RETREAT AND ADVANCE

thank you foreign early 1944 East China from Key bases like qualin the small 14th Air Force accomplished Miracles with the aircraft at their disposal the frontier Flying Tigers fought the Japs with initiative Ingenuity and Superior Tactics General Claire chenault's Air Force suffered chronic shortages they had only such supplies as could be flown across the hump or replacement parts which they cannibalized from their own aircraft nevertheless they did an amazing job of Maintenance under the most primitive field conditions despite the lack of gasoline equipment and Personnel they ran effective fighter and bomber operations along a 5 000 mile front then came June 1944 and the [ __ ] offensive got rolling when the Chinese armies could no longer protect our bases we had to get out during seven terrible months we had to evacuate 13 of our airfields even the modern ones which thousands of Chinese had built for us under desperately trying circumstances so in East China American bombs demolished American bases while the 14th Air Force tasting temporary defeat regrouped at other bases in China The Fifth Air Force advanced in the Pacific liberators operating from captured Fields like biak now prepared the way for the Philippine campaign our mission was to neutralize the enemy on the islands we had bypassed our commanders MacArthur and Kenny felt there were too many [ __ ] strongholds behind us and around us to be healthy air power had to remove the threat of enemy attacks on the flank and the supply line of our proposed amphibious Landing we were ordered to continually pound enemy concentration centers and sea Lanes in no previous Pacific operations did the Preparatory phase cover such a vast area Philippines our next Battleground we employed four battle-tested Air Forces the 14th from China the fifth seventh and 13th from Pacific island bases like biak angwar and moratai Pacific Warfare was Island Warfare it was our job to [ __ ] key bases in the shrinking Japanese empire our targets were enemy installations in the Convoy supplying them so Island by Island and shipped by why should we worked our way back to the Philippines thank you dropping bombs for minimum altitude was no longer risky because of General Kenny's idea attaching parachutes to fragmentation bombs in this way paraphrags could be safely scattered on enemy targets and low-level attacks as the enemy built new airstrips to protect the Philippines our concerted attacks from distant faces pounded them to Rubble together foreign we had softened up the approaches to the Philippines and fulfillment of the promise to return was now in sight on 19 October an Allied Armada of combat and assault vessels maneuvered in Philippine Waters The Joint Chiefs of Staff had decided on laity as The Invasion Island two great amphibious forces of more than 700 ships converged MacArthur knew that lady defenses were heavy nonetheless the 10th and 24th Corps of the sixth Army headed for shore on schedule America was keeping her promise 260 000 [ __ ] troops were scattered throughout the islands from Lady to Luzon they tried to stop the Allies from liberating the Philippines Japanese resistance was in vain Allied troops Advanced from Island to Island in each case the Allied Landings were skillfully affected with boldness and surprise but stubborn and prolonged biking usually followed in the Hills it took two months of bloody battle to secure Lady by January 9th we were fighting our way on Luzon towards Manila the hills of Lucerne were a problem ready made for an air power assist in cooperation with ground units we flew tactical missions against Japs hold up in Mountain caves ground radio control directed our bombing too much from Northwest with the Japanese severely crippled successive Allied invasions treaded to the Philippine archipelago to cut up Luzon U.S troops and Philippine guerrillas on the MacArthur's Direction fought many battles supported by General Kenny's Air Force next came The Rock Corregidor had special meaning for General MacArthur he remembered skinny Wainwright and his men who had suffered five months of battle 28 days of Siege surrender and the death Mart March for them there was a score to settle the most spectacular air action of the Luzon campaign was this pre-invasion bombing and recapture of craigador General Kenny had proposed that it be retaken from the air the blitz started January 23rd with a 13th Air Force dropping 500 pound bombs the seventh Air Force hit the target from Palau Veterans of the Fifth Air Force joined in hammering the guardian Fortress Manila Bay Now 50 troop carrying c-47s from Enduro headed for Corregidor the proposed air Landing was perilous and problematical we were about to retake a citadel built before the war by Americans who tried to make it imprectable we hope that the month of continuous bombing has softened The Rock 2065 men faced the ticklish job of jumping into an extremely short and narrow area a rugged Target surrounded by sheer clips foreign the plan to drop on top side worked we only found scattered opposition but in making the perilous jump 19 Americans were killed 203 injured the Corregidor return drama developed along the classic Allied pattern in the art of trifibious warfare all the tools and Specialists of air ground and Naval forces had been pooled together to achieve victory for a 27th organized resistance on Corregidor ceased it was appropriate that on the same day we returned control of civil Affairs to the Commonwealth government of the Philippines within the week 12 all veterans of the fall of corrigador headed by General of the army MacArthur returned to the Rock they came to pay formal tribute to troops of the 503rd paratroop and 34th infantry regiments who captured it in his remarks MacArthur said Hoist the Colors and let no enemy ever haul them down the road to victory was a long Trek over many bridges won by the combined strength of land sea and air leading the way in pushing the [ __ ] aggressor back to his home islands and crushing his dreams of empire was the United States Air Force oh