7 JANUARY 1942 – BATTLE OF BATAAN BEGINS
7 JANUARY 1942 – BATTLE OF BATAAN BEGINS
After the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941 and the fall of Manila on 2 January 1942, the defending U.S. and Filipino troops withdrew to Bataan, where the combined forces under the command of U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur fought a fierce defensive action.
The defense of Bataan began officially on 7 January 1942. The Japanese attack on Bataan was halted initially, but it was reinforced over the following three months, slowly rolling back Filipino-American defenses.
During the brutal fighting for control of the peninsula, American and Filipino soldiers endured intense privation, holding out under increasingly impossible odds until the inexorable weight of the enemy forced their surrender on 9 April 1942.
Remnants of the US/Philippine forces, then led by Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright, escaped to Corregidor Island, where they surrendered about a month later. The surviving captured troops were then subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March.
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