The Japanese attack in the Calais Mountains was not sudden, and Ito Yanzaburo did not intend to hide his intentions, and from 9 August, the Japanese troops on the front line in the Calais Mountains had been frequently mobilized, and there was already a premonition before the attack.

After receiving the report from the forward troops, Major General Whiteman, commander of the Third Army of the US Southwest Pacific Theater, which was reorganized from the former US Army Calais Mountain Campaign Cluster, was shocked in his heart: The Japanese were about to make a move, and he did not dare to slack off, so he immediately reported the situation to General MacArthur, commander of the Southwest Pacific Headquarters in Manila, and at the same time, asked for instructions on how to deal with it.

Major General Whiteman, very nervous, said to General MacArthur on the phone: "Your Excellency, the Japanese troops confronting our army in the Calais Mountains have been moving frequently since yesterday, and the intention of attacking is very obvious, in view of the position of our Third Army, once it is found that it has been broken through, it is very likely to fall into the division and encirclement of the Japanese army, therefore, I ask Your Excellency, Commander, to send reinforcements and to allow the Third Army to retreat to the Manila defensive line. ”

Major General Whiteman is telling the truth, judging from the position of the US Third Army now, it is absolutely a lonely army; in addition to having a fixed defensive line in the Calais Mountains, there are no friendly troops on the left and right flanks, and the strength of more than 80,000 troops is distributed on a front of more than 100 kilometers.

Moreover, the geographical conditions of the Third Army's current defensive position are extremely unfavorable, and Major General Whiteman now regrets very much that in the first place, after taking over as commander of the Third Army, he should not have shrunk the blocking line back by an average of more than ten kilometers from his original position. Surrendering the advantage of geographical advantages to the Japanese, he now began to understand Stilwell's painstaking efforts, as far as the original blocking line was concerned, it was condescending, and there was a lot of terrain that could be used, which could reach 50,000 soldiers!

In the current position, the Japanese army occupies a favorable terrain and forms a overwhelming trend of Mount Tai against the defense line of the Third Army. It's a pity that there is no regret medicine to take, and Major General Whiteman thought more than once, "If Chief of Staff Stilwell hadn't been killed, he would have faced such a situation." How will he respond? ”

Of course, Stilwell was already dead. But Major General Whiteman knew. If Stilwell had been still there, and had served as the commander of the US forces in the Calais mountains, he would not have been so dispossessed, and he would not have retreated the blocking line by more than ten kilometers because of timidity, so as to cause the current passive situation. "It's a pity that that Texas cowboy is really a rare commander, and his talent in campaign command is better than that of Commander MacArthur." Maj. Gen. Whiteman thought with regret.

After receiving the report on the enemy situation from Major General Whiteman, MacArthur carefully measured the current situation, and it turned out that there were more than 300,000 troops, and after several fierce battles, the troops on the other islands were all eaten by the Japanese, and in his own hands, counting the Third Army in the Calais Mountains, there were about 190,000 troops, and the number of troops that could be used for the defense of Manila was only about 110,000, which was far from enough for the scale of the defense of Manila that he expected.

Of course, not counting the more than 70,000 Filipino soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Philippine Army Corps, if the miscellaneous and miscellaneous troops are added together, the total strength of the US and Philippine troops commanded by MacArthur will reach about 280,000, which is more than double that of the Japanese 14th Army and several divisions and brigades that were transferred later.

The reason why he advocated defending Manila was that he did not want to lose the foundation of his business for many years, and the biggest reliance was the 160,000 British and Australian troops in Australia, and after arduous struggle, the US wartime high command had negotiated with the British to put Australia under the defense scope of the Southwest Pacific Theater Headquarters, that is to say, the 160,000 British and Australian troops were now troops under the command of Commander-in-Chief MacArthur.

The U.S. and Philippine troops on Luzon, plus the British and Australian troops in Australia, have a total strength of more than 45 troops, basically reaching about half of the total strength of the Japanese army in the southwest Pacific theater; as far as the current situation of the Luzon battlefield is concerned, the strength of the troops exceeds the Japanese army by several times, and it can form a local superior force, and it can compete with the Japanese army on Luzon.

The reason is very simple, the space capacity of the Luzon battlefield is so large, the United States and Japan already have more than 400,000 troops, crowded here, the Japanese are not stupid, there is no need to use crowd tactics, and there is another point, which makes General MacArthur sure that the Japanese army will not increase its troops on Luzon, that is, since the outbreak of the Pacific War, more than two months have passed, and if the Japanese army had increased its troops on the Luzon battlefield, it would have come a long time ago.

The Japanese army's delay in making such a deployment is because of concerns, and this is the original intention of General MacArthur to advocate the defense of Manila, of course, he is not a mediocre talent, and he will inevitably take into account that in case the defense of Manila does not achieve its intended goal, or in other words, the American and Philippine troops on Luzon Island are in danger of being surrounded and annihilated by the Japanese army, and General MacArthur has another way to retreat, that is, to retreat eastward to Australia.

Therefore, the overall deployment of General MacArthur's defense of Manila is as follows: on the periphery of Manila, an arc-shaped defense system will be formed, with Quezon City, Cavite, and Santa Cruz as the strategic support points of the defense line, and a defense system with a depth of more than 20 kilometers in the north, west, and south directions of Manila, and make every effort to protect the port of the Borileo Peninsula in the south, which is the only lifeline of Manila and connects Australia.

With such a long arc-shaped defense system and such a large defensive depth, apart from the Third Army troops in the Calais Mountains, MacArthur's existing 180,000-strong US and Philippine troops were far from enough, and MacArthur urgently needed troops, but the connection between the islands in the southwest Pacific and the mainland had been cut off by the Japanese navy, and he could not get domestic support, so he had to mobilize all or most of Australia's 160,000 British and Australian troops to rush to the aid of the Luzon battlefield.

In fact, in late July, MacArthur had already sent a telegram to the British and Australian forces requesting reinforcements on the battlefield on Luzon, demanding that the British fulfill their obligations under the Allied Treaty, but at that time, the domestic government had not yet reached an agreement with the British, and General Fernandez, the commander-in-chief of the British and Australian forces stationed in Australia, shirked MacArthur's request in every possible way, emphasizing various reasons.

"Dear General MacArthur, my old friend, the United States and Britain were originally one, in many international affairs, advancing and retreating together, and now, we are facing the same enemy, the Japanese, the British Empire troops stationed in Australia, to go to the battlefield on Luzon Island to fight against the Japanese, it is understandable, but, as far as the current situation is concerned, Luzon Island has become a lonely place, and after the Japanese occupy other surrounding areas, they are bound to form a situation of encirclement of Luzon."

"Therefore, I sincerely suggest that my old friend can choose to abandon Manila and withdraw the American and Philippine troops on Luzon Island to Australia, so that you can not only avoid heavy losses of your troops, but also increase Australia's defensive forces, and use Australia as a base to stop the Japanese ambition to occupy the entire southwest Pacific region, I am in Australia, and I am eagerly looking forward to the arrival of my old friend!"

The words are absolutely polite, but they don't send a single soldier, and moreover, they also let MacArthur give up Luzon Island, give up Manila, and withdraw to Australia, isn't this contrary to General MacArthur, with the arrogance of MacArthur himself, how can he run to the Australian mainland to avoid the limelight, live a life under the fence, guard hundreds of thousands of British and Australian troops can not be used, the strength of the army cannot make ends meet, the Manila defense line is as thin as a piece of paper, General MacArthur is so anxious that his eyes are on fire, he jumps straight to his feet, and he has no affiliation with that Admiral Fernandez!

After receiving the telegram from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first thing MacArthur did was to send a telegram in the name of the commander-in-chief of the US Southwest Pacific Theater to order General Fernandez to mobilize 100,000 British and Australian troops to reinforce the Luzon battlefield.

Moreover, MacArthur, who is accustomed to the boss, the content of the telegram is absolutely not polite, "General MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the Allied Southwest Pacific Theater, ordered General Fernandez, commander-in-chief of the British and Australian forces, from now on, to mobilize the first and second armies of the British and Australian armies, a total of 100,000 troops, to reinforce the Luzon battlefield. ”

That is to say, the British rushed to Luzon to help, guns, ammunition, food and drink, as well as their own care, and General Fernandez, who received the order, had this nest in his heart, and he couldn't understand what was going on at home, how to put the fate of the British and Australian troops in the hands of the arrogant Yankee MacArthur, and he himself submitted his views on the situation in the Southwest Pacific to the Prime Minister and the General Staff.

To put it more bluntly, that MacArthur is a paranoid who wants to save face, knowing that he can't do it, this is not to say that Admiral Fernandez, how wise and strategic foresight he is, can see through the true intentions of the Japanese, but out of the consideration of his own interests, the 160,000 British and Australian troops are all the capital of Australia's defense, once they come out, what if the Japanese army attacks Australia, he will not even have a way to retreat!

On other islands, hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops who are standing still, what will they do next, who can guess that the Japanese way of thinking is originally different from normal people, but MacArthur's order came, and moreover, the tone was tough, Admiral Fernandez, could not help but send troops!

(To be continued) (To be continued.) )