IntroductionIn December 1941, the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and invaded the Philippines. Anticipating this invasion, the United States pulled General MacArthur out of retirement and sent him to the Philippines. Its mission was to prepare this strategically located archipelago for the Japanese invasion. This case study will present the events that led to the largest surrender of American forces in history and examine the most daring rescue attempt of World War II. The document follows the planning and execution of the 6th Ranger Battalion's major raid on the Japanese prison camp at Cabanatuan. Finally, the events of this raid will be examined in order to discover and evaluate the repercussions and lessons learned.HistoryOn December 22, 1941, the main Japanese attack on the Philippines began.1 The initial objective of the Japanese was to s seize the island of Luzon, which housed both the capital Manila and the majority of American forces. The initial Japanese attack on the Allied forces consisted of air raids followed by a 50,000-man ground assault led by General Masaharu Homma.2 The Allied forces consisted of a combined American and Philippine army, numbering approximately 100,000 men, led by General Douglas MacArthur. .3 American forces had the advantage in numbers; however, the Japanese had the technological advantage. The American and Philippine forces were primarily supplied with weapons from World War I (WWI) and pre-WWI.4 This meant that although the Allied forces were superior in numbers, the Allied forces were ultimately overwhelmed in weapons. The heavily fortified island of Corregidor, located at the mouth of Manila Bay, was the headquarters of American forces. From there, General MacArthur ordered...... middle of paper ......dAlbrecht, James, Joseph Edwards, and Terrence Popravak. "'Come As You Are' War: The Example of Bataan." Military Review 83, no. 2 (March 2003): 84-89. http://search.proquest.com/docview/225311013?accountid=16366.Breuer, William B. The Great Raid on Cabanatuan: Saving the Cursed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor. New York: J. Wiley & Sons, 1994. History Channel. Shootout! : Raid on the Bataan death camp. 2006. United States: History Channel, 2006. DVD. Sides, Hampton. “GHOST SALES.” Squire 135, no. 5 (May 2001): 92. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 10, 2014), http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=1901b0ee-c4c7-44d1-b439-9ba86a9f71df%40sessionmgr4001&vid =1&hid=4205&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=4320782.Sides, Hampton. Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II. New York: key books, 2002.