Re-capture of Manila Video

This re-capture of Manila video shows footage of Manila as it fell back into US hands at the end of WWII.

It is clearly a US propaganda video, but the images are still hauntingly real and shocking. The six (6) week campaign cost 100,000 Japanese lives and who knows how many US and local Filipino lives, the price of victory and defeat.

The re-capture of Manila video is from Universal News reels and it plays for mearly 7 1/2 minutes.

It is a good reminder of the past, the images remain.

First Pictures - Manila's conquest 26th February 1945 - (7:24)

From the official Universal Newsreel:

"The Capture of Manila (First pictures of the final stages of General MacArthur's masterful Luzon campaign) - As the U.S. 6th Army approaches from the North, units of the U.S. 8th Army approach Manila from the West and from the South. Naval stations and heavily-mined air fields are taken. U.S. rifle fire is augmented with bazookas, phosphorus grenades and 155 mm. howitzers. Guerrillas render invaluable aid and the hated collaborationists are quickly rounded up. Manila proper is entered, but the cornered Japs have planted TNT charges and soaked blocks of buildings with gasoline. The resultant huge fires burn by day and by night.

General MacArthur enters Bilibid Prison and is cheered by the 1,100 prisoners who have been captive there since Bataan fell. Refugees mill about Manila's streets, laden down with their few belongings. Water pressure in the mains is negligible, hence the fires rage unchecked. The stench from mass open graves where murdered Filipinos lie, is unbearable. The fighting zone shifts to South Manila and Intramuros, the old walled city. When the Japs are exterminated, the refugees timidly return to their liberated city, Manila." (Universal Newsreel)

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