20/10/2022
| DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
- General of the Army (US Army)
- Field Marshal (Philippine Army)
On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur delivered his famous “I Have Returned” speech upon landing on Leyte Island. It is one of the most iconic phrases of the war, coupled with one of the most famous photographs, that captured the moment he waded ashore.
A lesser known, but perhaps more monumental message came from MacArthur’s General Headquarters on July 5, 1945, when he declared all of the Philippines had been liberated. The Japanese conquest of the Philippines was one of the worst military disasters in American history. Recapturing the islands after more than three years under Japanese control, therefore, was one of the greatest symbolic and strategic victories of the Pacific war. (National WW2 Museum)
The Battle of Leyte in the Pacific campaign of World War II was the amphibious invasion of the island of Leyte in the Philippines by American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the overall command of General Douglas MacArthur, who fought against the Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines led by General Tomoyuki Yamash*ta. The operation, codenamed King Two, launched the Philippines campaign of 1944–45 for the recapture and liberation of the entire Philippine Archipelago and to end almost three years of Japanese occupation. (National Infantry Museum)
