Battle of Manila | 1945 | Liberation of the Philippines by the US Army | Documentary

my wife and I often talk about those days we never did get much of a chance to thank you and your outfit for liberating us I'll never forget the first day you arrived at Santo Tomas how'd your outfit get there so soon well it was all part of the stepped-up liberation of the Philippines as I recall you really want to hear about it yeah I sure would well as I recall the GIS had taken lady and landed on Mindoro the island directly south of Luzon so my outfit and a lot of others were ready for the main event we hit the beach at Lingayen Gulf with about a hundred miles north of Manila we thought we'd be moving right into the teeth of [ __ ] resistance and we were wrong that was to come later we pushed on down the valley toward Manila cleaning out little pockets of resistance where we found them out ahead of us Air Force and Navy planes were softening up the way we moved cautiously forward wondering what had happened to the enemy and for a while there looked like we were tourists having ourselves a real ball along the way one of the GIS picked up an innocent-looking piece of paper which turned out to be a Japanese field order it stated all Filipinos found on the field of battle were subject to immediate execution this applied to all Filipinos in Manila Filipino guerrillas brought in reports that American and allied prisoners were starving and being mistreated in the city so we stepped up the pace in the outskirts of Manila and finally established contact with the enemy but we soon lost it and we realized that the Japs were withdrawing to the heart of the city at Grace Park where the monument stands snipers took potshots at us and slowed down our advance somewhat and the only satisfaction I recall here was that my outfit was the first to enter Manila proper [Music] a fierce battle suddenly developed in of all places Rizal Stadium Manila's baseball park the enemy had done himself in under the stands and we slugged it out with him with no cover [Music] [Music] resolve stadium a baseball park no game today [Music] then we raced into the University of Santo Tomas and liberated along with you hundreds of American and allied internees it had been three years since this pathetic group of prisoners had seen a free American or a square meal everyone in Santo Tomas was fortunate that there had been US Army and Navy nurses who'd been captured on Corregidor to care for you during those dark years after we arrived wires were sent home by the internees and many replies came back in a few hours affecting some noticeably but for everyone the liberation was a big celebration party kids who had no toys for three years now had giant sized ones and all of us were discussing how wonderful it was that the nightmare was over at last [Music] but the nightmare wasn't all over the enemy started shelling us at Santo Tomas we saw internees who'd survived the three years as prisoners killed by the incoming fire I'll never forget how the shelling of this non military target continued for several days while we evacuated the seriously ill and injured [Music] finally the shelling of Santo Tomas led up the Japs needed their artillery fire more urgently elsewhere then the internees were evacuated to the States most of them by plane but I guess you'd remember more about that evacuation than I would I'll never forget it if you'd been a few more days rescuing us I don't think my wife could have held out but she made it okay thanks to you and your buddies that's the way the ball bounces you never know when you can help the next guy yeah I remember when I left Luzon the Battle of Manila seemed to be getting worse yeah it sure was what were the excitement of going back to the States after being a prisoner for three years I never did get the don't straight on how the final stages of the battle went it's it's all kind of fuzzy in my mind all I know is we won but it was quite a scrap wasn't it it was rough yeah I know how'd you make up after I left well we got ourselves a good taste of street fighting being jungle GIS up till then we found we had a lot to learn about fighting in city streets and big office buildings but we learned fast combat is one thing for sure a good teacher how'd you come out oh me personally okay but not so for some of the others the deeper we Gundu Manoa the more fanatical the [ __ ] resistance they couldn't escape and they wouldn't surrender so they fought till they died most of them anyway our casualties were heavy and the more we moved into the heart of the city the more the enemy took advantage of the huge government buildings for defensive positions some of the buildings had to be ripped apart stone by stone before we could continue our advance the enemy defensive plan soon became apparent he was fighting delaying actions to allow his troops to cross the pasilla which cuts Manila east and west right through the middle we pressed forward as fast as we could through fantastic tangles of broken buildings [Music] after each jab unit crossed the PUC's River a bridge was destroyed leaving one less for us when we reached the river our troops found out the hard way just about all there is to know about street to street building the building combat and the more we learned the faster we move denying the enemy the advantage of a leisurely withdrawal those Japs who couldn't pull back dug in and fought till 8 died many Filipinos braved frontline fire handing out cigars or candy to show their gratitude to us [Music] the enemy had orders from the Imperial High Command hold Manila or burn it the torch was put to those parts of Manila the Japs that no longer hold [Music] barrels and drums of gasoline and motor oil were detonated by the Japs inside buildings from one end of pinellas city up through all of the inferno the GIS kept up the initiative carrying the attack forward toward the Passaic River [Music] any of the firefighting equipment which had survived the street fighting was used but it was hardly worth the effort a fire gained momentum burning city blocks at a time consuming everything in its path that would burn and it seemed to reach its peak of destruction at night the Battle of Manila had reached a decisive phase we were north of the [ __ ] gripper and the Japs were south and moving into the famed old walled city called intramurals we kept the enemy pinned down with our fire while we brought up troops to prepare for a boat crossing of the [ __ ] [Music] [Music] several times we saw General MacArthur supervising the direction of battle at one moment he gazed out across Manila Harbor and an island of rock called Corregidor no doubt he recalled how the Japanese had attacked the Philippines in December 1941 [Music] and then in May 1942 the enemies swarmed over Corregidor no doubt to the general that many times pondered the fate of his troops who were outnumbered out of ammunition food and medical supplies and thus compelled to surrender the tide of hope had reached its lowest ebb for Americans when general Jonathan Wainwright sat at the surrender table and the American flag was lowered on Corregidor [Music] [Applause] there was one thing General MacArthur wanted more information about the condition of the prisoners taken on Corregidor and elsewhere in the Philippines the word had gotten around about the death march the forced march of the American prisoners by the Japanese which caused many to die these were the troops the general had in mind when he returned to the Philippines the general had all of those depressing memories of 1942 to consider while he directed the battle in Manila three years later during February 1945 an isolated pocket of [ __ ] resistance developed in Manila's city prison called beloved Filipinos brought in word that American prisoners many captured on Corregidor were being held in beloved we stepped up the attack and raced toward the city prison inside me labid we wiped out the Japs and found the GI prisoners starved abused old beyond their years but possessing an undaunted spirit they lined up for a shower the three-year appetite these were young fighting men on Corregidor now they were no longer young but they were alive while the battle raged on preparations were made for an aerial invasion of Corregidor Manila could not be secured without Corregidor in our hands a parachute jump would be coordinated with an amphibious landing on the island fortress Air Force and Navy pounded the rock while the troop carriers flew in the parachutists [Music] and when the dropzone on Corregidor was lined up there was nothing left to do but jump supplies were dropped right where they were needed [Music] while the parachutists sees their objectives on top of the island amphibious task force hit the beaches another airdrop of supplies or at first everything was delivered by parachute [Music] although Corregidor was lightly defended every [ __ ] therefore a fanatical battle while the island fighting continued the battle in Manila was going into the final phases all of the enemy forces alive at withdrawn into the walled city south of the physique River now the Japs literally had their backs to the wall they couldn't escape and wouldn't surrender so we got set for the final rom the plan roughly was to concentrate our artillery water and small-arms fire on the enemy while we crossed the pacy why our communications were strung to assure the closest coordination of overhead fire [Music] finally when everything was all set the order was given to commence firing [Music] [Music] [Music] we lined up assault boats and amphibious tracked vehicles and then made the first river crossing attempt we had no way of knowing how successful our concentration of fire had been on the enemy in the walled city but we found that they apparently were effective since the only incoming fire on us was small arms [Music] soon we were pouring across the river getting established on the south side and moving toward the closest wall of the walled city [Music] all of us knew by now that the toughest barrier of Manila was directly ahead the 14-foot thick wall of intramurals while we approached our objective our artillery and tracked vehicles gave us direct fire support [Music] [Music] between the river and the walled city was an open park aeri and as we moved over it we realized that this was the first open spot we had crossed since the Battle of Manila had begun [Music] the closer we got to the walled city the more we saw of the effectiveness of our artillery and mortar fire and softening up the enemy positions Filipinos willingly pointed out prepared defensive positions of the enemy [Music] [Music] finally we reached the outside wall [Music] it took a great deal of probing to find the proper place to make the assault for breaching this fortress was no easy matter regardless of how much artillery we had poured into it but we finally cracked it [Music] [Music] once inside intramurals the city within the walls a battle was suddenly over only the rubble and chaos of combat remained and among the debris we found human wreckage [Music] many of the Filipinos who had lived in Intramuros were dead those who somehow miraculously survived started a great mass exodus across the river to go anywhere anywhere away from the horrors of the walled city [Music] although the fighting in Manila was over there still was one more military action to be taken a general had said he would return he had now with a flag-raising ceremony on Corregidor the Battle of Manila was officially over and that's how the Battle of Manila went the big picture is an official report for the Armed Forces and the American people produced by the army pictorial centers presented by the Department of the army in cooperation with this state [Applause] you [Music] you

Channel: The Best Film Archives

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Rating: 4.7960563 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Manila, Liberation of Manila, Liberation of the Philippines, philippines war, philippines, the Philippines, Manila, City of Manila, Filipino, history philippines, philippines history, WWII, World War II, Pacific, pacific theatre, philippines vs japan, japan vs philippines, Japan, Japanese, Empire of Japan, Japanese Empire, Japanese Army, US, USA, America, American, United States, US Army, marines, US marines, soldiers, military, history, full, documentary, film, video, movie, footage

Id: j3l6d_o1mxc

Length: 22min 37sec (1357 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 18 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/griftertm]

Propaganda yan ng mga Delawan! Wala naman talaga magandang nagawa ang mga Kano sa Pilipinas! I ❤️ China!!!! - President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (probably)

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you for their service.

[u/[deleted]]

Thanks for sharing that. I just finished reading Agoncillo's two-volume set about the Japanese occupation of PH, and found out civilians who were north of the Pasig river were relatively secure, but those in the south were trapped because the enemy troops would not heed Yamashita's orders to withdraw.

[u/raori921]

It's funny how we call it "Liberation" when, in almost all measures, we got more dependent on the US after 1946, not less. At the very least, we stayed as dependent on them as before, only the means of control changed, and politically-correct euphemisms grew up to conceal it, like "special relations" and "showcase of democracy". (Who says only the left, liberals or SJWs traffic in political correctness?)

It doesn't help that of all colonial empires, the American one was the only, or almost the only, one that grew stronger after WW2, not weaker. Hell, the war basically put an end to the Depression.