Today in WWII History
World War II History for May 6
1941 - Joseph Stalin assumed the Soviet premiership.
1941 - Bob Hope gave his first USO show at California’s March Field.
1942 - All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally.
Today day in 1942, U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright surrenders all U.S. troops in the Philippines to the Japanese.
General MacArthur and Major General Wainwright
The island of Corregidor remained the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan (from which General Wainwright had managed to flee, to Corregidor). Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders. Although still managing to sink many Japanese barges as they approached the northern shores of the island, the Allied troops could hold the invader off no longer. General Wainwright, only recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese General Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops (he had already lost 800 men). He surrendered at midnight. All 11,500 surviving Allied troops were evacuated to a prison stockade in Manila.
General Wainwright remained a POW until 1945. As a sort of consolation for the massive defeat he suffered, he was present on the USS Missouri for the formal Japanese surrender ceremony on September 2, 1945. He would also be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman. Wainwright died in 1953-exactly eight years to the day of the Japanese surrender ceremony.
1945 - Axis Sally made her final propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
With her sultry voice, Mildred Gillars was a well-known propagandist to Allied troops. She often speculated about whether their wives and sweethearts were still faithful to them, and also played American songs. Her broadcasts were sometimes peppered with antisemitic rhetoric and bitter attacks on Franklin D. Roosevelt. Gillars usually introduced herself as “Midge at the mike,” but American troops nicknamed her “Axis Sally.”
References:
All American forces in the Philippines surrender unconditionally. (2008). The History Channel website. Retrieved 03:24, May 6, 2008, from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6445.
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