with heavy swells and sporadic squalls . Kelly later recalled : By dawn , the winds and swells had subsided , but the delay caused by the bad weather had slowed the two boats , and they now had to travel across the Mindanao Sea in daylight . Cagayan was sighted shortly after 06 : 30 on 13 March . Although " PT - 34 " had led all the way from Tagauayan , Kelly now let Bulkeley take the lead , as he had the channel charts . " PT - 41 " therefore pulled up at the wharf first , with MacArthur on the bow . They were met by Colonel William Morse , an officer on the staff of the Brigadier General William F . Sharp , the commander of U . S . forces on Mindanao . MacArthur told Bulkeley " I ' m giving every officer and man here the Silver Star for gallantry . You ' ve taken me out of the jaws of death , and I won ' t forget it . " A few hours later , " PT - 35 " reached Cagayan . Willoughby later recalled : USS " Permit " , under the command of Lieutenant Wreford G . Chapple , reached Tagauayan on 13 March , and found " PT - 32 " . With two of his three engines out of action , Schumacher felt that his boat was no longer seaworthy . He had Chapple destroy the boat with " Permit " ' s deck gun . Chapple then took the fifteen " PT - 32 " crewmen back to Corregidor . There , eight of the crew were disembarked , while Chapple embarked forty more passengers , thirty - six of them codebreakers . Nonetheless , Chapple was ordered to conduct a regular war patrol , which he did . He finally reached Australia on 7 April . Unaware of this , Bulkeley attempted to locate " PT - 32 " . Over the next few days he flew over the area as a passenger in various aircraft , including a P - 35 and a P - 40 , in the hope of finding it . Aircraft . The commander of U . S . Army Forces in Australia , Lieutenant General George H . Brett , received a radiogram from General Marshal in Washington , D . C . , alerting him that MacArthur would be requesting bombers to transport his party from Mindanao to Australia . A subsequent message from MacArthur requested his " most experienced pilots , and the best available planes in top condition " , but the only long - range aircraft that Brett had were Boeing B - 17 Flying Fortress es of the 19th Bombardment Group which had seen hard service in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies campaign s . He therefore approached Vice Admiral Herbert F . Leary , the commander of naval forces in the Anzac Area , to ask for a loan of some of twelve newly arrived Navy B - 17s . Leary , who had a reputation for refusing requests unless he could see how the Navy would benefit , turned Brett down . Brett therefore sent four of the 19th Bombardment Group ' s old planes . Two were forced to turn back with engine trouble . One of the others accidentally dumped of its fuel . The pilot flew on , and nearly made it to Del Monte Field , but , just a few miles from his destination , the fuel tanks ran dry and the engines stopped . The B - 17 crash landed in the sea . Two of the crew were killed , but the rest made it to shore , and thence to Del Monte Field . Only one B - 17 , piloted by Lieutenant Harl Pease , reached Del Monte , and this B - 17 was in poor condition , with no brakes and a faulty supercharger . Sharp ordered it back to Australia before MacArthur arrived . Despite the lack of brakes , Pease made the return trip , carrying sixteen passengers . Thus , with the arrival of " PT - 35 " , all of the passengers reached Mindanao safely , but there were no aircraft at Del Monte Field to meet them . They were taken to the Del Monte Plantation , where they were lodged in the guest houses , and had breakfast in the clubhouse . MacArthur sent a couple of sharp messages to Brett in Melbourne and Marshall in Washington . On their second day there , a Filipino woman arrived who wanted to speak to MacArthur . Her son was fighting on Luzon , and she had walked in the hope that the general would have some news about him . He did not , but the fact that she was aware of MacArthur ' s presence was disturbing to the party , as the Japanese were only away , at Davao on the south coast of Mindanao . Brett went back to Leary , expecting to be turned down again , but this time , Leary gave Brett the aircraft he wanted . The newly formed 40th Reconnaissance Squadron manned the bombers . One B - 17 turned back , but two made it to Del Monte Field on 16 March , landing in the dark on a runway lit by flares . Lieutenant Frank P . Bostrum , the pilot of the first plane , calculated that everyone could be carried in just two planes if they left most of their baggage behind . They divided into two groups and the two bombers took off at 01 : 30 on 17 March . MacArthur rode in the radio operator ' s seat , which did not need to be manned as the aircraft were travelling under radio silence . For most of the passengers , the trip was dark and cold , with only a blanket between them and the metal skin of the aircraft . As the two planes approached Darwin , word was received that a Japanese air raid was in progress there . The two B - 17s therefore flew on to Batchelor Airfield , where they touched down at 09 : 30 . MacArthur awarded Silver Stars to the crews of the two bombers . Brett ' s chief of staff , Brigadier General Ralph Royce , was on hand to greet them , and Brett had sent two Australian National Airways DC - 3 s to bring them to Melbourne . However , Jean now refused to fly any further , so MacArthur asked for a motorcade to take them to the nearest railway station , at Alice Springs . Sutherland had received word of an incoming Japanese air raid , and asked Morhouse to intervene . Morhouse told MacArthur that Arthur , who had suffered badly from seasickness and airsickness , was on an intravenous feed , and could not guarantee that he would survive a trip across the desert . MacArthur then agreed to take the planes to Alice Springs . Sutherland had Huff hurry everyone onto the aircraft , which took off when the air raid siren sounded . At Alice Springs , the party split up . MacArthur , his family , Sutherland , Morhouse and Huff took a special train that Brett had borrowed from the Australians , while the rest of the staff flew down to Melbourne via Adelaide in the DC - 3s . His famous speech , in which he said , " I came through and I shall return " , was first made at Terowie , a small town in South Australia , on 20 March , where he changed trains . On 21 March , MacArthur ' s journey was completed when his train rolled into Spencer Street Station , where he was greeted by the Australian Minister for the Army , Frank Forde . Aftermath . In April 1942 , Bulkeley led his squadron in an attack on the Japanese cruiser " Kuma " . The PT boats scored a hit on the cruiser , but the torpedo was a dud , and failed to explode . No damage resulted . With the loss of Cebu City , there were no more torpedoes , so the active careers of the remaining boats of Bulkeley ' s squadron came to an end . MacArthur gave PT boat officers a high priority to be flown out from Mindanao . Bulkeley was flown out on MacArthur ' s orders on 13 April . Knox , Kelly and Akers were evacuated on 23 April , and Brantingham also made one of the last flights out from Mindanao . Sharp surrendered on Mindanao on 10 May . MacArthur subsequently nominated Bulkeley for the Medal of Honor . The Commander in Chief , U . S . Fleet , Admiral Ernest King was not going to let MacArthur award the Medal of Honor to a naval officer , so he wrote a citation for Bulkeley on behalf of the Navy . President Roosevelt presented it to Bulkeley in a ceremony in the Oval Office on 4 August 1942 . Bulkeley wrote a book about his exploits , entitled " They Were Expendable " . Parts were serialized in " Reader ' s Digest " and " Life magazine " and it became a bestseller in 1942 . In 1944 , it was adapted as a movie of the same name , with Robert Montgomery playing a character based on Bulkeley , John Wayne one based on Kelly , and Donna Reed in the role of an Army nurse with whom Kelly had a brief liaison . Postwar analysis would show that most of the book ' s claims were exaggerated . On Bataan , the reaction to MacArthur ' s escape was mixed , with many American and Filipino troops feeling bitter and betrayed . When Wainwright broke the news to his generals " they were all at first depressed by the news . . . But I soon saw that they understood just as I understood . " Some people with family members in the Philippines were dismayed . One wrote to Roosevelt that " Nothing you could have done would have broken their morale and that of their parents at home so thoroughly " . To Joseph Goebbels , MacArthur was a " fleeing general " , while Benito Mussolini labeled him a coward . Marshall decided that the best way to counter this was to award MacArthur the Medal of Honor . The staff that MacArthur brought with him from Corregidor formed the nucleus of General Headquarters ( GHQ ) Southwest Pacific Area ( SWPA ) . The " Bataan Gang " , as they came to be called , remained with MacArthur for the duration , and were noted for their fanatical loyalty to him . So too was Bulkeley , who lauded MacArthur as " the greatest general as well as statesman since George Washington , " and hailed his decision to escape on PT boats as a stroke of genius . MacArthur eventually kept his promise , and returned to the Philippines . The Bataan Gang returned to Corregidor in March 1945 on four PT boats . References . Online sources