This episode offers a masterful tactical breakdown that strips away the mythos of Bataan to reveal the raw logistical desperation of early Pacific combat. It is a high-fidelity analysis of how obsolete heroism met the brutal reality of modern amphibious warfare.
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The Last Charge and The Battle of the Points: Jan-Feb 1942 on Bataan – Episode 609
Added:[music] [music] Heat. Heat.
[music] All >> [music] [music] >> right. Hey gang. Uh, quick announcement real quick. Um, quick announcement real quick. Right. Yeah. So, as you probably recall, John and I had said that we were going to take the show on the road, and we are. We were scheduled to go to uh with Greenville, Texas, John, on August the 20th. There has been a slight change in those plans. We are still going to Texas, but we're not going in August.
John, we've had to reschedule till January.
>> That is the fact. Um got a little uh little medical issue with >> the uh the spouse of Seth and uh >> family comes first. So, >> indeed. Indeed.
>> Got to shift things around.
Unfortunately, we're both really bummed about that. We wanted to hang out with people in Greenville in August, but uh just not able to do that. And so, we are working on figuring out what the new date is going to be and moving around our flight schedules and that kind of stuff. But our uh our priority is to make sure that Heidi is doing good. So, AB: >> Absolutely. And and just so everybody knows, it's it it is a fairly serious operation. um that I will not share, but just suffice to say that I need to be there. Uh and it was rescheduled and it happened to be rescheduled for the day that I was theoretically coming home from Greenville, Texas. And that's just that just ain't going to work. And I want to say thank you to Ron and Skipper and Susan and all the people.
>> Yep.
>> All the crew in Greenville. You guys have been amazing. I I know we're we're kind of throwing you in a lurch and and I'm deeply apologize, but as John said, family comes first and and and it is what it is. And they have been all you guys have been so incredibly understanding. You're amazing. Uh we love you guys and we will come. We are coming and we're working on a date and we're kicking or they've kicked around a date in J or dates in January. Uh which frankly [laughter] is better to go to Texas in January than August just for the temperature differential. But hey, you know, whatever. It is what it is. But we are coming. But we didn't want anybody to go to I mean, still go to Greenville for whatever they're going to do in August, but don't expect to see us there because we ain't going to be there until the beginning of the year. So much many apologies there. But >> is what it takes.
>> Thanks for listening and on to the episode.
>> Hello and welcome to episode 609 of the unauthorized history of the Pacific War podcast. My name is Seth Paradin, historian and deputy director of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum. With me as always on this June 9th is my co-host, author, historian of a recently released book, John Parall. How are you this fine hot June day? I am just peachy. I'm enjoying the parade of your animals in the background as your your fat cat walked past in the hallway and Gunther gave him a look of disgust and disdain. So yeah, I'm doing well. I'm in my uh my decided to rock a little jungle fighting green today because uh it's that kind of an episode. So it is Yeah.
Yeah. Doing good. You can see my study is kind of a disaster area because I'm busily shipping books out and paying off those favors that I owe to people and blah blah blah. So but on that it's going good.
>> But that's a that's a good thing though.
>> It is a good thing.
>> Means means a project is complete.
>> Yes. Absolutely. So [sighs] >> cool. Let's do this thing.
>> Yeah, let's do this because this is this is um so last so if you're watching this um just how the sausage is made, I like to say last week we recorded an off-the cuff episode that's actually long since already aired is right after I broke this beast. Um, so this week we're piggybacking off of what aired last week, which is the efforts and the defenses of second core or two core, what, however you want to say it. Uh, this week we're going to focus on the other side of the American line. It's going to be, or as I call them, I core, first core ways people. And there's a lot to talk about here. There's some pretty pretty interesting things that go on. So with that, let's get into it. So while General Parker's second core on the Abby Kay line was deflecting the initial attacks against them by the Japanese and eventually folding and retreating to the second line of defense, General Jonathan Waynewright's eye core along the Maan [clears throat] line was facing its own problems.
Stronger in number than Parker's forces, Waywright's men were simply exhausted, much more so than their counterparts on Batan's east coast. These men or elements thereof had been in constant contact with the Japanese since the first landings on Luzon in the middle of December. Then named Northern Luzon force u [clears throat] held the door open for Parker's men to escape entrapment and make their way to Baton. The delaying action fought by Waynewright was brilliant with the general known as Skinny seemingly always popping up on the front lines to manage and lead his poorly trained if not determined Filipino units. Now in the middle of January, the situation had not changed very much. Iicor's men were still exhausted as were as was their commanding general. Responding to the threat that began to move towards him, Wayright ordered his favorite troops, his cavalry, into action once more. The heroic fight around Morang and the later events known as the Battle of the Points were among the last bright spots, such as they were for the men soon to be known as the battling bastards of Baton.
deed.
>> Yeah. So, just to kind of orient people, last week we were talking about the events on the east coast of the Batan Peninsula and now we're going to be talking about the events on the west coast. And we have a little map here of uh Batan in uh in January that we will pop up just to kind of get people oriented. But what what's kind of happening here too is that with with the Americans having been driven back into the peninsula, there's this main lateral road that goes across the top of the peninsula from Hermosa through Lak and over to uh Olangapo. And that's allowing the Japanese to lateral troops across the top edge of the peninsula and get them a stride the western coastal road and begin moving down uh towards Waynewright's folks on the west side of this peninsula. So that's what we're going to be talking about today is wayight and defending the west coast. So speaking of Wayne Wright, the units that he had and and they kind of they come and go, you know, because they they kind of share first core, second core, high core, second, what, however the hell you want to say it, tomato tomato. They they they share units here and there at different points. But at this point in time, Wayne Wright has the first Filipino divi, first Philippine division, I'm sorry, 31st division, 91st division, what's left of it, >> and of course the 26th Cav.
>> What's left of it? what's left of it.
Yeah. And and they're about I've seen different varying and maybe you have numbers, John, that I don't, but I've seen at this stage their their numbers are significantly less than they were, but they're around if you if you take all of them in aggregate, they're about 400 and some change at this point, but there's only a couple complete units and even then they're not they're not full strength >> of the cavalry. You're talking >> of the calf. Yeah, the calf.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think yeah that's that's about what I've seen too. High 300s, low 400s, something like that.
>> Yeah, we're gonna talk about them in a minute. We'll we'll we'll get in deep.
>> But go ahead. I was just going to say that the the First Philippine Division being, you know, the only sort of mainline uh regular division is kind of acting as a bit of a floating reserve here in that one of their regiments, the 57th Infantry, we've already talked about last week, uh they were the kind of the fire brigade over on the east side of Batan and now uh some of their regiments are going to be deployed here on the west side as well. Yeah, that 57th Infantry, if you remember from last week, that's Sandy Nininger's unit.
That's the first Med of Honor awarded during the war as Ningers people or he's part of of 57th, I should say. So Wayne Wright's people held the line stretching from Maban on the west coast to Mount Natib. And we've talked about Mount Natib. That's the big >> bulk right in the middle freaking line.
Yeah.
>> Yep. Exactly. And so basically um you've got a line that stretches from one of the subsidiary peaks of Mount Natib uh named appropriately enough Batan Peak which is about 1100 meters tall and it stretches southwest down to uh the coastal road and is just north of the town of Ma and so that is what is anchoring the American uh the Philamean defenses in this area. So, let's talk about the Japanese. Um, yeah, I put in the notes that the the force that's facing um, way is actually weaker than second core, but you disagree or the ones that are facing second core, but you disagree. You think it's it's about even Steven?
>> About even Steven, but there's there's nuance there. First of all, I'm looking on my stupid map and realizing that I marked uh one of the regiments incorrectly. So, um, on the left or the westernmost, uh, segment, you've got the 122nd Infantry Regiment, uh, which is part of the 65th Brigade.
And instead of 120th, it's actually the 20th Infantry Regiment. But that's a little bit deceiving because the 20th Infantry only has three battalions.
First battalion has not yet been brought up. third battalion is going to be attacking um sort of on the interior portion of the line near Baton Peak and then the second battalion is being held in reserve. So that means that when these festivities kick off we've basically got a Japanese regiment the 122nd and a single battalion um three of the 20th that is going to be on the attack here. So four maneuver battalions to start with. So, the Japanese general in charge of this particular offensive, because that's what it is, is a guy named N. How how much do we know about N? N. N.
>> Off the top of my head, not a whole heck of a lot. Um, other than that, >> he's the one who describes his own his own uh unit as being basically the dregs of the Japanese army, you know, that they scraped out of the flesh pots of Shanghai and loaded on a ship and brought over here. So, um, yeah, I don't don't have much more information for you than that. Sorry, I failed.
>> He he thinks well he he and Homer think that that Parker's forces the weaker of the two and and they are and there's no denying that.
>> And he puts his main effort towards that area and and a lesser effort towards Waynewright. But as we talked about last week, >> any breakthrough on either side y >> would threaten >> either side. It would threaten both sides. So if they punch through Parker's people, it threatens Wayne. If they punch through way, threats Parker and so on and so on. So >> reason being that it'll leave a dangling flank on either of those two cores if the other one has to fall back. And so >> yeah, that's that's the scoop there.
>> So the Japanese are going to launch their attack towards their mission is to move down that road that you just talked about west towards Olongapo. And if I'm mispronouncing that, forgive me.
>> Yeah. And yes, that's right. And so that's that's sort of preliminary to this map that we popped up here. Um the first thing that's going to happen is yes, the Japanese have got to take Olapo on the the west coast near Subi Bay. So as the Japanese are moving down this general vicinity, Wayne Reich gets word that a Japanese unit is indeed advancing down this road and they're advancing down this road to this little town. And I've seen it listed in two different ways. Morang with a G and [ __ ] le in you are a [ __ ] right? [laughter] >> I'm not 100% sure which it is because I've seen it listed on them both ways on two different army maps from World War II. So which one it is, if Desiree, if you're listening, let us know.
>> Let us know. That's right.
>> Either way, Wayne Wright hears that these guys are moving towards [ __ ] We'll call it [ __ ] because saying saying [ __ ] is seems a little flippant to me. But regardless, um, >> he wants to get down there as obviously as fast as he can to blunt this assault, but the Japanese are also trying to get down there as fast as they can. And the colonel that's in charge of this assault is a guy named Watanab. And he directs part of this 122nd Infantry Regiment that you talked about to get down the trail towards Morang as fast as they possibly can, obviously, while the rest of the regiment is embarked on boats.
And we're going to talk about a lot about amphibious landings here in this episode or semi- amphibious landings.
Um, >> he'd hope that Go ahead. Yeah, >> I was just going to say the real time history. The Googles say that it is Morang.
>> Morang. Yeah, I kind of I kind of figured as much, but like I said, World War II maps are >> right.
>> Take it with a grain of salt, you know, if you will.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> So, we'll call it Morang because I don't want to consider consistently call some village.
>> Correct. I'm with you. [laughter] Yep. So anyhow, the Japanese are going to try and move down the coastline and they're going to try and basically leaprog down there. We're going to talk a lot more about this because they do this again later on in the battle of the points that we're going to refer to. Um he'd hope that in this way if he was to advance this way more rapidly down the west coast towards the town of Beak, >> they would avoid the they would avoid the delay that was inevitable with the entire regiment coming down this trail that's about yay wide >> and all the traffic jams that would ensue therein.
>> And it's it's a very sineuous road too.
You can see it um on on this map that it you know kind of winds around the coastline there. And the terrain is also extremely um steep and so there are a number of areas where you've got all these kind of mountainy switchbacks and that kind of action going over ridges and whatnot. So yeah, it's much longer by foot than it is by the crow.
>> Yeah. And they they do this operation relatively successfully. Um elements of the 122 come ashore at the small bario between Olangapo and Morang and they march the rest of the way on foot. The two elements do join up on the 15th of January. Um excuse [clears throat] me and they're within a mile of the town of Morang. Uh they cross the Batalan River just north of the village and are only opposed by a very small amount of American rifle fire uh from an American patrol actually that Waynewright had sent to Morang. Uh we're you know in preparation to meet the Japanese.
>> But uh Waynewright is not finished with sending people to Morang as we're going to see. So let's get into what as I put in the notes is is the end of an era.
And it's it's kind of a romantic thing, but it's it's it's the end of an era.
And of course, we're talking about the United States horse cavalry.
>> Yep.
>> So, um, what's up [clears throat] with the First Infantry Division or the First Infantry?
>> So, they are on actually the wrong side of the river at this point. They are on the wrong side of of this the Batalan uh river. And so when the Japanese come down the road at them, they end up giving way in relatively short order and don't offer a heck of a lot of resistance. And so they pull back across that river. And their commanding officer is a gentleman named Fidel Sigundo. And he decides that the location is not tenable from a defensive standpoint. And basically, despite Wayne Wright's uh order that he should hold it, Sigundo goes ahead without orders and pulls back. This does not make Jonathan Wayne a happy man.
>> No, it does not. Because as we've said before, Skinny was if he wasn't on the front line, he wasn't he damn sure wasn't far from it. I mean, he was within, you know, earshot of the gunfire. He he was always close to the front line. And the story is is when Sagundo comes back, Wayne Wright literally he's baffled. He's like, >> "What are you? Why are you here?"
>> Yeah. And >> supposed to be there.
>> Yeah. You ain't supposed to be here, son. You're supposed to be over there.
And Sagundo basically says, "Hey, you know, this wasn't a good position." So, I pulled out, >> right?
>> And from several sources I've read, and I'm sure you've read the same that there were some choice words that were uttered by Jonathan Wayne right towards Sagundo, and he basically just says, "I'm done with you.
>> I I don't have any patience for this kind of crap. And he immediately whirls around and and and just so happened that elements of his 26th calav, which were his favorite unit, was right there, like literally within eyeshot of these guys coming in. And he orders his 26th cavalry to perform a mission of reconnaissance on Morang and recapture the village that he now assumes to be under Japanese control. Now, the 26, we've talked about them literally since the since jump street, since day one, >> and [snorts] as we said just a few minutes ago, they had been consolidated by by the 16th of January into one unit.
um excuse [clears throat] me and had combined and there were other units and we can talk about that here in a bit but the horsemounted units have been consolidated down into one unit combining both E and F troops into one group while G troop is the other unit that's in relatively decent shape and still has their mounts and that's key is because by this time as we know you know well actually hell when they get on the line these guys are hungry. Yeah, >> a lot of the horses, not all of them, but a lot of the horses at this time have already been slaughtered for for for meat. However, >> ENF troops that are now one and G still retain their mounts. So, um, he >> and I' I've never really understood just how many troops are in a troop of cavalry. And uh >> at this stage I don't I don't know and I frankly I don't think it matters because they they they had these guys were the ones that still had their their their nags.
>> Yeah.
>> So so it didn't >> and we're going to see there's a couple hundred numbers a couple hundred people that attack but and we'll get into it but >> yeah. Yeah. Anyway.
>> Yeah.
>> I I'm sure the Nerdarati will you know immediately um you know what John you didn't know. I mean how many troops are in a troop? But, uh, yeah, well, I'm sure we'll get that information. In any case, uh, total size of this outfit, though, is is about, as we say, upper 300s, lower 400s, something like that.
>> And and that includes the dismounted calf, too. So, just so everybody's aware.
>> Yeah.
>> Regardless of this, G troop under a guy named Lieutenant Edwin Ramsay has just returned from a recon patrol. And by just returned, I mean quite literally like still still stepping off the horses, >> right? when Wayne Wright sees them. So, this guy Ramsay and we're gonna do an episode or two or more on the Philippine Resistance.
>> Remember the name Ramsay because he's he hangs around a while, shall we say?
>> Uhhuh.
>> He's an ill or was an Illinois native.
He grew up in Kansas. Uh he went to school at the Oklahoma Military Academy, enlisted in the United States Army in 1941. In February of that year, so I mean this guy's fresh. In February of that year, he's assigned to the 11th Caval in California. And when volunteers are called for to join the 26th Cav in Lausan, >> Ramsay's like, "Sounds good to me. Let's go." So, he steps forward. He goes across the Pacific to Lison where he's inserted into the 26 cal.
>> It's kind of an interesting story here.
So he was an avid polo player and polo was kind of the in the you know late 30s early 40s and even before was kind of the the game of the rich and Ramsay was >> not not a wealthy man. He was wasn't destitute but he wasn't >> wasn't what you would envision a polo player being. um he'd played in the school and he was absolutely obsessed with the sport and the only reason that he went to the Philippines was because he'd heard that the 26 Cav had a really top-notch polo team and he said >> team >> that's it that's what I >> that's for me Jack well yeah that that too and and again uh pre-war service in the Philippines is a very plum assignment if you were in the US Army and you know good cost of living is a good posting So even though war clouds were darkening um you know he still stepped forward and and came on over there. So >> yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And the polo player had played Ramsay had played in the last polo match that had taken place in peace time and late like late November >> of 41. I I don't remember the exact date. It doesn't matter but Wayne Wright the old Cavan had umpired that game.
>> Okay. And he re he didn't know Ramsay, but he as I put in the notes, he either knew of him or he physically recognized him and he remembered him from that game.
>> Yeah.
>> And and as Ramsay's getting off of his horse and and like going to probably, you know, >> catch a smoke and a break, >> he just whirls around and says, "You're Ramsay, aren't you?" And and Ramsay says, "Yes, sir." And he says, and I quote, he says, "Quote, you played in the polo match at Stenberg. You take the advanced guard. Move out. That's it.
>> [laughter] >> And Ramsay's like, "I just I just got here, >> man." Yeah, right. I was hoping for a power bar and some Gatorade and instead, you know, [laughter] you got none of that.
>> So, the the the funny part, I mean, that's that's humorous, but Ramsay's CEO, who we're going to talk about in a minute, too. He tries to step in and like stand up for his boy and be like, you know, this guy just got in. Give him, you know, let him >> let him go take a whiz and get a cup of coffee, you know? Right. and he tells him that he's exhausted and and Wayne Wright immediately whirled around to his CEO and says, "Yeah, well, we're all exhausted. Ramsay, move out."
>> Doesn't want to hear it.
>> Doesn't want to hear it. Doesn't want to hear it. Well, and you know that I hate to say it, but >> he's right.
>> He's right. You got time is the enemy here. You got to get up and you got to figure out what's going on at this at this village. So, >> in any case, uh yeah, whether or not this assignment is uh going to turn out well or not, you know, Ramsay's familiar with this terrain. He's been on this coastal road just, you know, literally minutes before and he's been doing this for a few days. And so, yeah, he goes ahead and and uh gets three squads uh from one of the platoon. He's got about 27 guys. and uh his CEO, who's a guy named Wheeler, Major Wheeler, goes ahead and follows him uh with two more platoon worth of cavalry. So that to me suggests that you've got about 80 guys going up the trail here.
>> Yeah. Um Ramsay, spoiler alert, he survives the war and he writes a book if it's I think it's called Lieutenant Ramsay's War, I think is actually what it's called. And check it out. It's really really interesting. But he said that and as we know this is the dry season >> right >> on on Luzan and Baton in particular at this point you know and he said that you know >> just moving down the trails with the horses the amount >> dust >> that these animals kick up and he said you know he said that you could see it for you know hundreds of yards away and he said quote it was an invitation to an ambush because he was afraid that you know they're going to see us coming and they're going to shoot the crap out of Yeah.
>> Yeah. What are you going to do?
>> Not not a damn thing. Can't do anything.
>> Yeah.
>> So, he wisely gets to the outskirts of this village at uh at Bak and uh halts his column and gets, you know, dismounts so that they can do a little reconoiding here. Uh takes out his binoculars. And, you know, from what he can tell from the outside, the village appears to be deserted. uh and that there are three trails that are, you know, leading further south to uh to Morang.
Everything is quiet. The livestock is still pinned. Uh and the church seems to be shut tight. So, as far as he can tell, there's nobody in there. And he therefore directs his platoon uh to divide into a column of three and move down the center road of the village.
And so they get out their uh their 1911s uh their pistols, right?
>> Yeah.
>> Yep. And uh sent sent the scout element into the village to draw any fire if there is going to be fire. And uh they don't they don't draw any fire. So at this point uh he nudges his horse, which is a Brin Arwin. What an interesting name for a horse. And trots into town.
>> Yeah. He he gets into the town >> [clears throat] >> into the village and there's, you know, like I said, or like you said, a handful of troopers already there.
>> As soon as this [clears throat] guy walks into the village, boom, gunfire erupts from the other side of the village. And this isn't a very big place anyway, >> as do mortars and clump clump clump clump clump around machine gunfire from the north of the village. Clearly, the Japanese have been watching them. And as he said, you know, it's an invitation to an ambush. And this kind of is, >> you know, they knew he was coming.
>> Um, behind the Japanese fire, he can see there's like rice patties and and like low fields, you know, things like that.
And he can see, as he said, scores, quote unquote, of Japanese advancing on Morang and lines of skirmishers, which >> how they were advanced, it doesn't matter. But he but he sees numbers of Japanese coming towards the village.
Behind these guys, he sees even more waiting across these rice patties in a small river in chest deep water.
>> Under fire, Ramsay's point men come galloping back towards him because they see these Japanese as well. And you realize, hey, we're two dozen guys here.
We got a problem. Um he's aware obviously that the Japanese are advancing and he's under orders, Ramsay is to take and hold this village.
>> Yes.
>> So while knowing that he can't defend anything right now because there's no time to set up a defensive line, he figures that the best thing to do >> is to do what cavalry does and charge.
He issues orders for his platoon to form into what the cavalry called a forager formation. essentially a skirmish line full of men on horseback where they're just gonna run literally just haul ass with their weapons at the ready and just shoot >> anything that moves. And that's precisely what they do. The lead elements charge through the village with the first group of four riders plowing straight into the recon element of the Japanese that are just now entering the outskirts of the town. And as I say in the notes, literally run into these Japanese with their horses. Just pow right into them.
>> Hard to do because horses don't like to do that.
>> They do not.
>> They do not. That is not their thing.
>> Uh but the result of that is that um the Japanese are completely surprised and they turn around and run. Mhm.
>> At that point, Ramsay uh brings up the rest of his troop and establishes two squads, you call them killing squads, and go through the v village on foot and clear every hut in the town, killing several Japanese in the process. Uh he doesn't take many casualties. He's got, you know, one guy killed and six wounded in action out of the 27 or so that he brought in. So yeah, he's got 20 combat effectives left at this point to now hold on to this place.
>> And that's it's just that's not going to get it done, you know, and he he he winds up setting up that line and trying to hold as long as he can. And he actually does deflect a couple of attacks. They do >> because they've got the better position.
They do deflect, I think, at least two, maybe three Japanese assaults on the village. The the calf >> turns them off. But [clears throat] the Japanese also realize that they have the advantage of indirect artillery fire, which the Americans do not clearly because they would have used it. And they start dropping mortars all in this village. And um Ramsay Co got that Major Wheeler that you talked about a minute ago, he he comes in with reinforcements to help bolster the line for a bit. But as the mortar fire continues and the Japanese fire continues to grow in intensity, >> it's it's it's only a matter of time before they have to get out. They wind up holding the village through the rest of the evening into the night and into the next day. However, by that next day, the Japanese had returned in strength and and and as to the strength, I I'll be honest with you, I I have no idea. I I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't find it. And they went pushing the calf out of the village of Morang. Um, and as I put in the notes, within days of Ramsay's charge, all of the horses of the 26th have been butchered for meat.
And that is the very last American horse cavalry charge as we know it. And I know we've used horses in combat since in Afghanistan, but as we know of American, you know, wild west cavalry.
>> That's it.
>> That's it.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I cannot even imagine what it must have been like to have to butcher their horses. I you know given the bond that those that those men had with their mounts yeah that just had to be absolutely heart-rending. But >> from from everything I've read and I know you know John McMan has talked about this I think with us and that you know >> to your point these guys were I mean they didn't just it wasn't like a pilot going to get into any plane that was running.
>> Yeah.
>> It was their horse like Bren Arwin was Ramsay's horse.
>> Yeah. and and you know he trusted that animal. You know how it is. I mean and the animal trusted him and it was it was like getting rid of your best friend and it's just >> Yeah. God awful.
>> Yeah. Absolutely terrible.
>> Let's talk about Jose Kugus.
>> Jose Kugus. Yeah. This guy's he's he's pretty cool. He's a pretty cool you would refer to I believe as bad man.
>> He is a bad indeed. He is a bad man. and stuff. So if you you know when we were talking Sunday on the episode that well as you're watching this has aired weeks ago. We were fishing for the name of the Filipino Medal of Honor recipient and we couldn't >> remember his name.
>> Here he is.
>> Yeah. So this is the same cat who that I if you refer to that episode I talked about he joined the United States Army.
He's [snorts] a Filipino native from the burial of Ting Ting. Um and he enlisted in the United States Army in 1930 uh as as he said later for better pay and steady food like I mean can't blame a great reason [laughter] >> money and yes please >> cannot cannot blame the dude one bit. So >> yeah, >> and I I found this to be interesting when I when I wrote this in the notes.
And you know, it's it's I think it's pretty cool really is that instead of, you know, being one of these Filipino units that's trained quote unquote there in Lison or or wherever, he is shipped back to the United States after he and he joins the army, the United States Army. He he's shipped back to the United States and is trained at Fort Sil >> and other places too. He goes to other places, too. However, >> yeah. and and he learns the trade of artillery from the United States Army.
So he is a formal formerly formally trained soldier. He's not, you know, some conscript like he knows what the hell he's doing. Um he's assigned to the 88th Field Artillery 23rd Division Philippine Scouts.
>> Yep.
>> Who Kugus is with. So >> on the morning of January 16th, what >> By this time though, he's he's working as a mess sergeant.
>> Yes, he is.
>> Yeah. not not a gunner.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. He's got an entirely different entirely different job at this point. Um so he's behind the lines and yet fairly near to his battery. Well, you say fairly near, but it's not really that fairly near. It's like about a thousand yards. So it's it, you know, it's half a mile or thereabout, a little more than.
Um and they begin coming under Japanese artillery and mortar fire. And during this time, one of one of the guns and and again, we're rocking these these M1975mm guns. It's a it's a copy of the the French the famous French 75.
And one of these guns is silenced because the crew has been either killed or wounded by this artillery bombardment.
And so seeing that uh Kugus without orders just makes a beline for the gun.
So he runs across this field under fire about a thousand yards to this weapon.
Gra gathers up a crew of men just kind of in an ad hoc uh fashion and begins to then operate this gun and firing back.
>> Yeah. He does it for like for over an hour. He he just randomly takes command of this weapon and and starts dropping artillery on the Japanese. And he does it so effectively as you know how many rounds he fired, I don't have a clue, but he does it so effectively that he pins the Japanese down and allows his parent unit to form a defensive line and repel a Japanese attack or three >> in the process. So he was I mean like what he did was valuable to that line of defense at that at that time >> particular juncture. Yeah, for sure. and he is then recommended for and awarded uh the Medal of Honor. He would not receive it until 1945. He is the only Filipino to get the blue ribbon. So, good on you, sir.
>> Yeah. And and he didn't receive it until 1945. It wasn't one of those, you know, retroactive things. It was just dude was in a P camp and he was released.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. kind of hard to give you the Medal of Honor when you're behind, you know, you're in the Japanese stockade, >> right?
>> But he um and this is something we can talk about when we get to that portion of this campaign is that the Japanese actually let a lot of the native Filipinos go.
>> They released them from the P camps, kept all the all the all the white boys in there, but but they let the Philip not all of them, but a lot of the Filipinos go and Kugus was one of them.
And when he's released, you know, they make him like the Japanese make him basically sign an an oath saying that they wouldn't take up arms against the Japanese. And he's like, "Yeah, sure.
[laughter] Whatever you say, bud. Peace.
I'm out." And he goes home and literally like within 24 hours of him arriving back home, he's in a gorilla unit killing Japanese. It's like, "Yeah, >> yeah. That oath means nothing because I'm here to kill you because you're my property. You're on my own, you know."
Yeah.
>> Goodness gracious. All right, let's talk about the roadblock. Now, this is something that we have talked about in the past, specifically on the Malay Peninsula.
>> Let's talk about this roadblock because this is not an insignificant action, >> right? So what ends up happening on the morning of uh the 18th of January, uh General Kimora um reaches the town of Morang and assumes control over operations uh for the assault against Wayne Wright's line which is you know along along the the coastline here and running up to Batan Peak. So basically what he's going to do is he's going to attack with the 122nd regiment right down the the coast road and he's going to use the third battalion of the 20th infantry to swing east through Morang and try to take the Americans in the flank. Basically sneak through our lines and and hit us and they successfully do that. So this third battalion uh goes up the mountain and then comes back down and cuts uh the the PR Bak road. Um and so it is not in on uh in on the initial actions. And as as we mentioned previously, the second battalion of the 20th infantry is being held in reserve. So yeah, this is this is a problem. I mean this third battalion ends up getting a stride this road and sets up uh a roadblock and basically overnight just turns this roadblock into an absolute fest. You know it is uh mobbed with snipers. They managed to bring some anti-tank guns in there too and some mines and stuff like that and they just build this little hedgehog sitting right astride this road. This is a big problem because it means that the majority of the heavy equipment of the first Philippine division, the trucks and a lot of their arty and you know other heavy assets are now on the north side of this roadblock. And unless the Americans can clear this thing, they are not going to be able to get this equipment out if they are in uh placed in a position where they have to withdraw. And of course, they're also fending off frontal attacks from the 122nd regiment. So the situation is not good.
>> Yeah. Way right hears of as he said infiltrators, >> right?
>> Japanese infiltrators on the 20th or around around the 20th of January. And the reports that are getting to him say that the infiltrators, the Japanese are in large numbers. Now >> what the hell does that mean? He does not know. Um [clears throat] but as you said, it it's a significant issue.
Waywright realizes that this is a major problem as any intelligent officer would and has an desire to dislodge these people. But >> as we know, the Japanese once they're sitting in a position are not very obliging when it comes to getting the hell out of said position.
>> Yes.
>> And this is no different here.
>> This is absolutely no different. And so we are now experiencing um sort of our first taste of what it's like to dislodge the Japanese army from a defensive position that they have taken up. And we've already talked about, you know, this sort of behavior on the part of the Imperial Army. I mean, you've seen this kind of thing happen on a couple of occasions in Malaya. Uh the same thing happens uh during the the looping motion that is going to lead to the assault on Rangon uh in Burma. Um you know, you've got the British army that has just, you know, landed the 63rd Brigade in Rangon and now they're trying to scoot north uh out of out of Rangon and get north up country. They're under General Alexander and they're scooting up the the main highway there and they run into one of these Japanese roadblocks and they cannot get this roadblock out of the way. Uh the Japanese are just absolutely oburate on defense. And that's exactly what ends up happening here too that Wayne Wright and his boys just cannot get rid of these dudes. They can't get out.
>> And Skinny doesn't just send like, you know, a couple of companies out there.
He sends a fairly large force to break through this line. It is um elements from the 91st division. Scouts from the 26th Cavalry admittedly on Bin carriers now. They're using brin carriers.
>> Where the hell they got those? I will never know. But yeah, >> couldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you, >> but they got them. They don't have many of them, but they got them. They're using scouts from the 26th, Company C from the 194th Tank Battalion, what's left of it. are also ordered out to this area under the command of 92nd Infantry Regiment Commander Colonel Rodman.
>> And they're I mean it's not, you know, two companies of guys. I mean, it's a fairly decentsized unit that's being sent out to attack these people. That kicks off on the morning of the 22nd >> of January. Uh the American tanks are trying to break through the roadblock and establish contact with the first division that's on the other side. And as you say, the Japanese by now have obstructed or constructed um anti-tank ditches. They got AT guns up there. They got mines on the road. And it's the two lead element tanks go kabooy.
>> Yeah.
>> And and the attack just stops right there. Boom. That's it.
>> Right. Yeah. And you you got to hand it to the Japanese at this point, too, because any of that stuff that they brought up, they had to manhandle over trails across this mountainous terrain.
And this once again speaks to, you know, we and the British sort of had this whole notion of, oh well, that terrain is impassible. And and really impassible is more a state of mind than anything else. And the Japanese are proving it here again. They're going to do this same sort of thing in New Guinea. Um, so yeah, they managed to manhandle a couple of AT guns. They brought some mines in, and they're doing this all across, you know, really crappy trails from their own lines. The problem for them is that they have not brought up enough in the way of water or rations or medicine. And it's the dusty season, you know, it's the hot season. And so the Japanese are out under the sun in this stuff, too.
and they are really really suffering uh from from thirst and malnutrition. But as we discover over and over and over again in this war that just doesn't really matter much to them. Uh they just they suffer. That's just what they do.
>> And they take it they just take it like >> few armies can. So during the next few days >> yes >> Colonel Rodman attempts again and again to force these people out. first by frontal assaults, then by flanking attacks. Nothing works. They cannot get these people out of here. By the 23rd, >> right?
>> No ground, no ground has been gained whatsoever.
>> Uh later that day on January 23rd, first [snorts] battalion, second constabularary. Now, what the what the hell is a constabularary? They're essentially police.
>> Yeah.
>> For for lack of a better term, they're, you know, they're Filipino police. uh not, you know, walking the beat kind of guys, but but they're they're Filipino law enforcement essentially for all intents and purpose. Let's just call it that.
>> Uh he employs Rodman employs these guys to launch an attack and outflank the Japanese and establish contact with First Division, First Philippine Division. Uh these guys actually slip through the jungle south of the roadblock and by nightfall do make they they make their, you know, connection.
and they make their connection and then without any explanation whatsoever and these are when you talk poorly trained these guys are poorly trained.
>> Yeah.
>> Once they make contact they pull out.
They're gone. Like they they just they just get the hell out, withdraw to their former position and any ground that they have gained, which was a fairly decent amount, evaporates like that, >> right?
>> So the next morning Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they they just completely useless and God bless them, but completely useless.
And we're going to talk about them again here in a minute.
>> Um, by the 24th of Go ahead.
>> I was just going to say, and you can see from the map here, too, that this road is actually somewhat inland, you know, because the main coastal road actually kind of loops in around a little there's a coastal parameter here. So, you know, a single battalion of Japanese are not going to be able to control all of the terrain um all the way down to uh down to the the coastline. And that's why these constabularary troops were able to were able to get in. And this is also why then the first Philippine division is going to be able to get out. But the problem for them, as we mentioned, is that if that division makes the decision to withdraw, they're going to have to leave all of their heavy equipment behind.
>> And the Green basically everything is just, you know, nothing's getting through, nothing's working after all this. And the Green Books has this quote, and I want to read it verbatim, and it goes like this, and I quote, "Rodman's inability to make progress against the roadblock could not have been due to a shortage of troops." As we said, I mean, this was not a small group of men that are thrown against us.
>> By 24th January, he had under his command the second battalion, 92nd Infantry, First Battalion, 91st Infantry, Third Battalion, 72nd Infantry, Second Squadron, 26 Cav, two battalions, and a Howitzer Company from the second constabularary attached to Icore on 22nd January, as well as other mixed detachments. It's a fairly goodsized group of people. All these units, it must be added, were under strength, tired, poorly fed, and except for the 26 Cav and the Howard company had no automatic weapons at all," unquote from Green Books. But still, that's a lot of humans.
>> Yeah, it's a lot of humans. And uh you know, you hate to say it, but this is one of those uh times when you just have to tip your hats to the Japanese and give them their due. I mean they held any indigenous troops in utter contempt and that is being it's being demonstrated here. There's a >> a quote from uh HP Wilmont uh talking about the same action that nothing better illustrated the superiority of a Japanese unit over its American or Filipino counterpart at this stage of the war. that yeah, once this roadblock is plunked down there, we just cannot deplunk it. We ain't got the tactics. We ain't got whatever it takes uh to get these guys out.
>> You know, you got the question pops up in your mind, what would happen if this was 1944? Well, I can tell you >> we would win.
>> Well, we'd win because we'd we'd send about 10,000 artillery shells onto [laughter] that road block and say, "Oh, there's where are they?" All right, everybody hunker down. We're going to send in the mail. Here it comes for the next two hours, >> right?
>> Just going to drown these people in fives.
>> And then you go through and you clean it out. But we we don't have that ability right now.
>> No.
>> So, while the fight at the roadblock is still going, uh, the Japanese are continuing to move and they're not just focusing on this one. They're they're still doing their thing.
>> Yeah. I mean first first Philippine division is still receiving frontal attacks from the 122nd infantry regiment during this entire time. So basically that division has got an active enemy in its rear that is preventing its its withdrawal and is facing a full regiment uh to its front. And so yeah after you know 4 days of that um they're just not in a position to really deal with this anymore. I mean, they're they're starting to crumble. And Wayne Wright recognizes that. And so on the 25th of January, then he reluctantly uh issues orders that the Philippine Division is going to have to withdraw that night. But again, that means that all the trucks, heavy guns, and other equipment that can't be carried out are going to have to be destroyed in place.
Essentially, what we're doing here is we are demotorizing and deweaponizing this entire division. And this is the best division that we have on the peninsula.
So other than its 57th regiment, which is across the peninsula on the east side, uh yeah, basically everything that's left in this division is going to be walking from here on out.
>> Yeah. And it's at this point, too, we talked about this kind of on the fringes. I forget how many weeks ago now, but uh a lot of the casualties that are sustained by Wayne Wright's first quarter when they're in the initial stages of withdrawal aren't actually battle casualties, but they're desertion.
>> Mhm.
>> This starts to rear its ugly head again here.
>> Yeah. Um, when these guys, the Filipinos that are in this first Philippine division, realize that that the jig is up, they [snorts] literally strip off their uniforms, drop their weapons, and disappear. They disappear.
>> Yep. So, what's going to end up happening is uh the division and and the men in it who want to retreat are going to take the same route that the constabularary troops took to make contact with them. They're going to loop to the south of the roadblock, closer to the coast, and they're going to make their way on jungle trails uh back to friendlier lines and uh yeah, carrying any wounded along with them that they can manage to get out of there. So, that ends up uh occurring on uh the night of the 25th.
>> Let's talk about So, well, let's let's put this in perspective at this point.
>> There's lots of combat going on.
>> There's a lot to talk about here.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And and what we're about to talk about, which is what's the army classifies as the battle of the points plural, >> is a result of what is happening right now or in this in the Japanese case not happening.
>> Um [clears throat] >> while they're successful, there's no question they're they're not as successful as they had as a wants them to be in terms of timetable. He needs to, as you said, what 50 days he's got to wrap this up and and they're beginning to push that that mark.
They're getting closer and closer to that mark.
>> Yeah.
>> And he wants to wrap this up like yesterday. And in order to do that, >> and he's [clears throat] not the only one. Other Japanese commanders also feel that they can break through the American line, fill American line and wrap this campaign up quicker if they do a tried andrue method of attack which they've done previous and not the least of which is just a couple weeks ago is which is amphibious assaults hooks behind the yame line and that's what happened here >> and they they you know the love to do this they have done this all down the the west coast of Malaya as Well, and so yeah, even as early as January 14th, um General Hama is telling General Nauki Kimura uh that he wants, you know, he wants this thing to to get wrapped up.
And there's a a remembrance here by uh Major Shoji Ot of uh 16th Division was present during a meeting when Hama says that he expressed his earnest desire to General Kimora to break the stalemate on the west coast and instructed him to attack the enemy from land and also carry out a landing operation on the enemy's rear in order to ensure rapid success. So, this is like a week before um the the combat that's happening here on the roadblock. And I I should just state too that anybody who really wants a long hefty read on this particular campaign, I would recommend John Wittman's uh Batan, Our Last Ditch. It is extremely detailed. He was a former uh army infantry officer himself and it's uh I drew on it very heavily for my book. So anyway, that that amphibious hook is not going to happen immediately.
So just envision that we're in combat on the West Coast starting on about January 18th. Really kind of serious combat takes off on the 19th. This roadblock gets dropped, you know, 20th or thereabouts. So the the the elements on the the west coast here are not going to end up withdrawing until the 25th. But before that ends up happening on the night of the 22nd 23rd, uh the Japanese pull together some troops to do this amphibious hook. And they're going to be using that reserve battalion, the second battalion of the 20th infantry regiment. It's about 900 guys. and they are going to load them up uh onto amphibious craft and then move them down the west coast.
>> They're going to try and put them Well, they're not going to try. They're going to put them ashore on at three different locations.
>> Um if you look at a map, they're like these little fingers of land sticking out >> from the coast and they're called the points or this plan. We'll get into the names of the actual points, but anyway, point being, no pun intended. Uh, their goal, >> you did that, didn't you? [laughter] >> It did because it was just it was too it was just a big grapefruit right there in front.
>> There it is. Yeah. Right.
>> So, anyway, the point is is that they're trying to get back behind the lines and and basically wreak havoc in this campaign. So, it's uh it it becomes a relatively clear that the Philame Americans are going to have an issue with these lines behind their lines because landings behind their lines, I'm sorry, because of the fact that, and keep this in mind, and this is important, is that the main fill American infantry units, the guys that are doing have done the lion share of the fighting ain't there.
>> They're up at the front. And and and by the front, I'm talking, you know, several miles away. So the people that are available for any kind of response for the most part at least initially are not infantry. They're airmen. They're sailors. There's a few Marines and the Marines No.
>> Yep.
>> Surprise. When the Marines get in there, they just, you know, kick ass. But but there's sailors, there's airmen, there's Philippine constabularary.
>> Constabularary, I was going to say. And it's just >> these are not the guys that you want to try and repulse a Japanese landing as we're going to see, >> right?
>> Yeah. And again, and we should pop the map back up here. Uh too, you can kind of see in the southern part of the island, there's a there basically three core areas for the Americans. You've got one core over on the west part, two core on the east part, but then in the rear there's this this service command area which is headquartered down at the town of Maravellis. And so the Americans have at least considered the notion that the Japanese may try exactly this sort of thing. And therefore there are little detachments that are kind of sprinkled along um you know the the the coastline here to just kind of keep a watch on any beaches that they can uh that might be good targets for a landing. And uh but then the question is going to be can we bring up reinforcements on a timely basis and and use them. That's going to be the issue.
>> Right. The guy that's in charge of all this operation that will be is a gentleman named General McBride. He's the guy that's got all these units under his purview. And and I put as I put in the notes, I said most of the units he had at his disposal at best knew how to go boom with a rifle. At worst, they had zero training for infantry fighting at all.
>> The airmen in particular had been given rudimentary training in the two weeks they'd been on the peninsula. and the sailors that were there have been given even less. The naval battalion that that you spoke of a minute ago uh consisted of aviation ground crews left behind when patrol wing 10 flew south >> as well as sailors from the USS Cannabis men from the naval base at Maravellis and from as we said the 40 to you know 50 60 marines of an artillery unit. Of the of that group only the gynees had any real knowledge of infantry weapons or tactics because as we all know >> every marine is a rifleman. Yeah, >> weaponry was also a problem though. We talked about ammunition. We got ammo at the wazoo, but the guns with which to kill these people, the by and large the the the ones that are actually worth a damn are with the frontline infantry.
And back here >> there's significantly less frontline weaponry. Uh that you know there's aircraft machine guns that are ripped out of wrecked plane.
>> Yeah, I was intrigued by that that Yeah, they're >> all the planes are trash by this point.
Um, there is a little airfield down in this neck of the woods I seem to recall as well. I don't have it marked on my map, but yeah, we got nothing flying at this point and you know, obviously nothing worth a damn.
>> Um, so yeah, there's there are numerous junked planes on that on that runway, but hey, the machine guns are still good. So, we've got some of that sort of thing. We've got some Lewis guns, uh, handful of 1919s and 1917s, and even smaller handful of bars. So, not much in the way of automatic weaponry and uh pretty light infantry kind of formations. So, >> on on January 22nd, uh Colonel Celich uh he's still trying to he's trying to gain more people to repulse any sort of landing that comes ashore. Um the Japanese begin to come ashore at this time and >> 23rd is when they >> 23rd, I'm sorry, 23rd. My bad. I'm sorry about the wrong note or wrong date on the note. Um, but the the the defecation hits the ventilation pretty damn fast because the troops that are there to respond to this, as we said, are few and far between. They're not very good. It's the 20th and 21st Pursuit Squadron, as well as the third battalion of the Philippine Constabularary Regiment that are going to be on hand to answer the call in the first area of landing, which is at a place that I'm not even going to try >> and pronounce. Long sk Yeah. And Desiree, I know, is hovering out there, you know, waiting to correct our pronunciation. And I I wait >> I'm fine with that >> for her tender administrations. Yes.
Exactly. So, the game plan had been for the Japanese that they wanted to put this entire battalion about 900 guys on one place, one point. But that is not what ends up happening on the night of the 23rd. So they they load them out of the landing craft. They come to down here and you can see from the you know from the the map that um they're loaded up in Morang. This is going to be about a 25 to 30 mile ride in those landing craft. It's pitch dark and they end up and they got Okay, so it's pitch dark.
They got crappy maps. Um, the coastline of course is completely blacked out. So, how do you recognize one point of land from another point of land? That's pretty tough. But the real kicker is that there's an American PT boat that gets into the action and is very pesky.
Um, sinks one of the landing craft, I believe, and succeeds in dispersing the others so that they basically are now broken up. And the end result is that two different Japanese forces get deposited in two different places on the night of 23 January.
>> And they're first sighted at this long >> long.
>> There you go.
>> I'll just take that over. Longos gawian.
You just point at me. They're deposited at and just make the L. Longos.
>> There you go.
>> There you go.
>> All right. Right. It's this place is about 3,000 yd west of Maravellis Harbor, which is where what few supplies are left are stationed as well as the backwater troops. So, this is a problem.
>> And it it's not until 0840 do we realize that the Japanese are even there because they're cited and they're reported. But I have to say with all, you know, you got to give props where props are due. Commander Francis Bridget, who is obviously a sailor. Um he's commanding the naval battalion in the region. Immediately dispatches troops to intercept these very Japanese.
It's marines and sailors soon to be joined by the pursuit squadron men.
These are fighter pilots and and ground crew from the 71st. I mean from from the pursuit squadron as well as some men from the 71st division. And they get there PDQ. They get there pretty fast.
But as we know things start to you know kind of go south after the initial contact. When the initial contact is made the sailors and the marines and the pursuit squadron actually do put a hurt on the Japanese but then the Japanese start to dig in and >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> I mean what we want to do from our standpoint is just keep them hemmed up into this little peninsula that they have landed on. you know, we do not want the Japanese to begin maneuvering in the interior and disappear into the brush and then show up unannounced at, you know, one of our hospitals or something like that. So, um, the problem is that there's sort of a a little mini mountain at the at the top of this headland and, uh, when we get there, we find that the Japanese are already in possession of this little peak called Mount Pukat. And uh so yeah uh but we managed to attack them and um managed to actually drive them off of those slopes and mop up uh some of their machine gun nests along those same slopes. Uh the third pursuit squadron to the north suffered a few casualties the first day uh and ran into a Japanese patrol. But that means that when the sun rises on uh the morning of 24 January, uh unfortunately we had given up those positions, we thought the Japanese were gone. Huh. And the Japanese have now reoccupied them as is their want.
>> Indeed. And now that they're And now that they're in there, it's going to be harder than hell to try and get them back out of there. So, as these Japanese are landing at these points and and and there's two more points, but you know, as we said just a few minutes ago, some of our initial counterattacks, if you will, do meet with some success.
However, >> as I said earlier, the troops that are performing these actions, God bless them for their bravery, but they are not >> infantry. They're not. And and there is a massive difference there. And not only do we know that as historians, so did the Japanese.
>> Yeah.
>> And and the quotes, there's a quote in here, which, you know, I I I find to be humorous, but but if you want to rip it, go ahead.
>> Yeah. So, we capture a number of Japanese diaries after this particular action. And of course, the the writers of these diaries did not survive. But um one soldier recorded, one Japanese soldier recorded that that they had observed uh among the Americans what he termed a new type of suicide squad dressed in brightly colored uniforms.
Whenever these apparitions reached an open space, he wrote, they would attempt to draw Japanese fire by sitting down, talking loudly, and lighting cigarettes.
The brightly colored part of this is because these units didn't have proper jungle uniforms and they had been instructed to dye their uniforms green.
But in many cases the dye that they ended up using in some cases I think they soaked them in gasoline um to bleach them out. And so some of them ended up looking almost a bright yellow. So they were not this was not good camouflage at all. But yeah, these these troops were just just greener than grass and they've got crummy uniforms and nothing practically in the way of small arms. And so yeah, they didn't know what they're doing. And to the Japanese who are sitting in their, you know, dugouts or their caves or whatever, they're like, why are these guys, you know, sitting down 100 yards in front of us and and having a so having a smoke? It's crazy.
>> Poorly poorly poorly trained alien troops for the action. So they wound up doing they wound up pushing the Japanese despite their ill training to la point.
But once they get there, once the Japanese get there, as we said just, you know, a while back, the Japanese hunker down. And these guys, God bless them, >> ain't going to dig the Japanese out of this point.
>> Yeah.
>> They need to bring in heavy weapons to finish the job. But even then, it takes a while for them to get these Japanese out of here. I mean, this is not anything that's just one and done. It's It's a series.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Although, um it does it does bring us to uh some of the weapons that they ended up using in that. I don't know that we want to spoil that. Uh [laughter] >> we we will get to that. We'll get to that.
>> We'll get to that. Anyway, okay. Pray pray continue. Pray continue.
>> So, at Quinowan, the Japanese land at a place called Queenan. Uh there's 600 or so Japanese from the second battalion 20th that land here. This is the other main landing and this one is significantly further north along the coast at yeah queen of point and so they they deposit the other two/3 of this force about 600 guys there. Um the problem there for us is that this point is reasonably close to the main road.
And as a result, um you know, if they can do the same thing that they've been doing further north and actually deposit some sort of a a roadblock on that road, that could be very very bad news. And so we want them out of there.
Fortunately, we've got at least some elements from the 34th Pursuit Squadron.
Some of our uh long-suffering uh ground support men are there with some 50 caliber machine guns, but unfortunately for us, they fail to open fire.
>> Yeah, they didn't fail to operate, they just failed to pull the triggers on the weapons. Um, Philippine Constabularary forces are then sent to engage, but by the time these guys reach the area, the Japanese had already dug in and it's trying to get fleas off of a dog. It ain't going to happen. When the, as I put in the notes, the policeman, because that's essentially what they are. They attack, they run into fierce Japanese opposition and are halted about 600 yardds from the tip of the peninsula. um the Americans and by Americans I mean American in you know pursuit or sailors or whatever try to flank the Japanese that is unsuccessful um and it's just it's going to be >> pretty tough to flank somebody on a tiny little peninsula like this >> yeah the the Americans by the end of the day reached the conclusion they were facing a reinforced battalion of about 700 Japanese so they're not terribly far off the mark >> and uh Colonel Celich who is in charge of this particular group. He realizes that the airmen and the sailors and the police officers ain't going to get it done. And he requests tanks, artillery, and more infantry, quote, preferably Americans or scouts >> because he needs real trigger pullers to get in there and get this done. Um, up on high on Corodor, Dick Sutherland is seeing all this go. That's Max chief of staff. He's seeing all this go down.
He's seeing all the, you know, comms back and forth and he assumes that Celich does not have control of the situation. And I kind of feel bad for Celich in that he's forced to fight with I wouldn't even call them second rate troops. These are like third rate troops. And I think the dude's doing the best he can with what he's got.
>> But it doesn't matter to Dick Sutherland. Nothing matters to Dick Sutherland except results. and and he immediately >> well and and I can sort of understand Southerntherland and Mac's position on this in that balance of combat on the front lines is also hanging in the balance and you know we're we're facing a situation where if the Japanese can replicate a couple of more of these uh roadblocks much further south in our rear area that could disrupt all of our logistics north to all of I core which means that they might not be able to withdraw just to the rear battle attle position. The battle might be over at at this point. So yeah, the there's just there's a lot of combat happening simultaneously on this peninsula. Things are going badly for two core as well.
And so yeah, we we need these these rear areas to be mopped up for sure.
To that end, Celich is relieved of his command right then and there by Sutherland. And Sutherland appoints former colonel, now Brigadier General Clinton Pierce. If that name's familiar, he was the former commander of the 26th Cav when all this started.
>> Uh Pierce gets into the situation. He learns of the poor results that have, you know, been achieved thus far and immediately realizes like, I got to have infantry.
>> Yeah.
>> The these sailors and airmen, bless their hearts, ain't getting it done. I got to have real honest to god infantry.
He requests and receives two battalions of scouts from the 57th Infantry that are sent to his area and they then begin to clear these pockets.
>> Yes, absolutely.
>> So, uh the first pocket uh on well and we shouldn't call them the pocket pockets because there's an actual later battle pockets. This is technically speaking this is the battle of the points but the first the first point at longest gawwayan um is going to be undertaken uh by these these infantry but the other thing that we're going to introduce into this is battery giri uh based on corodor so uh the beautiful part of the the southernmost Japanese incursion is that it is within artillery range of some of these enormous 12-in mortars that we have on Corodor. And >> these are big girls, too.
>> These are [laughter] big honkers. Yes.
So, Battery Giri is under the command of a guy named uh Captain Ben King of the 59th Coastal Artillery. Uh they have 12 of these 8inch mortars. Uh and the >> eight of the 12 that >> excuse me, eight of the 12inch mortars derp. and they have uh 670lb uh high explosive projectiles that can barely reach out to this point. And I actually did measure this uh on Google Earth just to make sure that we were that we were correct. So um this particular shoot is about a range of 14,000 yards, which is per near the very tail end of the range of these mortars.
But it does mean that we can bring this particular point uh into range and we let go with basically everything we've got.
>> Everything we've got for and and this is not the only time this occurs, but this is one of the heaviest bombardments.
Green Book stated that by the time all this is over, they fire upwards of 5,000 rounds.
[laughter] >> What are you going to save it for? Why save it? Let it go. Upwards of 5,000 rounds of these behemoths are launched from these things.
>> The Japanese quote that I pulled from the Green Books, I think, is well, this quote from the Green Books, and there's Japanese quote, too, uh, is is pretty good. And it says, quote, "This bombardment, the first hostile heavy caliber American coast artillery fire since the Civil War >> made a strong impression on the Japanese." One of them, the Japanese, later declared, quote, "We were terrified. We could not see where the big shells or bombs were coming from.
They seemed to be falling from the sky.
And they were >> because they were extremely high trajectory weapons. Yeah.
>> Before I was wounded, my head was going round and round and I did not know what to do. Some of my companions jumped off the cliff to escape the terrible fire," unquote.
>> Knock knock. Yeah.
>> Yeah. It's bad stuff. So once we get battery giri into operation uh and that's not the only artillery that we're using. We're also using uh some of the or uh organic artillery uh that comes along with the 57th uh regiment as well.
So those guys now begin uh piling into those lines. Despite the barrage, however, the Japanese uh are doing what the Japanese always do, which is that they just will not give an incant ground unless you actually can kill them. Um, so we bring up 500 scouts, relieve the naval battalion, uh, and launch an attack. By nightfall, twothirds of the point had been retaken. Following morning with the help of a mind sweeper the USS Quail uh which was firing offshore the scouts moved in and eliminated the remaining Japanese. The Phil American forces suffered a grand total of 22 KIA 66 wounded in action and killed every one of the 300 Japanese who were on that peninsula.
>> That's not insignificant. I mean no 22 dead and 66 wounded is not an insignificant number, you know, in any way, shape, or form.
>> Yeah. And most of the um casualties are suffered by the scouts actually because >> which are irreplaceable obviously.
>> Well, and they're the ones getting in there digging these people out. So it makes sense that they suffer the highest casualties.
>> So when the Japanese are pushed off of these two points, pushed off of this point, the battle for Quinan point 7 miles to the north continues. It continues to go on. By the 27th of January, the Japanese that had landed there had been contained. But much like it had been before, the fight had reached basically a stalemate. It was it was just locked. And um 600 Japanese of Colonel Sunna's second battalion 20th Infantry um had been attacked by by Brigadier General Pierce's men now. Um and even though Pierce had the infantry to send against the 300 Japanese, he doesn't have the infantry to send against these people right here yet.
Yeah, similar results that had happened before. When he doesn't have real infantry, the results just aren't what you want.
>> Yeah. I mean, the bottom line is that he he can only handle one of these points at a time. And it makes sense that we would eliminate the we'd be focusing on the southernmost of these points because it is the closest one to our absolutely crucial rear base at Maravellis. And we also benefit from Battery Giri doing fire support for us. So, of course, we're going to go after it first. But yeah, that means that the the northernmost point is taking a while to grind out >> by the 29th. Uh even though they have these and and just to give a brief overlook, um the troops that are attacking at Queen Point are men from the fifth interceptor command, two 21st and 34th pursuit squadrons, HQ of the 71st division, third battalion, one uh Philippine Constabularary, and Company A3rd US Engineers. And that's it. Um, two platoons from the 57th Infantry.
These are actually infantry. These are scouts. Um, they get in there on the 29th, launch an attack, and it goes absolutely nowhere.
>> For two more days, >> the Japanese are basically just tied in tighter than a tick. And it just it it just >> like banging your head against a concrete wall over and over and over again. By the beginning of February, however, the situation was much the same, but the Filipinos had started to take some significant casualties.
>> Right. And I was just going to say again for context, what has happened in the interim between the landing of these troops on the 23rd and you know, now fast forward to the 29th, we're still fighting down here at on these points. Both one and two core have by now withdrawn to the rear battle position. And we'll talk about that in another episode. But it's hard to keep all these things, you know, in mind as to, you know, what's happening sequentially. The bottom line is that the the forward combat forces are now uh secure on the rear battle position, but are now going to be facing up to a second wave of attacks against them.
We'll talk about that. And meanwhile, all of this fighting is still happening.
um behind the lines at yeah on the on the points >> by the 4th of February finally um using a tank attack combined tank and infantry attack along with artillery support the the Japanese holding up had been reduced to about 100 by 50 yard >> pocket >> pocket pocket >> pocket on the point people >> um and this is you know kind of a harbinger of things to come knowing that the Japanese the Japanese know that we ain't getting out of here.
>> Yeah.
>> And I'll be damned if I surrender. They start jumping off the freaking cliffs, >> right?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Exactly. And this is the, you know, this is the first time that we've witnessed this kind of behavior, too, that here we have this absolutely doomed enclave of troops and they just will not give up and yeah, would prefer to drown themselves rather than than be taken alive. Um, there were still some hiding in caves by the end of that action. um and it would take a while to dig the remainder of them out. Wayight notes uh that the old rules of war began to undergo a swift change in me. What had at first seemed a barbarous thought in the back of my mind now became less unsavory. I thought of General US Grant's landmine at Petersburg and made up my mind.
So, no longer really interested in taking these cats prisoners. We're just interested in killing them as rapidly as possible. And if we can do that um using combat engineers and explosives, that's what we're going to do.
>> And that is precisely what they do. They start lowering shades of of tulagi here.
Actually, they start lowering 50 lb boxes of dynamite >> into into these.
>> Yeah. Near the the entrances to these caves. And kaboom, they start blowing these suckers up. And um or they send the the the boxes of dynamite in there and then chuck hand grenades in there to ignite the dynamite. And it's basically all along these cliff lines where these guys are just get sealed up in these caves, which as we know is what's going to happen time and again.
>> Time and again.
>> Yeah. From 44 on to the end of the damn war.
>> Yep. Exactly.
>> Okay. In in the meantime, um, while all of this is going on, from the Japanese perspective, this battalion, the the second battalion of the 20th uh, infantry has just disappeared and they they have been getting some communications back. I don't know how. Um, my sense is that there was, you know, some nighttime infiltration along the coast and that kind of thing, but they make the decision that they want to basically try to double down here and relieve uh the the the 220th. And so what they're going to end up doing is uh bringing in uh the regiment's first battalion, which is, you know, Johnny come lately to this particular fight. And so at midnight on the the 26th, they end up loading the first battalion on landing craft and uh set out to try to reinforce this other battalion.
They do not do well. Once again, uh the poor seammanship, bad navigational charts, uh lead the Japanese astray. And so they end up landing about 2,000 yards short of their final objective and deposit uh another we're we're in disagreement on that as to how many come. It's between two and 600. And I'm not I'm not sure what the actual number is.
>> Yeah, that's a that's a fair discrepancy. I mean, that's a that's a big difference. It's probably somewhere in the middle north of closer to where your numbers are because if you got 1500 kia >> Yeah.
>> It's got 200, >> right? Yeah. So, the total body count between these two battalions is eventually going to be around 1,500. And seeing as how we landed around 900 in the initial attack, I'm saying it's about 600 that come ashore in this final uh effort here on the night of 27 January. And you can see that on the map as well that they land a little bit north um at an uh on Yasan and Selium points.
>> Yeah. and and and the results after these people land is that Brigadier General Pierce again much like he did at Quean initially he sends what troops he has at his hands which are second verse same the first it's it's the same as the first it's 17 pursuit pursuit squadron in the Philippine constabularary and they go in and they do make their attacks but they get they achieve absolutely nothing >> scouts from the 45th infantry arrive the next day joined by elements of the 57th by the end of that month.
>> Yep.
>> And they wind up reducing the Japanese pocket to a small group of people. Um, and they make the Japanese before this is over, the Japanese make yet another landing.
>> Yeah.
>> And and there was some serious some questions here. You know, I put in the notes this time with Hama's blessing because you had said that that that Homa had made um a remark earlier before any of this occurs that he wanted to do an end round, if you will.
>> Yeah. Yet some of the Japanese officers who launched these attacks launched them theoretically without hom that's that's an interesting point and here's you know yet another uh occasion when I wish that that the Philippine uh volume of CIO had been translated so we had a better better sense of that. So yeah I I don't have an answer for the Bura on that one. All I know is that bottom line is we now have the better part of two battalions here ashore.
Yeah. And when they get ashore, you know, we do kill some of these people obviously and we retrieve some intelligence documents. Um, which I mean, I'm assuming this had to have been on a on a, you know, headquarters man or something. I I don't I don't know.
>> But regardless of what it is, it gives the Americans the Phil well the Americans an idea as to what the hell is going to occur here. And there are exactly four viable P40s >> left to take to the air. Um, they do that. They get up in the air. They know that the Japanese are coming. They got a good idea of where they're coming from.
The P40s get in the air, find the Japanese landing barges, and shoot the ever loving be Jesus out of these things. Um, there only a handful of barges actually remain afloat, and they make their way to the shore. And as soon as they come to the shore, they come under fire yet again from what remains of the 26 calav and battery D of the 88th Field Artillery and battery E of the 301st. And these are 75s and 155s.
>> Yeah, they do have 155s, older ones.
Yeah.
>> Yeah. These guys fire, these two batteries fire a total of a thousand rounds that night. Um machine gun fire and then small arms starts to root the Japanese out of their boats as they're coming ashore. and when they do get a short, we start taking them out. Um, >> so that may actually be the reason for the discrepancy. Um, you know, who how many of these guys ended up drowning or being killed before they even get ashore. I don't know. Um, >> I mean, there there is no number I nobody states how many numbers of barges were shot up by the P40s.
>> Yeah.
>> They just say that they shot up barges from, you know, and and they destroyed them. So, was it two >> or was it 12? You know, I who knows, God knows.
>> I have no idea.
>> So, >> yeah, I was just going to say great quote from the Green Books uh on this.
This is all taking pl place at night, but um it's taking place during a full moon. So quote, "For the Americans and Filipinos who witnessed the battle in the clear light of the full moon, it was a beautiful and heartening sight to see the remnants of the enemy flatillaa, crippled and badly beaten, turn away and sail north shortly after midnight.
Hama's plan to reinforce his troops on Quanon Point had failed and in the first flush of victory, the Americans believed the surviving Japanese had returned to Morang.
However, there were in fact several hundred now ashore at this third point.
>> Yep. And and this again third verse same as the first two and that these Japanese are going to hold in tight and we're going to have to dig them out. Uh their commanding officer uh Major Kamura Kimura, commander of the troops at Silain Point, writes to General Moroka uh that a bitter battle was in progress and it was for them. There's no question. and that the enemy is attacking was attacking with tanks and artillery. The battalion Roamura is about to die gloriously. Quote, and essentially they do.
>> Yeah.
>> The Japanese try and pull these guys out.
>> They try they try and pull them out and it just it just doesn't it doesn't happen because there's PT boats roaming shore like freaking sharks.
>> Yeah. Exactly. And so uh they are then given orders uh to swim out or to use rafts to withdraw to sea and then head north towards Morang um any way they could. Unfortunately uh for them uh copies of these orders as well seem to have fallen into American hands. I do not know how. Um, but that resulted in the fact that the troops in this area were alerted to the fact that the Japanese might be trying to break out.
And so the riflemen along the shore then got valuable target practice uh firing at these Japanese swimmers and machine gunners uh were also on the watch for rafts and floats. And as you can imagine, the efforts to get out there were unavailing.
And this this doesn't surprise me at all because the Filipinos now and these are scouts and these are constabularary and whomever. They're going in there and they're cleaning out what's left of these Japanese. And you know, we'd said this multiple times and it bears repeating that the JA was not a friendly army.
>> No.
>> And even though they were there to liberate the Filipino fellow Asians from the yoke of the white Americans, they showed them no mercy at all. and you know, horrible, horrible, horrible uh atrocities and war crimes against the Filipinos. And this war gets down pretty damn quick to the Filipinos. And when it does, any Japanese that has to, you know, falls in the hands of the Filipinos meets a very, very, very, very, very gruesome end. Yeah. Yeah.
It's it's >> Yeah. The scouts were definitely not having it at this point.
And part of that is is driven by the fact as as you note here that the the scouts in some cases had found the bodies of their own men uh you know behind Japanese lines so mutilated as to discourage any generous impulse towards those Japanese unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. Uh the Filipinos had had found that the bodies of some of these soldiers had been bayonetted in the back while the men had had their arms wired behind them. One rotting body had been found strung up by the thumbs with the toes just touching the ground.
Mute evidence of a slow and tortured end. The Japanese army was horrible. And so, uh, yeah, the Filipinos weren't not were not terribly inclined to take PS if they could get them either.
>> No. And I mean, and and you'll see that going into the Filipino resistance movement after all this goes down, you know? I mean there there >> no quarter on either side really.
>> Yeah.
>> So the 3-week battle for the points uh cost the Phil Americans 70 killed in action and a further 100 wounded in action. Um one unit second battalion 45th infantry suffered. 68 of the 70 killed.
>> Nearly all of the as you put it500 Japanese, 900 in the original and several hundred more uh who landed were killed. an estimated 34 survived and they did take prisoners. There's pictures of these. Well, whether they're from the points or not, I don't know, >> but there's pictures of Japanese prisoners on the Batan Peninsula, you know, under >> and I've always wondered what happened to those prisoners once the peninsula fell. I mean, did they live that long uh for the to be re-recaptured by their own army? I do not know. I've always kind of wondered that. I I would think that by the time all this all that goes down, you know, April 40, April, almost April 45, April 42, I think any inclination to keep enemy prisoners alive in any way, shape, or form when you're starving had long since gone out the window.
>> Yeah, >> I would be willing to bet that once those pictures, and I'll show them here, >> uh, of those guys was taken, it they probably didn't have much longer for this world if I was to guess, but I don't.
>> Interesting. For sure. That's just my opinion.
>> All right. So February 1st, 42, the Japanese have yet to meet their objective of crushing MacArthur's forces on the Baton Peninsula. And >> yeah, >> for the Japanese, this was an absolute astonishing fact.
>> It's a real it's a real shocker for them. Uh this is bad news for General Hama. He's being embarrassed here. As we'll talk about um later on, his his first attempts to sort of bumrush the the rear battle position, spoiler alert, are not going to go well. And the part of the reason they don't go well is because of this amphibious uh operation that they pulled off. I mean, they've ended up squandering two full battalions of infantry in these operations.
And as we'll talk about next time, things are really on a knife edge on the rear battle position. And this is a point that Wilmont makes as well that if the Japanese had had, you know, so much as an extra regiment of reserves, they probably would have caved in uh the Phil American lines there, but because they've, you know, thrown away these two battalions, uh they do not have those reserves available to them. So yeah, on on the other hand, um, for the Phil American forces, they were, you know, uh, perhaps not surprised by their success, but they were certainly becoming increasingly dismayed by what they view as a lack of support from the US. And this goes all the way to the top. And you know the Douglas MacArthur um who the troops by now are beginning to call dugout Doug uh because he's over on Corodor. He he he has only been over to Batan one time during this entire fight and I would suggest that uh he's suffering from depression at this point in time and is having a real difficult time sort of grappling with what his legacy is looking like in this particular campaign. He's also trying to lobby General Marshall and also Secretary of War Stimson uh to do everything they can to break the Japanese blockade. Uh in in MacArthur's words, he was professionally certain that this blockade could quote easily be pierced. Uh but again, as we've discussed in in previous episodes, when Marshall, you know, is dangling bags of cash in front of the eyes of Australian [ __ ] freighter captains, all of those dudes are like, "Thanks, no."
You know, [laughter] >> um not really interested in in trying to run that gauntlet because by this time, the Japanese campaign is far south of the Philippines itself. I mean, they're sort of in the middle range, you know, working in Borneo and and uh Celabes and those some of those islands. So, it's it is a long way from Australia up to Batan. And a lot of these freighter captains have no interest in doing that.
And the few that do attempt it uh end up having rather short uh glorious careers, let's just say. So anyway, um this kind of leads to the I I would say this is kind of the breaking point between MacArthur and the Navy. You know, MacArthur feels abandoned, but he just does not understand kind of what's going on in terms of, you know, the strategic situation of the islands at this point.
We just don't have any ability to get in here. The Japanese have total air and sea superiority.
his complete lack of understanding that, you know, again, he he had to have known by now the the results of Pearl Harbor. Even if he doesn't know, >> yeah, >> exactly which ship was sunk or whatever, >> by now, February 1st, 42, the man absolutely has to know that the US Navy ain't coming.
>> Yeah.
>> Because there's nothing with which to come. You know, we can't send anything out there. Yeah.
>> And and this goes back to a point we'd made a couple weeks ago, I think, in that, you know, Mack is never wrong. And anything that happens >> on the negative side of this campaign, which there's quite a bit, none of Exactly. None of it is ever MacArthur's fault. And the fact that he's not getting any supplies from the United States, even though admittedly George Marshall said, "We're going to send you, you know, this and that and the other stuff."
>> Yeah.
>> He bl he's got to blame somebody. and and he's looking at at at the guys in the blue jackets. He's looking at the US Navy at that point. He's got to blame somebody. But it goes back to my original point is that he had to have known what had befallen the US Navy at Pearl Harbor. And also, by the way, we're also fighting a war.
>> Yeah.
>> In the Atlantic as well. So, I mean, the Navy can only do so much with what it has, what what little it has at this point.
>> Yeah.
>> So, straws. He's grasping straws.
>> Yeah. He really is. And he's making all these sort of wild prognostications, too. He says that um that the Japanese at this point, you know, their supply lines are badly overextended, that they're ripe for a devastating counterattack. Um waiting to build up strength before attacking the Japanese.
And MacArthur's words would be quote a fatal mistake on the part of the Democratic allies. Uh but for the more you know coolheaded observers that are sitting back in DC, one of whom is Dwight Eisenhower who used to be MacArthur's, you know, one of his senior staff members. Dwight Eisenhower says that MacArthur's strategic visions were suited more to quote plebs at West Point than for real war. So yeah, MacArthur is is delusional at this point is kind of what it comes down to. uh sitting in a cave in Corugador and really is kind of suffering from tunnel vision uh in the literal sense and just yeah he's he's a mess at this point. He's he's a depressive mess and is you know hemmed up in this cave and yeah can't figure out how to get out of it. And the reality is that by this point his entire command is doomed. Um there's just there every every man jack of this filame force on both Pat Batan and Corgodor is going to be killed or captured and there is not a blessed thing that anybody in Washington can do about it. Nope. Nope.
And I mean I you know I think again I think we've said this in a previous episode is that he probably knew that but he just never wanted to accept that fact.
>> He can't admit it to himself. Yeah.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, if if you look at the numbers, you can I can kind of understand we've talked about, you know, we had significant manpower advantage over the Japanese >> and long term.
>> Huh.
>> Long term, >> right? And but if you if you look at Oh, sorry. Sorry. Sorry.
>> In the Phil in the Philippines. Yeah.
>> Yeah. On the 10. No, you're right.
You're >> right. It was like what was like 3 to one or three three and a half to one. It was significant. It was significant.
Sorry, I misunderstood what you were talking about in terms of >> and and and he's sitting there looking at that going, "Jesus, we got three times the amount of men." Even though in his mind he's saying he's being attacked by 100,000 Japanese troops >> not to be true.
>> And I would say at this point he probably also believed that not to be true, but that's what he's saying to, you know, to hold up that face. But >> yeah, >> you can understand how he's a depressed and b at the same time he's delusional.
I think I'm not making I'm not taking up for the man. I'm just saying I can kind of get it. I kind of get where he's coming from here. So, >> yeah, I mean, Eisenhower at this point has already made a briefing to Marshall.
It was very cold coldblooded, if you will, but he he just, you know, cuts right through to the nub of the matter and says, "Okay, in the Pacific, we absolutely have to hold um three places.
We have to hold on to Hawaii. That's our main forward operating base. We have to have the Panama Canal in order to be able to move reinforcements into the Pacific from the East Coast. that's non-negotiable. And the other place that we're going to need to hold on to to act as a springboard for an eventual counter offensive is Australia. And so we are at this point in the war busily sprinkling, you know, marine defense battalions and regimental combat groups all along that line of islands running from the from Hawaii down south to Australia. That's where we're putting the majority of our beef at this point. There's nothing left for for the Philippines at this point.
And MacArthur, excuse me, Eisenhower tells Marshall directly that the Philippines just has to be written off.
>> Yeah.
>> There we are.
>> Cold blooded as we say, but it there's nothing you can't supply people if you got nowhere to get it to them.
>> Yep.
>> So, >> that is even if you have the supplies to send, you got to get them out there.
>> Yeah. Of course, nobody's let the the troops on Batan know that. There's not going to be any sort of an explicit mention of that. Um although when FDR does one of his fireside chats here in just a little bit, a lot of the men on Batan are going to read between the lines.
>> Yep.
>> So, we'll get to the >> the battling bastards of the battling.
No papa. No. Uncle Sam.
>> Uncle Sam.
>> Yep.
>> All right. You good?
>> Cool. I'm good.
>> Good.
>> You've been better. [laughter] >> I have been better. I got to tell you. I mean, aside from the obvious physical pain, >> just holding this stupid thing up like this, it looks like I have a consistent question like, "Oh, hey, let me ask, you know, >> it's really annoying."
>> Really annoying. So, I wasn't trying to be a scene stealer, but it's, you know, whatever.
>> It is what it is, man.
>> It [laughter] is what it is. Exactly.
>> Yeah.
>> Anyway. All right.
>> We're good. I'm good. If you're good, >> I'm good, man. Get out of here.
>> Well, let's let's wrap it. All right.
So, with that, we want to thank you very much for listening and or watching this episode of the Unauthorized History of Pacific War. Give us a rating review. We do appreciate it. If you got a comment, send it to unauthorized [email protected].
Once again, my name is Sed Peran and I want to thank you very much for sitting with us and listening to this conversation. Hopefully, you know, as we've said, not to get off on a tangent, but hopefully we've enlightened a lot of people about what the Philippine campaign actually was.
>> Yeah. And there's there's a lot more to it and we're not done by any mean but by any means but there was a lot more to it than just they landed we surrendered batan death march. So hopefully we're enlightening you to that fact. So anyway >> all right John >> and I'm John partial thank you to our longsuffering audience for hanging out with us yet again and we will see you all next week.
Heat. Heat.
[music] [music]
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