Destination Corregidor,

Within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbour, airbases throughout the Philippines were attacked with great loss to the US forces. The US forces were severely undermanned and under armed and easy prey for the Japanese. The US government decided to do what they could do “regardless of the cost or risk” and with that came what the US War Dept produced a plan called X. The objective was 60 day supply of all items including ammunition to both Australia and the Philippines. The idea being that Brisbane was the main port with use of Darwin via whatever conditions would allow, including blockade runners. The author described it as a “grandiose plan”. He was correct. His narration follows various small scale attempts to assist the beleaguered with what was in reality a logistical nightmare considering the distances to be covered and the complete loss of aircraft. Plan X hardly got going.

Author Robert L. Underbrink based his research on official documents and published works at his disposal at the time, and interviews with participant's available. Told in chronological order, there are sources given for each chapter, though no footnotes. Useful maps are supplied.

This was a very easy read with a populist style that mixed the logistical issues with a humane telling about the individuals involved, the vast majority of those people bravely attempting missions that led to little reward considering the overwhelming superiority that the Japanese had over the US and its allies at the time. The little things were bought to the attention, as an example the US government and some of its military leaders having no idea of the tyranny of distance in Australia, as if Darwin was just up the road from Brisbane, the nurse kissing a general goodbye as she left Corregidor.

The final sentence of the book tells it all with the author writing “In terms of actual assistance to Bataan and Corregidor, the efforts of the blockade runners were to no avail. Yet, national honour demanded that the effort be made, and the men and ships and the aircraft involved in this desperate venture deserved far more recognition paid to them”

Yes, they do deserve more recognition. We tend to read the Macro histories instead of the micro, and that can be a loss to those that like history.

Recommended to those that want an easy-to-read book on a little known and underappreciated WW2 event.