Japanese still advancing down Bataan

23 January 1942: Three diarists - two American, one Filipino - reflect on the situation on the Philippines

Japanese tank column advancing in Bataan.

On the island of Luzon on the Philippines US forces were engaged in a slow rearguard action down the Bataan Peninsula. The original war plan had envisaged this as a holding operation in the event of a Japanese invasion - buying sufficient time for the United States to bring reinforcement with which to mount a fig…