December 8, 1941

by Bartsch, William H.

• ISBN13: 9781585442461
• ISBN10: 1585442461
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr

Summary

Ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "another Pearl Harbor" of perhaps more devastating consequence for American arms occurred in the Philippines, forty-five hundred miles to the west. On December 8, 1941, at 12.35 P.M., 196 Japanese Navy bombers and fighters crippled the largest force of B-17 four-engine bombers outside the United States and also decimated their protective P-40 interceptors. The sudden blow allowed the Japanese to rule the skies over the Philippines, removing the only effective barrier that stood between them and their conquest of Southeast Asia. This event has been called "one of the blackest days in American military history." How could the army commander in the Philippines--the renowned Lt. Gen. Douglas MacArthur--have been caught with all his planes on the ground when he had been informed in the small hours of that morning of the Pearl Harbor attack and warned of the likelihood of a Japanese strike on his forces? In this book, author William H. Bartsch attempts to answer this and other related questions. Bartsch draws upon twenty-fi

Table of Contents

Foreword	3	(4)
Lt. Gen. Joseph H. Moore
Preface	7	(4)
Acknowledgments	11	(4)
Prologue: ``Seize This Golden Opportunity''	15	(18)
Part I: ``By God, It Is Destiny That Brings Me Here!''	33	(58)
``They Have Really Ripped the 17th All to Hell''	45	(16)
``A Troop of Boy Scouts Flying Kites Could Take These Damned Islands''	61	(9)
``They Will Be Shot Down as Fast as They Are Put in the Air''	70	(21)
Part II: ``If We Make Our Attack Now, the War Is Not Hopeless''	91	(88)
``Why Send Over These Ninety-Day Wonders?''	106	(24)
``The Creation of the Five-Engine Bomber Has Completely Changed the Strategy in the Pacific''	130	(23)
``Feasibility of Direct Attack on Luzon in the Philippines''	153	(26)
Part III: ``The Inability of an Enemy to Launch His Air Attack on These Islands Is Our Greatest Security''	179	(76)
``We Are Going Much Too Far on the Offensive Side''	197	(31)
``Struck by Its Resemblance to a Railroad Timetable''	228	(27)
Part IV: ``I Shall Die Only for the Emperor, I Shall Never Look Back''	255	(154)
``What a Fog!''	264	(27)
``Go Get 'Em!''	291	(20)
``Navy, Hell, It's the Japs!''	311	(30)
``Whatever You Do, Don't Get under the Damned Truck!''	341	(17)
``All We've Got Left Is the Key to the Airplane''	358	(24)
``What Is the Matter with the Enemy?''	382	(27)
Epilogue	409	(16)
Appendix A. Japanese Naval Air Strength for the Philippines Operation, December 8, 1941	425	(1)
Appendix B. Japanese Army Air Strength for the Philippines Operation, Formosa, December 8, 1941	426	(1)
Appendix C. Far East Air Force Strength in the Philippines, December 8, 1941	427	(1)
Appendix D. Order of Battle, Tainan Kokutai, Tainan, Formosa, December 8, 1941	428	(2)
Appendix E. Order of Battle, 3d Kokutai, Takao, Formosa, December 8, 1941	430	(2)
Appendix F. Officers of the 24th Pursuit Group, December 8, 1941	432	(3)
Appendix G. Officers of the 19th Bomb Group (Heavy), December 8, 1941	435	(4)
Appendix H. Far East Air Force Personnel Killed in Action, December 8, 1941	439	(3)
Appendix I. B-17s of the 19th Bomb Group (Heavy), December 8, 1941	442	(1)
Appendix J. Japanese Naval Terminology	443	(2)
Notes	445	(60)
Sources	505	(28)
Index	533