Swift later patrolled the Mexican border alongside George S. He had been there before, as an aide to General John J. Much like MacArthur, “Bull” Swift was also returning to the Philippines. Walter Krueger’s Sixth Army as it liberated the capital city of Manila, thus fulfilling General Douglas MacArthur’s vow to the Filipino people. Swift’s task as commanding general of I Corps was a straightforward one: cover the flank of Lt. Army officer found himself part of a landing force preparing to invade Luzon, the largest of the Philippine Islands. Swift, the threat of just such an armored counterthrust, an imagined nightmare scenario, made for many anxious moments. The Japanese lagged behind other major world military powers in the development of armor, and much of the terrain where combat occurred in the Pacific was ill-suited for the deployment of tanks.įor Maj. A Japanese medium tank lies knocked out and abandoned after a firefight in the Philippines. Victorious, they had hurled their foe back into the sea. By dawn, after destroying ammunition dumps, supply depots, and motor pools, the Japanese attackers finally halted. The few Allied fighting vehicles then on shore stood no chance against this mechanized onslaught.

Stunned GIs were crushed in their foxholes by the unstoppable leviathans, or bayoneted by accompanying infantry. It was an amphibious commander’s worst nightmare-swarms of enemy tanks, spitting death with every cannon shell and machine-gun burst, smashing through the American beachhead.

Wwii japanese tank battle animated gifs