Nothing characterized the “shock and awe” of the early months of World War II for the United States like the twin disasters of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the enemy’s conquest of the Philippines five months later. The latter Japanese victory likely had the greatest impact on the Americana public when the enemy’s Philippine conquest was sealed by the May 6, 1942 U.S. surrender of its last bastion of defense in Manila Bay – Corregidor Island fortress, the “Gibraltar of the East.”
Yet, three years later during the liberation of the Philippines by General Douglas MacArthur’s American and Filipino troops, Corregidor was recaptured from its Japanese occupiers in a daring February 1945 airborne drop-amphibious landing operation.
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