SEEKING COVER IN A TRENCH NEAR LAMAO during an air attack.

 

Since early January strenuous attempts had been made to get food and medical supplies to the men on Bataan and Corregidor. General MacArthur, and later General Wainwright, urged constantly and persistently, in the strongest terms, that the Japanese blockade must be broken, that greater efforts must be made and more drastic measures taken to relieve the Philippine garrison. These requests were received in Washington with the greatest sympathy. Despite the fact that Allied strategy called for the defeat of Germany first, the bulk of the troops and supplies sent overseas during the early part of 1942 went to the Pacific. A blockade running program was organized, first in Australia and the Netherlands Indies, and then in the United States. Surface vessels, combat aircraft, and even submarines were dispatched to the Philippines in the hope that some would get through with supplies for the weary and hungry men. No expense was too high, no effort too great to relieve the embattled garrison.

The total result of these activities was negligible. The Japanese hold on the Southwest Pacific and southeast Asia was too firm, their victories too rapid to allow the poorly prepared Allies time to organize the resources necessary to come to the aid of the Philippine garrison. The story of the attempt to break through the Japanese blockade, like the entire story of the campaign in the Philippines, is one of heroic efforts and final failure.

General MacArthur was kept fully informed of the plans to break the Japanese blockade, but still felt that stronger measures were required. On 4 February, in a message to General Marshall, he called for a more aggressive strategy in the Far East and expressed the hope that his views would be presented "to the highest authority."16 The message opened with the startling statement that Allied strategy, aimed at building up forces before the Japanese advance, was "a fatal mistake on the part of the Democratic Allies." He urged that the Japanese line of communications, "stretched over 2,000 miles of sea," be attacked instead. To counter the argument that naval forces for such attacks were not available, he pointed out that a great naval victory was not necessary; "the threat alone would go far toward the desired end." He predicted that the plan to build a base and acquire supremacy in the Southwest Pacific would fail and that the war would be indefinitely prolonged. The only way to defeat the enemy was to seek combat with him. "Counsels of timidity," he warned, "based upon theories of safety first will not win against such an aggressive and audacious adversary as Japan."

This was bold counsel indeed and was carefully considered in Washington from where the effort to send MacArthur the supplies he needed was being pushed with vigor and determination. General Marshall replied that he welcomed and appreciated MacArthur's views and "invariably" submitted them to the President.

Summarizing the considerations which had determined Allied strategy, Marshall went on to explain that everyone recognized the advantages of an attack against Japan's line of communications. Two grim disasters had prevented the adoption of such a course. First, the Japanese had achieved flank security at the start of the war by seizing Wake and Guam and additional protection by their control of the Marshall and Gilbert Islands. At all these places they had strong air protection. Secondly, by their initial attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had virtually eliminated the Battle Force of the Pacific Fleet. Much of the remaining naval strength of the Pacific Fleet was required to keep open the Allied line of communications to Australia and to assist in the establishment of bases in the South Pacific.

But rather than do nothing at all, the Allies had decided to oppose Japanese expansion along the Malay Barrier simply because that was the only area in which they possessed the necessary bases from which to launch an attack. "The basis of all current effort," the Chief of Staff went on, "is to accumulate through every possible means sufficient strength to initiate operations along the lines you suggest. ... In the meanwhile we are endeavoring to limit the hostile advance so as to deny him free access to land and sea areas that will immeasurably strengthen his war making powers or which will be valuable to us as jump off positions when we can start a general offensive."

 

 

 

 

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