Eisenhower in the Pacific: Part 1 The Shoestring Warriors of Luzon
- Thread starter galveston bay
- Start date
Marathag, I was thinking of this class of submarine EML Lembit, built by Vickers Barrow in 1936. There was also the German type XB U-boats of 1938. The XB class did carry freight in their mine shafts external to the pressure hull.
Now that's a truly genius idea. Just make sure they're painted differently than normal mines.
A change in command February 1 1942
Evacuation of General Eisenhower
On January 30, 1942, the USS Tarpon arrives at Corregidor carrying the aid de camp of Admiral Bellinger on board with plans from the Admiral for the evacuation of Eisenhower and other key staff. At the same time Eisenhower receives a Presidential order to leave Luzon and to proceed to Singapore and then Australia before flying to Washington to confer with General Marshal, Secretary Stimson and the President on February 20. The order continues that after that conference he is to return to Australia to take command of all Allied forces in South and the Southwest Pacific under the command of Admiral Nimitz (who is overall theater commander of the Pacific Theater).
Although leaving his men behind is profoundly distasteful Eisenhower has little choice but to accept the order. An order is radioed to General Ord promoting him to Lieutenant General and commander of US forces in the Philippines at his new headquarters in Cebu City. Wainwright is appointed commander of US Forces Luzon under the authority of Ord and thus Eisenhower. General King is appointed commander of Bataan, while General Moore will remain as commander of the harbor defenses.
Orders are also given for the evacuation of all the remaining officers of PT Squadron 3, and the 4 remaining boats are to be turned over to officers of the Philippine Coast Guard. The enlisted men are reassigned to other duties or remain with the boats as advisors. Those officers leave with the submarine, along with several older staff officers with important skills, on February 2. All of them are returned to the United States where they will rise in the PT Boat force which will grow significantly over the next couple of years and see action in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
On the evening of January 31, 8 PBY Catalina patrol bombers, stripped of most of their enlisted men crew, land just before dark. General Eisenhower, his Chief of Staff General Beebe, their aides including Captain Edwin Ramsey, as well as several company executive officers, platoon leaders and senior NCOs from the 31st US Infantry, 65th US Infantry, 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions, 26th Cavalry, and 1st Separate Battalion (USMC) as Eisenhower wants experienced combat officers and senior NCOs to be sent home to pass on their experience but does not want to gut those units completely of good officers. A total of 90 men are flown out an hour after the aircraft land and all successfully complete their first leg to Singapore, arriving just before dawn. There Eisenhower meets with Wavell and finds that the British defenders are demoralized, at least at the command level, particularly their commander General Percival.
The meeting with General Eisenhower however, who is confident his troops will hold out for months and who has fought a successful battle with the Japanese does trigger a decision by Wavell that will have substantial consequences.
On January 30, 1942, the USS Tarpon arrives at Corregidor carrying the aid de camp of Admiral Bellinger on board with plans from the Admiral for the evacuation of Eisenhower and other key staff. At the same time Eisenhower receives a Presidential order to leave Luzon and to proceed to Singapore and then Australia before flying to Washington to confer with General Marshal, Secretary Stimson and the President on February 20. The order continues that after that conference he is to return to Australia to take command of all Allied forces in South and the Southwest Pacific under the command of Admiral Nimitz (who is overall theater commander of the Pacific Theater).
Although leaving his men behind is profoundly distasteful Eisenhower has little choice but to accept the order. An order is radioed to General Ord promoting him to Lieutenant General and commander of US forces in the Philippines at his new headquarters in Cebu City. Wainwright is appointed commander of US Forces Luzon under the authority of Ord and thus Eisenhower. General King is appointed commander of Bataan, while General Moore will remain as commander of the harbor defenses.
Orders are also given for the evacuation of all the remaining officers of PT Squadron 3, and the 4 remaining boats are to be turned over to officers of the Philippine Coast Guard. The enlisted men are reassigned to other duties or remain with the boats as advisors. Those officers leave with the submarine, along with several older staff officers with important skills, on February 2. All of them are returned to the United States where they will rise in the PT Boat force which will grow significantly over the next couple of years and see action in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Pacific.
On the evening of January 31, 8 PBY Catalina patrol bombers, stripped of most of their enlisted men crew, land just before dark. General Eisenhower, his Chief of Staff General Beebe, their aides including Captain Edwin Ramsey, as well as several company executive officers, platoon leaders and senior NCOs from the 31st US Infantry, 65th US Infantry, 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions, 26th Cavalry, and 1st Separate Battalion (USMC) as Eisenhower wants experienced combat officers and senior NCOs to be sent home to pass on their experience but does not want to gut those units completely of good officers. A total of 90 men are flown out an hour after the aircraft land and all successfully complete their first leg to Singapore, arriving just before dawn. There Eisenhower meets with Wavell and finds that the British defenders are demoralized, at least at the command level, particularly their commander General Percival.
The meeting with General Eisenhower however, who is confident his troops will hold out for months and who has fought a successful battle with the Japanese does trigger a decision by Wavell that will have substantial consequences.
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authors notes: Eisenhower doesn't have a wife, child and nanny he needs to evacuate. Admiral Rockwell has not left yet but will be leaving soon enough
note that command in the Philippines is now outside of Bataan/Corregidor
note that command in the Philippines is now outside of Bataan/Corregidor
that is it for the Philippines for a bit.... things are about to explode in the DEI, Malaya and Burma as well as Davao.
which will be in this story
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...al-seas-a-story-from-a-battle-at-dawn.412552/
I will be coming back to the Philippines from time to time as the months in the war move along....
basically its a lull at Bataan for a while as the Japanese rebuild their forces
which will be in this story
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...al-seas-a-story-from-a-battle-at-dawn.412552/
I will be coming back to the Philippines from time to time as the months in the war move along....
basically its a lull at Bataan for a while as the Japanese rebuild their forces
Donald Reaver
Donor
Too late to save Singapore I suppose, encouraging Wavell to change out Percival would be nice but probably to late at this point. But please do not let that stop you.
Making the Japanese pay more, slowing down their invasion of Burma, and perhaps preventing the famine in India would be awesome.
Making the Japanese pay more, slowing down their invasion of Burma, and perhaps preventing the famine in India would be awesome.gb, the air evacuation out of the Philippines...are all of the 750 personnel coming from Bataan, or is it just the wounded?
wounded and other personnel coming from both Bataan and the forts (which are being bombed daily at this point), with priority going to people that the Army and Navy needs.
750 personnel a week is a sizable chunk of folks who won't have to worry about any sort of a Bataan Death March...and bringing in key spares, medical supplies, and some ammunition (at this point my priority would to keep the tanks and Bren gun carriers operational)
also at some point, when does a Pusan Perimeter defense position get formed?
1) a fallback position once the Japanese finally get some heavy and super-heavy artillery in position and
2) something that would keep the forts out of artillery range for a few more weeks...use unserviceable tanks as pillboxes on the final line...
eventually the Bataan peninsula is going to fall, but who is going to be left in it? the longer the battle goes on, the larger the quantities of butterflies...
historically, there were nearly 10,000 men in the hospital from malaria and malnutrition at the time the defense was overrun during the final Japanese offensive, so 750 a week won't deplete the defense too badly
and that airlift only works as long as the Japanese don't do anything to interfere with it by taking Java, Celebes, Timor etc
gb, thank you for taking the time to answer my questions and going into this level of detail. The issue is as I see it, TTL the Army has adequate food, a sizable degree of mosquito control done prior to falling back to the peninsula, and large quantities of quinine on hand...
The soliders under siege are going to be far better fed and in much better health...the longer operations go on, the more opportunities there will be to evacuate personnel. Not everyone, but it seems to me a decent number of folks can be moved onto one of the other islands from the forts and the peninsula.
Thanks for the updates. Ike and others have been airlifted out, a plan for some extra supplies coming in and taking wounded out in is being implemented, and a split of the various commands will help to extend resistance and heartening the wills of the defenders. As we know, Bataan will still fall, but the longer it and others forces can last, the more Japan will have to use much needed troops rather than being able to send them to other offensives.
I will wait to see what may happen in the Indian Ocean and DEI.
I will wait to see what may happen in the Indian Ocean and DEI.
I agree with all of this, as these boats can be spared from the anti-shipping war. Before you get too excited, be advised that Argonaut, Narwhal, and Nautilus were large boats , thus slow divers and they handled poorly while submerged. They also make great sonar targets. If they get caught by ASW escorts during a run in or out there is a good chance they will get nailed. The B-boats were old and in sad shape by the time the war had broken out, indeed all three had been laid up in reserve for several years. They were slow on the surface and were a mechanical nightmare. All of these boats were of riveted construction, which make them leak fuel like a sieve and leaves them vulnerable to depth charge damage. The probability of losing at least one on a run to the P.I. is high. But when all is said, these six boats, supplemented by the other 8 as needed are better than nothing.
Will be interesting to see the strategy that Nimitz and Ike come up with.
Will there be a focus on defending Aus then back to Phil like McArthur otl or more of the central Pacific as Nimitz wanted.
A quicker start to the central Pac might get to the Marianas sooner.
But of course, if US troops are still holding out on Bataan then the pressure will be to set up relief for them.
This timeline and the for DEI will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Would be awesome if Japanese surrender before Aug 1, 1945.
Will there be a focus on defending Aus then back to Phil like McArthur otl or more of the central Pacific as Nimitz wanted.
A quicker start to the central Pac might get to the Marianas sooner.
But of course, if US troops are still holding out on Bataan then the pressure will be to set up relief for them.
This timeline and the for DEI will be interesting to see how it plays out.
Would be awesome if Japanese surrender before Aug 1, 1945.
nbcman
Donor
From the perspective of the US in January 1942 if the USS Argonaut, Barracuda, Bass and Bonita won't make it to Australia until June 1942, what is the point? It would be extraordinarily optimistic of the US commanders to expect in January 1942 that the US forces in the PI would withstand at least a 6 month siege with only a small trickle of supplies coming in followed by a slightly larger trickle after these 4 subs make their way to Australia. And if these subs are being repurposed, what subs are going to be tasked in the future for Marine Raider actions (Argonaut and Nautilus took part in the Makin Island raids).
EDIT: Since the US planners would know that there is no way for the US to have sufficient strength and a fleet train assembled to be able to relieve the PI for at least another year or more after June 1942.
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to support the planned partisan war (the Raiders are still being invented and don't exist yet in January 1942).. in a previous post I spelled out other efforts (troops being taken off the books to go hide) outside of the Bataan area, as well as earlier mentions of formations taking to the mountains in Luzon
the 3 B boats spent OTL World War II as training ships at the Panama Canal Zone and were taken out of service even before the war ended
as to US submarine losses... the USS Shark will be meeting its fate fairly soon (becoming the 3rd US boat lost in the war so far after 1 each at Pearl Harbor and Cavite)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shark_(SS-174)
But the B boats are available and relatively expendable while the bigger boats are very valuable and uniquely capable of carrying more personnel and cargo in and out of the Philippines
The other Fleet boats have a war to fight (once they get torpedoes that work anyway)
Driftless
Donor
I'll bet part of GB's calculus of many variables includes the altered political/diplomatic/military landscape in this timeline. With more Filipino leadership and military moved out of Bataan to "fight another day" there may be more diplomatic pressure to support US military action in the Philippines at an earlier stage than the US military leadership would like. GB has set the table with a more robust partisan and conventional military fight down the archipelago. Might you see some congressional push(in place of the late MacArthur) to re-take the Philippines 1943-44? In any case, such pressure (sans Mac) may not alter the battle plan as it did historically with Mac at the hub.