History of the Philippine Army
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The Philippine Army was established on December 21, 1935, as the Army of the Philippines, with a general headquarters in Manila, and units and formations based throughout the provinces of the Philippines. The Philippine Army was initially organized under the
National Defense Act of 1935 {{Infobox legislation , long_title = An Act to provide National Defense of the Philippines, penalizing certain violations thereof, appropriating funds therefor, and for other purposes , citation Commonwealth Act No. 1, territorial_extent = Philip ...
(Commonwealth Act No. 1) that formally created the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Certain components of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were under the control of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) from 1941 to 1946, after the entry of the U.S. into World War II.


Origin

Before the establishment of the Commonwealth Government in 1935, no effort was made for self-defense by Philippine forces since the United States assumed responsibility for the defense of the islands. An immediate concern of the commonwealth government was the defense of an emerging nation. President-elect
Manuel L. Quezon Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina, (; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier and politician who served as president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1935 until his dea ...
convinced his friend, General
Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
(
Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army The chief of staff of the Army (CSA) is a statutory position in the United States Army held by a general officer. As the highest-ranking officer assigned to serve in the Department of the Army, the chief is the principal military advisor and a ...
), to organize a national army with Franklin D. Roosevelt's agreement in the summer of 1935. MacArthur had unusually-broad authority to deal with the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff as military adviser to the commonwealth government to organize a Philippine national army. MacArthur had broad authority to deal with the United States Secretary of War, his successor as the Army
Chief of Staff The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supporti ...
, and the United States Army Philippine Department and its commander Major General Lucius R. Holbrook (who had been told that his most important peacetime mission was to assist MacArthur in forming a Philippine force capable of defending the islands). MacArthur selected Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and
James B. Ord James Basevi Ord (15 March 1892 – 30 January 1938) was a United States Army lieutenant colonel killed in an air crash at Camp John Hay, Philippines. At the time, Ord was serving as the Assistant Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the P ...
as his assistants; they and a committee at the Army War College prepared plans for the defense of the Philippine Commonwealth, with a target of independence in 1946. The plan called for a small regular army with divisions of about 7,500 men,
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day un ...
of all men between twenty-one and fifty years of age and a ten-year training program to build a
reserve army A military reserve force is a military organization whose members have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional manpower. Reserve f ...
, a small air force and a fleet of torpedo boats capable of repelling an enemy. The National Assembly of the Philippines' first act was the passage of the
National Defense Act The National Defense Act of 1916, , was a United States federal law that updated the Militia Act of 1903, which related to the organization of the military, particularly the National Guard. The principal change of the act was to supersede provi ...
on December 21, 1935, with initial plans for a 10,000-man regular force based on the incorporation of the Philippine Constabulary, a 400,000-man reserve force by 1946, and a West-Point-type military academy in Baguio on Luzon. Quezon noted that there was inadequate funds and time to build an effective naval defense force; the act provided for no navy, but an Offshore Patrol within the army. The offshore patrol would be based on British-designed fast torpedo boats, with an anticipated thirty-six boats under contract by 1946. The Philippine Army Air Corps would, by that time, have about 100 bombers and additional tactical aircraft in support of the offshore patrol in coastal defense. The Commonwealth would have ten military districts (comparable to corps areas in the United States), each able to provide an initial reserve division (growing to three) with full development of the reserve force. In a 1936 speech MacArthur described the force's function as making an invasion so costly that no nation would make the attempt, emphasizing the islands' terrain as making penetration nearly impossible. Development was slow; 1936 was largely devoted to building camps and facilities, with the first conscripts called up on January 1, 1937. A major problem was the formation of a military-officer corps, with constabulary officers trained in law enforcement and limited numbers of
Philippine Scouts The Philippine Scouts (Filipino: ''Maghahanap ng Pilipinas'' or ''Hukbong Maghahanap ng Pilipinas'') was a military organization of the United States Army from 1901 until after the end of World War II. These troops were generally Filipinos an ...
officers becoming senior officers in the new force. By the end of 1939, the reserve force numbered 104,000 men and 4,800 officers. The Philippine Army Air Corps had about forty planes and a hundred trained pilots by 1940. The offshore patrol's development was more problematic, with only two British boats delivered before the war in Europe cut off further deliveries and a struggle to build boats under license locally produced only one boat by October 1941. President Quezon and others recognized that the naval defense was inadequate protection against a first-rate naval power, but the Philippines had neither the money nor industrial base to provide adequate naval force and relied on the assumption that the United States Navy would not idly stand by if the Philippines were attacked. When the war with Japan began, the Philippine Army was six years from its founding in December 1935 and about five years from the 1946 date at which it was to be fully operational. The naval force which was to protect it against a first-rate naval power was in ruins at Pearl Harbor; the Japanese had pilots standing by fueled-and-loaded bombers in
Formosa Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...
, prepared to strike the Philippines.


History


Initial establishment and training

The Army of the Philippines was initially organized under the
National Defense Act of 1935 {{Infobox legislation , long_title = An Act to provide National Defense of the Philippines, penalizing certain violations thereof, appropriating funds therefor, and for other purposes , citation Commonwealth Act No. 1, territorial_extent = Philip ...
(Commonwealth Act No. 1), of December 21, 1935. The Act specified that presidential appointments to grades above third lieutenant should be made from former holders of reserve commissions in the United States Army and former Philippine Scouts and Constabulary officers. After the establishment of the commonwealth, Manuel L. Quezon, its first president, sought the services of General Douglas MacArthur to evolve a national-defense plan. On December 21, 1935, the Army of the Philippines was established. The act set forth the organizational structure of the army and enlistment and mobilization procedures. The army's development was slow. In 1936 a general headquarters and camps were built, cadres were organized and instructors, drawn largely from the Philippine Constabulary, were trained. The commander of the Philippine Department provided Philippine Scouts as instructors and detailed U.S. Army officers to assist in the inspection, instruction and administration of the program. By the end of the year, instructors were trained and camps (including general headquarters) established. The first group of 20,000 to 40,000 men was called up on January 1, 1937, and by the end of 1939 there were 4,800 officers and 104,000 men in the reserves. Infantry training was provided at camps throughout the Philippines; field-artillery training was concentrated near the U.S. Army's Fort Stotsenburg (near Angeles in the province of Pampanga, about fifty miles north of Manila) and specialized training was provided at
Fort William McKinley Fort Andres Bonifacio (formerly named Fort William McKinley) is the site of the national headquarters of the Philippine Army (Headquarters Philippine Army or HPA) located in Metro Manila, Philippines. It is located near the national headquarter ...
, south of Manila. Coast artillery instruction was carried out at Fort Stotsenburg and Grande Island, in Subic Bay, by personnel supplied largely by the American commander at
Corregidor Corregidor ( tl, Pulo ng Corregidor, ) is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, and is considered part of the Province of Cavite. Due to this location, Corregidor has historically b ...
.


Mobilization as part of U.S. Army Forces Far East

With the threat of war with the Empire of Japan imminent, on July 26, 1941, a new U.S. command in the Far East, the United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), was created under Douglas MacArthur (who also became a Philippine Field Marshal). That day, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a presidential order (6 Fed. Reg. 3825) calling "all the organized military forces of the Government of the Commonwealth of the Philippines" into the service of the U.S. armed forces. Despite the order's wording, it did not order all the military forces of the Philippine Commonwealth government into the service of the United States; only those units and personnel indicated in orders issued by a general officer of the United States Army were mobilized and made an integral part of the USAFFE, and only those members of a unit who physically reported for duty were inducted. With an annual appropriation of almost
The Philippine peso sign (₱) is the currency symbol used for the Philippine peso, the official currency of the Philippines. The symbol resembles a Roman letter P with two horizontal strokes. It differs from the currency symbol used for the pe ...
16 million, the mobilized units trained new Filipino members in defense. The Philippine Army was drawn from local Christian and Muslim Filipinos, including native Filipinos, Filipino-Mestizos, Spanish-Filipinos, Chinese-Filipinos and Moro-Filipinos. By the time of the Japanese invasion the 10 reserve divisions were about two-thirds mobilized, for a force of 100,000 "poorly equipped and trained" troops. The
Philippine Scouts The Philippine Scouts (Filipino: ''Maghahanap ng Pilipinas'' or ''Hukbong Maghahanap ng Pilipinas'') was a military organization of the United States Army from 1901 until after the end of World War II. These troops were generally Filipinos an ...
numbered about 12,000. The army was primarily infantry, with some combat engineers and artillery. At that time there were two regular and ten reserve divisions in the Army of the Philippines, spread across officers in general headquarters, camps in Manila and across the country. This included the
North Luzon Force The North Luzon Force was a corps-sized grouping of the U.S.-sponsored Philippine Army, defeated in battle against the Japanese in 1941–42. On November 4, 1941, United States Army Forces Far East (USAFFE) announced the creation of new commands t ...
under Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright); the
South Luzon Force South Luzon Force was a corps-sized unit of the US Army Forces Far East (USAFFE) active in the Philippines between 1941 and 1942. Created along with other 3 commands under the USAFFE, it was officially announced on November 4, 1941, and BGen. ...
, activated on December 13, 1941, under Brig. Gen. George M. Parker; the Visayan-Mindanao Force under Maj. Gen.
William F. Sharp William Fletcher Sharp (September 22, 1885 – March 30, 1947) was a United States Army major general. Sharp, a career Army officer, commanded the Visayan–Mindanao Force during the Philippines campaign (1941–1942), and surrendered his comman ...
in the southern islands ( 61st, 81st, and 101st Infantry Divisions and three other infantry regiments), and the reserve force. The North Luzon Force included the 11th, 21st, and 31st reserve infantry divisions. The South Luzon Force included the 1st (regular) Division and the reserve 41st, 51st and 71st Divisions. After the war ended, the Army was reorganized into the Philippine Armed Forces.


Commanders


See also

* Armed Forces of the Philippines * Military History of the Philippines * Philippine Army * Philippine Revolutionary Army *
Luna sharpshooters The Luna Sharpshooters, also known as the "Marksmen of Death" (Spanish: ''Tiradores de la Muerte''), was an elite unit formed by General Antonio Luna to serve under the Philippine Revolutionary Army. They became famous for fighting fiercer than ...
* List of Equipment Uniforms of the Philippine Commonwealth Army


References


Works cited

* *


Further reading

* * * * * {{Refend Military history of the Philippines Military history of the Philippines during World War II History Commonwealth of the Philippines