MacArthur to Australia

The man who knows how to stop the Japanese took command this week of the last place in the Southwest Pacific to stop them. When Douglas MacArthur reached Australia, the U.S. and all the United Nations breathed a sigh of relief and hope: By God, they got him out!

Goodbye to Bataan. The siege of Bataan was 53 days old when General MacArthur got his orders to leave last February 22. The orders came from President Roosevelt, who had heeded the plea of imperiled Australia and the insistent cry in the U.S. that MacArthur alive to fight and win was worth more than a hero dead.

No good general likes to leave his men in peril. And Douglas MacArthur had to leave such men as Captain Jesus Villamor, who routed 54 Japanese planes with his squadron of six (TIME, Dec. 22), grenade-throwing old Joe Longknife, profane Lieut. Roland Sauinier, footballer-sniper Corporal Peter Flame (TIME, Mar. 9). He had to leave men who, with him, had met, stopped and beaten four Japs for every soldier in the U.S. and Philippine forces; who had survived the crushing days when it seemed that no aid would ever come from the U.S.; whose fortitude had driven one Japanese commander to suicide.

But good generals obey orders. General MacArthur asked only for time--time to plan the strategy to meet the next expected Jap attack (see p. 20), time to transfer his command to lean, competent Major General Jonathan M. ("Skinny") Wainwright, 58-year-old cavalry officer who knows all the tricks of Bataan defense.

Douglas MacArthur knew he had a big job to do in Australia. To go with him, he chose his handsome, 48-year-old Chief of Staff, Major General Richard K. Sutherland, and his chief air officer, Brigadier General Harold H. George (who directed the savage, brilliant attack by patched-up P-40s on Japanese ships in Manila Bay last fortnight). And the cheering men and officers who said farewell in the Philippines could have done nothing but approve when they saw two others in the MacArthur party: his wife and son, who had lived under the guns of Corregidor Fortress with him.

The Job To Do. In Australia, General MacArthur had a few thousand U.S. troops. He had perhaps 100,000 equipped and trained and valiant regulars, many militiamen & home guards, a few hundred U.S. airmen and planes (see p. 20).

MacArthur in Australia meant that the U.S. had chosen its spot to concentrate against the Jap (see p. 18). To the limits of its manpower, equipment and shipping, the U.S. would strive there to hold a last corner of the southwest Pacific, to build up its forces for counterattack. The U.S. and MacArthur would have to move fast. This week, on the day that Douglas MacArthur arrived, a Japanese Fleet moved southward from Java toward Australia's long and vulnerable eastern coast.

"By God, it was destiny that brought me here!" Douglas MacArthur once said of his presence in the Philippines. He was no man to forget Destiny when he said good-by to his heroes on Bataan. He was to take command of all United Nations forces in the Australian area. By remote control, he was to retain strategic command of Bataan. If the Japanese were to be stopped short of the Western Hemisphere, Douglas MacArthur would stop them. Of Destiny, he could ask no more.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.