ABSTRACT
In his memoir of defeat and redemption in the Philippine Islands, Stephen Mellnik summarized pre-World War II planning for the defense of the archipelago against an invasion by Japan, or “Orange,” in the army’s color-coded war plans of the day: “WPO [War Plan Orange]-3,” the former member of General Douglas MacArthur’s U.S. Army Forces in the Far East staff explained, “was prewar General Staff guidance to a small American force defending Luzon. It assumed—correctly, as it turned out—that the enemy would land at Lingayen and drive to Manila. It directed mobile units to slow the enemy’s advance with a series of delaying actions while the main force gathered supplies and withdrew to defense positions on Bataan.” 1
