The Battle of Bataan (; January 7 – April 9, 1942) was fought by the United States and the Philippine Commonwealth against Japan during World War II. The battle represented the most intense phase of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines during World War II. In January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.

The commander in chief of the U.S. and Filipino forces in the islands, General Douglas MacArthur, consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the Japanese army. By this time, the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia. The Bataan Peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region.

Despite their lack of supplies, American and Filipino forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward. As the combined American and Filipino forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prevented immediate victory across the Pacific. The American surrender at Bataan to the Japanese, with 76,000 soldiers surrendering in the Philippines altogether, was the largest in American and Filipino military histories and was the largest United States surrender since the American Civil War's Battle of Harpers Ferry. Soon afterwards, U.S. and Filipino prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March.

Background
In 1936, Douglas MacArthur was appointed Field Marshal of the Philippine army, given the task of developing an effective defensive force before independence in 1946. Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army General George C. Marshall intended to make the Philippines reasonably defensible, "...we felt that we could block the Japanese advance and block their entry into war by their fear of what would happen if they couldn't take the Philippines..." MacArthur anticipated having until April 1942 to train and equip a combat ready force.

On 26 July 1941 MacArthur was recalled to active duty within the US army and given the rank of lieutenant general. In August, MacArthur called into service one regiment for each of his ten reserve divisions, and inducted them into the US armed forces. On 27 November, he received notice, "Japanese future action unpredictable but hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot, repeat cannot, be avoided the United States desires that Japan commit the first overt act." On 18 December, ten days after the start of hostilities, MacArthur inducted the remaining reservists. The Philippine Army consisted of 120,000 men, of which 76,750 were on Luzon. On 24 December, as Masaharu Homma's Japanese Fourteenth Area Army advanced and General Jonathan Wainwright's North Luzon Force retreated, MacArthur ordered his Far East Air Force headquarters south towards Bataan. This prompted Lewis H. Brereton to abandon Clark Field, Nichols Field, Fort William McKinley, and Nielson Field for the Pilar, Bataan, Cabcaben and Mariveles gravel strips. By the end of the year, Bataan contained 15,000 Americans, 65,000 Filipinos, and 26,000 refugees. Adequate munitions had been stored or shipped in by the end of the year, but food supplies amounted to only about a two-month supply, far short of the needed 6 months in the prewar plans.

In one last coordinated action by the Far East Air Force, U.S. planes damaged two Japanese transports and a destroyer, and sank one minesweeper. These air attacks and naval actions, however, did not significantly delay the Japanese assault.

War Plan Orange
When MacArthur returned to active duty, the latest revision plans for the defense of the Philippine Islands had been completed in April 1941 and was called WPO-3, based on the joint Army-Navy War Plan Orange of 1938, which involved hostilities between the United States and Japan. Under WPO-3, the Philippine garrison was to hold the entrance to Manila Bay and deny its use to Japanese naval forces, and ground forces were to prevent enemy landings. If the enemy prevailed, they were to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula, which was recognized as the key to the control of Manila Bay. It was to be defended to the "last extremity". In addition to the regular U.S. Army troops, the defenders could rely on the Philippine Army, which had been organized and trained by General MacArthur.

However, in April 1941 the Navy estimated that it would require at least two years for the Pacific Fleet to fight its way across the Pacific. Army planners in early 1941 believed supplies would be exhausted within six months and the garrison would fall. MacArthur assumed command of the Allied army in July 1941 and rejected WPO-3 as defeatist, preferring a more aggressive course of action. He recommended—among other things—a coastal defense strategy that would include the entire archipelago. His recommendations were followed in the plan that was eventually approved. With approval from Washington, War Plan Rainbow 5 was implemented such that the entire archipelago would be defended, with the necessary supplies dispersed behind the beachheads for defending forces to use while defending against the landings. With the return to War Plan Orange 3, the necessary supplies to support the defenders for the anticipated six-month-long defensive position were not available in the necessary quantities for the defenders who would withdraw to Bataan.

Battle
When the Japanese made their first landings on 10 and 12 December at the northern and southern extremities of Luzon, MacArthur made no disposition to contest them. He correctly surmised that these landings were designed to secure advance air bases and that the Japanese had no intention of driving on Manila from any of these beachheads. He did not regard the situation as serious enough to warrant a change in his plan to oppose the main attack, when it came, with an all-out defense at the beaches. The MacArthur Plan, then, remained in effect.

On 20 December the submarine  spotted a large convoy of troop ships with escorts. This was General Homma's landing force which included 85 troop transports, two battleships, six cruisers, and two dozen destroyers. The convoy was engaged by three submarines: USS Stingray, , and , who fired multiple torpedoes into the convoy, most of which failed to explode because of the Mark XIV torpedo's defective detonators. In all, just two troop ships were sunk before Japanese destroyers chased the submarines away.

Fighting retreat

MacArthur intended to move his men with their equipment and supplies in good order to their defensive positions. He charged the North Luzon Force, under Wainwright, with holding back the main Japanese assault and keeping the road to Bataan open for use by the South Luzon Force of Major General George Parker, which proceeded quickly and in remarkably good order, given the chaotic situation. To achieve this, Wainwright deployed his forces in a series of five defensive lines outlined in WPO-3:

 D1: Aguilar to San Carlos to Urdaneta City
 D2: Agno River
 D3: Santa Ignacia to Gerona to Guimba to San Jose
 D4: Tarlac to Cabanatuan
 D5: Bamban to Sibul Springs

The main force of Homma's 14th Area Army came ashore at Lingayen Gulf on the morning of 22 December. The defenders failed to hold the beaches. By the end of the day, the Japanese had secured most of their objectives and were in position to emerge onto the central plain. Facing Homma's troops were four Filipino divisions: the 21st, the 71st, the 11th, and the 91st, as well as a battalion of Philippine Scouts backed by a few tanks. Along Route 3—a cobblestone road that led directly to Manila—the Japanese soon made contact with the Filipino 71st Division. At this point the action of the American artillery stalled the Japanese attack. However, Japanese planes and tanks entering the action routed the Filipino infantry, leaving the artillery uncovered. A second Japanese division landed at Lamon Bay, south of Manila, on 23 December and advanced north.

It became evident to Wainwright that he could no longer hold back the Japanese advance. Late on the afternoon of 23 December Wainwright telephoned MacArthur's headquarters in Manila and informed him that any further defense of the Lingayen beaches was "impracticable." He requested and was given permission to withdraw behind the Agno River. MacArthur weighed two choices: either make a firm stand on the line of the Agno and give Wainwright his best unit, the Philippine Division, for a counterattack; or withdraw all the way to Bataan in planned stages. He decided on the latter, thus abandoning his own plan for defense and reverting to the old Orange plan. Having made his decision to withdraw to Bataan, MacArthur notified all force commanders on the night of 23 December that "WPO-3 is in effect."

Meanwhile, Manuel L. Quezon, the President of the Philippine Commonwealth, together with his family and government staff were evacuated to Corregidor, along with MacArthur's United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) headquarters, on the night of 24 December, while all USAFFE military personnel were removed from the major urban areas. On 26 December Manila was officially declared an open city, and MacArthur's proclamation was published in the newspapers and broadcast over the radio. The Japanese were not notified officially of the proclamation but learned of it through radio broadcasts. The next day and thereafter they bombed the port area, from which supplies were being shipped to Bataan and Corregidor.

As MacArthur concentrated the South Luzon Force on the Bataan Peninsula and prepared defensive positions, the North Luzon Force delayed the Japanese advance from the north. However, the main force of the Japanese 14th Army's 60,000 men was concentrating on capturing Manila. Only two reinforced Japanese regiments, the 9th Infantry and the 2nd Formosa Infantry, were advancing on Bataan.

Porac–Guagua Line

During the first few days in January 1942, Brigadier General William E. Brougher's 11th Division, and Brigadier General Mateo Capinpin's 21st Division, supported by the 26th Cavalry Regiment, fought a delaying action along the Guagua-Porac Line. Starting on the afternoon of 2 January, the Japanese 9th Infantry forced the 21st Division south from Porac to new defensive lines south of the Gumain River by 4 January. Starting on 3 January, the Japanese 2nd Formosa Infantry pushed the 11th Infantry south from Guagua, then on to Lubao, and then to the Gumain River by 5 January. On 5 and 6 January the 21st and 11th Division crossed the Culo River into Bataan.

Layac Line
Brigadier General Clyde A. Selleck was assigned responsibility for establishing and holding a defensive position at Layac. He was supposed to hold that position for several days, enabling preparation of the Abucay Line. Selleck was assigned four regiments for the task, the American 31st Infantry and Scout 26th Cavalry, and the Philippine 71st and 72nd infantry regiments from the 71st Division. These units occupied the position on 3 January, and on 6 January were attacked by units from the Imai Detachment, commanded by Hifumi Imai. As more Japanese arrived during the day, Selleck was given permission by Parker to withdraw during the night.

Abucay–Mauban Line

Two separate defensive lines crossed the Bataan peninsula. They were the  Mauban line held by I Philippine Corps on the west, and the  Abucay line held by the II Philippine Corps on the east. Wainwright commanded the I Philippine Corps of 22,500 troops. I Corps included General Fidel Segundo's 1st Regular Division, Brigadier General Clifford Bluemel's 31st Division, Brigadier General Luther R. Stevens' 91st Divisions, and the 26th Cavalry. Parker commanded the II Philippine Corps of 25,000 troops. II Corps included the 11th and 21st Divisions, Brigadier General Vicente Lim's 41st Division, Brigadier General Albert M. Jones' 51st Division, and the 57th Infantry. Antiaircraft protection was provided by the 515th Coast Artillery and the 200th Infantry Regiment, while tank support was provided by the 192nd Tank Battalion and the 194th Tank Battalion. Mount Natib [] and Mount Silanganan [] separated the two corps along the center of the peninsula. The commanders considered the rugged mountainous terrain impassable, so the two corps were not in direct contact with each other, which left a serious weakness.

The Allies faced Akira Nara's 65th Brigade, originally expected to only have garrison duty, since the 48th Division had been dispatched to Java. Thus, the Japanese had 23,222 soldiers on Bataan, against 15,000 Americans and 65,000 Filipinos. On 10 January, MacArthur visited his Bataan troops from Limay to Abucay on the East Road, attempting to boost morale. Along the way, he stated, "Does anybody here want to bet me fifty dollars we'll be back in Manila by Easter?" Nara's planned attack on II Corps consisted of using the 141st Infantry on his eastern wing, against the 57th Infantry, and then using his 9th Infantry on his western flank, in an attempt to overwhelm the II Corps left flank. In reserve, Nara held the 142nd Infantry.

Abucay

On 9 January, Nara commenced his attack, concentrating on the 57th Infantry, reaching the main line of resistance on 11 January. By 12 January, Parker was forced to commit his reserve 21st Infantry in support of the 57th. Also on 12 January, Brigadier GeneralVirgilio N. Cordero Jr.'s 52nd Infantry, "Bicol's Own," was moved forward to plug a gap that had developed in the 51st Division's right flank. By 14 January, Bluemel's 31st Division was moved from Wainwright's I Corps to Parker's II Corps, in an attempt to bolster the 41st Division. Richard J. Marshall, MacArthur's Deputy Chief of Staff based on Mt. Mariveles' Signal Hill, concerned by the gap between I and II Corps, ordered Brigadier General Maxon S. Lough's Philippine Division, consisting of the Scout 45th Infantry and the American 31st Infantry, to the front lines.

On 12 January 12 amid fierce fighting, 2nd Lieutenant Alexander R. Nininger, a platoon leader in the 57th Infantry, sacrificed his life when, armed with only a rifle and hand grenades, he forced his way into enemy foxholes during hand-to-hand combat, permitting his unit to retake Abucay Hacienda; for his actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Another extreme act of bravery was put forth by Filipino soldier Narciso Ortilano. He was on a water-cooled heavy machine gun when the Japanese burst out of a canebrake in a banzai charge. He shot dozens of the Japanese with his machine gun, then pulled out his Colt .45 and shot five more when the machine gun jammed. Then, when one Japanese soldier stabbed at him with a bayonet, he desperately tried to grab the gun, got his thumb cut off but still held on, and turned the gun on the enemy soldier and stabbed him in the chest. When another Japanese soldier swung a bayonet at him, he turned his rifle on the soldier and shot him dead. Narcisco received the Distinguished Service Cross.

On 15 January, MacArthur issued the following statement to his troops, "Help is on the way from the United States, thousands of troops and hundreds of planes are being dispatched. It is imperative that our troops hold until these reinforcements arrive. No further retreat is possible."

On 16 January, Jones' 51st Division was ordered by Parker to counterattack. However, that attack was met head on by the Japanese 141st Infantry, and in the left flank by the Japanese 9th Infantry. A hole developed in the Abucay Line, which the Japanese failed to take advantage of. Instead, the 141st turned and attacked the 41st Division, while the 9th turned back up Mount Natib. John R. Boatwright's 53rd Infantry, on the 51st Division's left flank, was ordered to retreat south and establish contact with I Corps. By the end of the day, the 51st Division was out of action. However, Lim's 41st Division held firm. By 18 January, the Japanese had suspended their attack, and Nara's 7th Tank Regiment, plus four battalions of artillery, were removed from his control.

On 17 January, MacArthur radioed Washington, "The food situation here is becoming serious." On 17 January, the 31st Infantry was ordered to restore the main line, and then be relieved by the 11th Division. The 45th Infantry joined in the attack the next day, but both infantries made little progress, while the Japanese stepped up their attacks. Losses mounted on both sides, and by 22 January, the Philippine Division was back in its 19 January positions. More disconcerting, the Japanese 9th Infantry made advances along the side of Mount Natib and descended into Guitol, behind II Corps lines.

Mauban
On 10 January the Japanese occupied Olongapo and Grande Island. On 15 January Homa gave responsibility for western Bataan to Naoki Kimura's Detachment, consisting of the 122nd Infantry based on the West Road, and the 20th Infantry on the inland flank along Mout Silanganan. Wainwright commanded the 1st Division and 91st Division, after the departure of the 31st Division to II Corps, and the 26th Cavalrymen. On 16 January the Japanese attacked Moron, forcing Wainwright to place his 72nd Infantry astride the Pilar-Bagac Road behind his main defensive line. On 20 January, while the Japanese 122nd Infantry attacked the 1st Division, the 20th Infantry penetrated Wainwright's eastern flank, and placed a roadblock on the West Road by 21 January. Troops north of the roadblock no longer received food and ammunition resupply.

On 22 January, MacArthur ordered a withdrawal to the Pilar-Bagac Road, citing "Hostile penetration through the center of the Main Battle Position..." On 25 January I Corps began its retreat. The men north of the roadblock, led by Kearie Berry, followed the coastline to Bagac, but were forced to abandon their trucks and artillery.

Battle of the Points

Battles were fought at Longoskawayan Point from 22 January to 1 February, at Quinauan Point from January 22 to February 8, and at the Silalim-Anyasan from 27 January to 13 February, which were collectively termed the "Battle of the Points". The final result was the complete destruction of the Japanese 1st and 2nd Battalions, 20th Infantry.

In an attempt to outflank I Corps and isolate the service command area commanded by USAFFE deputy commander Brigadier General Allan C. McBride, 900 Japanese troops of the 2nd Battalion, 20th Infantry, 16th Division, led by Nariyoshi Tsunehiro, were landed on the west coast of southern Bataan on the night of 22 January. Intercepted by PT-34, two barges were sunk and the rest scattered in two groups, neither of which landed on the objective of Caibobo Point, but instead 300 landed on Longoskawayan Point and the other 600 on Quinauan Point. The Japanese forces were contained by members of Philippine Constabulary regiments, Francis J. Bridget's Naval Battalion, gunfire from Battery Geary, support from USS Quail, tanks from the 192nd Tank Battalion, and by personnel of the 34th Pursuit Squadron and 21st Pursuit Squadron. Noted participants included Clinton A. Pierce, Mariano Castañeda, Pelagio Cruz, Ed Dyess and Ray C. Hunt. The Japanese landings were finally reversed with the aid of units from the 57th and 45th Infantry.

The naval infantry consisted of 150 ground crewmen from Patrol Wing Ten, 80 sailors from the Cavite Naval Ammunition Depot, and 130 sailors from , with 120 sailors from the base facilities at Cavite, Olongapo, and Mariveles, and 120 Marines from an antiaircraft battery. Sailors used the Canopus machine shop to fabricate makeshift mountings for machine guns salvaged from Patrol Wing Ten's damaged aircraft. The Marines were distributed through the ranks, and the sailors were told to "watch them and do as they do." The sailors attempted to make their white uniforms more suitable for jungle combat by dying them with coffee grounds. The result was closer to yellow than khaki, and the diary of a dead Japanese officer described them as a suicide squad dressed in brightly colored uniforms and talking loudly in an attempt to draw fire and reveal the enemy positions.

On 25 January, Homma ordered the 16th Division commander Susumu Morioka to send 200 men in support of the Quinauan Point beachhead. On 27 January, once again, the landing went off course and the men landed between the Anyasan and Silaiim rivers.  They were contained by the 17th Pursuit Squadron and 2nd Constabulary. On 29 January, units of the 45th Infantry arrived in support. On 1 February, Mitsuo Kimura's 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, was ordered to Quinauan Point and seize Mount Mariveles. On 2 February, his 500 men on barges, supported by the Yaeyama, were attacked from the air by P-40's, PT 32, and land-based artillery. The survivors retreated to a landing on Silaiim Point. Edmund J. Lilly, and Harold Keith Johnson assumed command of the blocking forces, that included elements of the 12th and 57th Infantry, plus tanks from the 192 Tank Battalion. Several Japanese attempts to escape by sea from 7 February onwards failed. Finally, a desperation drive by 200 Japanese out of the point northwards also failed.

Battle of Trail Two
On 26 January, Nara's 65th Brigade was ordered to the pursue the retreating Filipino and American forces. Nara assumed the next defensive line would extend from Limay to Mount Mariveles. Thus Nara proceeded to advance against the Orion-Bagac line, assuming it consisted of outer defensives. Nara's objective was to advance south along Trail 2, and then along the eastern base of Mount Samat.  Opposing Nara were troops commanded by Bluemel. On 27 January, Nara commenced his attack with the 9th and 141st infantry against the 51st Infantry south of the Pilar River.  On 28 January, the 41st Infantry arrived in support of the 51st. Fighting continued for the next few days, until on 29 January, Nara was ordered to return the 9th Infantry to the 16th Division. Bluemel decided to counterattack on 2 February with the 41st Infantry, 51st Combat Team, and the 31st Engineer Battalion, supported on the left by the 21st Division, and on the right by the 32nd Infantry. By 8 February, recognizing the attacks by the 65th Brigade were failures resulting in crippling losses, Nara was ordered to withdraw north to the Pilar-Bagac Road.

Battle of the Pockets

On 28 January, Hiroshi Nakanishi's 3rd Battalion, and Yorimasa Yoshioka's 20th Infantry staff, attacked I Corps' Orion-Bagac line and was able to break through into the 1st Division's rear along the Tuol River. The Japanese were separated into two pockets, a Little Pocket consisting of about one company, and a Big Pocket with 1000 men. By 5 February, Wainwright had committed five 1st Division companies, two 92nd Infantry battalions, one Scout battalion, one Constabulary battalion, plus tanks from the 192nd Tank Battalion, and artillery from the 24th Field Artillery, in an attempt to eliminate the Little and Big Pockets. On 6 February a Japanese salinet formed, the Upper Pocket, when the 122nd Infantry and the 2nd Battalion, 33rd Infantry, penetrated within 800 yards of the Big Pocket. On 7 February, the 1st Division surrounded the Little Pocket, which was eliminated by 9 February. Concentrating on attacking the Big Pocket next, Trail 7 was secured by 10 February. On 11 February, Yoshioka attempted to breakout to the north, in conjunction with a general 14th Army withdrawal across Bataan. On 15 February, 377 Japanese reached their own lines, and the Upper Pocket was abandoned. With the elimination of the Japanese 20th Infantry, I Corps' line was restored on 26 February.

On 3 February 1st Lieutenant Willibald C. Bianchi of the 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, led a reinforced platoon forward against two enemy machine-gun nests, silenced them with grenades, and despite two gunshot wounds to the chest, then manned an antiaircraft machine gun until being knocked off the tank by a third severe wound.

Orion-Bagac Line

By 8 February, Homma recognized he only had three effective infantry battalions on Bataan, and ordered the halt of further attacks. His army retreated to better positions up to ten kilometers from the front, and awaited reinforcements. His staff believed, "there was an influence, a spiritual influence, exerted by the American resistance on Bataan. Not only did the Japanese at home worry about the length of the period of American resistance on Bataan, but it served as a symbol to the Filipinos that the Americans had not deserted them and would continue to assist them." Yet, MacArthur's army on Bataan was a besieged garrison on a starvation diet.

On 20 February, the President of the Philippines Manuel L. Quezon, his family, Vice President of the Philippines Sergio Osmeña, Chief Justice of the Philippines José Abad Santos, and three Philippine Army officers, were evacuated onboard the Swordfish. On 22 February, MacArthur was ordered to leave. Wainwright was given command of the Luzon Force, and then all United Forces in the Philippines (USFIP) on 21 March, reporting to MacArthur. Edward P. King assumed command of the Luzon Force.  Jones took over I Corps, Parker remained in charge of II Corps, while Lewis C. Beebe was made MacArthur's deputy chief of staff.

On the night of 12 March MacArthur, his family, and several USAFFE staff officers left Corregidor for Mindanao aboard four PT boats commanded by Lieutenant Commander John D. Bulkeley. For this, and a number of other feats over the course of four months and eight days, Bulkeley was awarded the Medal of Honor, the Navy Cross, the Distinguished Service Cross and other citations. MacArthur was eventually flown to Australia where he broadcast to the Filipino people his famous "I Shall Return" promise.

On 17 March, Washington notified Wainwright of MacArthur's safe arrival in Australia. Additionally, the message stated, "I assume that you are fully acquainted with the various measures that have been instituted for running the blockade and keeping our forces partially supplied with critical items. In an effort to provide you with some air assistance we are placing one or two crated P-40s on each blockade runner, including six converted destroyers of which the leading vessels are now enroute via Hawaii." Of these six blockade runners, the Masaya, Matagalpa, Teapa, Margaret Schafer, Mount Baker, and Texada, only the first two made it past Hawaii, and they were diverted instead to Australia. Other blockade runners included the Don Isidro, Coast Farmer, Dona Nati, and the Anhui, but only the last three were partially successful. Resupply by submarine, including the Seawolf, Trout, Seadragon, Permit, and the Sargo were also only partially successful. By the end of February, the rice and flour had run out.

On 23 February, Homma's chief of staff Masami Maeda, was replaced by Takaji Wachi, and plans were made for an April offensive. Reinforcements included additional men for the 16th Division and 65th Brigade, plus Kenzo Kitano's 4th Infantry Division, and Kameichiro Nagano's 21st Division. Wachi observed that, "The Japanese Army was severely beaten by the Philippine Army. [Enemy] artillery was so accurate and powerful that the Japanese Army feared this most." So additional artillery was added to Kishio Kitajima's Artillery Group, including 300 mm mortars, Type 45 240 mm howitzers, 150 mm mortars and howitzers, and 75 mm mountain guns. Kizo Mikami's 22nd Air Brigade was also augmented with the 60th and 62nd Heavy Bombardment Regiments. The 1st Baloon Company provided provided additional aerial observation. On 22 March, King ignored a Japanese offer of honorable surrender that cited the defeat of Britain and Netherland East Indies.

By 3 April, King's Luzon Force consisted of 79,000 soldiers, with 32,600 in I Corps, and 28,000 in II Corps. Yet malnutrition, disease and fatigue limited their strength. King was also down to two P40s and two P-35s. The Left Sector of I Corps was held by Luther Stevens' 91st and 1st Divisions, while the Right Sector was held by Brougher's 11th Division and 2nd Constabulary.  Sector A of II Corps was held by John Irwin's Philippine Army's 31st Infantry, Sector By by Irvin Doane's Provisional Air Corps Regiment, Sector C by Clifford Bluemel's 32nd Infantry and 51st Combat Team, Sector D by Maxon Lough's 21st and 41st Divisions, while Sector E was held by Guillermo B. Francisco's American 31st and 57th Infantry.

Fall of Bataan
On 3 April, at 1500, Homma planned to attack the Orion Bagac Line, using Kitano's 4th Division to breach the II Corps left flank along Mount Samat, and then proceed southeast to Manila Bay. Nara's 65th Brigade would be on Kitano's right, while the 21st Division would be a diversionary force on II Corps' right flank, and the 16th Division diverted I Corps. Homma expected Bataan to fall within a month. On 23 March, Japanese aerial bombardment commenced.

On 3 April at 0900, Kishio Kitajima's 196 gun bombardment commenced, accompanied by 150 sorties of Kizo Mikamai's 22nd Air Brigade. By 1500 hours, Nara's 65th Brigade advanced south along Trail 29 between the Catamon and Pantingan Rivers, while Kureo Taniguchi led the Right Wing of Kenzo Kitano's 4th Division south along Trail 6. By the end of the day the 42nd Infantry and 43rd Infantry, Lim's 41st Division, were in retreat.

On 4 April the Japanese artillery bombardment and aerial barrage continued. The 65th Brigade contued its advance south down Trail 29, as the 41st Division continued its retreat. Now the Japanese 4th Division's Left and Right Wings forced the 21st, 22nd and 23rd Infantry, 21st Division, to retreat. King then committed his Luzon Force reserves in an attempt to prevent the total collapse of Sector D.

On 5 April, the Japanese Right Wing captured Mt. Samat, with the 41st Artillery batteries, and proceeded down the southern slopes. The 51st Combat Team in Sector C now came under attack. Wainwright, visiting the II Corps front from Corregidor, ordered a counterattack by Jasper Brady's American 31st Infantry, the 45th Infantry, and the 57th Infantry for the next day. However, Wainwright told MacArthur, " The troops have been on half rations for three months and are now on less than that amount which results in much loss of physical vigor and sickness." The attempted counterattack proved futile, and the defenders were forced to fall back onto the east bank of the San Vicente River. By the end of 6 April, according to Whitman, "General Homma's army had destroyed two divisions, the 21st and the 41st, and one regiment, the 51st. Homma had also cut off two regiments from the main area of interest, the 41st and 45th infantry, and isolated Sector D headquarters from its troops. The left flank of II Corps was smashed, the two corps split apart, Mount Samat lost, defending artillery all but neutralized, and the rear of Parker's II Corps invitingly open to Japanese exploitation."

On 7 April, the Japanese offensive struck Bluemel's Sector C, and soon the San Vicente line collapsed. First retreating to the Mamala River, eventually what was left of Bluemel's 31st and 57th infantry were joined by the 26th Cavalry on the Alangan River. To their right were the remnants of Irwin's Sectors A and B. Similarly, I Corps retreated to the Binuangan River. Homma's offensive had accomplished in 5 days what was expected to take a month, with minimal loss.

On 8 April, Bluemel was forced to retreat further along Trail 20 to the Lamao River. He was told he need hold that line only until the next day when, "A car carrying a white flag will go through the lines on the east road at daylight." King stated, "I feel that further resistance would only uselessly waste life." Wainwright messaged MacArthur, "The troops are so weak from malnutrition that they have no power of resistance." The nurses from Hospitals 1 and 2 were evacuated to Corregidor, leaving 24,000 sick and wounded. Depots and warehouses were destroyed that night, as the last two P-40s, two P-35s, and a Grumman J2F Duck carrying Carlos P. Romulo, fled south from Bataan and Cabcaben airfields. The Dewey, Bittern, and Canopus were scuttled.

All along the battle front, units of I Corps, together with the devastated remnants of II Corps, crumbled and straggled to the rear. The commanders on Bataan lost all contact with their units, except by runner in a few instances. In the last two days of the defense roads south were clogged with refugees and fleeing troops, with some evacuated by YAG-4 from the Mariveles Naval Base.

On 9 April, King first met with Nagano at the Lamao River bridge, who then led King's party to an experimental farm station house, awaiting the arrival of Colonel Motoo Nakayama, 14th Army senior operations officer. However, Nakayama could only accept the surrender of all forces in the Philippines, not in a limited area. King was then driven to the Balanga Elementary School for questioning and photographs. According to John Whitman, "No surrender document was prepared or signed, nor was an effort made to formulate the surrender."

Radio broadcast – Voice of Freedom – Malinta Tunnel – Corregidor – April 9, 1942:

Aftermath

The continued resistance of the force on Bataan after Singapore and the Indies had fallen made heartening news among the Allied peoples. However, the extension of time gained by the defense was very largely a result of the transfer of the 48th Division from Homma's army at a critical time, and the exhaustion of the weakened force that remained. It cost a far stronger Japanese army as many days of actual combat to take Malaya and Singapore Island as it cost Homma to take Bataan and Corregidor.

The surrender of Bataan hastened the fall of Corregidor a month later. There is a suggestion that without the stand, the Japanese might have quickly overrun all of the U.S. bases in the Pacific and could have quickly invaded Australia. Willoughby, MacArthur's intelligence officer, asserted after the war that the epic operation in Bataan and Corregidor became a decisive factor in the ultimate winning of the war, that it disrupted the Japanese timetable "in a way that was to prove crucial" and that "because of Bataan the Japanese never managed to detach enough men, planes, ships, and material to nail down Guadalcanal." According to Gavin Long, rather than allowing the operations on Luzon to upset their general timetable, the Japanese took steps that resulted in prolonging the resistance of Luzon in order to speed up their conquest of the Indies. Between the time of their advance into the Solomons and the American counter-landing on Guadalcanal in August, three months after the fall of Corregidor, they had ample troops available to build up their strength in the South Seas.

However, historian Teodoro Agoncillo argues that the battle was "unnecessary in so far as the throwing away of precious lives was concerned, for it served no strategic purpose." It was only Yamashita who thought of invading Australia, something that Tojo did not support. USAFFE possessed numerical superiority and could have recaptured Manila easily, according to Homma.

The Japanese were greatly delayed in their overall timetable (not including the well-executed and rapid Dutch East Indies campaign) by the last stands at Bataan and Corregidor, which can be proven by how the Imperial General Headquarters was not satisfied with the slow pace of the Bataan and Corregidor battles because the original expectation for the Japanese forces was to defeat USAFFE forces and achieve complete victory in the Philippines by the middle of February. The withdrawal of the Asiatic Fleet in late December 1941 from the Philippines as well as the abandoning of the Philippines by the Pacific Fleet due to the Attack on Pearl Harbor gave the Japanese high expectations of a sudden collapse and surrender of MacArthur's forces within a month. Homma was relieved of command after the final Allied forces surrendered in the Philippines in June 1942 and he was humiliated and scapegoated for this major loss of face for the Japanese military. He served at a desk as a powerless reserve officer in Japan for the rest of the war.

Ultimately, more than 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March. However, about 10,000–12,000 of these eventually escaped from the march to form guerrilla units in the mountains, tying down the occupying Japanese. On 7 September 1944 the Japanese ship Shinyō Maru was sunk by USS Paddle; on board the Shinyo Maru were U.S. POWs, of whom 668 died and 82 survived.

After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, MacArthur initiated the Campaign for the Liberation of the Philippines, fulfilling his promise to return to the country he had left in 1942. As part of the campaign, the Battle for the recapture of Bataan avenged the surrender of the defunct USAFFE to invading Japanese forces.

Legacy

9 April, the day Bataan fell into Japanese hands, was declared a national holiday in the Philippines. Previously called Bataan Day, the day is now known as Day of Valor or Araw ng Kagitingan, commemorating both the Fall of Bataan and the Fall of Corregidor. The Dambana ng Kagitingan (Shrine of Valor) is a war memorial erected on top of Mount Samat. The memorial grounds feature a colonnade that houses an altar, esplanade, and a museum. On the peak of the mountain is the memorial cross standing about  high.

, commissioned on 20 September 1997, the United States Navy  commemorates "those who served and sacrificed in the Philippines in the name of freedom in the Pacific". , commissioned on 17 November 1943, the United States Navy  commemorated "those who served and sacrificed in the Philippines in the name of freedom in the Pacific" until her decommissioning on 9 April 1954.

The Bataan Death March Memorial Monument, erected in April 2001, is the only monument funded by the U.S. federal government dedicated to the victims of the Bataan Death March during World War II. The memorial was designed and sculpted by Las Cruces artist Kelley Hester and is located in Veterans Park along Roadrunner Parkway in New Mexico.

Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge is a bascule bridge on State Street in Chicago, Illinois, where it crosses the Chicago River. It was built in 1949 and rededicated on 9 April 1998, commemorating the Day of Valor as well as the centennial of the declaration of Philippine independence from Spain in 1898.

In film, television and song
Among the many films and television programs that feature the story of Bataan are Bataan (1943) starring Robert Taylor; the John Ford classic They Were Expendable (1945), starring Robert Montgomery, John Wayne, and Donna Reed; Back to Bataan (1945) starring Wayne and Anthony Quinn; and two movies about the nurses of Bataan: So Proudly We Hail! (1943) and Cry 'Havoc' (1943).

Dozens of documentaries have also featured stories from the Battle of Bataan including A Legacy of Heroes: The Story of Bataan and Corregidor (2003), Ghosts of Bataan (2005) and an episode of The History Channel series Shootout, entitled "Raid on the Bataan Death Camp" (2006). Though largely focusing on the Cabanatuan Raid in 1945, this last program also featured stories from the 1942 battle; notably the stand of the 57th Infantry Regiment (PS) at Mabatang.

The Battle of Bataan is referenced among important battles of American history in the song The House I Live In, sang by Frank Sinatra in the film of the same name and later taken up by Paul Robeson and various other singers: "The little bridge at Concord, where Freedom's fight began, / Our Gettysburg and Midway, and the story of Bataan".

See also
 Angels of Bataan
 Frank Adamo – called by Life magazine "Bataan's medical hero"
 Wenceslao Vinzons  – Filipino guerrilla leader who resisted until 8 July 1942.

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

 "Marines in the Defense of the Philippines" Photos and Text
 World War II Medal of Honor Recipients A-F  at the United States Army Center of Military History
 World War II Medal of Honor Recipients M-S  at the United States Army Center of Military History
 Animated History of The Battle of Bataan and Corregidor
 Battle for Bataan
 Info on the Dambana ng Kagitingan Shrine (archived from the original on July 13, 2007).
 Back to Bataan a survivor's story
 History of Provisional Tank Group before, during and after the Battle of Bataan

1942 in the Philippines
Bataan Death March
Battles and operations of World War II involving the Philippines
History of Bataan
Bataan
United States Marine Corps in World War II

Battle of Bataan


Miguel Sidrauski (October 12, 1939 – September 1, 1968) was an Argentine economist who made important contributions to the theory of economic growth by developing a modified version of the Ramsey–Cass–Koopmans model to describe the effects of money on long-run growth.  He also published an article on exchange rate determination.  Sidrauski taught economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Life and career
Sidrauski was born and educated in Buenos Aires.  He entered graduate studies at the University of Chicago in 1963 and completed his PhD in 1966 under the supervision of Hirofumi Uzawa and Milton Friedman. After completing his PhD, he was appointed as an assistant professor at MIT. Sidrauski, who was Jewish, was described by his colleague Duncan K. Foley as "a committed Zionist." He died of cancer at the age of 28, and was surrounded by his wife and two-month-old daughter.

Sidrauski is best known for his 1967 article, "Rational Choice and Patterns of Growth in a Monetary Economy," which was based on his PhD dissertation.  The article analyses a model of a representative household that intertemporally maximises utility, which in turn depends on both the consumption of goods and the holding of real balances of money. The model implies that in steady state, capital intensity is invariant to the rate of monetary expansion or contraction, a result that is described as superneutrality of money.

Selected publications

References

Further reading

Growth economists
Monetary economists
1939 births
1968 deaths
20th-century  Argentine economists

Miguel Sidrauski


Up! Live in Chicago is the third live video album by Canadian singer Shania Twain. Directed and produced by Beth McCarthy-Miller, the concert was held and filmed on July 27, 2003 at Hutchinson Field in the south-side of Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois; over 50,000 people attended. The concert itself differed from that of the Up! Tour (2003–04), featuring a different stage, setlist and production. Behind-the-scenes footage of the singer visiting local landmarks and events was filmed the same week. The concert film premiered on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) on August 19, 2003. The special was watched by over 8.87 million viewers, becoming the second-most-viewed concert film on television, behind Celine Dion's A New Day ... Live in Las Vegas (2003).

Due to its high television ratings, Up! Live in Chicago was released as a video album on November 18, 2003 by Mercury Records Nashville. Released both in standard DVD packaging and in a jewel case, it featured additional performances not included on the television presentation. The album was also received positively by music critics, who complimented Shania's interaction with the audience; however, some questioned her live singing. The video peaked at number two on Billboards Top Music Video sales chart, and was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments of over 100,000 copies in the United States. It was also certified platinum in Australia and gold in Austria and Brazil. Excerpts from Up! Live in Chicago were used as the music videos for "She's Not Just a Pretty Face" (2003) and "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing" (2004).

Background
Over three and a half years after her last live show, Shania performed a series of three outdoor concerts in Europe and North America in July 2003 to promote her fourth studio album Up! (2002). The singer scheduled the trek primarily because of her prolonged absence from live performances and to ensure playing a concert in the United States prior to her Up! Tour. At the time, it was to commence in September 2003 in Europe, although it ultimately did so in North America. She said, "With the tour starting in September, I didn't want to miss the summer without staging a concert in the U.S. After living with these 19 songs [from Up!] and going through the recording process, it's time to get on stage and perform them." She conceptualized the shows to consist mainly of uptempo numbers and to be almost void of ballads to "spend the night rocking" and maintain an energized spirit. She also deliberately left much room for improvisation, stating that she preferred for the performances to be very spontaneous, than choreographed and music video-like. She first performed on July 5, 2003 at Nowlan Park in Kilkenny, Ireland, and then on July 12, 2003 at Hyde Park in London, England with a setlist composed of twenty-two songs.

The singer then headed to Chicago, Illinois to perform a free outdoor concert on July 27, 2003, held at the Hutchinson Field in the south-side of Grant Park. Meanwhile, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) was seeking an artist to host a prime time television music special, and contacted Twain to discuss the possibilities of filming the concert in Chicago. NBC executives sought Twain for the special because they believed her lengthy career and crossover history would translate into more viewers. She accepted the offer, and the show was directed and produced by Beth McCarthy-Miller. Prior to performing at Grant Park, Twain spent a week in Chicago to film behind-the-scenes footage that would be used for the television special. She visited landmarks and attended local events, such as a Chicago Cubs game where she tossed the first pitch and sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the audience. The singer also took a riverboat trip and visited outposts of her favorite charity Kids Cafés, a program specialized to feed children in America. The concert was produced by JAM Creative Productions, and sponsored by local radio station WUSN and the Chicago Tribune, which disseminated information about obtaining concert tickets. The show was attended by over 50,000 people. The Behind the Scenes featurette was not featured on the DVD.

Concert synopsis

The concert's setlist consisted primarily of songs from Up!, with several hits from The Woman in Me (1995) and Come on Over (1997). The songs from Up! were not performed in a specific format from the three studio versions of the album. Shania desired to approach the live productions as their "own beast". The show commenced with Shania, who was costumed by a "Body Glove" top and black cargo pants, arriving from the back of the stage to perform "Man! I Feel Like a Woman!" alongside her band. The singer then followed with "Up!" and after talking with the audience, the singer says it has been 3 and 1/2 years since she was up on the concert stage and then performed "Honey, I'm Home". Shania continued to perform a total of ten songs during the segment. At one point, she invited an audience member, James Hundt, onstage to propose to his girlfriend, Annelisa Hahn. She accepted and the two slow danced onstage as Shania sang "When You Kiss Me", sitting on a stool placed towards the end of the runway. The segment ended with a performance of the UK Dance Mix of "That Don't Impress Me Much", and "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!", where Shania invited three little girls Shyanne, Meanny and Ashley to join her onstage. In the succeeding segment, Shania donned a tan, multi-patterned halter top with the words "True Love" spelled on the front and black, sequined wide leg trousers. She began with "From This Moment On". Then, she performed "No One Needs to Know" with an acoustic guitar and "Thank You Baby! (For Makin' Someday Come So Soon)" with a small orchestra accompanying her. She concluded the nine-song segment with "In My Car (I'll Be the Driver)" and "(If You're Not in It for Love) I'm Outta Here!". The singer returned to the stage for the third and final segment, wearing a black, long-sleeve top with an American flag imprinted in the center and denim capri pants. She performed a rendition of "You're Still the One" while playing the acoustic guitar again, and ended the show with "Nah!" and "Rock This Country!".

Release
On June 6, 2003, the Chicago Tribune announced the Grant Park concert, which was to be filmed for an August NBC special. Immediately after the show concluded, its premiere date of August 19, 2003 was specified. A two-hour edited version was televised on August 19 at 8:00 P.M. EST to  high ratings. Up! Live in Chicago was watched by over 8.87 million viewers in the United States, becoming the second-most-watched concert film in television history, behind Celine Dion's CBS special A New Day ... Live in Las Vegas earlier that year. Following the concert film's television success, Mercury Records Nashville released the home video album on November 18, 2003 in Region 1 and on November 24, 2003 in Region 2. It was released in DVD format, both in conventional DVD packaging and in a jewel case; both appeared in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (4:3). The  release featured six additional performances that were not shown on the NBC special and also stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes. Up! Live in Chicago also sourced video material for two of Up!'''s singles. The performances of "She's Not Just a Pretty Face" (2003) and "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing" (2004) served as the songs' music videos, while the audio rendition of "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing" was released as a live CD single and a digital download on March 9, 2004.

Reception

Critical receptionUp! Live in Chicago received favorable reviews from critics. Matt Bjorke of About.com reviewed the home release of Up! Live in Chicago. He had not attended a Shania concert, nor seen the television special, and was surprised by the singer's stage presence. He believed that the video would make the singer's naysayers realize Shania's vocal talents and ability to entertainment and interact with a crowd. Bjorke concluded, "Up! Live in Chicago is a dynamic DVD experience that is sure to please fans for years to come." Chris Jones of BBC noted the band's differed from most country bands and wanted a more country-influenced sound. However, Jones complimented the singer's incorporation of the audience, naming it her "inimitable style". He added that the video was "far from [a] sterile experience" because of the live setting and crowd ambiance. However, he suspected Shania's "photocopy-perfect" vocal delivery could be attributed to a fair amount of post-production work. "Overall, you know exactly what you're getting with Shania, and for her fans this is bound to be a very good thing indeed." Bobby Reed of the Chicago Sun Times believed Shania failed to give insight into her identity or personality, noting she never mentioned her relocation to Switzerland or her then-new son, Eja. He complimented the band's strong, yet rote efforts of bringing the dense production to life. However, he claimed Shania's vocal delivery was at times frail. Reed also noted the absence of guest stars, in contrast to her two previous concert specials, and acknowledged that inviting fans onstage gave the concert a country-fair vibe. Mark Guarino of Arlington Heights' Daily Herald believed the concert was evidently tailored for television and that Shania played the proper host. He continued, "As the night wore on, Shania tried different ways, with varying degrees of success, to make the magnitude of such a large event work for the small screen. Her reliance on audience participation was an attempt to humanize things, but it often backfired."

Commercial performance
On the week ending December 13, 2003, Up! Live in Chicago debuted at number three on Billboards Top Music Video sales chart. Two weeks later, it reached its peak at number two. The video spent fourteen weeks on the chart before returning for a fifteenth and final week at number eighteen on the week ending March 12, 2005. In March 2004, Up! Live in Chicago was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 100,000 copies in the United States. On the week ending January 15, 2005, Up! Live in Chicago'' peaked at number eight on New Zealand's Top 10 Music DVDs. The video peaked at number sixty-one on the German Albums Chart, and spent a total of eleven weeks on the chart. It was also certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for the shipment of 15,000 copies in the country. In Brazil, the video was certified gold by the Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos (ABPD) for the sale of 15,000 copies. In Austria, the video was certified gold by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for the sale of 5,000 copies.

Setlist

Charts and certifications

Charts

Certifications

Credits and personnel

 Brent Barcus – guitar
 J. D. Blair – drums
 Roddy Chong – guitar, percussion, mandolin, violin
 Cory Churko – background vocals, guitar, mandolin, violin
 Andy Cichon – bass guitar
 Allison Cornell – keyboards, mandolin, violin, drums
 Brad Duns – script coordinator
 David Foster – film editing

 Hardy Hemphill – keyboards, percussion, harmonica
 Booey Kober – film editing
 Beth McCarthy-Miller – director, producer
 Steve McMillan – live sound mixing
 Jeff Muhlstock – steadicam operator
 Marc Muller – guitar
 Shania Twain – drums, guitar, performer, singer
 Randy Waller – guitar

Source:

References

External links

2003 video albums
Culture of Chicago
Live video albums
Shania Twain video albums

Up! Live in Chicago


A paddock is a small enclosure for horses. In the United Kingdom, this term also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly Formula 1.

Description

In Canada and the United States of America, a paddock is a small enclosure used to keep horses. In the United Kingdom, this term has a similar meaning, and also applies to a field for a general automobile racing competition, particularly Formula 1. The most common design provides an area for exercise and is often situated near the stables. Larger paddocks may have grass maintained in them, but many are dirt or a similar natural surface. In those cases drainage and a top layer of sand are often used to keep a suitable surface in the paddock.

In the American West, such an enclosure is often called a corral, and may be used to contain cattle or horses, occasionally other livestock. The word paddock is also used to describe other small, fenced areas that hold horses, such as a saddling paddock at a racetrack, the area where race horses are saddled before a horse race.

Horse breeders may let stallions loose in a paddock or field with mares that they would like the stallion to impregnate. This allows the most natural form of mating to occur and the regularity of mating using this method promotes the chances of a mare becoming pregnant. However, high-value stallions are rarely used for breeding in this manner, as uninterested mares may severely injure them.

References

Horse management
Buildings and structures used to confine animals
Agricultural land

Paddock


The .45 Reising submachine gun was manufactured by Harrington & Richardson (H&R) Arms Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, and was designed and patented by Eugene Reising in 1940. The three versions of the weapon were the Model 50, the folding stock Model 55, and the semiautomatic Model 60 rifle. Over 100,000 Reisings were ordered during World War II, and were initially used by the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard, though some were shipped to Canadian, Soviet, and other allied forces to fight the Axis powers.

History

Reising was an assistant to firearm inventor John M. Browning. In this role, Reising contributed to the final design of the US .45 ACP M1911 pistol. Reising then designed a number of commercial rifles and pistols on his own, when in 1938, he turned his attention to designing a submachine gun as threats of war rapidly grew in Europe.

Two years later he submitted his completed design to the Harrington & Richardson Arms Company (H&R) in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was accepted, and in March 1941, H&R started manufacturing the Model 50 submachine gun. Months later, production began on the Model 55, which was identical to the Model 50 other than having a folding wire buttstock, no compensator, and a  barrel; and the Model 60 semiautomatic rifle that also resembled a Model 50, but had an  barrel without cooling fins or a compensator.

H&R promoted the submachine guns for police and military use, and the Model 60 for security guards. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 the US was suddenly in desperate need of thousands of modern automatic weapons. Reising's only competitor was the .45 ACP Thompson submachine gun.

The US Army first tested the Reising in November 1941 at Fort Benning, Georgia. During this test, several parts failed due to poor construction. Once this was corrected, a second test was made in 1942 at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. In that test, 3,500 rounds were fired, resulting in two malfunctions: one from the ammunition, the other from a bolt malfunction. As a result, the Army didn't adopt the Reising, but the Navy and Marines did, due to insufficient supply of Thompsons.

The Reising submachine gun was innovative for its time. In comparison to its main rival, the famous Thompson, it possessed similar firepower, better accuracy, excellent balance, a lighter weight, a much lower cost, and greater ease of manufacture. Despite these achievements, the poor combat performance of the Reising—contrasted with favorable combat and law enforcement use of the Thompson—mired the weapon in controversy.

Design

The Reising was far less costly ($62) compared to the Thompson ($200). It was much lighter (seven vs. eleven pounds). The Model 55 was also more compact (about twenty-two vs. thirty-three inches in length).

The Reising cost less than the Thompson because its metal components were mostly stampings instead of machined parts. This also allowed it to be lighter, as did its firing mechanism .  Like the 1928A1 Thompson, its operating principle was delayed blowback, but the Thompson's Blish lock system was far less mechanically effective and so, like a simple blowback weapon, the Thompson was dependent on high bolt mass or more specifically bolt inertia to provide an acceptably low rate of fire. That is, a lighter bolt, as used in earlier models of the Thompson, would have reciprocated faster and produced too great a firing speed.  This in turn meant that the Thompson could not be radically lightened without a deterioration in its controllability, as a heavy gun was necessary in automatic fire, to counteract and stabilize the effects on control and accuracy of its heavy bolt moving back and forwards. The Reising's bolt is much lighter due to its delayed blowback mechanism being the main determinant of the automatic rate of fire; and consequently the whole gun could be correspondingly light without detracting from accuracy and controllability.

The M50 Reising's delayed blowback operation, often classified as hesitation lock, works as follows: as the cartridge is chambered, the rear end of the bolt is pushed up into a recess, in a manner similar to tilting-bolt locked breech guns; but whereas such weapons rely on an additional mechanism to unlock them, in the case of the Reising the end of the bolt that pushes against the back wall of this recess, is subtly rounded, while the wall is correspondingly curved.  On firing, the extreme pressure from the propellant gases is thereby able to force the bolt-end down, back to the horizontal.  From here the bolt can move to the rear removing the cartridge from the chamber; but the combination of mechanical disadvantage and friction the force of the gases must overcome to push the end of the bolt down has achieved a delay of a fraction of a second, allowing pressure in the barrel to drop to a level sufficiently low for safe and efficient cartridge extraction.

The Reising fired from a closed bolt with its return spring as part of its cocking handle underneath the barrel. It notably used a linear hammer in the main receiver.

The Reising was more balanced than the Thompson because the barrel-and-receiver-group rested concentrically within the stock. It had smoother lines in that the stock was of conventional shape, and because the cocking handle (action bar) was placed inside the forearm. In addition, it was more accurate both in semi-auto and at the onset of automatic fire, because due to it being a closed bolt gun, only the linear hammer and firing pin moved at the moment the trigger was squeezed, whereas the Thompson slammed home a heavy bolt and actuator.

The Reising was made in selective fire versions that could be switched between semi-automatic or full-automatic fire as needed and in semi-auto only versions to be used for marksmanship training and police and guard use. The Reising had a designed full-auto cyclic rate of 450–600 rounds per minute but it was reported that the true full-auto rate was closer to 750–850 rounds per minute. At those rates, the twenty round magazine could be emptied in less than two seconds. In 1941, the Reising was priced at approximately $50 per weapon as opposed to $225 for the standard military issue Thompson submachine gun.

Variants

There were four versions of the Reising, two selective fire models: the M50 and M55, and two semi-automatic only variants: the M60, a .45 ACP carbine, and the M65, chambered for the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge designed for training purposes.

There were two differences between the M50 and the M55, those being the elimination of the compensator and the addition of a folding wire buttstock making the M55 lighter and shorter. M55 was originally issued to Marine parachute infantry and armored vehicle crews.

The M60 was a long-barreled, semi-automatic carbine model designed primarily for military training and police use. However, few of these were ever sold. Although mechanically near-identical to the submachine variants, the concept was borne out from H&R's ill-fated .30 carbine light rifle prototype that was trialed against the M1 carbine. The Marines used M60s for training, guard duty, and other non-combat roles. Some M60s were believed to have been issued to Marine officers at Guadalcanal. The remaining guns were passed on to State Guards and civilian law enforcement agencies. The M65 was developed as a sub-caliber training rifle version of the M60, produced only from 1944 to 1946. H&R later made updates to the M65 and sold them on the civilian market (and to the Marines in small numbers) as the MC-58 and M150/151/165 Leatherneck.

USMC deployment

The Reising entered military service primarily because of uncertainty of supply of sufficient quantities of the Thompson submachine gun. In the testing stage, it won out over some other competing designs. It was very light and quite accurate in aimed fire, and "capable of intensive fire against personnel within a range of 300 yards." This was attributed to its better stock fit and intricate closed bolt, delayed blowback design.  Most submachine guns fire from the open bolt position, meaning the full mass of the bolt slams forward when the trigger is pulled; with the closed-bolt system employed by the Reising there is much less movement involving far lighter components, and the resulting improved control in the moment before shooting gives better accuracy, both for semi-automatic and at the onset of full automatic fire.  Less advantageously though, this more accurate firepower was somewhat limited due to the 20-round capacity of its largest magazine.

The U.S. Marines adopted the Reising in 1941 with 4,200 authorized per division with approximately 500 authorized per each infantry regiment. Most Reisings were originally issued to Marine officers and NCOs in lieu of a compact and light carbine, since the newly introduced M1 carbine was not yet being issued to the Marines. Although the Thompson submachine gun was available, this weapon frequently proved too heavy and bulky for jungle patrols, and initially it, too, was in short supply.

During World War II, the Reising first saw action on August 7, 1942, exactly eight months to the day after Pearl Harbor, when 11,000 men from the 1st Marine Division stormed the beaches of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands. The same date of Guadalcanal's invasion, the Model 50 and 55 saw action with the 1st Marine Raiders on the small outlying islands of Tulagi and Tanambogo to the north. Two companies of Marine paratroopers also used Model 55s, to attack the island of Gavutu, between Tulagi and Tanambogo. Paramarines and armored crewmen were issued the folding stock M55, and this version included a notable flaw: its wire-frame stock was poorly designed, crude and flimsy, and had a tendency to fold while firing. Moreover, other serious shortcomings in both guns were becoming apparent. The reality was that the Reising was designed as a civilian police weapon and was not suited to the stresses of harsh battle conditions encountered in the Solomon Islands—namely, sand, saltwater that easily rusted the commercial blued finish, and the difficulty in keeping the weapon clean enough to function properly. Tests at Aberdeen Proving Ground and at Fort Benning, Georgia, had found difficulties in blindfold reassembly of the Reising, indicating the design was complicated and difficult to maintain.

The producer, H&R, had not yet mastered mass-production technologies in 1940-1941, and many of the parts were hand fitted at the factory just like the company did with their commercial firearms; this lack of parts interchangeability was not a problem for a civilian security or police firearm, and the Marines had to accept it in order to get the weapons quickly, but it was very problematic when Reisings were maintained in the field under combat conditions; the Marines were not told not to mix up the parts during communal cleaning, as they were used to.

While more accurate than the Thompson, particularly in semi-automatic mode, the Reising had a tendency to jam. This was in part due to its overly complex delayed-blowback design. This design used a system of levers within the receiver to release a fragile firing pin that could break, rust, or freeze in the humid jungle climate. Another problem with this form of delayed blowback was the recess in which the bolt lodged when in battery. If this accumulated dirt or fouling these could prevent the bolt from seating in it properly; and if this happened the trigger disconnector automatically prevented firing. In addition, the magazine was a staggered-column, single-cartridge feed design, and slight damage to the feed lips or debris in the magazine would render the magazine unusable. A partial solution to the magazine problem was the later introduction of a single-column magazine that reduced the capacity from 20 to 12 rounds.

The Reising earned a dismal reputation for reliability in the combat conditions of Guadalcanal. The M1 carbine eventually became available and was often chosen over both the Reising and the Thompson in the wet tropical conditions, as the M1928 Thompson's built-in oiling pads in the receiver were a liability.

Withdrawal from the Fleet Marine Force
In late 1943 following numerous complaints, the Reising was withdrawn from Fleet Marine Force (FMF) units and assigned to Stateside guard detachments and ship detachments. After the Marines proved reluctant to accept more Reisings, and with the increased issue of the .30-caliber M1 carbine, the U.S. government passed some Reising submachine guns to the OSS and to various foreign governments (as Lend-Lease aid). Canada purchased some Model 50 SMGs and these were issued to 2nd Battalions in Canada where the 1st Battalions of regiments were serving overseas. They were issued along with .30-06 M1917 Enfields and .30-06 Lewis machine guns. One such unit to receive them was the 2nd Bn, Seaforth Highlanders of Canada. The Veteran's Guard of Canada were issued the weapon to guard German prisoners of war.  Others were given to various anti-Axis resistance forces operating around the world.

Many Reisings (particularly the semiautomatic M60 rifle) were issued to State Guards for guarding war plants, bridges, and other strategic resources. After the war, thousands of Reising Model 50 submachine guns were acquired by state, county, and local U.S. law enforcement agencies. The weapon proved much more successful in this role, in contrast to its wartime reputation.

Issues of reliability
H&R was justifiably proud of the Reising's superior accuracy and balance, lighter weight, and ease of manufacturing when compared to the Thompson. However, the Reising's close tolerances and delicate magazine proved unreliable in the sand and mud of the Solomons, unless kept scrupulously clean. The gun quickly became despised by front-line Marines, and Lieutenant Colonel Merritt A. Edson, Commander, 1st Marine Raider Battalion, ordered that his troops' Reisings be flung into Guadalcanal's crocodile-infested Lunga River, as his troops resorted to reliable bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifles.

This failure made a mockery of H&R's company slogan, "Six-and-one-half pounds of controlled dynamite. The H&R Reising will get a bullet there when you need it!"

There are other reasons for its failure. Foremost was the Reising's complex design of many small pins, plungers, springs and levers. Disassembly and assembly was difficult even under normal conditions. Simple maintenance was problematic as there was no bolt hold-open device. Chambering a cartridge was awkward as the action bar was hard to grasp in the forearm and could be obstructed by the sling. Worse, the safety/selector switch couldn't be sensed by feel at night if it was in the safe, semi, or automatic position.

"Filing-to-fit" of certain parts during production limited interchangeability. The exposed rear sight had no protective ears and was vulnerable to breakage. The adjustable front sight could be lost if the retaining screw wasn't tightly secured. The weapon was susceptible to jamming if grime clogged the bolt's locking recess in the receiver. The two small magazine guide retaining pins and corresponding receiver stud holes were tapered allowing disassembly and assembly only from one direction—right to left for disassembly, and left to right for assembly; adding unacceptable levels of complexity in a combat environment. The retaining pins had to be delicately tapped out whenever the bolt needed to be removed for cleaning; again, an awkwardly involved task whilst under fire. And afterwards when the pins had to be put back during the reassembly process, if they were inserted either too far or not far enough, the receiver might not fit back into the tight confines of the stock.

Model confusion
What constitutes a "commercial" and "military" Model 50 is amorphous. First, H&R never made a distinction; the distinction is made by collectors. This confusion stems from a period in production where early Model 50s were manufactured with commercial characteristics and H&R's wartime practice of randomly installing old parts in stock throughout production.

While there is not one factor that distinguishes the so-called commercial from the military model, the commercial model is usually blued. It commonly has a fixed front sight and a rear sight with no retaining screw. It often has 28 fins on the barrel, a one piece magazine release, no outward flanges on the safety/selector switch, and no sling swivels. Lastly, the commercial model commonly has a smooth take-down screw, a two-hole trigger guard, and serial numbers ranging from one to 20,000.

Military Reisings are usually parkerized. They often have an adjustable front sight with an Allen screw and a rear sight with a retaining screw. They routinely have 14 fins on the barrel, a two-piece magazine release, outward flanges on the safety/selector switch, sling swivels, stock ties (crossbolts through the forearm), and a knurled take-down screw. Finally, the military model commonly has a three-hole trigger guard, proofmarks like "PH" or "Pm2" above the chamber, and serial numbers ranging from 20,000 to 120,000.

There are three types of H&R magazines. The first and second models are both smooth body, are blued, and are twenty-shot double column. The first model is distinguished by five cartridge peep holes on the left side, a feature eliminated on the second model to prevent mud and sand from entering. In contrast, the third model is parkerized, has two long indentations on the sides to reduce its capacity to a twelve-shot single column magazine because of feeding problems experienced with former models.

Postwar

Production of the Model 50 and 55 submachine guns ceased in 1945 at the end of World War II. Nearly 120,000 submachine guns were made of which two-thirds went to the Marines. H&R continued production of the Model 60 semiautomatic rifle in hopes of domestic sales, but with little demand, production of the Model 60 stopped in 1949 with over 3,000 manufactured. H&R sold their remaining inventory of submachine guns to police and correctional agencies across America who were interested in the Reising's selective-fire capability, semi-auto accuracy, and low cost relative to a Thompson. Then, faced with continued demand, H&R resumed production of the Model 50 in 1950 which sputtered to a halt in 1957 with nearly 5,500 additional submachine guns manufactured. But just when the Reising story seemed to end, a final foreign order was received in the 1960s for nearly 2,000 more Model 60s.

Decades later, in 1986, H&R closed their doors and Numrich Arms (aka Gun Parts Corporation) purchased their entire inventory. Acquiring a number of Model 50 receivers, Numrich assembled them with parts. These weapons all have an "S" preceding the serial number and were sold domestically in the early 1990s after reparkerization and fitting with newly manufactured walnut stocks. These stocks are distinguished from originals by their wider than normal sling swivels and buttstocks, by the fact they have no stock ties, and have H&R marked plastic buttplates (originals were unmarked metal).

Machine gun murders
In New Zealand in December 1963, two men thought to have been operating an illegal beerhouse business were murdered execution-style with a Reising submachine gun. At the time, machine guns were not thought to be in the hands of civilians in the country.

Users

:  4,000 ordered, delivery and issue not confirmed.
:  Captured from the Red Army.
: Obtained from Malayan Communist Party militia.

:  Captured Reisings from the Red Army designated as the Maschinenpistole 762(r). Captured Reisings from the American Army designated as the Maschinenpistole 762(a).

: Received in the form of Lend-Lease aid.
: Used by the defunct Panama National Guard
: Used by the Philippine Army and Philippine Constabulary during World War II and into the 1960s.

 Uruguayan Navy

References

Bibliography
Ankony, Robert C. "The US .45 Model 50 and 55 Reising Submachine Gun and Model 60 Semiautomactic Rifle." Small Arms Review, Jul. 2008, pp. 64–67.
Dunlap, Roy F., Ordnance Went Up Front, Samworth Press, 1948
George, John (Lt. Col.), Shots Fired in Anger, Samworth Press, 1948
Jones, Charles, "Lore of the Corps: Reisings Found to be Unreliable in Combat," ArmyTimes.com article
Leckie, Robert, Helmet For My Pillow, Random House, 1957.
Nelson, Thomas B., The World's Submachine Guns, TBN Enterprises, 1963
Hogg, Ian V. and Weeks, John, Military Small Arms of the 20th Century, DBI Books, 1985
Iannamico, Frank. The Reising Submachine Gun Story, Moose Lake Publishing, 1999
Iannamico, Frank. United States Submachine Guns. Moose Lake Publishing, 2004

External links
"Financial Assessment of Military Small Arms"--see items 3 and esp., 14 on the Reising submachine gun
History of the Reising Model 50 Submachine Gun
"Latest Submachine Gun Is Designed for Mass Production", April 1941 Popular Science article
Modern Firearms
M50 compensator patent
M50 patent
M55 patent

.22 LR semi-automatic rifles
.45 ACP submachine guns
7.62 mm firearms
Carbines
Cold War firearms of the United States
Submachine guns of the United States
United States Marine Corps equipment
World War II firearms of the United States
World War II infantry weapons of the Soviet Union
World War II infantry weapons of Brazil
World War II submachine guns
Weapons of the Philippine Army
Delayed blowback firearms
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1941

M50 Reising


Thomas Gardiner ( – 1585/) was an English academic and politician.

Gardiner had origins in Maidenhead, and was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge, being admitted as a scholar in 1542 aged 16, matriculating in 1544, and graduating B.A. 1547, M.A. 1550. He was a Fellow of King's College 1545–55, Proctor 1553–54, and Public Orator 1554–57.

He was elected MP for Mitchell in the parliament of 1558. The History of Parliament comments that "Gardiner's return to the Parliament of 1558 is not easy to explain. He had no personal ties with Mitchell, where his name was inserted on the indenture in a different hand."

He worked as a teller at the Exchequer 1560–1569. He refuted claims of misconduct at the Exchequer reported to William Cecil in 1564, but in 1569 an investigation found that he had defrauded the Queen of nearly £30,000. He lost the tellership, was ordered to repay the money and, failing to do so, was imprisoned in 1571 and 1585. He appealed to Winchester and Cecil for leniency, to no avail.

Venn states that Gardiner died in 1585, but an individual of this name worked as an escheator in the Duchy of Lancaster until resigning in May 1588, and made a will on 20 February 1588. The will was proved in 1591.

References

People from Maidenhead
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
Cambridge University Orators
English MPs 1558
Year of birth uncertain
1520s births
16th-century deaths

Thomas Gardiner (MP)


Enrique Martinez y Martinez (born 10 November 1948 in Saltillo) is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Revolutionary Institutional Party. He has served as Mexico's Ambassador to Cuba since 2016. He previously served as Governor of Coahuila from 2 December 1999 to 17 February 2005.

Martínez y Martínez received a bachelor's degree in economics from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies. After graduation, he taught several courses in economics at the Autonomous University of Coahuila and at the Antonio Narro Autonomous Agricultural University (in Spanish: Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro).

He joined the private sector as president of Grupo Empresarial Martínez, started his political career as municipal president of Saltillo (1979–81) and has been elected twice to the Chamber of Deputies: 1988–91, representing Coahuila's First District, and
1997–99, representing its Seventh District.

In 1999, as the PRI candidate for governor, he defeated a coalition of four parties with 60% of the vote and started serving as governor of Coahuila on 1 December; his term expired on 1 December 2005, and he was succeeded by Humberto Moreira Valdés.

During the early months of 2005 Martínez tried unsuccessfully to secure his party nomination for the 2006 presidential election.

He is married to María Guadalupe Morales and has two sons and a daughter: Enrique, Eduardo and Ana Sofía.

See also
 List of presidents of Saltillo Municipality

References

External links
Government of Coahuila: Enrique Martínez

1948 births
Living people
Ambassadors of Mexico to Cuba
Mexican Secretaries of Agriculture
Governors of Coahuila
Politicians from Saltillo
Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education alumni
Institutional Revolutionary Party politicians
20th-century Mexican politicians
21st-century Mexican politicians
Academic staff of the Autonomous University of Coahuila
Municipal presidents in Coahuila

Enrique Martínez y Martínez


Warren Casey (April 20, 1935 – November 8, 1988) was an American theater composer, lyricist, writer, and actor. He was the writer and composer, with Jim Jacobs, of the stage musical Grease.

Career
Warren Casey was born on April 20, 1935, in Yonkers, New York to Peter L. Casey, a steamfitter, and Signe (née Ginman) Casey, a nurse. He graduated from Gorton High School,  Yonkers, NY class of 1952. Casey received his Fine Arts Degree from the Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts in 1957.

Grease
In the mid-1960s, Casey met Jim Jacobs while acting with the Chicago Stage Guild. In the late 1960s, Jacobs was at a party dismayed at the rock music he was listening to and began reminiscing about 1950s rock and roll. He eventually inquired about writing a rock and roll musical with Casey, who (unlike Jacobs) had not been a greaser in high school but shared a love of the music of the era, particularly doo-wop. The two began collaborating on a play with music about high-school life during the golden age of rock 'n' roll in the 1950s. Entitled Grease, it premiered in 1971 at the Kingston Mines Theater, one of the pioneering companies of Chicago's off-Loop theater movement, in the Lincoln Park section of Chicago. Producers Ken Waissman and Maxine Fox saw the show and suggested to the playwrights that it might work better as a musical, and told them if the creative partners were willing to rework it and they liked the end result, they would produce it off-Broadway. Casey quit his day job as a department store lingerie buyer and the team headed to New York City to collaborate on what would become Grease, which opened at the Eden Theatre in downtown Manhattan, moved to Broadway, and earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical. The show went on to become a West End hit, a hugely successful film, and a staple of regional theatre, summer stock, community theatre, and high school drama groups.

Later career
Casey's acting credits include the original production of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago in 1974 at the Organic Theater Company. Under Stuart Gordon's direction, Casey created the role of foul-mouthed self-styled makeout artist Bernie Litko, delivering a comically outrageous performance tinged with pathos. In the same year he fronted $1,000 to help start Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. In 1976, he wrote Mudgett. He wrote (with Jim Jacobs) Island of Lost Coeds, a two-act musical, produced at Columbia College Chicago under the direction of Sheldon Patinkin. He also contributed incidental music to Twelfth Night in 1976 and new lyrics to June Moon in 1977.

In addition, Casey worked in the musical Cats.

Personal life
Casey died of AIDS-related complications in Chicago at the age of 53. At the time of his death he was writing a musical with the Brazilian performer Valucha deCastro.

References

External links

A Remembrance at greasethemusical.co.uk
Biography and Papers at Chicago Public Library

American male composers
American male stage actors
American LGBT composers
American LGBT dramatists and playwrights
American LGBT songwriters
American gay actors
American gay writers
American gay musicians
Gay composers
Gay dramatists and playwrights
Gay songwriters
American musical theatre lyricists
AIDS-related deaths in Illinois
Musicians from Yonkers, New York
1935 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
American male dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American male writers
20th-century American composers
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century American LGBT people

Warren Casey


The international Jewish conspiracy or world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". Although it typically claims that a malevolent, usually global Jewish circle, referred to as International Jewry, conspires for world domination, the conspiracy theory's content is extremely variable, which helps explain its wide distribution and long duration. It was popularized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century especially by the antisemitic forgery  The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Among the beliefs that posit an international Jewish conspiracy are Jewish Bolshevism, Cultural Marxism, Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, White genocide conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial. The Nazi leadership's belief in an international Jewish conspiracy that it blamed for starting World War II and controlling the Allied powers was key to their decision to launch the Final Solution.

History
Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination can be traced back to the thirteenth century, but increased in the second half of the nineteenth century under the influence of writers such as Frederick van Millingen, an Ottoman-born Englishman who wrote The Conquest of the World by the Jews in 1873, and Hermann Goedsche, a Prussian agent provocateur promoting a new ideological antisemitism. The invention of the newspaper invited the new accusation that Jews controlled the press. Goedsche's novel Biarritz was plagiarized in the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion published at the turn of the twentieth century. The Protocols appeared in print in the Russian Empire as early as 1903, published as a series of articles in Znamya, a Black Hundreds newspaper. The forgeries were possibly creations of the Okhrana secret police. The Protocols popularized the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy such that this belief became essential to modern antisemitism. According to Armin Pfahl-Traughber, the Protocols are "the most significant document for propagating the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy".

Belief in this conspiracy increased following the Russian Revolution, spread at first by frustrated Tsarist exiles. A popular British conspiracy theorist Nesta Webster recycled the older Illuminati conspiracy theories with a new emphasis on the role of Jews to explain the revolution. In the second half of the twentieth century, as overt antisemitism became increasingly unacceptable, many conspiracists found detours to avoid explicitly referencing Jews while retaining conspiracy theories descended from the Protocols and earlier beliefs of a Jewish world conspiracy.

The Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory asserts that Freemasons are the agents of an international Jewish conspiracy.

Holocaust denial presupposes the existence of a massive Jewish conspiracy that (according to Holocaust deniers) perpetrated the biggest hoax in history in order to scam money out of Germany and found the state of Israel. This conspiracy may be present either implicitly or explicitly in Holocaust denying works.

As of the 1970s, the expression Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) has been used by antisemites to refer to the supposed Jewish control over Western countries.

By country

China
Some Chinese people believe that Jews secretly rule the world and are business-minded. Hongbing Song, a Chinese American IT consultant and amateur historian, published the Currency Wars series, believing Jewish financiers controlled the international banking systems since the era of Napoleon. Song also says in his book that the key functions of the Federal Reserve were ultimately controlled by five private banks, including Citibank, all of which maintained "close ties" with the Rothschild family, one Jewish group that led to the 1997 financial crisis. The book became a bestseller and even has been read by some high ranking Chinese officials.

Germany

In his first recorded political speech in 1919, Adolf Hitler claimed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy plotting to weaken the Aryan race and Germany.

In documenting the appearance of fascism from the end of WWI to end of WWII, the historian Michael Kellogg noted that adherents of the "sinister world-wide Jewish" conspiracy theory included monarchist emigres who formed the Aufbau Vereinigung, a conspiratorial anti-Semitic group that sought to re-establish a Tsar in Russia while perpetrating right-wing terrorism in Germany. The Aufbau cooperated with, and included as members, early German Nazis such as Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter. The group, with its emphasis on claiming a Protocols-like myth, would influence the ideologies of Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg, mainly from 1918 to 1923, when Scheubner-Richter was killed by German police officers during the Beer Hall Putsch.

The leaders of Nazi Germany believed that World War II was a conflict pitting Germany against a massive conspiracy secretly engineered by Jews and fronted by the Allies. According to this conspiracy theory, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were merely puppets for the Jews. Nazi propaganda repeatedly accused "International Jewry" of starting and extending the war and plotting the extermination of Germany. Hitler and other Nazi leaders repeatedly stated that they would "exterminate" Jews before the Jews had a chance to enact this alleged plot. Nazi propagandists drew on earlier Jewish conspiracy tropes and updated The Protocols of the Elders of Zion with prominent individuals from Europe and North America. According to historian Jeffrey Herf, it was the Nazis' conspiratorial beliefs about Jews, rather than older antisemitic beliefs, that caused them to resort to extreme anti-Jewish violence. "The desire for a Final Solution to the Jewish question was inseparable from the Nazis' view of the Jews as an internationally organized political power that was playing a decisive role in the events of World War II."

Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 under the pretext of fighting Judeo-Bolshevism. By August 1941, Nazi propaganda was already making radical assertions suggesting a global war against Jews. American entry into World War II prompted Nazi ideologues to plunge into further extremism, who claimed that an international coalition of communism and capitalism, led by a sinister "Jewish world conspiracy" were seeking the destruction of Aryan race. Radicalization of anti-semitic discourse went hand in hand with Nazi Germany's intensification of anti-Jewish persecutions and genocide.

According to historian Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the purported international Jewish conspiracy to answer "such seemingly difficult questions as, Why did Britain fight on in 1940 rather than negotiate? Why was it likely that the Soviet regime would collapse like a house of cards following the German invasion of June 1941? Why did Franklin Roosevelt oppose Hitler? Why did the anti-Hitler coalition remain intact as the Red Army continued to push toward Central Europe after spring 1943?" Nazi belief in a powerful, international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings of world affairs was not dispelled by the ease with which the German Jewish community was expropriated and forced into exile.

Malaysia
Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly asserted that Jews control the world by proxy.

Turkey
In 2007, the bestselling book in Turkey was Musa'nın çocukları Tayyip ve Emine by Ergün Poyraz. Poyraz claims that there is an international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings behind the world, including installing Recep Tayyip Erdogan as prime minister of Turkey.

United States
In The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, American industrialist Henry Ford largely recycled the Protocols and did more than any other American to promote them. During the First Red Scare, United States Congress investigated the veracity of the Protocols. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were well received by some conservative evangelicals in the 1920s and 1930s. However, even those evangelicals who believed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy against Christianity did not consider themselves anti-Jewish and hoped that Jews would convert to Christianity. By the end of the 1930s, the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy came to be discredited in conservative evangelical circles as it was seen as inconsistent with world events, especially the rise of Nazi Germany. In 2020, pro-Trump campaigner Mary Ann Mendoza was removed from the schedule of the Republican National Convention after she retweeted a thread asserting a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. In 2021, it was reported that almost half of QAnon followers believed that there is a Jewish plot to take over the world.

See also
New World Order (conspiracy theory)

References

Sources

Further reading

Conspiracy theories involving Jews

International Jewish conspiracy


Abraham Epstein (; born 19 December 1841) was a Russo-Austrian rabbinical scholar born in Staro Constantinov, Volhynia.

Epstein diligently studied the works of Isaac Baer Levinsohn, Nachman Krochmal, and S. D. Luzzatto, and when he traveled in western Europe for the first time in 1861, he made the acquaintance of J.L. Rapoport, Z. Frankel, and Michael Sachs. After his father's death in 1874 (see Israel Epstein's biography in Ha-Shaḥar, vi.699-708) Epstein took charge of his extensive business interests, but gradually wound up all his affairs, and from 1884 devoted most of his time to travel and study. He settled in Vienna in 1876 and became an Austrian subject. He was the possessor of a large library which contained many valuable manuscripts.

Literary works
Epstein is the author of the Ḳadmut ha-Tanḥuma, a review of S. Buber's edition of the Midrash Tanḥuma (Presburg, 1886), and of Mi-Ḳadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim, which contains (1) treatises on Jewish chronology and archaeology, and (2) a revised and annotated edition of Midrash Tadshe (Vienna, 1887). He also wrote:

 Bereschit-Rabbati, Dessen Verhältnisse zu Rabba, etc. (Berlin, 1888)
 R. Simeon Kara und der Jalkut Schimeoni (Cracow, 1891)
 Eldad ha-Dani, a critical edition, with variations from divers manuscripts, of the well-known work of Eldad, with an introduction and notes (Vienna, 1891)
 La Lettre d'Eldad sur les Dix Tribus (Paris, 1892; reprinted from R. E. J. xxv)
 R. Moshe ha-Darshan mi-Narbona (Vienna, 1891)
 Dibre Biḳḳoret li-Kebod Rabbi S. L. Rapoport, a defense of J.L. Rapoport against the attacks of I. H. Weiss (Vienna, 1896)
 Jüdische Alterthümer in Worms und Speier (Breslau, 1896; reprinted from Monatsschrift, v.40).

He wrote in addition many critical, biographical, historical, and archeological articles for the Jewish periodical press, especially for Monatsschrift, Revue des Etudes Juives, and Ha-Ḥoḳer, some of which have been reprinted in book form.

References

Sources
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
 Autobiographical sketch in Sokolow's Sefer Zikaron, pp. 162–166, Warsaw, 1890;
 William Zeitlin, Bibliotheca Hebraica Post-Mendelssohniana p. 79;
 Chaim David Lippe, Bibliographisches Lexicon, iii.98-99, Vienna, 1899.

External links
 Jewish Encyclopedia article for Abraham Epstein

1841 births
Year of death unknown
Austro-Hungarian Jews
Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Austria-Hungary
People from Starokostiantyniv

Abraham Epstein