"Fighting for MacArthur" by Dr. John Gordon

"Fighting for MacArthur: The Navy and Marine Corps' Desperate Defense of the Philippines"

During the early months of World War II as the American forces fought for the Philippines, tensions grew between Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the Navy. Using a rich collection of American and newly discovered Japanese sources, Dr. John Gordon details the unusual missions of the Navy and Marine Corps in the largely Army campaign. He recounts sailors fighting as infantrymen alongside their Marine comrades at Bataan and Corregidor, crews of Navy ships manning the Army's heavy coastal artillery weapons, and Navy submarines desperately trying to supply the men with food and ammunition. He also chronicles the last stand of the Navy's colorful China gunboats at Manila Bay. Gordon also provides a detailed account of the Japanese bombing of the Cavite Navy Yard outside Manila on the third day of the war, which was the worst damage inflicted on a U.S. Navy installation since the British burned the Washington Navy Yard in 1814. It also closely examines the surrender of the 4th Marines at Corregidor, the only time in history that the U.S. Marine Corps lost a regiment in combat. Gordon also draws on the recently discovered diary of a leader of the Japanese amphibious assault force that fought against the Navy's provisional infantry battalion on southern Bataan, and uses the U.S. ship logs and the 4th Marine unit diary that were evacuated from Manila Bay shortly before the U.S. forces surrendered.

Length: 66 Minutes

Lecture Date: December 12, 2012

Видео "Fighting for MacArthur" by Dr. John Gordon канала The USAHEC