Gulf Battle Stopped Wartime Advance; Tweed Historian Di Millar Looks at the WWII Battle of Lingayen Gulf {Mdash} a Turning Point in the Global Conflict

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The Battle of Lingayen Gulf on the northwest coast of Luzon Island in the Philippines culminated in an Allied amphibious landing on the island on January 9, 1945.

It heralded the return of General Douglas Macarthur, who had been in command of the Filipino and American troops overrun at Lingayen Gulf by the Japanese in late December 1941. More importantly, it marked the beginning of the fight to liberate the Philippines from those enemy forces.

Japan, intent on military expansion, had attacked the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 as the first step in its plans to seize control of economic resources in the Pacific and Far East that included the oil rich region of the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

More attacks were launched on Guam, an American Pacific Island territory in the West …