Japanese forces capture Manila, Cavite naval base and Clark Field air­base 80 years ago this hour #OnThisDay #OTD (Jan 2 1942)


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(Friday, January 2, 1942, Japanese imperial forces marched into Manila from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Philippine Standard Time; during the Philippines campaign (1941–1942), part of the Pacific Theater of World War II) — Japanese forces captured Manila, capital of the Philippines with its 600,000 population, the nearby Cavite naval base and Clark Field air­base today, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur, commander of the United States armed forces in the Far East, to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula.


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A battalion of the Japanese 1st Formosa Regiment and two of the 47th Infantry Regiment were the first units into Manila.

More than 25,000 frightened, desperate civilians joined nearly 12,000 American and more than 65,000 Filipino defenders who escaped onto the Bataan Peninsula, a 200-square-mile thumb of hills and jungle thrusting south into Manila Bay, to await reinforcements.

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The American and Filipino regiments had little to fight with and had limited supplies of food and potable water: some half-million rounds of ammunition and 4,500 tons of rice—enough to feed the 105,000 soldiers and refugees on Bataan for five months.

The plan was for the defenders to hold out until relief came from the American mainland.