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The Luzon campaign was the largest land battle of the war in the Pacific, involving more troops that the more famous battle of Okinawa, and resulting in a Japanese defeat only equalled in scale by the contemporary British invasion of Burma (much bigger battles took place in China, although rarely saw clear-cut Chinese victories). Despite that it is one of the less familiar battles of the war against Japan, especially in its later stages. The initial landings at Lingayen Gulf and the battle for Manila are the best known aspects of the battle, but the fighting continued on to the end of the war, with the last major Japanese forces having to be convinced that the Japanese surrender was genuine before they would give in (with the last known capture coming in 1955!).
Just over half of this book deals with the less familiar later parts of the battle of Luzon, and in particular the battles in the north of the island. Key to the length of this battle was that the Japanese commander on the island quickly realised that he couldn’t hope to defeat the Americans and decided instead to withdraw into the wild northern areas, where is troops could hope to live off the ground and pin down as many American troops as possible.
MacArthur doesn’t really emerge well. In the initial phase of the battle he comes across as impatient, always pushing his generals to advance more quickly than was safe, mainly so he could take Manila as quickly as possible. After the fall of Manila he seems to have lost interest in the battle, instead withdrawing troops to re-conquer the southern Philippines, as well as turning his attention towards the invasion of Japan. Where he does appear later in the text it is normally to demand faster progress.
We get a good mix of the big picture and close-up combat versions of military history, so we have a good idea of the overall course of events on Luzon as well as how brutal the fighting war. The close-up accounts are pretty much all from the American side, but we do get good material on Japanese command decisions and the actions of the senior officers. This is key to understanding this battle, and shows that a well led Japanese force could hold out for much longer without the suicidal attacks that so often occurred in other battles.
Chapters
1 – Introduction
2 – The Lingayen Beachhead
3 – The Central Plain
4 – Securing the Beachhead
5 – The Kembu Group
6 – The Race to Manila
7 – The Tragedy of Manila
8 – Intramuros, the Walled City
9 – The Shimbu Group
10 – Seizing the Dams
11 – Southern Luzon
12 – North to Baguio
13 – The Villa Verde Trail
14 – San Jose, Digdig and Baguio
15 – Baguio Falls
16 – Balete Pass
17 – The Bambang Front
18 – Aparri
19 – Pursuit
20 – The Luzon Campaign
Author: Nathan N. Prefer
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Publisher: Casemate
Year: 2024