PHILIPPINES
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
PHILIPPINES
MORTAR SQUAD ASSEMBLING AN 81-MM. MORTAR M1 during training in the Philippine Islands in 1941 (top). New recruits are given instruction in use of the Browning .30-caliber machine gun M1917A1 (bottom). In 1936 a program for national defense was initiated in the Philippine Islands. A military mission of U.S. officers was charged with the organization and training of Filipino regular troops. In July 1941 the Philippine Army was ordered into the service of the Army of the United States and U.S. troops were sent to the islands from the United States.
PHILIPPINES
FILIPINO TROOPS training with a 37-mm. antitank gun M3. As a result of the war warning to all overseas garrisons on 27 November 1941, the U.S. forces in the Philippines went on a full war alert. Over a period of years the Japanese had collected a valuable store of information about the Philippines and planned to occupy the Philippine Islands, eliminating all U.S. troops there.