The Chieftain’s Hatch section of the World of Tanks website has posted an article on the Tank-Infantry Battle of Munoz, Philippines by guest writer Harry Yeide.  Mr. Yeide is the author of several books on US armored forces in WW2, including The Infantry’s Armor, The Tank Killers, and Steeds of Steel.  Earlier this year we published an interview with Mr. Yeide.

Excerpt:

General Douglas MacArthur intended to invade Luzon, the Philippine Islands, right where the Japanese had conducted their main landings in 1941, and for the same reason: The Lingayen Gulf provided direct access to the central plains and Manila. He gave the task to Lieutenant General Krueger and his Sixth Army, supported by the air and naval forces of the Southwest Pacific Area. Once ashore, Sixth Army’s I Corps was to protect the beachhead’s left flank while XIV Corps drove south to Clark Field and then Manila.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commanding general, did not intend to defend the central plains-Manila Bay area with his 260,000 troops because American superiority in armor and mobility would have its greatest advantage there. He sought only to pin down MacArthur’s forces in order to delay Allied progress toward Japan.

Read the full article here.