On This Day - June 14, 1945 - Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita and the Japanese troops was defeated by Filipino & American troops in Battle of Bessang Pass

 

On June 14, 1945, combined forces of Filipino and American soldiers defeated the Japanese troops of General Tomoyuki Yamashita in the epic Battle of Bessang Pass in Northern Luzon.

(Japanese General Yamasita in Ifugao)

This was a three-month uphill battle between the guerrilla forces under Colonel Russell Volckman in the Cordilleras on the border of Ifugao and Mountain Province close to Cervantes town in Ilocos Sur.

The fall of the Japanese to the hands of the United States Armed Forces in the Philippines paved the way for the entrapment of Yamashita's forces in the Cordilleras. Yamashita finally surrendered in September 1945.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita was known as the “Tiger of Malaya”, a nickname he earned for conquering Singapore.

Reference: Philippines News Agency