The Battle of Luzon: Clark Field, January 1945 (XX0103)

The Battle of Luzon, 1945 — The Largest Campaign of the Pacific War

American troops in action at Clark Field on 19 January 1945, during the drive south from the Lingayen landings towards Manila. Luzon was the largest land campaign the United States fought in the Pacific, and it lasted until the Japanese surrender in August.

Why the Philippines at all

There was a real strategic argument for bypassing the Philippines and striking directly at Formosa or the Japanese home islands. The decision to retake Luzon was as much political as military — a commitment made in 1942 and honoured in 1944 — and it committed enormous forces to a campaign that continued long after its strategic purpose had been achieved.

An airfield worth fighting for

Clark Field was the largest air base complex in the Philippines and had been the target of the Japanese attack that destroyed most American air power in the archipelago in December 1941. Retaking it in January 1945 gave Allied aircraft a base from which to cover the advance on Manila. The ground around it was defended by naval troops and improvised units fighting from bunkers and caves.

The defence that did not defend the beaches

General Yamashita concluded that the landings could not be stopped and did not try. He withdrew the bulk of his forces into three mountain redoubts to fight a prolonged delaying campaign, trading ground for time in order to tie down American forces for as long as possible. It worked: organised Japanese resistance in northern Luzon continued until the end of the war.

Manila

Yamashita’s plan did not include holding Manila, but naval troops in the city disregarded the withdrawal order and defended it street by street through February 1945. The month-long battle destroyed the city and killed an estimated 100,000 civilians. It was the most destructive urban fighting of the Pacific war and its consequences fell overwhelmingly on the Filipino population.

The scale of the campaign

Roughly 280,000 Japanese troops were on Luzon at the start of the campaign, more than in any other single Pacific operation, alongside ten American divisions and Filipino guerrilla forces that had been operating throughout the occupation. Fighting continued in the northern mountains until Yamashita surrendered in September 1945, weeks after the war formally ended.