Lex Anteinternet: Filipino Army

Like mosts of these battles, it was an American victory in spite of American forces being no more experienced than Filipino and the fact that they were not fighting on their own ground. The U.S. troops were of the 33d Volunteer Infantry, drawn from Texas.

Last edition:

Thursday, October 12, 1899. Battle of Kraaipan and a Homecoming in Vermont.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Boer Armies, Boer War, British Army, British Empire, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, South African Republic (Transvaal), Spanish American War, The Boer Republics, United Kingdom, Vermont

Friday, May 6, 2022

Wednesday, May 6, 1942. The fall of Corregador

On this date in 1942, US and Filipino forces surrendered to the Japanese at Corregador.

The loss of the island fortress was inevitable, and in many ways the amazing thing was how long the final stages of the conquest of the Philippines took.

Saturday, April 9, 2022

Thursday, April 9, 1942. Bataan surrenders and the Death March begins.

Today in World War II History—April 9, 1942: US surrenders to Japanese at Bataan: 35,000 Filipino troops and 35,000 US troops, the largest surrender in US history.

Sarah Sundin’s entry on her blog, with more than this event being covered on it, notes the grim fact.

I was inevitable, or course. That Bataan would fall, disaster though it was, could not bee prevented. The Philippines could not be supplied or relieved. The troops could not bee withdrawn. Nothing could be done. It could be argued that the US should have ordered the bastion to surrender earlier, although their ongoing resistance did tie up a significant number of Japanese forces and even caused the Japanese to send troops to the islands from China, the Japanese army’s primary focus.

The Japanese, in spite of having worked for weeks to complete their conquest in of the Philippines were not prepared to handle such a large number of prisoners. This, combined with the institutional cruelty of the Japanese armed forces gave rise to an event commenting on this day, the Bataan Death March

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Friday, April 3, 1942. The end for Bataan.

The behind schedule Philippine offensive of the Japanese, the only one running behind schedule, makes use of reinforcements, including troops brought in from China, Japans strategic imperative, by launching a renewed offensive against Bataan. It works, as after massive bombardment, the Japanese break through the 41st Philippine Division.

Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

We hope you'll feel moved to comment as well. While we moderate every comment, so as to weed out Spam, we greatly appreciate the comments where they are offered, and hope to see more.

Thank you for stopping in!