Philippines campaign (1944–1945)
| Philippines campaign (1944–1945) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Pacific Theater of World War II | |||||||||
General Douglas MacArthur, President Osmeña, and staff land at Palo, Leyte on 20 October 1944 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Australia | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
| ||||||||
| Units involved | |||||||||
|
6th Army 6th Army Reserves 5th Air Force 3rd Fleet 7th Fleet Task Force 74 |
14th Area Army Directly controlled
Combined Fleet | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
|
1,250,000 30,000+ guerrillas 300 |
529,802 ~6,000 militia | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
|
Total: 72,000+ American Personnel:
Breakdown by service:
Materiel:
33+ ships sunk Unknown ~10 (5 non-combat) |
Total: 430,000 Japanese Personnel:
Materiel: 93+ ships sunk1,300 aircraft | ||||||||
The Philippines campaign, Battle of the Philippines, Second Philippines campaign, or the Liberation of the Philippines, codenamed Operation Musketeer I, II, and III, was the American, Filipino, Australian and Mexican campaign to defeat and expel the Imperial Japanese forces occupying the Philippines during World War II.
The Imperial Japanese Army overran all of the Philippines during the first half of 1942. Two years later, the liberation of the Philippines from Japan commenced with amphibious landings on the eastern Philippine island of Leyte on 20 October 1944. While Manila was liberated after intense urban combat in early 1945, fighting elsewhere in the Philippines continued until the end of the war. The United States and Philippine Commonwealth military forces, with naval and air support from Australia and the Mexican 201st Fighter Squadron, were still in the process of liberating the Philippines when the Japanese forces in the Philippines were ordered to surrender by Tokyo on 15 August 1945, after the dropping of the atomic bombs on mainland Japan and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria.