Philippines Campaign | Prelude to The Philippines Campaign (1941)

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction
01:53 Philippines: Land of Enchanted
04:51 Japan: Operation M
07:23 The Japanese Strategy
12:57 Order of Battle: Japan
18:09 United States War Plan ORANGE
20:37 United States The Philippine Army
23:01 United States Army Forces, Far East (USAFFE)
27:39 Order of Battle: United States
33:57 Aftermath

*Note: All maps in this video was dated on November 1941.

Description:

By August 1941, Japan’s military situation looked grim, what started as a border skirmish around Beijing had evolved into full-scale war, draining more and more resources from the Empire.
Although it was far superior to its Chinese counterpart, the Japanese army had a hard time coping with logistics and was subject to an intense guerilla war. Chinese forces moved rather easily in the countryside and avoided pitched battles limiting Japanese occupation to heavily fortified cities and railways. Even worse, the Allies, unwilling to see Japan threaten their local interests while they were busy dealing with Germany, supplied the united front with oil and equipment. After opportunistically occupying Vichy Indochina to secure the Chinese supply lines Japan was placed under a total embargo of its economy by the Western powers, paving the way to further escalation.
With its strategic oil reserve half way to depletion and oil supplies from the USA and Dutch East Indies halted, Japan needed to do something fast. Still nursing wounds after their defeat against the Soviets, the army had decided to join the navy’s doctrine of southern expansion, oil and rubber beckoning them on. In order to cut china from its suppliers they planned to launch a sudden Southern Campaign, using the already seized French Indochina as a springboard. With western colonizers distracted by the war in Europe it was the perfect moment to seize the resource-rich South East Asia. Reluctant to leave an American threat along their flank, and certain that the US would defend the region, Japan started planning an assault upon the islands, the goal: defeat the American forces and occupy the Philippines

The Philipines Campaign was the invasion of the Philippines by Imperial Japan and the defense of the islands by the United States and Philippine forces during the Second World War. This video focused on the early planning and strategy of both forces, the Japanese with Operation M, and The united states with War Plan ORANGE and later war plan RAINBOW. Also, include in this video is the Composition of IJA 16th Army and orders of battle and the United States Army Force in the Far East with its composition and Order of Battle.

A special thanks to RMcD/Ross (sorry for misspelling your name) for providing his voice.

Sources:

- World War II Pacific Island Guide: A Geo-military Study
by Gordon L. Rottman

- Empires in the Balance: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies to April 1942
by H.P. Willmott

- Strategy and Command: The First Two Years
By Louis Morton

- War Plan Orange: The U.S. Strategy to Defeat Japan, 1897-1945
by Edward S. Miller

- The Fall of the Philippines
by Louis Morton

- Ballantine's Campaign book No 16: Fall of the Philippines
by Ward Rutheford

Видео Philippines Campaign | Prelude to The Philippines Campaign (1941) канала Vector Historia