By the spring of 1942, the Japanese had driven the American and Filipino defenders of the Philippines to the Bataan Peninsula and the brink of total defeat. Still, they believed that it would take a major offensive to overwhelm the defenders. This belief actually forced them to design and successfully launch what could be called a near textbook version of the German blitzkrieg, surprising, cutting off, isolating, and bypassing enemy strongpoints. So effective was the campaign that twice during what turned out to be a six-day battle, offensive operations actually had to be halted to allow tanks and vital supplies to catch up.
The fact that the starving, emaciated, poorly equipped U.S. troops on Bataan were in such dire straits that they would never been able to stop the Japanese, blitzkrieg or not, is not pertinent to the story. Nor is the fact that Japanese General Masaharu Homma anticipated it would take a month to capture Bataan and that his decision to attack Mount Samat, the strongest position on the U.S. line, was a bold one. The plan of attack was central to the rapid success. It was one that would have made German General Heinz Guderian, known to history as the “Father of the Blitzkrieg,” proud.
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