Alternate Philippine History 1898 (Hiatus)

10 - Contrasting Battles

Battle of Bohol

The guerilla tactics employed in parts of the Visayas is noted to have been brutal, second only to some battles in Mindanao. The Filipinos used any means necessary to prevent the Americans from advancing further inland. Each major island used different levels of aggressiveness to defend their territories.

The most aggressive ones are in the island of Bohol. The Americans struggled against the Filipinos who used the jungle to their absolute advantage and killed any foreign soldier they chanced upon.

These attacks had the effect of stopping the Americans in their tracks as the Filipinos always took the equipment of the fallen American soldiers and sapped the morale of their troops, which has already suffered from the repeated failed attempts at pushing up the island.

In response to the deadlock, American commanders ordered that the towns east of the island, Talibon, and Ubay be invaded. This way they can attack the Filipinos from two sides, and at the same time cutting them off from their largest supply base, and isolating the island from it's neighbors.

American commanders ordered their men to be ready for stiff resistance once they land. Although they did reassure them that their ships will provide support if ever they get overwhelmed.

To their surprise, the  people in both towns didn't even resist. Compared to the brutal resistance found in the western side of the island, they literally just walked into town towards the town hall where the leader readily surrendered.

After basically being given the town, the Americans immediately searched every corner of the town for any remaining Filipino guerilla fighters with orders to convince them to surrender or shoot them if they resist. Fortunately, the ones hiding in the town are those whose morale are already low, or are willing to surrender peacefully to the Americans.

Along with the surrender of the towns is the information about the military aid coming from Japan. The information came from a number of the townspeople, from those that surrendered, and the small stashes of the Murata rifles found hidden in the municipal hall itself.

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The revolutionaries under the command of Captain Gregorio Casenas organized, which is arguably, the most disastrous attack carried out by the Filipinos.

As the town is now on the side of the Americans, the revolutionaries not only cannot expect help from the inside, they also are at risk of being found out due to their operations being leaked to the Americans.

Even though the odds are against them, the Filipinos still went with their plan as the towns are important to their communication with the neighboring islands, especially the island of Leyte.

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As expected, the operation was disastrous. The Americans were waiting for them and has setup defenses focusing on attacks coming from the west. In addition, the American ships weren't limited to where they could fire so much of the town was destroyed as a result.

The Filipinos sustained heavy casualties, and the destruction of the towns resulted in the locals despising the revolutionaries. This severely affected the revolutionaries' ability to launch ambushes as the locals, and the surrendered  leaked their positions in the jungles.

Even after these setbacks, the revolutionaries still fought for months before surrendering due to the dwindling number of personnel, lack of supplies, and the reality that they cannot defend the island anymore.

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Battle of Cebu Island

The aggressiveness of the revolutionaries in Bohol caused one of the largest deaths per population in the entire war. A lot of the American soldiers were also brutally hacked to death during ambushes, which incensed most of the American troops. It was fortunate that their commanders are level-headed which prevented the young soldiers from committing acts that could spark outrage in the U.S mainland.

In contrast, the defenders in Cebu island are noted to have meticulously planned out the defense of the island. The defenders almost always retreated into the jungles and mountains after staging an attack then moved to an area close to another small town. 

These attacks also came at different times, frequency, aggressiveness, and size. At times they attack in small groups at dawn, then attack with a large group at dusk then leave the Americans be the next day. At times the Filipinos will attack everyday, every other day, or every other week leaving the Americans confused, and tired of being on constant alert around the clock.

The same goes for the American supply lines where at times they are left alone, sometimes attacked, or sometimes just provoked. 

The Americans invaded parts of the island hoping to overwhelm the defenders, but it didn't change the way the defenders moved. The Filipinos still employed the same tactics further frustrating the Americans so much so that they abandoned all of their future offensive plans and stuck with defending the towns and villages they currently held.

It was noted that during the entire course of the war, the Americans deployed in Cebu were slowly losing morale, even though they were suffering very few casualties. The attacks, whether intended or not, caused the American soldiers to a lot psychologically that they were forced to abandon the small towns and villages they held.

This continued until the Americans managed to force a stalemate where they held on to the area known in modern times as Kalakhang Cebu and it stayed that way till the end of the war.

The Battles in Cebu became known as the least bloody of all the battles in the Philippine-American war. It also had the least body count owing to the cautiousness of both sides.