By the mid-1930s, the Nazis had taken power in Germany and Japan was beginning to flex its military muscle. The United States Congress therefore authorized the release of funds with which to update the
Coast Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt would complement this by ordering the integration of Filipino military forces into the newly created
U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. General
Douglas MacArthur, who had been serving as a military advisor to the government of the
Commonwealth of the Philippines and was also
Field Marshal of the Philippines, was ordered back to active duty with the rank of
Lieutenant general with the title of Commander of the United States Army Forces in the Far East. To prepare for eventual war,
Dewey Drydock, which had been at Subic Bay for 35 years was towed to
Mariveles Bay, on the tip of the
Bataan Peninsula, and scuttled there on 8 April 1942 to prevent the Japanese from using it. The
4th Marine Regiment, which had been withdrawn from
Shanghai, China, was ordered to withdraw to the Philippines. The first members of the regiment disembarked from
President Madison at Subic Bay early on the morning of 1 November 1941. The remainder arrived on 1 December. The Marines were housed in temporary wooden
barracks and in tents at the naval station and the
rifle range. The freshly arrived Marines were assigned to provide land defense for Subic Bay. Seaward defenses included the batteries at
Fort Wint on
Grande Island and a minefield, which had been laid off the entrance to Subic Harbor. As the Marines built beach defenses,
Consolidated PBY-4 Catalinas from
VP-101 and
VP-102 of Patrol Wing 10, which was stationed at Subic Bay, were conducting daily patrols off Luzon as a response to rumors that the Japanese were approaching the Philippines. On 11 December, seven Catalinas had just returned from patrol when
Japanese Zeroes appeared and strafed the aircraft. One
ensign was killed and all Catalinas sank to the bottom of Subic Bay's inner basin. As the Japanese continued their advance through Luzon, telephone and
telegraph lines between Manila and Olongapo were sabotaged; as a result, all Japanese in Olongapo were rounded up and turned over to the
Provost Marshal. A priest had also been questioning Marines and Filipinos about sensitive matters such as troop positions and strength and after the Marines became suspicious, a search of the priest's belongings was ordered and a
shortwave radio was found. The battalion commander immediately convened a hearing and after intense interrogation, the priest confessed to being a member of the
German-American Bund and had been a spy for the Japanese. He was then taken behind the church and shot by a Marine firing squad. By 24 December, the situation at Subic had become hopeless and an order to destroy the station and withdraw was given. All buildings on the station were torched while Filipinos burned the entire town of Olongapo. All that remained on Subic was the former , and she was towed into a deep part of the bay and scuttled. All Marines withdrew to
Bataan and eventually to
Corregidor where they made their last stand. Fort Wint, under the command of
Colonel Napoleon Boudreau of the U.S. Army, was evacuated on 25 December. All equipment and supplies were destroyed. On 10 January 1942, soldiers of the
Japanese Imperial Army's
14th Infantry Division marched into Olongapo and on 12 January, the Japanese commandeered native fishing boats to seize Grande Island. Subic Bay Naval Station was established with four companies of soldiers and a company of
Kempeitai. Within one week of the Japanese's occupation, American
PT boats at Cavite were ordered to attack a Japanese ship, which was anchored at Subic Bay, that was shelling American positions.
PT-31 and
PT-34 entered the bay separately.
PT-31 suffered engine trouble and ran aground on a
reef. She was abandoned and destroyed.
PT-34 entered undetected and sunk a transport that was off-loading supplies. She then came under heavy fire, but managed to escape undamaged.
PT-32 was then ordered into Subic Bay and attacked and hit a light cruiser on 1 February. On 17 February,
PT-34 made a final, but unsuccessful attack at Subic Bay after which all PT boats were ordered to leave the Philippines. To protect Subic Bay, the Japanese garrisoned Fort Wint with
anti-aircraft artillery and
automatic weapons, but did not repair the American guns, nor build permanent fortification. The Japanese then started shipbuilding at Subic Bay and began constructing wooden auxiliary vessels. Several hundred workers from occupied-China and
Formosa were brought in as laborers, in addition to 1,000 Filipinos. Nine ships were built and shipped to Cavite for engine installation, however, none of the ships would see active service as they were destroyed by U.S. Navy aircraft. One of the few buildings that were left standing from the bombing and subsequent torching of the station was the Catholic Church. The Japanese removed all religious articles and converted it into a movie theater and was later used to imprison Americans and Filipinos that had been captured. Those who died were buried behind the church in a common cemetery. When all the prisoners were shipped to Manila, the Japanese used the church as a stable for horses. On 20 October 1944, four U.S. Army divisions aboard 650 U.S. Navy vessels landed at
Palo, Leyte, fulfilling MacArthur's promise to return to the Philippines. On 13 December, the Japanese began evacuating civilians and non-essentials from Manila aboard
Ōryoku Maru and four other merchant ships. As the ship was heading for Japan,
fighter aircraft from the
aircraft carrier attacked the ships and left hundreds of Japanese dead or wounded.
Ōryoku Maru, heavily damaged with destroyed steering gear, pulled into Subic Bay. Throughout the night, the Japanese disembarked while the American and
Allied prisoners, that were carried below decks, were left aboard. The next morning, Japanese guards ordered the prisoners to come up on deck. As Navy aircraft began to strafe the ships, the prisoners started frantically running about. As the pilots approached, they recognized the white shapes as Americans or Allies and sharply pulled up, rocking their wings in recognition. Afterwards, the 1,360 surviving Allied prisoners were forced to strip and swim ashore, where they were crowded into a fenced tennis court near the Spanish Gate. Early the next morning, three fighters scored two direct hits on
Oryoku Maru and she burst into flames. After burning for two hours, she settled into the water about off Alava Pier. When the planes had left the Japanese served the prisoners their first meal since leaving Manila two days before: two teaspoons of dry, raw rice. There was only one faucet from which the water trickled out so slowly that a prisoner was lucky if he managed one drink every 18 hours. Roll call was taken each morning. Those that had died during the night were buried in an improvised cemetery next to the seawall. After four days at Subic, only 450 survived the makeshift prison; they were subsequently sent to the labor camps in Japan. By January 1945, the Japanese had all but abandoned Subic Bay. The U.S.
Fifth Air Force had dropped 175 tons of bombs on Grande Island evoking only light fire from the skeleton Japanese force manning the anti-aircraft guns. The commander of Japanese forces in the Philippines, General
Tomoyuki Yamashita, had withdrawn his forces into defensive mountain positions and ordered Colonel Sanenbou Nagayoshi to block Highway 7 near Subic Bay. On 29 January, 40,000 American troops of the
38th Division and
34th Regimental Combat Team came ashore without resistance at
San Antonio, Zambales, by the site of what became known as the
San Miguel Naval Communications Station. The column advanced toward Subic Bay, meeting their first resistance at the bridge spanning the Kalaklan River near the Olongapo Cemetery. The Japanese, knowing that they would imminently lose the town, decided to destroy Olongapo. Eventually, the Japanese evacuated the town and the 34th Regiment took over. The following day, Grande Island was taken and Navy
minesweepers began clearing the bay. Engineers of the 38th Division remained in Olongapo to begin reactivation of Subic Bay Naval Station. Bridges, buildings and the water distilling plant were repaired and the beaches and streets were cleared. Soon enough,
LSTs were making dry-ramp landings near the town of
Subic. While Army engineers were busy around Subic Bay, the remaining troops moved east along Highway 7, planning to cross the base of Bataan to meet elements of the Army's
XIV Corps, which were moving west on the same road. On the morning of 31 January 1945, the Americans began climbing the forested hills of Zig Zag Pass and into a hornet's nest of Japanese. In the first three days at Zig Zag Pass the U.S. 152nd had more casualties than during 78 days of combat in Leyte. General
Henry L. C. Jones was relieved and command of the 38th was given to General
Roy W. Easley who used
P-47s for air support. The planes began an intensive strafing and bombing of the jungle and dropped
napalm on the Japanese positions. After 15 days of fighting the enemy positions were finally overrun. The Japanese had succeeded in their mission to slow the American advance but lost more than 2,400 troops. American losses had been 1,400 killed. ==After the war==