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Hello, and thank you for listening to the history of World War II podcast, episode 32,

The Battling Bastards of Baton. The good news was that MacArthur was safe in Australia.

The bad news was that the Japanese were tightening their blockade from around the Philippines.

Still, the Allies did try to get supplies to the Baton defenders by landing goods on

Sebu, an island in between Mindanao and Luzon. It was hoped that if supplies could get

to Sebu, then their inter-Island steamers could take it the rest of the way. A decent plan,

but as only three of the six ships from Australia got through, the remaining vessels were captured

or sunk, it would not be enough to keep the defenders in the fight. The point is, MacArthur

did not get enough of what he wanted, so he blamed FDR and he blamed Marshall, but

they were trying to help. There was simply not enough naval craft to make the run, much

less guarantee it would get to Corregator safely. It was the same with submarines and planes.

They were being dropped off, but not enough for the Baton garrison to hold out for months

or actually go over to the offensive. Besides the general blaming the president and the

chief of staff, there was also miscommunication or rather a differing of perspectives between

the two groups. When MacArthur left Corregator and placed General Wainwright in charge of

the defending troops, the White House took that to mean he was now the man in charge,

...