The Motor Transport Service began to evacuate all its motor transport to Bataan on December 29. It sent convoys by land and additional equipment by water. The next day, military and civilian personnel destroyed the last of the Manila Railroad's locomotives and rolling stock. MacArthur's logistics rear echelon did not evacuate the city until the night of December 31. Few people had any idea of the rules for a defender's use of an open city–rules which were, as mentioned, vague–and even fewer people cared.

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One man who did not know was 27-year-old Captain Richard W. Fellows. Far East Air Force Service Command had ordered Fellows to evacuate the Philippine Air Corps repair parts depot to Bataan by midnight, December 24. Fellows had no idea how close the Japanese were; the rumor was that Manila would be declared an open city. Fellows did not know what open city meant, but he did know that his materiel was the lifeblood of MacArthur's air force. He also knew that he could not get everything out by midnight. He had four P-40s under repair, and he hoped to fly them out using city streets as runways.

Fellows and his men stayed near Manila for three days, loading parts into trucks and rebuilding the four aircraft. The 200-ton coaster Dos Hermanos sailed from Manila to Bataan with 18 P-40 engines the night of the 27th. Fellows also stuffed aboard 70 tons of tools and bench equipment, 150 bottles of oxygen, 12 gasoline generators, parts and sheet metal. Three of his planes flew out on December 26 and 27. Trucks shuttled between Bataan and Manila. The last trucks and fourth P-40 left Manila early on January 1.

All this happened while the city was open, while it was "without the characteristics of a military objective." Fellows' activities were not the least bit unusual. He was just one of many aggressive, active soldiers who saved supplies while the city was considered open.

The declaration of Manila as an open city had no significance to the campaign. It did not matter tactically (except to prolong the subsequent Bataan campaign) whether one side or the other violated the city's status. It is, however, interesting to note that after the war, the United States executed the Japanese invasion commander, General Masaharu Homma, for, among other reasons, not supervising his men or controlling their treatment of Filipino and American prisoners during the Bataan Death March.

Regardless of his motives, MacArthur, too, failed to control his men when he allowed them to violate his open city proclamation. Luckily for MacArthur, his side won the war.

John W. Whitman is a retired Army lieutenant colonel of infantry, an airborne Ranger with overseas tours in Vietnam, Korea and Panama. He is a graduate of the Fort Leavenworth Command and General Staff College and holds an Army secondary specialty of historian. For further reading try: They Fought with What They Had, by Walter D. Edmonds; United States Army in World War II, by Louis Morton; or Bataan: Our Last Ditch, by John W. Whitman.[ TOP ] [ Cover ]

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