Defending the Philippines

greetings all chieftain here it is the Christmas season a time of cheer peace goodwill to all men and so on a perfect time for me to tell you about the most traumatic experiences of any US tankers in the history of the u.s. tank force I refer not to the bitter fighting in Hurtgen forest or the stalemate in Italy or the reversals in the our den or North Africa bad though they may have been this is the story of a group of reservists National Guard tankers from California Minnesota Wisconsin Illinois Ohio and Kentucky who left their friends and families along with their states at a time that their nation was not yet at war or involved in the conflicts going on overseas these were the men of the 194th and 192nd tank battalions they were called to active duty in February of 1941 most of the survivors did not return home until the second half of 1945 still issued with a lot of World War one equipment such as the wide brimmed helmet they did not fight in commonly visited tourist spots nor with or against cool eye catching equipment such as Panzers together with about a hundred and forty thousand other men of which some 31,000 were american they fought in the philippines and as such were the first u.s. tankers to see action in world war ii as tensions between Japan and the US began to ramp up the British and American governments began to realize that the Japanese were unlikely to easily accept the Western powers positions but it was also a potential third wartime front which nobody especially in the UK wanted to have to fight in a critical misreading of the situation it was decided to prolong negotiations in order to allow time for the reinforcements of the Western Garrison's in the southwest Pacific once the US and British military strength was sufficiently large to perform as a deterrent to military action by Japan Japan will be left with no option but to accept the negotiated settlement further details on this series of errors can be found on my countdown to Pearl Harbor article over on the world of warships item 2 of the National Guard's for tank battalions will be dispatched to the Philippines as part of this deterrent force - be company of the 194th which got diverted to Alaska the 194th under Lieutenant Colonel Ernest B Miller left San Francisco on the 8th of September 1941 having just accepted delivery of m3 light tanks to replace their previous M twos the 194th had been rated as the best tank battalion in the Army after evaluations earlier in the year but though the automotive or running components were very similar the gun was not the tankers would have to learn the care feeding and use of the 37 millimeter guns on the new mounts after they got to the other end three weeks later such as it was they were not issued any high-explosive rounds for whatever reason further the terrain that they would be fighting over and also training of course would bear very little resemblance to the California coast or Minnesota with which the crews were familiar when they arrived in Luzon the two tank battalions were organized as the provisional tank group under the command of Colonel R and Weaver for some reason the group was retained under the direct command of US Army forces far east which is basically Douglas MacArthur and not under the control of Major General Wainwright who was the ground forces commander training was limited given that no fuel or ammunition were released for training purposes Pearl Harbor may be remembered as being on December the 7th but in the Philippines it was the early morning of December the 8th when the notification came through between them the two tank battalions had 108 tanks and 46 half-tracks around Clark Field near Manila where some 35 b-17 s and a good number of p-40s were all closely lined up to protect against saboteurs there was a little bit of a side controversy to the story a number of the aircraft had been scrambled earlier in the day under the orders of HAP Arnold ensure that in the event of another dawn attack they would not be on the ground then they were to rearm to attack Formosa from where any Japanese attacks will be expected to come after incoming aircraft were detected by radar orders to scramble the pursuit squadrons again came down but confusion reigned combined with terrible timing some fighters were sent to cover Manila instead of Clarke fighters from the 3rd Pursuit Squadron at the other field at Elba were bounced returning to the base low on fuel and a twentieth Pursuit Squadron was mainly destroyed as I was trying to get off the ground regardless of the unknownst to the tankers in goings-on in disguise a little after launch the tankers got their first taste of combat as Japanese aircraft attacked the base their first kill came from a tech sergeant Zenon Bartowski of the 192nd who downed an attacking aircraft with a machine gun on his half track a second kill was given to private Earl G Smith of Charlie of the 194th the first loss came in in the same raid private books of the 194th and that is the source of the name for the main parade field in Fort Knox by the way later that day the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began with a landing on the island of battle about 120 miles north off the coast of the main island of Luzon the man commanding the 14th army which is basically the Philippines invasion force lieutenant general Homer Masaharu was well familiar with the Western world haven't been found with the British Army in France in 1918 and later being assigned as Japanese attache 'he's both in india and the UK his main landing on Luzon or what was seen to be at least came on the 10th when a number of Beach heads were established in the far north of the island limited response came to the American defenders it was simply too far from the defender center of gravity which was seen to be Manila and the nearby peninsula of Bataan which was a last redoubt there was little scene to be gained by moving out to meet the forces especially given the nature of the terrain the distance and the likely difficulties to be met in conducting such an operation things became a tad more complicated however on the 12th when a couple of thousand Japanese also landed at the south end of Luzon the next day the tankers were split with the 194th being directed to join the South Luzon force the tanks were placed under the temporary command of Brigadier General Albert M Jones but outside of patrolling for fifth columnist they actually had fairly little what'd they do again the distance to the landing site was too great for any practical reaction things really began to change on the 22nd of December up until then the landings had been a few thousand men here a few thousand men there the southern landing at Legaspi was about two thousand five hundred men strong but that morning at Lingayen Gulf however that saw the landing of well over forty thousand men on the Philippines and they were a lot closer to Manila this demanded a response and the 192nd was sent north until I ran out of fuel with reports coming in of a Japanese motorized column coming into the town of de mortice the unit pulled together its fuel resources and sent forth a single Platoon of B Company 192nd tank battalion under the leadership of Ben Morin a lieutenant and about 11:00 a.m. as the platoon was continuing north to the battle which was taking place between the Japanese and the Philippine 26th cavalry they came under direct air attack fortunately the bombs merely scratched the paint of the tanks they soon arrived afterwards at the fight about two miles south of ague to encounter the sites of wounded horses of a cavalry unit under air attack given their proximity to the battlefield marrin ordered a test-fire of his guns the 37-millimeter immediately locked in the full recoil position and became unserviceable however Japanese infantry soon became a more pressing priority and Morenz tank engaged with machine guns only in effect so did the other tanks anyway given the lack of ammunition can't find any reference to canister at the time not that the machine guns were a trouble-free the coaxial from our internal a single-shot bolt-action all was going well until the first shell slammed into his m3 dislodging the drivers hatches Maurin pulled his tank back out in order to fix the door only to have his tank rammed by a Japanese one this damaged the running gear so that the tanks swung out of control when the gas was applied more shells impacted Moran's tank eventually it had to be abandoned meirin and his three crewmen became the first u.s. tankers not only to engage in armored combat in world war ii but also to be captured the other four tanks in the Patton are also all hit resulting in the death of private Henry Deckard a bow gunner and thus the first u.s. tanker to be killed in tank combat three of these four tanks were able to withdraw under their own power the fourth had to be towed however between air attack and mechanical failure all four tanks were lost later that day the US Army's first tank action of world war ii was basically a loss what is interesting is that all the u.s. accounts seem to refer to turretless tanks with a forty seven millimeter gun which resisted 37 millimeter fire the problem is that nothing fitting that description was really in the Japanese inventory at the time the 192nd then performed a fighting withdrawal back south in the meantime the 194th was recalled from its patrolling duties as chasing saboteurs and sent north there was an additional happy circumstance a British merchant man which had been sailing for Singapore instead pulled into Manila producing from its holes some 40 Universal carriers they did not como Bren guns but it turned out that one could mountain m1919 30 Cal or even a 50 Cal about half were retained with the tank group and the rest were given to the Filipinos with the tankers they perform fairly good service in the roles of supply transport and route reconnaissance the carriers who could go check out the ground for far less headache than the tanks would have should they get stuck now both battalions are involved in the retrograde but things don't go well on the evening of the 25th of December Charlie 194th found itself cut off when the neighboring infantry unit pulled back without telling him a Japanese anti-tank ambush lay between them and the bridge across the agna River which was their way out of the enemy's clutches to m3s were lost the rest had bid a balls-out charge firing every weapon as they drove made it through the ambush and across the bridge which was then blown after the last tank and drove across it they did better than Delta of the 192nd or dog back then which was attached to the 194th when they got to their crossing point at moncada they discovered that the bridge had already been blow they had no choice but to disable their 10 tanks and to half-tracks and cross the river on foot Merry Christmas a couple of the Stewart's would show up again later on in the campaign with Japanese crews by the 26th it was obvious that the island as a whole was lost so MacArthur went with the expected plan orange which was basically to hole up in Bataan and Corregidor the peninsula west of Manila which controlled Manila Bay the original intent was that the American forces would hold out there for some six months until relief could come from the u.s. of course the US especially after Pearl Harbor combined with the focus on Europe could not do that worse the frictions of war hit and a lot of the supplies which were to be used for the coming siege never made it to patan later that day sia the 194th was ordered to do a bit of a recon down a trail under guidance from a Filipino infantry major that the enemy only had infantry weapons well it turned out they had a 90 tank on the first tank to come around the corner lieutenant Needham's was promptly knocked out the second tank in line on the staff sergeant amyl s Morello pulled around the first and notwithstanding a non penetrating hit which knocked a rivet out and that rivet then wounded one of the crewmen performed actions to destroy an enemy anti-tank gun exactly as had been prescribed in doctrine and was the ruling by the way in the Louisiana maneuver it's the only way to destroy an anti-tank gun he ran over it dramatic there was and memorialized in painting and monument the engagement was a loss the gun was not the only heavy weapon present and the whole platoons tanks were eventually knocked out not all engagements came out badly however the end of the year saw a few high points for the tankers a of the 192nd wiped out a bicycle battalion which rode through the river back on the 30th and the 31st saw the clash at Bally walk Baloo AG was about six miles from the road leaving from Manila to Bataan if that road were caught any remnants of the South Luzon force would have been stuck in Manila facing either a city fight surrender or perhaps the faint hope of a submarine PT boat or some other nautical miracle the withdrawing 91st Filipino and 51st US Infantry Division's still had to complete the move up to the bridge at Columbia initially holding the town was the 71st infantry division of the Philippine Army which repelled the first Japanese assault by a battalion of the 48th inventory supported by the 4th and 7th tank regiments commanding the Japanese attack was a colonel saying tsuki sonoda advised by a Colonel your key middle of the Panzer Corps actually he did a little bit more with an advice acquitting himself quite well in the eyes of his Japanese colleagues by his demonstrations in the field of the proper use of techniques for small arms and satchel charges against live defending targets however the 71st had to walk back the 9 miles to the bridge as well so they couldn't hang out at Balrog indefinitely as a result the task was given to see the 192nd from Port Clinton Ohio their motors would help them to make a run to help them out where a half dozen m3 tank destroyers and an artillery observer instead of hanging around waiting they took the fight to the enemy and entered Balog at about 5:00 in the afternoon the m3 gun motor carriage a--'s were positioned in an over watching position nearby as at the time tank radios tended not to be able to talk with anyone elses the m3s and artillery observer were loaned a scout car from the tank unit which had a compatible radio also entering Balog at about this time were at least two platoons if not a full battalion from the seventh Tank Regiment type 97 chi-ha these were not the upgraded type with the forty seven millimeter anti-tank guns they still had the older more common 57 s this did not go well for the Japanese as the 57 s had difficulty with the m3s of interest a US Army assessment at the time rated the type 97 medium to be a bad equivalent to the American m3 light and of course ineffectiveness against Soviet beat he's a few years earlier which is why de Senado Qi has with their 47 millimeters were designed in a scene which would make himmelsdorf players proud the tanks chased each other through the narrow streets and on occasion through the building's supporting artillery could not partake for fear of hitting their own sides Japanese infantry were present but had only small arms by about 5 hours later it was time to leave and the tanks withdrew from below wagon letting the TDs and artillery take over the task of given the Japanese a hard time by the time all was said and done the Americans lost 1 m3 in the Japanese lost at least 8 tanks although some claims go as high as 30 regardless the Japanese received sufficient of a setback that the 51st division were able to make their withdrawal after the tanks and then the 51st rearguard passed over the bridge at 5 a.m. New Year's Day the bridges were finally blown even the Japanese quite a deep water obstacle to cross in order to continue their pursuit the withdrawal to Bataan continued though and the Japanese would not be held back behind a river too long the next major engagement was the afternoon of the 5th where two tanks of sea 194th for TDs and elements of the 31st infantry ambush to reinforce infantry battalion Lubell an estimated 50% casualties stopped battered vans cold keeping the next route to Bataan open sea of the 194th was the last unit crossing the baton at Lac after the loss of the tanks had AG no the tankers had the final word on the destruction of the bridges the commander of the 192nd now major Theodore Wickard crossed over the bridge for a final check just before was blown only to find the platoon of his by the side of the road with the exhausted crews asleep inside a quick wake up and a move later they were over and the bridge was then blown sealing off patan this led to a good period for the tankers and a bad one the good news was that they actually were given a break after the month of continuous action the tanks were long overdue they're 400 hour services that trackpads were down to bare metal and the tankers were downed 36 tanks of the original number what were 17 tank companies were reorganised 210 tanks each with platoons of three with spare parts either coming from cannibalized tanks or a storage facility found on Bataan which had supplies which had not been released when the tanks were first dispatched to fight the tank groups attached 17th ordnance company armored carried out some pretty sterling work this included home building some hay Qi and canister rounds out of the AP cartridges there were very few Japanese tanks encountered in the Bataan battles the bad news was that well they were trapped on Bataan with little sign of relief a lot of rather unfriendly Japanese were trying to kill them and they were placed on half rations the rest period lasted about three days by the tenth the tanks were back in action again both uses mobile pillboxes to bolster defensive lines and also as a counter attacking force such as when they had to restore the line penetrated by the Japanese 3rd battalion 20th infantry just south of Mount Sangamon the headquarters troops were not excused from the fighting for example on the 26th of January with their pistols and thoughts and machine guns they repelled close attack by japanese infantry attempting to engage a TD platoon which was shelling and rather making a mess of the enemy's troops by this point the Japanese had for pretty much the first time since their engagements with the Soviets a few years earlier been fought to a standstill the American Filipina holding action was holding the Japanese had one significant advantage however the Americans had what troops were present the idea of reinforcing the likely lost Philippines meant that units dispatched to the islands were instead detoured to Hawaii the Japanese did lose their 48th division but in exchange received fourth division 21st Regiment of the 21st division in several thousand casualty replacements for the sixteenth division and 65th brigade oh and more aircraft and naval infantry in the meantime the tankers were given a new role for fear of an amphibious end-run the tankers were found on beached defense duty with secondary taskings to react to situations on the frontline it wasn't the relaxing posting one might have expected there were a lot of secondary taskings none of which were pleasant and unfortunately a few were in company strength the tanks were still fairly novel item to most of the US and filipino commanders and so they were misused and often used without concentration second lieutenant john hay of sea of the 192nd developed a rather novel form of combined arms technique assigned to support a group of Army Air Corps personnel pressed into riflemen service he put six men on the back of each tank each man was given a bunch of grenades he then drove his tanks forward the Japanese would withdraw into their foxholes or bunkers to let the tanks past the air men on the back just dropped the hangar dates lieutenant hay ended the battle with two silver stars but he did not survive the Japanese prison camps morale for the Americans was high at the time but tempered by the dengue malaria and dysentery which started going around by mid-march they were down to quarter rations and almost a quarter of the forces were out of action due to illness still they held the line at least until the 3rd of April when suitably reinforced the Japanese launched their final assault over the next few days the tankers fought a series of fire brigade type actions with the single biggest movement being the hard task C of the 194th again partaking in a counter-attack supporting 45th Infantry Regiment five of the ten remaining one millimeter mortar bombs cause sufficient mayhem that the 45th and the tankers were able to rout the Japanese forces facing them yielding a bounty of artillery mortars mines and small arms the victory was short-lived though as the Americans couldn't stay the situation else when the line was getting desperate indeed as they worked the way back south again they discovered that the Japanese 65th Brigade had already gotten past an ambush involving a 75 millimeter type 95 gun knocked out one tank a second m3 discovered that the turret had enough armor to protect against a 75 millimeter round at least twice that m3 survived three type 89 s encountered later did not in what may have been a somewhat misguided thought there actually was an attempt by the Japanese to make an amphibious landing which they happened to do right in front of the 192nd pretty much the entire battalion in a bunch of canoes fishing boats and whatever else they could come up with they're covering smoke fell short and just made them better targets things did not go well for the Japanese there however moments of victory such as that were of limited effect in the larger scheme of things with nearly 75% of the defenders out of the fight it was time to throw in the towel on the 9th of April most of the tankers joined their colleagues in destroying their equipment and awaiting captivity not all mind a few somehow managed to escape to Corregidor sergeant Bartowski who got that first armored force kill of the war drove to the ferry with his tank but was told there was no room doing a hasty sabotage he boarded the ferry on foot and continued to hold that with the Marines his tank did eventually make it to Corregidor but with a Japanese crew Bartowski himself was bayonetted but survived not only the experience but the war in general such would not be said for many of the captured personnel however what followed has become known as the Bataan Death March the emaciated and ill captured personnel were marched the 65 to 69 or so miles to Campbell just outside Manila went no food in the water those who fell out were or after day one bayonetted word got around that those wearing armored force insignia were being singled out it was estimated that some 600 Americans and anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 Filipinos did not make the distance the survivors then had to make it through three years of Japanese military hospitality and many did not the town of Salinas California home of C of the 194th his memory served suffered the highest casualties per capita in the u.s. of any town with summer on behalf of the servicemen killed the 192nd tank battalion had 325 killed out of the total of 593 who sailed from San Francisco today there are annual Bataan memorial marches usually they are of Marathon length but occasionally somewhere the full 69 miles they are all for charity today occasionally in full kit of boots and backpack etcetera there is actually for me something of a personal connection Cu the 194th memorialized in the painting and the monument of crushing in the Japanese gun eventually became Charlie of the first of the 149th armor in Santa Cruz California which was actually my first unit in joining the US military their distinctive unit insignia now has the Philippine carabao front in the center of the symbol that's the basically water buffalos national animal of the Philippines now and though the unit motto is men and steel the responses remembered the road to Bataan the unit received both US and Philippine presidential unit citation 's the 194th armored remains as part of the Minnesota Army National Guard so there you go and off forgotten but terrible campaign and the start of the US Army's tank forces history in World War two as ever I'll see you next time take care you

Channel: The_Chieftain

Views: 88,565

Rating: 4.9812732 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: StKbLprUxFI

Length: 26min 30sec (1590 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 31 2018