Chapter 14 macarthur

On the night of December 22, 1941, the Japanese attacked Wake Island again. After the last attack failed, Nagumo was ordered by Yamamoto to send a large number of reinforcements to the waters of Wake Island.Rear Admiral Kajioka reorganized the fleet. In addition to replenishing ships, he also increased 2,000 Marines. Colonel Cunningham, who commanded the defense on Wake Island, also asked Kimmel for reinforcements, but the reinforcements sent by the Pacific Fleet were slow to attack. When they arrived, the Japanese army had already begun to attack Wake Island, and deployed a strong blocking force on the periphery. Strength, the reinforcements can only look at the gate wall and cannot enter.

Like last time, weather conditions on Wake Island were as unfavorable as ever for landing.The hurricane at sea is fierce, and the ship is in danger of running aground at any time if it wants to approach the small island, let alone transfer the landing force. Seeing that the transfer could not be made smoothly, the Japanese commander simply ordered two patrol boats to rush in and run aground. In this way, the landing troops could directly grab the beach.After receiving the order, the patrol boat drove straight towards the island with full power. After running aground, the Japanese army lying on the deck quickly climbed up and launched the first wave of attacks on the US troops.

In the dark, the scene was extremely chaotic, but one thing was clear, that is, the Japanese army was overwhelmingly superior in numbers, and about 1,000 marines washed up on the beach like a tidal wave. It was too late, but soon, pink tracers pierced the dark night sky, and the US military fired towards the landing point.At the same time, Kajioka also ordered the battleship to fire, making it look like a grand fireworks display was being held on the beach.Cunningham later described it as saying: "The scenery is too beautiful to be a battlefield." For the Japanese marines who were charging, the scenery was of course not beautiful at all.The beach was clearly illuminated by the searchlights of the U.S. military, and they became living targets for the U.S. artillery bombardment. Almost all the 100 marines who rushed to the front were killed on the beach.

Wake Island is composed of three small coral reef islands. There are only more than 400 US Marines on the island. Because the number is too small, it is impossible to guard all the beaches.After two hours of fierce fighting, the Japanese army finally won the position on the corner of the coast in the early morning. By 7:30 the next morning, the U.S. military gradually couldn't support it.Americans have never had the tradition and saying that they would rather die than surrender.Cunningham also considered that there were more than 1,000 migrant workers engaged in engineering construction on the island, all of whom were unarmed, and continuing to fight would be tantamount to suicide, so he ordered the American soldiers to surrender.

Although the Japanese army captured Wake Island, they paid a great price. More than 800 marines were killed, and the total loss of personnel reached 5,700.When reporting the battle situation, the Japanese Marine Minister said: "The degree of its heroism can really be said to be shocking." The fall of Wake Island cut off the shipping line between the United States and the Philippines.After the attack on Pearl Harbor, MacArthur was hit hard from behind again. But MacArthur can't take care of these for the time being, and his front is also suffering from a violent impact.At the same time that the Japanese navy landed on Wake Island, its army also landed on the beach of Lingayen Bay in the northwest of the Philippines.

MacArthur had long anticipated this landing point. The success of the Japanese raid on Clark can prove Yamamoto's brilliance, but it cannot prove that MacArthur is incompetent.In addition to some objective factors, Clark's failure in the battle has something to do with his arrogant and uninhibited character. If you look at it from another angle, if you erase MacArthur's name in his resume and replace it with any one of us, it is impossible not to be proud.He enjoys four "youngest" titles in American history: the youngest brigadier general, the youngest major general, the youngest West Point military academy principal, and the youngest army chief of staff.When he was a brigadier general, both Patton and Marshall, who would become all-powerful in the future, were only majors, and Eisenhower was only a lieutenant, and he was doing odd jobs under MacArthur.

It can be said that he has reached the peak that ordinary soldiers can reach, and he has also reached the peak that ordinary soldiers cannot reach.His career in the Philippines is just a new starting point for Mai Shuai after he stepped down as Army Chief of Staff and "retired to the second line". MacArthur's pride is against the top, not the bottom, the strong and not the weak.As early as when he was the chief of staff of the army, because the government wanted to cut the army budget, he had a quarrel with Roosevelt, and his words were very fierce. "If our soldiers die on the battlefield because of this," he issued a final warning, "I hope that you, Roosevelt, and not me, MacArthur, will be cursed."

Roosevelt was known for his generosity, but he was also livid with anger: "You shouldn't speak to the president like this!" In the end, everyone gave in. MacArthur apologized to Roosevelt, and Roosevelt agreed to increase the budget. When he arrived in the Philippines, he remained the same.According to regulations, if it is a "second re-employment", it must be demoted from general to major general.But in order to save his own face, MacArthur greeted Roosevelt in advance and asked the other party to announce his dismissal order later so that when he appeared in the Philippines, he could still wear the rank of four-star general.

Roosevelt promised very well at first, but then suddenly changed his mind for some reason and announced his dismissal order in advance.This is good, MacArthur roared like thunder, and scolded Roosevelt, accusing him of being indecisive, reneging on promises, and being his subordinate would be wronged for the rest of his life. Those who disagreed with MacArthur commented on him like this: "MacArthur is the kind of person who thinks that when he ascends to heaven, God will also step down from the sacred white throne and invite him to go up respectfully." In both the military and political circles of the United States, no matter what views you have on MacArthur, there is one thing that is generally recognized, that is, whether it is the level of strategy and tactics or the ability to command the army, MacArthur can be called the best in the US Army of that era. Therefore, from Roosevelt to Marshall, they gave him three points of comity.

Before the outbreak of World War II, where would he put the Japanese in his eyes?It was precisely because he underestimated his opponent that he fell in Yamamoto's way. If he really took up a sword to fight a duel, Mai Shuai would not have made two moves, but several moves.After arriving in the Philippines, he began to formulate a detailed defense and army building plan, and gradually trained the local troops in the Philippines.Later, the Japanese Army Ministry revealed that an important factor in Japan's eagerness to invade the Philippines was the fear of MacArthur's completion of his defense plan.

The early Japanese invasion disrupted MacArthur's plan.According to this plan, he wanted to train 200,000 Filipino troops, but when the Japanese army launched an attack, he only had more than 10,000 Filipino troops under him.With this little wealth, it is really difficult to resist the ferocious Japanese army. Since December 10, the Japanese army launched two landing operations in the northern part of Luzon Island, including the landing at Lingayin Bay, which were repelled by MacArthur.In these anti-landing battles, MacArthur kept holding on to the main force, because he found that the Japanese army was only conducting a preliminary tentative attack and did not show enough strength, and the fierce battle was still to come. Sure enough, at midnight on December 22, Masaharu Honma came.