March 17, 1945. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info Brisbane, Australia.

Today, the Pacific theater has dawned, and the Allies, under MacArthur's command, have begun to counterattack.

In the first few battles, the navy did not fight well, and it was not until the army drove the Japanese out of Australia that the Pacific theater could be regarded as a turning point. Recently, the Navy and the Army, in concert, have captured several islands using frog-jumping tactics.

Finally, the time has come for a campaign to attack the Philippine capital.

The campaign began in October 1944 and continues to the present. The commanders of the Allied forces were MacArthur and Nimitz. Nimitz commanded the navy, cooperating with the commander-in-chief, MacArthur. The total strength of the Allied forces was 300,000, mainly the American army, and the number of Australian troops, Philippine troops, and Mexican troops was very small.

The commander of the Japanese army was the general Yamashita Fengwen who went out from the northeast, the tiger of Malaysia. The Japanese army had a strength of 300,000.

The Allies attacked from the southeast of the Philippines, and the Japanese defense was also in this direction. The first battle was the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which took place in October last year, and the second battle, the Battle of Olmerke Bay, took place in November last year. The third battle was the Battle of Renya Bay.

These battles were dominated by the Navy and Air Force, and in the later stages of the campaign, the Army landed. Among them, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest battle in history. Within six days, the Japanese and Allied forces had committed more than two million tons of shipbuilding to a total tonnage. 21 aircraft carriers, 21 capital warships, 170 destroyers, and nearly 2,000 military aircraft participated in the battle.

Although the Japanese army was at a disadvantage, after losing the battles of Saipan and the Mariana Islands, it was necessary to keep the Philippine Taiwan, otherwise the transportation line for the southern route of the empire to transport resources to the mainland would be cut off, and the fate of the Japanese army would be doomed.

Japan decided to make a desperate attempt to repel the Allied landing force on Leyte and defeat its maritime power.

After arguing, the Allies gave up attacking Taiwan, attacked the Philippines first, covered the landing with superior military strength, and crushed the Imperial Japanese Navy that came to support it in one fell swoop.

It was a gamble, a gamble for the Japanese army. The Japanese army had no choice but to gamble, because they could not drag it out, and Japan could not afford to drag it out.

As a result, the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, which was far inferior in numbers, was defeated. Thirteen heavy warships above the cruiser level were sunk, and Japan's sea-based and land-based air forces in the Philippines were wiped out, which dealt a serious blow to Japan's overall strength, and the Japanese navy ceased to be a strategic force in the Pacific War.

This battle also laid the foundation for the later successful capture of the Philippine Islands and Okinawa by the US military. It was after this battle that MacArthur took the reporters and walked out of the sea to Philippine soil in his shoes.

For the first time in this campaign, Japan organized kamikaze squads and launched suicide attacks. The cruiser USS Australia, which belonged to Australia, was heavily damaged. From October 25, the Japanese began organized suicide attacks on Allied ships.

The Battle of Leyte Gulf, MacArthur was proud. Because when he defeated Pelubin in 1942, he was very unconvinced, and he said the famous sentence: I will come back. Come here, come back, can you not be proud?

Today, the Allied forces have moved on to Manila, the capital of the Philippines. Soon, Manila will be liberated, and at that time, I, MacArthur, will definitely take a picture of the ruins of Manila.

That point is a historic photograph.

What is the situation in the Philippines? What was Yamashita thinking? Should I be ready to go to Manila right away? The hated summit of Yalta, which changed my plans, and many troops were transferred to the European theater, slowing down the progress of the war.

Historically, the Battle of Manila began on February 2, 1945 and ended on March 3. Sixteen thousand Japanese troops were killed, and a large number of Manila citizens died.

The United States has a little confidence in China's landing in Japan.

Thinking of this, MacArthur asked the staff officer, "When will you leave?" ”

Staff Officer: "We will leave in half an hour, the plane will take off in an hour, and then we will take a boat to Manila Bay and land in Manila. ”

MacArthur: "Good. We will soon be on Philippine soil again. That's the capital of the Philippines. ”

March 17, 1945. Manila.

Once again, the Allied offensive was repulsed. At present, the US troops have landed and occupied a small part of the urban area, using the coast, the wharf, which they occupied earlier, as a base.

Yamashita had concentrated a large number of troops to hold Manila, and he planned to hold it for five days.

Because a large number of elite troops were originally divided to occupy Australia, the Japanese troops in the Philippines were less than 200,000, and the troops in Taiwan were also withdrawn from 100,000, leaving less than 90,000 left. It was precisely because of the Australian occupation that a large number of Allied troops were dragged, causing the Allied forces to fall into the mud in the Pacific Campaign. The U.S. and Australian armies even feared the Japanese Army, and although the Navy and Air Force won successive victories, the Army was held back.

The U.S. Army took the lead in Greater Australia, and the Japanese lost a lot of troops in Australia, and also wiped out a lot of U.S. troops and Australian troops.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October last year, the Imperial Army was defeated, and the Philippines lost step by step. The annihilation of the sea-based and land-based air forces of the Imperial Army Japan in the Philippines dealt a serious blow to Japan's overall strength, and the Japanese Navy was at a disadvantage from then on.

Now, they've hit Manila.

At the beginning, after the U.S. trade embargo, Japan's oil imports ran out. Their fleet used stored oil, as well as oil from the island of Huatai. As the stall grew larger, manpower began to run short. On the contrary, because of its strong production capacity, the US military has gradually increased, and now, the Japanese have clearly seen that the strength of the US military has surpassed that of the Japanese army.

Although a few years ago, the Japanese army pressed the US army to fight, and although the Japanese army was invincible in the Pacific theater a few years ago, it is no longer possible. The contrast changed a little faster, but it happened anyway.

The number of warships and planes of the Japanese navy and air force gradually decreased, and they had no choice but to engage in some suicide methods.

From the beginning of 1943, the U.S. military began to use Australia as a base in the Pacific Theater to start a counteroffensive and won one victory after another. It is different from what the trail expected.

The sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was so complete that it would take at least two or three years for the US Pacific Fleet to have the strength to counterattack. Then the reversal of the Pacific theater began in 1945.

Unexpectedly, while the U.S. military was actively repairing Pearl Harbor, it began to use Australia's bases to counterattack. Although the counterattacks were almost all unsuccessful, it was because of the lack of ships, and the logistics could keep up. Australia has helped the United States with the power of the whole country, which is quite powerful.

The Japanese saw the trick and quickly captured the Australian mainland, bombing and pinning down the American army and depleting Australia's strength, thus prolonging the victory of the Japanese in the Pacific theater. But this victory was not a one-sided victory. At the beginning of 1943, a stalemate began. By 1944, the tide was reversed from Australia to the offensive and defensive.

Another factor that complicated the Pacific theater was the capture of Sakhalin by Koji's forces, cutting off Japan's last source of oil. After the first capture of Sakhalin, the Japanese army organized an effective counteroffensive and once occupied the oil fields, but after going ashore they lost their advantage and were driven out into the sea. In order to restore ties with the Soviet Union, the US Navy wanted to secure this route and dispatch warships to escort the ship to Sakhalin Island.

This factor weakened Japan's power and brought the turning point forward.

In fact, from the beginning of the Pacific War, Japan was mired in a state of scarcity of materials. By 1943, supplies were desperately scarce. Not only is there a shortage of food, but rationing is required, and the oil is insufficient, and the civilian oil is not supplied at all, and even the steel is insufficient, and the steel used to make warships comes from the iron tools collected by the people.

In fact, the Japanese calmly anticipated that the Japanese army was no longer an opponent of the US army, and in terms of defense, they began preparations for the defense of the homeland, preparing for the landing of the US army on the Japanese mainland. Weapons were issued by the people, including firearms, and even bamboo pikes, and of course, grenades were standard.

On the offensive side, they developed suicidal offensive tactics. For example, rushing to a warship in an airplane or a dinghy. This is the famous kamikaze. They were asked to remove all the excess equipment and load it with explosives. The so-called flying an airplane is actually a manned cruise missile. It's the same with a dinghy, that is, a manned torpedo.

Have some people fill up their speedboats with explosives to attack a large warship, or hit a warship with a kamikaze plane. Although the slogan is one plane for one warship, until now, ten planes may not be able to exchange for one warship.

Now, in the initial stages of the suicide attack, the offensive of the US military has accelerated and it has begun to attack the Philippines. This is not much different from the course of history.

In the next few battles, the Allies won every battle because of their superiority in sea and air, and the landing was successful, and they attacked several times, gradually approaching Manila.

March 17, 1945. Manila.

Today, Manila has been bombed many times, and there are not many people left in the city.

As early as early February, General MacArthur had announced the complete recapture of the capital Manila, and just as the U.S. forces were planning to enter the city with MacArthur in the city, at about the same time, the 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army in the north and the 11th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army in the south were met with stubborn resistance from the Japanese army.

On February 4, U.S. troops entered the city and fierce street fighting broke out with the Japanese defenders. Over the next month, the two sides battled street to house, most fiercely over the Quezon Bridge over the Ba Shi River, and the Priesthood Candidate Island, a small industrial center in the Ba Shi River. In addition, the competition for the airport is also very fierce.

MacArthur forbade artillery bombardment and air raids on the city, not wanting to get a mess, and the Japanese were free to do it. U.S. forces attacked building by building, killing and injuring civilians.

The Japanese army took out all their anger and frustration on civilians with crossfire, which became known as the Manila Massacre. The streets were littered with corpses, and the horrors were unbearable.

The Allies were about to enter the city.