069 - Five Lines to Cross

Abucay, Mt. Natib, and Beyond

In the three months between the attack on the Northern Philippines and Douglas MacArthur’s withdrawal to Australia, the fight for the Philippines had been a fierce one. Early on, War Plan Orange had called for the combined Filipino-American forces to make a “fighting retreat” into the Bataan Peninsula and wait for help to arrive. 

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The most essential part of War Plan Orange was the drawing of defensive lines across the Bataan Peninsula. Using geographic boundaries such as volcanoes and rivers, war planners created five different staging areas where the Combined Filipino-American Armies could hold off a Japanese ground force.

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As the Philippine Scouts and U.S. Army defended their forward line, additional allied troops set up defenses further south along the peninsula. They fortified their positions with howitzer and machine gun emplacements. The much smaller Filipino-American combined force could now use these geographical structures to their advantage.

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The first defense occurred on January 8^th at the Abucay Line, which extended from Mt. Natib in the west to the city of Abucay along the east. Fighting occurred mostly within city limits and fighting often occurred between fortified positions of opposing buildings. It was only after Japanese forces had broken through positions in Mt. Natib that Allied forces retreated to the Orion-Bagac Line on the 26^th of January.

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The Orion-Bagac Line was both much shorter and featured a flat terrain.  Most notable were two roads that extended north to south along the line. One (nicknamed “Trail Two”) was left unguarded during the fighting retreat. As Japanese forces marched in, Philippine Scouts and American Infantry hastily plugged the gap, repulsing the early surge.

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Soon, however, the aerial bombardment of Bataan would overwhelm the Combined Forces, trapping them at the southern end of the peninsula.

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