Philippines
Survival off Samar
By David Alan JohnsonAt exactly 6:45 on the morning of October 25, 1944, Rear Admiral Clifton A.F. Sprague received a message from one of his pilots on antisubmarine patrol. Read more
Philippines
Rising Sun, Descending Darkness
By William Strook“Finally at Corregidor there was only a little crowd of American soldiers and Filipino soldiers and American nurses at the beaches, with nothing at their backs but the waters of the Pacific, and the flag came down. Read more
Philippines
How Pearl Harbor Happened
By Richard G. HigginsCommander Mitsuo Fuchida, strike leader for Operation Hawaii and 20-year veteran of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Kaigun), strapped himself into the observer’s seat as his Nakajima B5N2 “Kate” torpedo bomber, piloted by Lieutenant Mitsuo Matsuzaki, and lifted off from the carrier Akagi on the black morning of December 7, 1941. Read more
Philippines
The Battle of Biak: “A Terrifying Glimpse Into the Soul of Mankind”
By David Alan Johnson“All I knew about Biak was that it was an island a degree south of the equator, one of the Schouten group lying north of Geelvink Bay toward the western end of New Guinea.” Read more
Philippines
Death of the Super Battleship Yamato and Musashi
By Herb KugelSpecial Sea Attack Force (SSAF) was an ordinary-sounding name for the pitifully tiny remnant of what was once the mighty Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN). Read more
Philippines
A Company K in the Pacific: From Guadalcanal to Peleliu
By Jason AbadyIn April 1942, a group of young Marines, having recently graduated from Officers Candidate School, arrived at New River, North Carolina, a sprawling tent city that stretched over a vast area and would eventually become known as Camp Lejeune. Read more
Philippines
Pearl Harbor: The Sleeping Giant Awoken
By Flint WhitlockIt was, as the phrase goes, another perfect day in paradise. As the sun rose above the Pacific in the clear, cloudless sky east of the Hawaiian Islands, on December 7, 1941, the giant U.S. Read more
Philippines
Japanese Attack on the Philippines: The “Other” Pearl Harbor
By Sam McGowanWhile the surprise Japanese attacks against U.S. military bases in the Hawaiian Islands on December 7, 1941, are certainly the best-known aspect of the opening of hostilities between the two aLess well known today were the Japanese attacks on Clark Field and Iba Field on the opening day of hostilities in the Philippines. Read more
Philippines
Helldiver Lieutenant Klenk
By Robert F. DorrLieutenant William A. “Bill” Klenk, piloting a Curtiss SB2C-3 Helldiver, bristled at the “clawing, miserable weather,” with inverted pyramids of cloud hanging from a low ceiling and gray murk everywhere. Read more
Philippines
4 Unsolved Mysteries of the Jimmy Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
By Susan ZimmermanApril 18, 1942, will forever live in American military glory as the date of the Jimmy Doolittle Raid on Tokyo––a gutsy, never-before-attempted combat mission to fly North American B-25 Mitchell bombers off the deck of an aircraft carrier and attack an enemy capital. Read more
Philippines
From the Philippines to Borneo: A PT Boat Skipper’s Life
By John NieselWhen the four members of the Japanese surrender delegation climbed aboard the deck of PT-375 on September 8, 1945, the boat’s skipper, Lieutenant Henry “Hank” Blake, directed the men to an open area on the forward deck where the Japanese could be closely watched for any signs of treachery. Read more
Philippines
Doughboy White: The Lost Battalion of Leyte
By Nathan N. PreferOn October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur redeemed his personal pledge to the people of the Philippines. Read more
Philippines
Boeing Wonderland: The Fake Cities on America’s West Coast
By Bill YenneWhen I was a young boy in Seattle, my father told me about a fake town that had been built on top of Boeing’s Plant 2 during the war. Read more
Philippines
The Silent Service: A Submariner Aboard the USS Seal
By Ron SmithBACKSTORY: In World War II, the American submarine force was inordinately small—just 252 total boats, compared to the more than 1,100 deployed by Germany and over 600 built by Japan. Read more
Philippines
Tom Harrisson: An Anthropologist’s War in Borneo
By John W. Osborn, Jr.World War II in the Pacific was fought in thousands of remote locations. The island of Borneo was the site of one of the least known clandestine operations of the conflict, led by an adventurous, but arrogant, anthropologist. Read more
Philippines
Deaths in WWII: Casualties, and the Graves Registration Units
By Mason B. WebbThe very nature of war means that some participants will be killed and others will be wounded, and some estimate the deaths in WWII to be around 85 million. Read more
Philippines
Japan’s Road to War
By Eric HammelJapan’s road to World War II was a long one. Throughout the late 19th century, the island nation broke out of its feudal past on a path to modernity with a ruthlessness and singlemindedness that would have scared Western nations had they been paying attention. Read more
Philippines
George C. Marshall: The Indispensable Man
By Eric HammelGeorge Catlett Marshall was the greatest American military man of his age. If the United States Army had kicked off the 20th century with the specific intent of constructing a chief of staff to lead it to victory in World War II, it could not have done a better job than what chance provided in the triumphs and travails over the 40 years that molded George Marshall. Read more
Philippines
USS Seawolf at the Battle of Christmas Island
By John DomagalskiThe early months of 1942 were dark days for the United States Asiatic Fleet. Much smaller than the Pacific Fleet, and equipped with mostly outdated surface ships, the fleet was in no way capable of winning a serious confrontation with the Imperial Japanese Navy. Read more
Philippines
The Arisaka Rifle: Weapons for the Imperial Japanese Army Way of War
By Jon DiamondAs militarism grew in Japan in the early 1930s, conscription began at the age of 19, and the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) cadet entered military service. Read more
