Battle of Mindanao

Battle of Mindanao
Part of World War II, Pacific theater
LCM carries U.S. troops up the Mindanao River to Fort Pikit
Date 10 March – 15 August 1945 Location Mindanao Island, Philippines Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  Commonwealth of the Philippines	Empire of Japan  Second Philippine Republic
Commanders and leaders
Franklin C. Sibert Albert G. Noble Roscoe B. Woodruff Clarence A. Martin Wendell W. Fertig Salipada Pendatun Basilio J. Valdes Federico G. Ubuza Paulino Santos	Gyosaku Morozumi Jiro Harada Naoji Doi
Strength
Eighth Army 200,000-600,000 troops (under the Commonwealth Army and Constabulary) 33,000 guerrillas	102,000
Casualties and losses
221 killed and 665 wounded on Zamboanga Peninsula 820 killed and 2,880 wounded on E. Mindanao	6,400 killed and 1,100 captured on Zamboanga Peninsula 12,865 killed, 600 captured, 8,235 missing on E. Mindanao

 United States

 Empire of Japan

Eighth Army

221 killed and 665 wounded on Zamboanga Peninsula

6,400 killed and 1,100 captured on Zamboanga Peninsula

The Battle of Mindanao was fought by United States forces and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese from 10 March - 15 August 1945 on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines in a series of actions officially designated as Operation VICTOR V. It was part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the southernmost portions of the archipelago.

The campaign for Mindanao posed the greatest challenge for the liberating Allied forces, primarily for three reasons: the island's inhospitable geography; the extended Japanese defenses; and the strength and condition of the Japanese forces, which contained the significantly remaining concentration of combat troops in the Philippines.

Like most of the Philippine Islands and other similar places the U.S. Army operated elsewhere in the Pacific, the geographical conditions of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, offered very little inspiration for soldiers who would have to fight there. It boasted a long and irregular coastline, and the topography was generally characterized as rugged and mountainous. Rain forests and numerous crocodile-infested rivers covered the terrain, the rest by either lake, swamp or grassland. These grassland regions—along with dense groves of abacá trees, a source of hemp fiber—offer the worst obstacles, limiting vision and sapping the strength of soldiers.

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Wikipedia