World Battlefronts: Philippine Lightning

With lightning-swift strokes, General Douglas MacArthur was winning back the Philippines. Warships churned the waters between the islands, rushing to batter open the way for more, and still more, landings.

As the first American cargo ship to enter Manila Harbor since 1942 steamed past Corregidor's battered casemates, 24th Division troops stormed tiny Verde Island, midway between Luzon and Mindoro. It was the last Japanese strongpoint astride the shortest sea route to the U.S.

Forty-first Division troops swarmed across the narrow beaches of Palawan, whose coastline flanks Japanese shipping lines through the South China Sea.

Men of the Americal Division smashed their way onto Ticao...

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