Douglas MacArthur: “I Shall Return!” ...It didn’t happen exactly the way (and where) you may have thought

On this Day, March 17, 1942, General Douglas MacArthur first makes his famous declaration, "I shall return" after leaving the Philippines during World War II.

President Franklin Roosevelt, fearful of one of America’s most successful and well-known generals being taken captive by the Japanese if Corregidor fell, was too bitter a conclusion to contemplate.

On February 23, Secretary of War Harry Stimson and Chief of Staff George Marshall sent MacArthur a message ordering him to leave the Philippines for Australia.

The President directs that you make arrangements to leave and proceed to Mindanao. You are directed to make this change as quickly as possible … From Mindanao you will proceed to Australia where you will assume command of all United States troops … Instructions will be given from here at your request for the movement of submarine or plane or both to enable you to carry out the foregoing instructions. You are authorized to take your chief of staff General Sutherland.

After struggling against great odds to save the Philippines from Japanese conquest, General MacArthur abandoned the island fortress of Corregidor under those orders.

Left behind at Corregidor and on the Bataan Peninsula were 90,000 American and Filipino troops, who, lacking food, supplies, and support, would soon succumb to the Japanese offensive.

The original plan was for MacArthur to depart Corregidor by submarine, but he ended up changing his mind and going by surface ships in PT boats. The small PT boats were in need of an overhaul as they’d been in constant combat operations since the war began, Bulkeley did the best he could with spare parts at a premium since the loss of the Subic Bay naval base. Each PT boat would carry twenty 55-gallon drums of additional fuel on the deck. This would reduce the top speed of the boats to about 30 knots (56 kilometers per hour; 35 miles per hour).

And to make room for MacArthur’s family and staff that he was bringing with him, the so-called “Bataan Gang”, Bulkeley had to leave 32 of his sailors behind. They were turned into infantry troops on Bataan.

There would be four PT boats assigned to get MacArthur, his staff and his family out of Corregidor. PT-41 commanded by Bulkeley, would have MacArthur, Jean MacArthur, Arthur MacArthur IV, and 7 others on board.

Because there was no food for the passengers on the PT boats, Jean and MacArthur's aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L. Huff, packed tins of food into four duffel bags, one for each boat. Huff removed the four-star rank number plates from MacArthur's car so they could be used in Australia, and took a mattress for the MacArthurs to lie on. Stories later circulated that it was full of cash or gold. Other stories had it that furniture from MacArthur's residence in the Manila Hotel had been loaded on board the PT boats, even, in one version of the story, the piano. In fact, each passenger was limited to one piece of luggage weighing 35 pounds or less. Jean took a small suitcase with some clothes. It sported a label from the Hotel New Grand in Yokohama, where she stayed during her honeymoon. Ah Cheu wrapped her possessions in a handkerchief. MacArthur took nothing.

Only PT-41, which carried MacArthur and his family, departed from Corregidor's North Dock. The passengers of the remaining boats were taken to Bataan in launches and boarded their PT boats there. While his family boarded, MacArthur spoke to Major General George F. Moore, the commander of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. "George", he told him, "keep the flag flying. I'm coming back."

PT-41 departed at 19:45 on 11 March and joined the other three 15 minutes later. A navy minelayer led the PT boats through the protective minefield in single file. The boats then assumed a diamond formation, with PT-41 in the lead and PT-34 bringing up the rear. If attacked by the Japanese, PT-41 was to flee while the other three boats engaged the enemy. The seas were moderate, but most of the passengers quickly became seasick. MacArthur later recalled:

“The weather deteriorated steadily, and towering waves buffeted our tiny, war-weary, blacked-out vessels. The spray drove against our skin like stinging pellets of birdshot. We would fall into a trough, then climb up the steep water peak, only to slide down the other side. The boat would toss crazily back and forth, seeming to hang free in space as though about to breach, and would then break away and go forward with a rush. I recall describing the experience afterward as what it must be like to take a trip in a concrete mixer.”

Due to the high seas, the PT boats didn’t make it to Mindanao until broad daylight where they would have been sitting ducks for Japanese aircraft that were known to overfly the area constantly.

The PT boats pulled up the wharf at Mindanao and MacArthur made clear his appreciation at the men who dared the mission to rescue him and his staff. He said to Bulkeley “I’m giving every officer and man here the Silver Star for gallantry. You’ve taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won’t forget it.”

Three hours later PT-35 arrived with her crew and passengers.

Bulkeley remained on Mindanao until he was flown out on April 13, as MacArthur put a high priority on getting the PT boat crews out. He was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Roosevelt in the White House on August 4, 1942.

After leaving Corregidor, MacArthur and his family traveled by boat 560 miles to the Philippine island of Mindanao, braving mines, rough seas, and the Japanese Navy. At the end of the hair-raising 35-hour journey, MacArthur told the boat commander, John D. Bulkeley, “You’ve taken me out of the jaws of death, and I won’t forget it.”

On March 17, the general and his family boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress for Northern Australia. There MacArthur boarded a DC-3 which finally took him to Alice Springs.

During this journey, he was informed that there were far fewer Allied troops in Australia than he had hoped. Relief of his forces trapped in the Philippines would not be forthcoming.

He then boarded a special train. It was at Terowie Train Station where, deeply disappointed, he issued his famous statement to the press, “I came through and I shall return“.

Contrary to public belief, MacArthur’s statement was not given on the shores of the Philippines, but at an Australian train station, 10 days later.

The promise would become his mantra during the next two and a half years, and he would repeat it often in public appearances.

For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor and celebrated as “America’s First Soldier.”

The reaction from the American and Filipino troops on Bataan was mixed. Some felt like MacArthur had betrayed them. He left LTG Jonathan Wainwright in command and even many officers in the remaining staff felt they’d been abandoned.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, Bataan fell in April, and the 70,000 American and Filipino soldiers captured there were forced to undertake a death march in which at least 7,000 perished. Then, in May, Corregidor surrendered, and 15,000 more Americans and Filipinos were captured. The Philippines–MacArthur’s adopted home–were lost, and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff had no immediate plans for their liberation.

After the U.S. victory at the Battle of Midway in June 1942, most Allied resources in the Pacific went to U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz, who as commander of the Pacific Fleet planned a more direct route to Japan than via the Philippines.

Unperturbed, and having been placed in command of Allied forces in the Southwestern Pacific, his first duty was conducting the defense of Australia. In that capacity, MacArthur launched a major offensive in New Guinea, winning a string of victories with his limited forces.

By September 1944, he was poised to launch an invasion of the Philippines, but he needed the support of Nimitz’s Pacific Fleet. After a period of indecision about whether to invade the Philippines or Formosa, the Joint Chiefs put their support behind MacArthur’s plan, which logistically could be carried out sooner than a Formosa invasion.

Three years later, on October 20, 1944, a few hours after his troops landed, MacArthur was aboard the USS Nashville two miles offshore. Restless, he could not wait to put his feet back on Philippine soil. At 1 p.m., he and his staff left the cruiser to take the two-mile landing craft ride to Red Beach. MacArthur intended to step out onto dry land, but soon realized their vessel was too large to advance through the shallow depths near the coastline. An aide radioed the navy beachmaster and asked that a smaller craft be sent to bring them in. The beachmaster, whose word was law on the invasion beach, was too busy with the chaos of the overall invasion to be bothered with a general, no matter how many stars he wore. “Walk in—the water’s fine,” he growled.

The bow of the landing craft dropped and MacArthur and his entourage waded 50 yards through knee-deep water to reach land.

Major Gaetano Faillace, an army photographer assigned to MacArthur, took photos of the general wading ashore. The result was an image of a scowling MacArthur, jaw set firmly, with a steel-eyed look as he approached the beach. But what may have appeared as determination was, in reality, anger. MacArthur was fuming. As he sloshed through the water, he stared daggers at the impudent beachmaster, who had treated the general as he probably had not been treated since his days as a plebe at West Point. However, when MacArthur saw the photo, his anger quickly dissipated. A master at public relations, he knew a good photo when he saw one.

That day, he made a radio broadcast in which he declared, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” In January 1945, his forces invaded the main Philippine island of Luzon. In February, Japanese forces at Bataan were cut off, and Corregidor was captured. Manila, the Philippine capital, fell in March, and in June MacArthur announced his offensive operations on Luzon to be at an end; although scattered Japanese resistance continued until the end of the war in August. Only one-third of the men MacArthur left behind on March 11, 1942, survived to see his return. “I’m a little late,” he told them, “but we finally came.”

Bulkeley retired as a Vice Admiral after 55 years of service. His story was made into a book and a film in 1945, “They Were Expendable” starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed.