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The Library’s long, popular partnership with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth resumes with the first in a new series of online presentations. Military historian Louis DiMarco recounts the largest and perhaps most important battle fought by the U.S. Army in the Pacific during World War II, now strangely all but forgotten.
American troops fought – block by block, house by house – for a brutal 29 days in 1945 to liberate the Philippine capital of Manila from Japan’s brutal occupation. It was the culmination of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s promise almost three years earlier to return and reclaim the strategically positioned islands.
DiMarco examines a horrific encounter in which more than 15,000 Japanese defenders fought virtually to the last man. More than 100,000 Filipinos perished, and a modern, progressive city once known as the Pearl of the Orient was reduced to rubble.
American troops fought – block by block, house by house – for a brutal 29 days in 1945 to liberate the Philippine capital of Manila from Japan’s brutal occupation. It was the culmination of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s promise almost three years earlier to return and reclaim the strategically positioned islands.
DiMarco examines a horrific encounter in which more than 15,000 Japanese defenders fought virtually to the last man. More than 100,000 Filipinos perished, and a modern, progressive city once known as the Pearl of the Orient was reduced to rubble.