War & conflict · People & lives

He abandoned his surrounded army and came out a national hero

In March 1942, with Japanese forces closing in on the besieged island fortress of Corregidor, General Douglas MacArthur was ordered by President Roosevelt to abandon the Philippines and take command of Allied forces in Australia. Rather than risk the crossing in a submarine, MacArthur chose to run the Japanese blockade aboard a small squadron of PT boats commanded by a young lieutenant, John Bulkeley. Along with his wife, young son, the boy's Cantonese nanny, and a tight-knit group of staff officers who would later be nicknamed the Bataan Gang, he endured two days of storm-tossed seas, near misses with Japanese warships, and boats running on jury-rigged fuel drums before reaching Mindanao. From there a battered, unreliable B-17 finally got him to Australia, followed by an exhausting, multi-stage train journey across the outback, during which he coined the phrase that would define his wartime mission: he had come through, and he would return.

The episode grew out of a hopeless military situation. MacArthur, a decorated World War I veteran recalled from retirement to unite American and Filipino forces, had been forced to retreat to the Bataan peninsula as Japan overran Luzon, and by early 1942 planners in Washington saw no realistic way to relieve the garrison. His stand there, however, had made him a rare bright spot for American morale, and officials feared what his capture would mean if Corregidor fell. Even so, MacArthur resisted leaving his men for weeks, delaying his departure until he judged the front stable enough, and he insisted on choosing the method and timing of his escape himself, partly out of a reluctance to travel submerged in a submarine with an unfamiliar crew.

The escape did not settle matters cleanly. Troops left behind on Bataan, who held out under Jonathan Wainwright until early May, often felt bitter and abandoned, and MacArthur's exit was mocked by Axis propagandists as a general in flight. Washington moved to shore up his image, awarding him the Medal of Honor, while a separate, contested effort saw the Navy secure a similar honor for Bulkeley. The staff who made the journey with MacArthur became the core of his new headquarters and stayed fiercely loyal to him for the rest of the war, eventually returning with him to Corregidor by PT boat in 1945 when he made good on his promise.

Offered a submarine for a quiet exit, MacArthur instead took his family and staff through storm-tossed, warship-patrolled seas in PT boats, then flew to Australia in B-17s.

Read the whole of Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines on Wikipedia

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