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anarchyintheuk -> RE: Douglas MacArthur Discussion (5/15/2008 8:45:16 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: bradfordkay
"The Phillipine Scouts constituted the Phillipine Army until 1941."
This is a misleading statement. The Phillipine Scouts were the heart of the PA, but they did not even constitute the majority of the army MacArthur claimed to have. In 1935, MacArthur was sent to the PI as "military advisor" to President Quezon. He was authorized to conscript and train a large new army as well as prepare the country's defenses. MacArthur resigned his commission in the US Army on Dec 31, 1937 and was then named commander in chief of the PA.
He was supposed to train about 150,000 men per year starting in 1936 but the actual numbers dropped every year. Apparently, only a tiny portion of those conscripts even finished their training. According to Alan Schom, The Eagle and the Rising Sun, the Phillipine Army consisted of 468 officers and 3697 men, though MacArthur reported to the Phillinpine government that it had 6000 officers and 135,000 enlisted men.
Assuming he was given the funds for the program. Just because you legislate something, doesn't mean its been funded. 150k per year is a fantasy. This source shows a training program of 40k a year beginning in 1937. Doubtful even those numbers were ever reached.
http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/5-2/5-2_1.htm#p8
According to the source above, the PA was supposed to be approx. 10k strong with 400k reserves by 1946. Schom's figure doesn't have a date to it, but it is probably reporting the full-time PA army, not the reserves. Either that or MacArthur managed to mobilize 10 divisions w/ only 4k in manpower. As far as numbers MacArthur reported to the Phillipine government, they sound about right on paper (assuming the date is 1941, no date is given). Whether they mobilized in that number is another matter.
quote:
This is where I speak of his defrauding the Phillipine and US gov'ts. If he had actually taken his commission (to build a Phillipine Army capable of defending the country) to heart, he would have had at least a couple of hundred thousand effective men instead of a few thousand. If he had factually reported the state of the Phillipine Army then Washington would never have authorized his proposed change from the Bataan bastion defense.
A 'couple of hundred thousand effective men'? Effective, to me, means trained and equipped. MacArthur either lied about the state of their training to Washington or was delusional concerning it. Probably both. Granted, their training was insufficient, but were the means and the funds available? MacArthur's misrepresentations aside, how realistic was it for the Phillipines to have trained men (even when they're reservists) and equipment in a number approaching the size of the US Army by 1941? The only source of equipment for the PA was the US. If the US Army didn't have 200k-300k equipped men in 1941, the PA sure wasn't going to have them. A fact known to Washington and one which they were trying to remedy.
quote:
The problem with the truth of your statement is that it is MacArthur's fault that it proved to be true. The multiple PA divisions were an undisciplined mob, with only Mac to blame. He had siz years before the balloon went up to create an army and failed miserably.
True, with mitigating circumstances listed above. With regards to failing to create an army that could deal with the IJA, the PA performed no worse than its peers, the British Army in Malaya and Burma and the Dutch Army in the East Indies.
quote:
He then compounded his mistakes by thinking that he had a real army and using a strategy that was untenable in reality, condemning his troops to a cruel siege with extremely short rations...
I agree. I essentially stated that back on #24.
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