Back to Bataan! US Forces in the Far East, 1941-1942 (Part 2)

In Part 1, I tried to explain my interest (inspiration?)for this series of articles looking at the early years of US involvement in World War 2. Some months ago, the two books came across my path, both on the Bataan Campaign. Heretofore, the classic study of this remarkable campaign was the US Army's Official History of World War Two, which came out in the early 1950's and edited by Louis Morton, specifically, The Fall of the Philippines (1953). While long out of print, I suspect that most public libraries, at least here in the US, have one or more volumes in their stacks, or can obtain them through an inter-library loan. But as official histories, while long on facts, figures, and tables lack to a great extent the human element who witnessed or participated in the campaign. The  other two are: Whitman: Bataan: Our Last Ditch (1990), and, Young: The Battle of Bataan, A Complete History (2009). 

 In this edition, I am going to take a look at the organization of the Philippine Division which provided the backbone for the defense of the archipelago. Originally organized along the Great War model of a "square division", in 1940 General MacArthur requested and received permission to reorganize it along the then current triangular division model, ultimately allowing it to field three Regimental Combat Teams (RCT's). As this went on just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, some anomalies were bound to occur. However, my goal here is to look at the small unit level -- the level of many war game's rules, including my current favorite, Chain of Command 2 and its associated The Far East. 1941-45.

 The heart of the Philippine Division were the Philippine Scouts (PS), long-service and highly trained local forces, commanded by both American (mainly) and Philippine officers and NCO's. They were in many ways an elite, often having multiple generations of troops within the units, and all being required to have a high school diploma (a requirement that was absent in the Regular American Army). Highly disciplined, the troops had the fewest instances of disciplinary issues in the American establishment. Their emphasis on marksmanship rivaled that of the much smaller US Marines. Oddly enough, they along with the 26th Cavalry (PS), were all equipped with the M1 Garand, something the Marines did not yet have!

Under the old Brigade organization (square division), The Scouts were organized as follows: 23rd Infantry Brigade (PS) 45th Infantry Regiment (PS) 57th Infantry Regiment (PS) 

24th Infantry Brigade (PS) 1/43rd Infantry Regiment (PS) 

These Brigades were supported by the 23rd (2.95" QF mountain guns, left) and 24th (75mm M1917 guns, right) Field Artillery Regiments (PS) They are shown below:

The American 31st Infantry Regiment was assigned officially to the Philippine Division in December of 1941. Unfortunately, the paper organization was undergoing a drastic change when the War struck so too much was still undone. 

The Division had been reinforced, reorganized, and mostly equipped. There even was another US Infantry Regiment (34th Infantry) sailing to reinforce them (it left the West Coast on 1 December 1941. Ultimately, it was diverted to Australia). Next time, I'll discuss the small unit (company/platoon/squad) organization of the infantry. Until then...