The Battle of Luzon
Intro - The Philippines
The Beginning of the War
The Battle of Luzon began on 09 January 1945 under the name S-Day. The battle was part of a series of Allied offensives near the end of World War II to recapture the Philippines. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese had a string of attacks that successfully drove the U.S. Army Forces, Far East, under command of GEN Douglas MacArthur, out of the Philippines. Air attacks began on 08 December, 1941, and the fighting there ended on 06 MAY, 1942, with the Japanese capture of most of the Philippines, including Luzon. Luzon was an important part of the Japanese campaign because it was the center of operations for GEN MacArthur at Corregidor, a fortress island in Manila Bay, Luzon. Luzon, unfortunately, was also the site of the infamous Bataan Death March on 09 April.
The Drive to Retake the Philippines
After these losses, the Allied forces had to work their way back into the Philippines. They finally returned to there on 17 October, 1944, by landing on the island of Suluan, followed by an invasion of the island of Leyte. On 07 December, Leyte was taken, and planning for an invasion of Luzon - the Battle of Luzon - commenced.
The Importance of Luzon
The Philippines were an important objective of the Allies because they formed the keystone of Japan's captured island empire. This made them the ideal goal for the Allies because it would cut of Japan's projection of power in the Pacific, limiting them to their outposts in the China-Burma-India theater and the Home Islands. Luzon was particularly important because it is the largest island in the Philippines, and it also contains the capital, Manila. Finally, air bases could be established on Luzon that would serve as a bombing base and subsequent main base for the final assault against the Japanese Homeland.
Luzon Overview
Luzon Interactive Map
The Different Japanese Groups
The 3 phases of the American attack, 56.37, section 7.
The Japanese forces arrayed on the Philippines consisted of around 250,000 men organized into three groups. The smallest group, composed of 30,000 soldiers, was the Kembu Group under command of MG Tsukada, which was responsible for Bataan, Corregidor, and the opening to Manila Bay in west central Luzon. It included an important airfield, Clark Field, that the Japanese and later US forces used to launch planes. The next group was the Shimbu Group under command of LTG Yokoyama. This group consisted of 80,000 troops arranged in and around the capital, Manila, and the Bicol Peninsula in southeast Luzon. The final, largest group of 152,000 under command of the Area Army commander GEN Yamashita was the Shobu Group. This group was arrayed in northern Luzon.
GEN MacArthur created a three phase plan to take on these groups.
Kembu Group
The first part of GEN MacArthur's plan was to land the Sixth Army on Lingayen Gulf on the northwestern coast of Luzon. The operation began on 09 January, and and the Sixth Army landed 175,000 men on a 20-mile beachhead in the following few days with little resistance.
From here, the XIV Corps moved south to capture Clark Field, a key air base. They arrived on 23 January, and they met little resistance until then. The Japanese Kembu Group put up a stubborn defense for a week until the airfield was captured on 02 February. Then, XIV Corps continued south towards the capital.
Troops Prepare to Land at Lingayen Gulf
Operation were next run in Manila, which was the responsibility of the Shimbu Group below. Even after Manila was taken, however, the ports in there could not be used until Bataan, the peninsula to the west, and Corregidor, a small fortress island at the opening of the Bay of Manila, were taken. The Sixth Army moved to take Bataan on 29 January, where 4,000 Kembu Group troops had taken defensive positions. The main Japanese defenses were located in the Zambales mountains on the north side of the peninsula, which Americans names "ZigZag Pass." By 08 February, the Sixth Army flanked and overran the Japanese defenses. There was a follow-on amphibious assault on Corregidor on 16 February, which fell on the 26th. After Corregidor fell, GEN MacArthur returned to the fortress from which he was expelled in 1942 for the first time, depicted below.
GEN MacArthur wades ashore at Corregidor, 1945
Shimbu Group
As XIV Corps headed south to Manila, GEN MacArthur launched Operation Mike VI on 15 January, which consisted of an amphibious assault southwest of Manila. this maneuver created a double envelopment of Manila, with a Corps closing in from the North and a Division cutting off Manila to the southwest.
The Japanese Fourteenth Area Army commander GEN Yamashita had previously ordered the Shimbu Group commander to abandon Manila and destroy all bridges when American forces arrived because he saw the city as indefensible, but the commander of the defense of the city refused, leaving behind a 16,000 man Manila Naval Defense Force in the city. These defenses provided a grueling challenge for the Americans, and the battle for Manila devolved into house-by-house fighting due to the inability of the Americans to use artillery or air support in the urban environment. Resistance continued until 04 March. The remaining majority of the Shimbu Group retreated to the mountains to the east of Manila.
Of the remaining Shimbu Group soldiers, 30,000 were arranged immediately east and south of Manila, and another 20,000 were arrayed along the Bicol Peninsula to the southwest. MacArthur decided that although the larger Shobu Group maintained defensive positions on northern Luzon, the Manila area was the potential logistical base for all American activities on Luzon, so the Shimbu Group continued to be the top priority. The American attack by XIV Corps began on 20 February. The focus of the attack was to recover control of the Manila water supply, which came from the Wawa and Ipo dams along the Angat and Markina Rivers northeast of the city. The Japanese gave fierce resistance as American troops reached the hills and mountains. Movement was slow, and the Americans finally secured the town of Antipolo to the southeast of Manila on 04 March, along the south of the Japanese defensive line. At the northern end of the line, the Americans finally reached Mount Pacawagan and Mount Mataba on 04 and 08 March, respectively.
In response to the American gains, the Japanese launched a counterattack on 12 March that failed miserably. After this, XI Corps took over operations against the Group. Fighting continued until 17 May, when Ipo Dam and Manila's water supply was recaptured by the Americans, followed by Wawa Dam on 28 May.
The Japanese southern positions on the Bicol Peninsula met a similar end. The XIV Corps took over the attack on this region on 15 March. By 19 April, the Americans had driven to Luzon's east coast. By 31 May, they had driven through the entire peninsula and cleared all major enemy units.
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Shobu Group
The Shobu Group was the largest group under command of the Japanese Area Army commander. They occupied northern Luzon, which consisted of the Sierra Madre mountain range to the east, the hills of the Cordillera Central to the west, and the Babuyan channel on the northern edge of the area. In the center was the Cagayan Valley, which supplied a large amount of rice for the Japanese. In early March, attacks began by attacking along Route 11 towards the town of Bambang. This route was well defended, so another group attempted to traverse the western coast and then use Route 9 and attack Baguio, GEN Yamashita's headquarters. Baguio was finally captured on 27 April. During and after these battles, the Japanese adopted the operational stance of fighting a delayed defense designed to wear down the enemy. Shobu Group continued to withdraw further north into the mountains while inflicting heavy casualties on the Americans.
By the end of March, the Allies controlled all significant areas of Luzon, which allowed them to conduct follow-on operations from the ports and airfields. It still required three US Army divisions to maintain the Shobu Group forces, however, who finally surrendered on 15 August.
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Implications
Over the course of the Luzon Campaign, there were 47,000 combat casualties, with over 10,000 American soldiers being killed, and over 90,000 noncombat casualties including 300 deaths. for the Japanese, the casualties were outrageous; nearly 230,000 military personnel were lost.
The capture of Luzon allowed the Philippine government to be reconstituted, creating strong American-Filipino ties that were later crucial to the American conduct of the Cold War in Asia. Luzon was also used as a bomber base for conventional air raids on Japan for the last months of the war. Ultimately, Luzon was significant mainly because it was one of many defeats that simply helped remove Japanese resistance. The Japanese were unwilling to give up until the usage of the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but the collective battles that led up to this usage helped convince the Japanese that the war had finally ended and they had lost.
Works Cited
Andradé, Dale. Luzon, CMH Pub 72-28. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center for Military History, 1996.
Love, Jr., Robert W. “The Defeat of Japan.” In The West Point History of Warfare, 56.37-38, 56.42, edited by Clifford J. Rogers and Ty Seidule. New York, NY: Rowan Technology Solutions, 2020. https://reader.rowan.nyc/#/read/386/page/7158 . (accessed November 19, 2020).
Natural Earth. “Downloads.” https://www.naturalearthdata.com/downloads/ . (accessed December 1, 2020).
PhilGIS. “Philippine GIS Data Clearinghouse.” Free Philippine GIS data for educational and nonprofit use. http://philgis.org/ . (accessed November 30, 2020).
Smith, Robert Ross. The War in the Pacific: Triumph in the Philippines, CMH Pub 5-10-1. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center for Military History, 1993.
