Battle of the Visayas

Battle of the Visayas
Part of World War II, Pacific theater
U.S. soldiers during landings at Talisay Beach, 26 March 1945. U.S. National Archives
Date 18 March – 30 July 1945 Location Visayas region, Philippines Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United States  Commonwealth of the Philippines	Empire of Japan  Second Philippine Republic
Commanders and leaders
Robert L. Eichelberger Rapp Brush William H. Arnold James M. Cushing Macario Peralta	Sōsaku Suzuki † Takeo Manjome †
Strength
17,000 U.S. troops 18,500 Filipino guerrillas	32,000 Japanese troops
Casualties and losses
835 killed 1,905 wounded	14,300 killed 1,230 wounded

 United States

 Empire of Japan

The Battle of the Visayas was fought by U.S. forces and Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese from 18 March – 30 July 1945, in a series of actions officially designated as Operations Victor I and II, and part of the campaign for the liberation of the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the central portions south of the archipelago and secure them from remaining Japanese forces.

Within two weeks of ordering the seizure of Palawan and the Zamboanga peninsula, General Douglas MacArthur directed the capture of the isolated Visayan islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol in the central Philippines.

With Filipino guerrillas controlling most of the countryside in these islands, some thirty thousand Japanese troops held the vital coastal towns including Cebu City on Cebu island and Iloilo City on Panay, among the largest cities in the Philippines. Aside from fulfilling his desire and promise to clear the Japanese from the islands, Gen. MacArthur wanted these two port cities as vital staging points for the expected large numbers of troops scheduled for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. Earlier, the United States Armed Forces Joint Chiefs of Staff had told him to be prepared to stage twenty-two divisions for the mainland operation at bases across the Philippines by November 1945, with another eleven to follow by February 1946.

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