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Home Town Providence, RI
Last Address Providence, RI
Date of Passing Aug 21, 1986
Location of Interment Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery (VA) - San Antonio, Texas
Major General William Curtis Chase (9 March 1895–21 August 1986) was an American soldier and General in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his service in the South West Pacific Area during World War II and in the Occupation of Japan.
A graduate of Brown University, Chase enlisted in the Rhode Island National Guard in 1913 and served on the Mexican Border. Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry in January 1917, he served on the Western Front in World War I and in the Occupation of the Rhineland. Between the wars, he attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, later returning as an instructor.
Chase was promoted to Brigadier General in March 1943 on assuming command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. He was chosen to lead the assault on the Admiralty Islands in February 1944. He resisted the temptation to swiftly overrun the island, and thereby overextend his forces, and formed a defensive perimeter that made good use of the terrain. From this position, he was able to defeat a series of counterattacks by the numerically superior Japanese garrison.
In February 1945, Chase's columns pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila, liberating some 3,700 internees at the University of Santo Tomas which had been turned into an internment camp. He took over command of the 38th Infantry Division, which was confronted by enemy fortifications at Zig-Zag Pass on the Bataan Peninsula that took a week of hard fighting to reduce. Chase assumed command of the 1st Cavalry Division on 1 August 1945. He remained with it in the Occupation of Japan until he returned to the United States in January 1949. Later, he was chief of staff of the Third Army at Fort McPherson and head of the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Taiwan. Retiring from the Army, he earned a Master of Arts degree in history from Trinity University and taught political science at the University of Houston.
Education and early life
William Curtis Chase was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on 9 March 1896, the son of William Beecher Chase and his wife, Doris Evelyn née Curtis. He attended Brown University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts with a Phi Beta Kappa Society key in 1916. While at Brown, Chase enlisted in Battery A, 1st Rhode Island Volunteer Artillery of the Rhode Island National Guard (later Battery A, 103rd Field Artillery) in 1913.
World War I
On the afternoon of his graduation from Brown in 1916, Chase, now a sergeant, joined A Battery at Quonset Point, Rhode Island, where it was mobilised for duty on the Mexican Border. The unit remained in the El Paso, Texas, area for a time, but saw no action. While there, Chase passed an examination for commissions in Regular Army. Chase was posted to Fort Leavenworth in January 1917 for a three month course for newly commissioned officers before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the cavalry.
Chase was assigned to the 3rd Cavalry, then based at Fort Sam Houston. Shortly after the United States declared war on Germany, he was promoted to first lieutenant and posted to the 6th Cavalry on the Mexican frontier.
Chase attended a machine gun course at Fort Sill, after which he was posted to the 11th Machine Gun Battalion, part of the 4th Division, in April 1918. He served on the Western Front with the 4th Division, participating in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel, but came down with jaundice and missed all but the last days of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland before the 4th Division returned to the United States in July 1919.
Inter-war years
On return, Chase was posted to the 16th Cavalry, then in the Rio Grande Valley, although it soon returned to Fort Sam Houston. In 1921 he was posted to Michigan State College for duty with the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. There he met Dorothea Marie Wetherbee. They were married in 1921. They never had children.
Chase attended the United States Army Cavalry School and United States Army Infantry School, followed by duty with the 14th Cavalry at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, from 1927 to 1929. He then attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth. From 1931 to 1934 he served overseas with the 26th Cavalry (Philippine Scouts) at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines. Returning to the United States, he was posted as an Instructor in Tactics, first at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley and then, from 1938 to 1940, at the Command and General Staff College.
World War II
In 1941 Chase, now a lieutenant colonel, was posted to VIII Corps, then commanded by Major General Walter Krueger. As such, he participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers. In December 1941, he was posted to the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet, then under the command of Major General Holland Smith. Based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the Amphibious Force practiced Amphibious warfare tactics on Chesapeake Bay.
In 1942, Chase assumed command of the 113th Cavalry, an Iowa National Guard unit. Initially a horse-mechanized unit, the 113th Cavalry soon became fully mechanized. It moved from its original station at Fort Clark, Texas, to Camp Bowie and then to Fort Hood, where it provided school troops for the Tank Destroyer Center.
Chase was promoted to Brigadier General in March 1943 on assuming command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. The division was then stationed at Fort Bliss but was already preparing to move to the South West Pacific. The 1st Cavalry Division had therefore been dismounted, but the division and brigade commanders and their staffs were still on horseback. The 1st Cavalry Division staged at Camp Stoneman. Chase departed from San Francisco on 3 July on the transport USAT George Washington.
The 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Australia and continued its training at Strathpine, Queensland. Training there was more vigorous than at Fort Bliss, and Chase broke his heel bone in a training accident. In December 1943, the 1st Cavalry Division sailed for Oro Bay, where it staged for its next operation, the Admiralty Islands campaign. Chase was chosen to lead the assault. Here, his tactical expertise came to the fore. He resisted the temptation to overrun the island of Los Negros, and thereby overextend his forces, and instead formed a defensive perimeter that made good use of the terrain. From this position, he was able to defeat a series of counterattacks by the numerically superior Japanese garrison. The crisis passed, Chase's force was reinforced by the rest of the division, and the 1st Cavalry Division was then able to overrun the islands. Chase was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the campaign.
The 1st Cavalry Division remained in the Admiralty Islands until October, when it boarded ships there for the invasion of Leyte, which it assaulted on 20 October 1944. Chase's 1st Brigade's initial mission was to reconnoiter the hills on the west side of the Tacloban Valley and establish observation posts from which it could command the entrances to the valley. In November, he was ordered to cover the flank of X Corps' advance up the Leyte Valley, and later into the Ormoc Valley. Chase had to move his brigade across mountainous, roadless, uncharted jungle in frequently appalling wet weather. The advance made slow progress against Japanese troops that fought tenaciously all the way.
The 1st Cavalry Division was down to half strength when it was withdrawn from the front line on Leyte for a brief rest in January 1945, but few reinforcements arrived before it was ordered to move to Luzon, where it disembarked over the beaches at San Fabian on 27 January 1945. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur ordered the 1st Cavalry Division's commander, Major General Vern D. Mudge, to conduct a rapid advance on Manila. For this, Mudge formed three flying columns. Initially, Chase's 1st Brigade's mission was to follow one of the columns but on 1 February he was relieved of responsibility for the main body of the 1st Brigade and placed in command of all three flying columns.
On 3 February, Chase's columns pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and seized a vital bridge over the Tuliahan River, which separated them from the city proper. Chase, controlling his columns by radio, suffered slight burns to his hands when a Japanese truck exploded. A squadron of the 8th Cavalry, guided by two Filipino guerrillas reached the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas which had been turned into an internment camp, liberating some 3,700 internees.
A Japanese raiding party destroyed the bridge over Tuliahan River; Chase's security was not good enough. This prevented the main body of the 1st Cavalry Division from linking up with Chase's force in Manila. Supplies were dispatched through the 37th Infantry Division's zone until engineers could build a new bridge. For his advance on Manila, Chase was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was also awarded the Purple Heart for the burns to his hands.
On 7 February 1945, Chase took over command of the 38th Infantry Division, which was then confronted by enemy fortifications at Zig-Zag Pass on the Bataan Peninsula. It took Chase a week of hard fighting to reduce this position. A battalion of the 151st Infantry under Chase's personal command landed at Mariveles on the southern tip of Bataan on 14 February. The 38th Infantry Division participated in the final actions on Corregidor. Units of the 38th Infantry Division assaulted and captured Caballo Island on 27 March, Fort Drum on El Fraile Island on 13 April, and Carabao Island on 16 April. Meanwhile, other elements of the 38th Infantry Division engaged enemy forces in the mountainous Fort Stotsenburg area. In the midst of these operations, Chase was promoted to Major General in March.
In late April 1945, the 38th Infantry Division moved to the area east of Manila where it relieved the 6th Infantry Division. On 1 May, it began a series of probing attacks prior to an attack on 4 may aimed at capturing the Wawa Dam, an important part of Manila's water supply. Chase had to reduce a series of strongly held Japanese positions. By the end of the month, the dam was secure and the Japanese Kobayashi Force was broken.
Chase assumed command of the 1st Cavalry Division on 1 August 1945. At this time, the division was in the Lucena City area but slated for Operation Downfall, in which it would assault Ariake, Kagoshima. The end of the war precluded this. Instead, the 1st Cavalry Division participated in the Occupation of Japan. It embarked from Batangas on 25 August and disembarked in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, becoming the first US division in Tokyo.
The first Australian soldier to be made an honorary member of the First United States Cavalry Division is Lieutenant General (Lt Gen) H C H Robertson, Commander in Chief British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF). He is pictured here wearing the black and gold colour patch of the Division. Beside him is Major General W C Chase, Officer Commanding the United States First Cavalry Division. The induction ceremony was held at Camp Drake, near Tokyo. Lt Gen Robertson inspected the Division after the ceremony.
Later life
Chase remained with the 1st Cavalry Division on occupation duties until December 1948, when he temporarily assumed command of IX Corps. He finally returned to the United States in January 1949. In April, he became chief of staff of the Third Army at Fort McPherson. From 1951 to 1955 he headed the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Taiwan.
Retiring from the Army, Chase earned a Master of Arts degree in history from Trinity University. From 1957 to 1965, he taught political science at the University of Houston. His wife Dorothea died in 1957. In 1961 he married Mrs Hallie Barlow Olcott. Chase retired in 1965, having reached the state of Texas' mandatory retirement age. In 1974, Chase joined a party of retired generals associated with General MacArthur on a visit to Australia as guests of Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Herring and Dame Mary Herring. In addition to Chase, Leif J. Sverdrup, Hugh John Casey, and LeGrande A. Diller and their wives also made the trip. Chase published his memoirs, entitled Front Line General: The Commands of Maj. Gen. Wm. C. Chase, in 1975. He died on 21 August 1986 and was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.
Luzon Campaign (1944-45)/Battle for Manila
From Month/Year
February / 1945
To Month/Year
March / 1945
Description The Battle of Manila (Tagalog: Laban ng Maynila ng 1945), also known as the Liberation of Manila, fought from 3 February-3 March 1945 by American, Filipino, and Japanese forces, was part of the 1945 Philippine campaign. The one-month battle, which culminated in a terrible bloodbath and total devastation of the city, was the scene of the worst urban fighting in the Pacific theater, and ended almost three years of Japanese military occupation in the Philippines (1942–1945). The city's capture was marked as General Douglas MacArthur's key to victory in the campaign of reconquest.
On 3 February, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division under Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and seized a vital bridge across the Tullahan River, which separated them from the city proper. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C. Chase's 8th Cavalry, the first unit to arrive in the city, began a drive toward the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas which had been turned into an internment camp for civilians and the US Army and Navy nurses sometimes known as the "Angels of Bataan".
Since 4 January 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university’s main building had been used to hold civilians. Out of 4,255 prisoners, 466 died in captivity, three were killed while attempting to escape on 15 February 1942, and one made a successful breakout in early January 1945.
At 21:00, a lead jeep crashed into the main gate, triggering a firefight, and its driver, Capt. Manuel Colayco, a USAFFE guerrilla officer, became the first known Allied casualty of the city's liberation. He and his companion Lt. Diosdado Guytingco guided the American First Cavalry. Both were unarmed. Colayco died seven days later in Legarda Elementary School, which became a field hospital. Simultaneously, a single tank of the 44th Tank Battalion, named "Battlin' Basic," rammed through the university walls, Sgt Austin E. Aulds from Texas, a combat medic was the second US Soldier to enter, while four others entered through the Calle España entrance. American troops and Filipino guerrillas immediately followed and, after a brief skirmish, freed many of the internees.
The Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi, gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building as hostages, and exchanged pot shots with the Americans and Filipinos. The next day, 4 February, they negotiated with the Americans to allow them to rejoin Japanese troops to the south of the city. The Filipinos and Americans agreed but only allowed them to carry their rifles, pistols and swords. That same day, a patrol from the 37th Infantry Division and 31st Infantry Division came upon more than 1,000 prisoners of war, mostly former defenders of Bataan and Corregidor held at Bilibid Prison, which had been abandoned by the Japanese.
On the morning of 5 February, 47 Japanese were escorted out of the university to the spot they requested. Each group saluted each other and departed. The Japanese were unaware the area they requested was near the American-occupied Malacañan Palace and soon afterwards were fired upon and several were killed including Hayashi. Later in the afternoon, the survivors returned to the university and were captured.
In total, 5,785 prisoners were freed: 3,000 Filipinos, 2,870 Americans, 745 British, 100 Australians, 61 Canadians, 50 Dutch, 25 Poles, 7 French, 2 Egyptians, 2 Spanish, one Swiss, one German, and one Slovak.
Encirclement and massacres
Earlier on 4 February, General MacArthur had announced the imminent recapture of the capital while his staff planned a victory parade. But the battle for Manila had barely begun. Almost at once the 1st Cavalry Division in the north and the 11th Airborne Division in the south reported stiffening Japanese resistance to further advances into the city.
Following the initial American breakthrough on 4 February, fighting raged throughout the city for almost a month. The battle quickly came down to a series of bitter street-to-street and house-to-house struggles. In the north, General Griswold continued to push elements of the XIV Corps south from Santo Tomas University toward the Pasig River. Late on the afternoon on 4 February, he ordered the 2nd Squadron, 5th Cavalry, to seize Quezon Bridge, the only crossing over the Pasig that the Japanese had not destroyed. As the squadron approached the bridge, Japanese heavy machine guns opened fire from a formidable roadblock thrown up across Quezon Boulevard, forcing the cavalry to stop its advance and withdraw until nightfall. As the Americans and Filipinos pulled back, the Japanese blew up the bridge.
On 5 February, the 37th Infantry Division began to move into Manila, and Griswold divided the northern section of the city into two sectors, with the 37th responsible for the western half and the 1st Cavalry Division responsible for the eastern sector. By the afternoon of 8 February, 37th Division units had cleared most of the Japanese from their sector, although the damage done to the residential districts was extensive. The Japanese added to the destruction by demolishing buildings and military installations as they withdrew.
The bitterest fighting for Manila—which proved costliest to the 37th—occurred on Provisor Island, a small industrial center on the Pasig River. The Japanese garrison, probably less than a battalion, managed to hold off Beightler's infantrymen until 11 February.
Mudge's 1st Cavalry Division had an easier time, encountering little opposition in the suburbs east of Manila. Although the division's 7th and 8th Cavalry Regiments fought pitched battles near two water supply installations north of the city, by 10 February, the cavalrymen had extended their control south of the river. That night, the XIV Corps established for the first time separate bridgeheads on both banks of the Pasig River.
The final attack on the outer Japanese defenses came from the 11th Airborne Division, under XIV Corps control since 10 February. The division had been halted at Nichols Field on 4 February and since then had been battling firmly entrenched Japanese naval troops, backed up by heavy fire from concealed artillery. The airfield finally fell to the paratroopers the next day, and the acquisition allowed Maj. Gen. Swing's division to complete the U.S. encirclement of Manila on the night of 12 February.
In an attempt to protect the city and its civilians, MacArthur had placed stringent restrictions on U.S. artillery and air support. But massive devastation to the urban area was not avoided. Iwabuchi's sailors, marines and Army reinforcements, having initially successfully resisted American infantrymen armed with flamethrowers, grenades and bazookas, faced direct fire from tanks, tank destroyers, and howitzers, who attacked one building after another and killed the Japanese—and often the trapped civilians—inside, without differentiation.[5]
Subjected to incessant pounding and facing certain death or capture, the beleaguered Japanese troops took out their anger and frustration on the civilians caught in the crossfire, committing multiple acts of severe brutality, which later would be known as the Manila Massacre. Violent mutilations, rapes, and massacres on the populace accompanied the battle for control of the city, which lay practically in ruins. General Yamashita was subsequently blamed for the massacres and hanged for war crimes in 1946 even though he had no responsibility for the battle itself.
Intramuros devastated
The fighting for Intramuros, where Iwabuchi held around 4,000 civilian hostages, continued from 23 February to 28 February. Already having decimated the Japanese forces by bombing, American forces used artillery to try to root out the Japanese defenders. However, the centuries-old stone ramparts, underground edifices, the Sta. Lucia Barracks, Fort Santiago, and villages within the city walls all provided excellent cover. Fewer than 3,000 civilians escaped the assault, mostly women and children who were released on 23 February afternoon. Colonel Noguchi's soldiers and sailors killed 1,000 men and women, while the other hostages died during the American shelling.
The last pocket of Japanese resistance at the Finance Building, which was already reduced to rubble, was flushed out by heavy artillery on 3 March. Iwabachi was said to have committed seppuku (ritual suicide) on February 25, but his body was never found.
Army Historian Robert R. Smith wrote:
"Griswold and Beightler were not willing to attempt the assault with infantry alone. Not expressly enjoined from employing artillery, they now planned a massive artillery preparation that would last from 17 to 23 February and would include indirect fire at ranges up to 8,000 yards as well as direct, point-blank fire from ranges as short as 250 yards. They would employ all available corps and division artillery, from 240mm howitzers down. (...) Just how civilian lives could be saved by this type of preparation, as opposed to aerial bombardment, is unknown. The net result would be the same: Intramuros would be practically razed." "That the artillery had almost razed the ancient Walled City could not be helped. To the XIV Corps and the 37th Division at this state of the battle for Manila, American lives were understandably far more valuable than historic landmarks. The destruction stemmed from the American decision to save lives in a battle against Japanese troops who had decided to sacrifice their lives as dearly as possible."
Before the fighting ended, MacArthur summoned a provisional assembly of prominent Filipinos to Malacañan Palace and in their presence declared the Commonwealth of the Philippines to be permanently reestablished. "My country kept the faith," he told the gathered assembly. "Your capital city, cruelly punished though it be, has regained its rightful place—citadel of democracy in the East."
Aftermath
For the rest of the month the Americans and Filipino guerrillas mopped up resistance throughout the city. With Intramuros secured on 4 March, Manila was officially liberated, but large areas of the city had been leveled. The battle left 1,010 U.S. soldiers dead and 5,565 wounded. An estimated 100,000 Filipinos civilians were killed, both deliberately by the Japanese and from artillery and aerial bombardment by the U.S. military force. 16,665 Japanese dead were counted within Intramuros alone.
In the month-long battle, the Americans and Japanese inflicted worse destruction on Manila than the German Luftwaffe had exacted upon London, which resulted in the destruction of the city and in a death toll comparable to that of the Tokyo firebombing or the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
Destruction of the city
The battle for Manila was the first and fiercest urban fighting in the entire Pacific War, from the time MacArthur started his leapfrogging campaign from New Guinea in 1942, leading to the invasion of Japan in 1945. Few battles in the closing months of World War II exceeded the destruction and the brutality of the massacres and savagery of the fighting in Manila.
A steel flagpole stands at the entrance to the old U.S. Embassy building in Ermita, which was pockmarked by numerous bullet and shrapnel hits, and still stands today, a testament to the intense, bitter fighting for the walled city. In this category, Manila joined Stalingrad as being the host to some of the fiercest urban fighting during the war.
Filipinos lost an irreplaceable cultural and historical treasure in the resulting carnage and devastation of Manila, remembered today as a national tragedy. Countless government buildings, universities and colleges, convents, monasteries and churches, and their accompanying treasures dating to the founding of the city, were ruined. The cultural patrimony (including art, literature, and especially architecture) of the Orient's first truly international melting pot - the confluence of Spanish, American and Asian cultures - was eviscerated. Manila, once touted as the "Pearl of the Orient" and famed as a living monument to the meeting of Asian and European cultures, was virtually wiped out.
Most of the buildings damaged during the war were demolished in the name of "Progress" after the Liberation, as part of rebuilding Manila, replacing European style architecture during the Spanish and early American era with modern American style architecture. Only a few old buildings remain intact.
Historical commemoration
The Memorare Manila Monument at Intramuros, Manila.
On 18 February 1995, the Shrine of Freedom also known as Memorare Manila Monument was erected in dedication and memory to the war victims. This monument is located at the Plaza de Santa Isabel, also known as the Plaza Sinampalukan, located at the corner of General Luna and Anda Streets in Intramuros, Manila. The inscription reads:
"This memorial is dedicated to all those innocent victims of war, many of whom went nameless and unknown to a common grave, or even never knew a grave at all, their bodies having been consumed by fire or crushed to dust beneath the rubble of ruins."
"Let this monument be the gravestone for each and every one of the over 100,000 men, women, children and infants killed in Manila during its battle of liberation, February 3 - March 3, 1945. We have not forgotten them, nor shall we ever forget."
"May they rest in peace as part now of the sacred ground of this city: the Manila of our affections."
