The Aussie Morotai Mutiny of April 1945

[MiTasol]

A study in command. Eisenhower vs MacArthur.

Or George Kenney and MacArthur. And yes I do know that Kenney was MacArthur's junior.
Kenney achieved a lot despite Mac, not because of Mac.

 

[Schweik]

I grew up hearing General MacArthur called "Dugout Doug" by my WW II veteran dad. I would get quite a lecture (unsolicited) from dad about the General from time to time. He wasn't fond of John Wayne either ("there's another telephone tough guy!")

When I was in the US Army in the 80's "John Wayne" was a standard insult from NCO's for idiotic behavior...

 

[Schweik]

The military do have a tendency to stick up for their own.

In Australia we have Fred Scherger. The Royal Commission into total lack of air defense during the first of the Japanese air raids on Darwin blamed him 100% for that disaster. One book on the subject has him telling the officer who came into the mess that morning to warn of a large number of Japanese aircraft incoming that the Japanese were totally incapable of mounting a raid on Darwin and that he would be court marshaled if he ever again bought in such a claim. Apparently he was not smart enough to remember Pearl Harbor, the Prince of Wales/Repulse, etc and realize that they could attack Darwin.

He eventually became Chief of Air Staff, is lauded by the military as the savior of Darwin, and has a military base named after him.

Wikipedia says Scherger was acting commander of North-Western Area when Darwin suffered its first air raid in February 1942. Praised for his actions in the aftermath of the attack, he went on....

Speaking of which, the ostenisble leader of the Morotai Mutiny was the famous Aussie ace Clive Caldwell, who also got a lot of the blame for the debacle at Darwin, though I don't think it was entirely his fault. He was a complex figure himself, and not entirely without blame for some of the trouble he had, but I think he saved some lives in North Africa and put a dent in the Luftwaffe there. Even that is highly controversial though.

Personally I am really a fan of the guy though you could see he had a temper and could be quite difficult. And I do think the crime they were accused of (smuggling booze) was something they were indeed actually doing, though who could blame them? In one case he used some smuggled booze to trade with the Americans for use of their bulldozer to elevate the Aussie sleeping area 3 feet up out of the mud so they weren't perpetually swimming every time a torrential rain came through, dig a better (safer) latrine system and etc. He did what he thought was right, which wasn't always correct. Guys who forge their own path can be like that sometimes.

But you can also see he had the respect of many of his old colleagues, including most of the other pilots (many of them also Aces and quite remarkable men in their own right) who joined him in the "Mutiny". Pulling off a labor action in the middle of a war is no mean feat.

 

[SaparotRob]

Then call me "Duke".

 

[SaparotRob]

I tried to quote Schweik. I'm an idiot.

 

[yulzari]

I tried to quote Schweik. I'm an idiot.

at least that would make you the good soldier.....

 

[Dimlee]

Good soldier Schweik would probably refrain from open mutiny but he could be very helpful in a booze smuggling. I love this character. Wish I could read Czech to understand 100% of the humor.

 

[Schweik]

They were in a very Schweik like situation - elite fighter pilots being forced to strafe and bomb isolated Japanese jungle positions with Spitfires. The Japanese in question had already been cut off and had no naval support, but they did have AAA ammunition, so the Aussies were taking casualties. Living conditions were of course pretty miserable on the islands and it took wheeling & dealing with the much better (over) supplied Americans to arrange better circumstances. And to do that, a good amount of drinking was involved. They even had a little pub of their own...

 

[SaparotRob]

I read (I can't remember where or when) that the isolated Japanese outposts were used as training missions for newly arrived crews. AKA milk runs.
Whatever the book was I'm sure it was biased towards U.S. involvement. I guess it's a milk run if you have an unloved step sibling doing it for you.
I agree the alcohol issue with these guys was overblown. Based only on veteran stories I've heard, that seems like the criminal equivalent of forgetting to return your co-workers pen.

 

[Schweik]

Yeah they apparently were taking losses, not least because Spitfire's (the excellent Spit VIII had finally come into the Theater) aren't that good at low level ground attack. They had a bunch of elite fighter pilots in that unit - including something like half a dozen double aces, all veterans from the Western Desert. They wanted to take their hot birds to the front line, though maybe the problem was in part range. I would think even just flying CAP over some of the US bases would have been a better use. Flying close air support with a Spitfire Mk VIII is like mowing your lawn with a Lamborghini....

 

[MiTasol]

I read (I can't remember where or when) that the isolated Japanese outposts were used as training missions for newly arrived crews. AKA milk runs.
Whatever the book was I'm sure it was biased towards U.S. involvement. I guess it's a milk run if you have an unloved step sibling doing it for you.
I agree the alcohol issue with these guys was overblown. Based only on veteran stories I've heard, that seems like the criminal equivalent of forgetting to return your co-workers pen.

The alcohol issue comes down to the local commander.
I spoke to a number of Beaufort aircrew some 20 years ago and they all talked about how their CO did all the vegetable runs from Queensland and always bought back lots of illegal booze to their New Guinea base. He was a non drinker and by him doing the runs the grog was shared equally through the unit.
I therefore suspect the alcohol problem was just the final straw on a raft of problems.

 

[Graeme]

The military do have a tendency to stick up for their own.

In Australia we have Fred Scherger. The Royal Commission into total lack of air defense during the first of the Japanese air raids on Darwin blamed him 100% for that disaster. One book on the subject has him telling the officer who came into the mess that morning to warn of a large number of Japanese aircraft incoming that the Japanese were totally incapable of mounting a raid on Darwin and that he would be court marshaled if he ever again bought in such a claim.

What book is that?
What I have is Wing Commander Sturt de Griffith, was the Station Commander at the time the 'warning' arrived - not Scherger. He was on the road in an RAAF Ford vehicle, dodging bullets and bombs.
It was Griffith who received most of the criticism in the Lowe Commission.

 

[Glider]

MacArthur had a dim view of the US Navy.
He didn't seem to collaborate well [understatement].

I'm pretty confident that the USN and the USMC had a pretty low opinion of him.

 

[Schweik]

The desire to revenge Darwin was also part of the cause of the mutiny. Caldwell had been heavily criticized for it and he felt the equipment problems were the major issue. With the new Spit VIII they could have evened the score and then some. But Mac kept them out of the fight, probably for egotistical / political rather than pragmatic reasons.

 

[GregP]

Considering what Mac actually accomplished, I doubt post # 16 about it being best if he were not recalled. But, that's personal opinion, not an undisputed fact.

In my kind, it's hard to argue with success when combat is the stage for the argument. Still, someone else may have done as well or better if there were real-life "do-overs," which we ALL wish we had at SOME point in out lives. Well, perhaps not Mac. I doubt if he really ever doubted himself after puberty.

 

[swampyankee]

Considering what Mac actually accomplished, I doubt post # 16 about it being best if he were not recalled. But, that's personal opinion, not an undisputed fact.

In my kind, it's hard to argue with success when combat is the stage for the argument. Still, someone else may have done as well or better if there were real-life "do-overs," which we ALL wish we had at SOME point in out lives. Well, perhaps not Mac. I doubt if he really ever doubted himself after puberty.

While many of MacArthur's mistakes may show up only in retrospect, I also think that many of his errors were violations of good generalship in any era. He did not utilize many of the assets well during the defense of the Philippines, and he seemed to be less than willing to use and accept intelligence about enemy actions.

I certainly don't know who were alternatives for the position as commander in the Philippines, and I'm not sure who else would have been considered. Limiting this to retired generals, two possibilities were Charles Pelot Summerall, who was highly regarded, and Malin Craig.

 

[Schweik]

MacArthur's greatest accomplishment was (IMO) after WW2, it's the landing at Inchon and subsequent rout of the Commie forces. Though he then made a couple of strategic blunders after that...

Philippines was a debacle across the board. I'd love to try a well designed operational level wargame of that and see if it was salvageable.

 

[swampyankee]

MacArthur's greatest accomplishment was (IMO) after WW2, it's the landing at Inchon and subsequent rout of the Commie forces. Though he then made a couple of strategic blunders after that...

The North Korean forces were routed. This lasted roughly until the Chinese forces started showing up. One could argue that this is something that he should have expected, but I don't know what intelligence about the PLA was available.

Philippines was a debacle across the board. I'd love to try a well designed operational level wargame of that and see if it was salvageable.

I don't think the battle for the Philippines was winnable with the forces on hand; what was possible was for the US & Philippines forces to hold out for longer, possibly long enough to get reinforcements in place. The problem with that is that the USN was in a weakened state at the time and may not be able to get those reinforcements to the Philippines without significant losses. Think Guadalcanal writ large.

Overall, I don't think MacArthur was one of the great generals of WW2; he didn't do well on defense and he tended to discount reliable intelligence, leading to his being surprised when he shouldn't have been. That he was arrogant is not surprising; I don't think there were many generals who didn't think they were far better than meany other mortals, even other mortals with multiple stars or the equivalent on shoulder boards. MacArthur, though seemed to have a worse case of it than most other generals. Before the start of combat in WW2, he also seems to have been, at best, lackadaisical, about preparing the Philippine Army, which was his pre-war job, and spent far too much time hobnobbing with the Philippine elites (and getting a hefty sum of money from them).

 

[Schweik]

The North Korean forces were routed. This lasted roughly until the Chinese forces started showing up. One could argue that this is something that he should have expected, but I don't know what intelligence about the PLA was available.

I believe he was being warned. This was the kind of 'civilian interference' that certain types of commanders often complained about, when in fact it was merely consideration of the Strategic element. Like you said below, it's one of the examples of him being surprised when he shouldn't have been.

I don't think the battle for the Philippines was winnable with the forces on hand; what was possible was for the US & Philippines forces to hold out for longer, possibly long enough to get reinforcements in place. The problem with that is that the USN was in a weakened state at the time and may not be able to get those reinforcements to the Philippines without significant losses. Think Guadalcanal writ large.

Sure, but Guadalcanal was an American victory. If you had some battles ala Coral Sea or Midway in that area, it might have led to a swifter resolution of the war. However you could argue that the American armed forces needed a bit longer for a general overhaul and more time to digest the humbling realities of the early war. Maybe they could have done it on the fly so to speak, maybe not. They did apparently put up a more effective fight in the Philippines than was done in Malaya. Probably in large part due to the presence of tanks.

I know some of the Japanese victories in both campaigns came down to Tactical innovations such as using amphibious landings to bypass enemy concentrations. That might have been prevented. One of the big catastrophes of the Philippine campaign was their very poor use of their air power. That may have been inevitable to some extent because they had just switched to brand new fighter aircraft (P-40E) literally weeks before the battle jumped off, which had a variety of teething issues that had to be sorted out, and time to train pilots in their use.

Overall, I don't think MacArthur was one of the great generals of WW2; he didn't do well on defense and he tended to discount reliable intelligence, leading to his being surprised when he shouldn't have been. That he was arrogant is not surprising; I don't think there were many generals who didn't think they were far better than meany other mortals, even other mortals with multiple stars or the equivalent on shoulder boards. MacArthur, though seemed to have a worse case of it than most other generals. Before the start of combat in WW2, he also seems to have been, at best, lackadaisical, about preparing the Philippine Army, which was his pre-war job, and spent far too much time hobnobbing with the Philippine elites (and getting a hefty sum of money from them).

Agreed! That last bit is also kind of a major issue, it's a bit unorthodox for a General to be on the payroll of two nations simultaneously. MacArthur was basically like a Duke in the Philippines, which no doubt exacerbated his innate tendency toward arrogance and hubris. He got used to living an aristocratic lifestyle and wasn't accustomed to working with peers or fully respecting subordinates.

 

[SaparotRob]

MacArthur was definitely a complicated figure. I just agreed with opposing views.
The problem I have with the General is his firing on unarmed veterans and being a glory hog. IIRC he reprimanded a junior general for doing the right thing and allowing himself the credit. Can't remember that general's name. Way back when I worked in manufacturing. I always made sure a subordinate got the credit for a good idea. If it didn't work, well, my fault. I was in charge.