Banzai: Philippines '42 EVERYMAN Edition

Mabatang, Philippines, 11 January 1942: General Homma, commander of the Japanese 14th Army ordered General Akira Nara, the senior officer of the 65th Brigade, to clear the Bataan peninsula. He specifically commanded that the defenses at Mabatang be attacked immediately. Homma assigned this task to General Nara because Nara was a graduate of the U.S. Army Infantry School, class of 1927, and was thus familiar with American tactics. 14th Army HQ intelligence officer Lieutenant General Hikaru Haba briefed Homma to expect light resistance. American forces were apparently on the run and the enemy formations arrayed before the Japanese were merely a token rear guard. Based on this intelligence, General Homma underestimated the American adversaries. He was also grossly over-confident of the capabilities of his own men. A multitude of errors flowed from these assumptions. The Japanese 65th was composed of poorly-trained conscripts. Short of supplies, the unit rationed artillery ammunition and lacked detailed maps of the battlefield. Further, the Japanese High Command, enmeshed in an attack outside the Philippines, began removing units from the 14th Army. The folly was worsened when 14th Army HQ denied General Nara's requests to over-fly his sector and obtain aerial reconnaissance photographs. Even worse, the General then received orders detailing the re-deployment of one of his best units leaving him with, in his words, “…a unit absolutely unfit for combat.”