Victory

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's communique trumpeted: "The entire Philippine Islands are now liberated and the Philippine campaigns can be regarded as virtually closed."

There were still an estimated 30,000 Japs scattered throughout the Islands; U.S. and Filipino troops were burning and grenading them out of caves and jungle hideaways. Said the communique: "Some minor isolated action of a guerrilla nature in the practically uninhabited mountain ranges may occasionally persist, but this great land mass of 115,600 square miles, with a population of 17,000,000, is now freed of the invader."

"Working in complete unison," MacArthur said, "the three services [ground, sea and air] inflicted the greatest disaster ever sustained by Japanese arms." To the enemy, this disaster meant the practical annihilation of 23 divisions ("or equivalents")--450,000 men, of whom 409,261 were reported killed, 9,774 prisoners. It meant also that Japan had been cut off from her conquests in Malaysia. It meant the "collapse of the enemy's imperial concept of a Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere."

The Fighters. The U.S. forces which fashioned this resounding victory comprised only 17 divisions--"one of the rare instances when, in a long campaign, a ground force superior in numbers was entirely destroyed by a numerically inferior opponent." The 17 U.S. divisions would include about 250,000 combat effectives.

The Cost. Almost as notable as the completeness of the Philippine victory was the relatively low cost of the damage done to the enemy. MacArthur's canny army commanders, General Walter Krueger (boss of the Sixth, on Luzon) and Lieut. General Robert L. Eichelberger (of the Eighth, in the southern islands), had carried out the reconquest with masterly economy of force. The cost accounting was still incomplete, but the latest compilation (made July 1) showed 11,921 Americans killed in the liberation of the Philippines, 401 missing and 42,569 wounded--a total of 54,891.

The overall casualty ratio of about eight Japanese killed for every American dead or wounded was final proof of the superiority of the U.S. strategy of envelopment, U.S. field tactics, the U.S. infantryman's fighting skill, U.S. air power, sea power and fire power.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.