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The Philippine Commonwealth Army (PCA), also known as Commonwealth Army of the Philippines was the main ground force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines from 1935 to 1946. It was founded on December 21, 1935 at the general headquarters in Manila, with units and formations based throughout the provinces of the Philippines. The Commonwealth forces came under the control of the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) from 1941 to 1946, following the entry of the U.S. into World War II. == Origin == Prior to the establishment of the Commonwealth Government in 1935 no effort had been made for self-defense by Philippine forces with the United States assuming all responsibility for defense of the islands. An immediate concern of the Commonwealth Government was defense of an emerging nation. President-elect Manuel L. Quezon convinced his personal friend, General Douglas MacArthur, then Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, to organize a new national army with President Roosevelt's agreement in the summer of 1935. MacArthur had unusually broad authority, with authority to deal directly with the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff, as Military Adviser to the Commonwealth Government to organize a new national army of the Philippines. MacArthur was given wide authority to deal directly with the United States Secretary of War, his successor as the Army Chief of Staff and the United States Army Philippine Department and its commander Major General Lucius R. Holbrook who had been directed that his most important peace time mission was assisting MacArthur in forming a Philippine force capable of defending the islands. MacArthur selected Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and James B. Ord as his assistants who, with a special committee at the Army War College, prepared plans to form the national defense of the Philippine Commonwealth with a completion target of independence in 1946. That plan called for a small regular army with divisions of about 7,500 men, conscription with all men between twenty-one and fifty years of age eligible, with a ten-year training program to build a reserve army, a small air force and a fleet of torpedo boats capable of repelling an enemy. The Philippine National Assembly's first act was passage of the National Defense Act on 21 December 1935 incorporating the initial plans that called for a 10,000 man regular force based on incorporation of the Philippine Constabulary and a 400,000 man reserve force effective by 1946 with a military academy based on West Point to be established at Baguio on Luzon. President Quezon noted that there were not adequate funds nor time to build an effective naval defense force and the act provided for no navy as such, but an Off Shore Patrol within the Army. The Off Shore Patrol would be based on British designed fast torpedo boats with an anticipated thirty-six boats under contract by 1946. The Philippine Army Air Corps would by that time have about 100 bombers and additional tactical aircraft in support to be used with the Off Shore Patrol in coastal defense. The Commonwealth would have ten military districts, comparable to the corps areas in the United States, that were each to provide an initial reserve division growing to three on full development of the reserve force. In a 1936 speech MacArthur described the force's function as to make an invasion so costly that no nation would make the attempt and emphasized the island's terrain as making any penetration nearly impossible. Development was slow with 1936 largely being devoted to building camps and facilities with the first conscripts being called up 1 January 1937. A maor problem was formation of a military officer corps with the well trained Constabulary officers being trained in law enforcement and limited numbers of Philippine Scouts officers becoming senior officers in the new force. By the close of 1939 the reserve force numbered 104,000 men and 4,800 officers. The Philippine Army Air Corps had about forty planes and a hundred trained pilots by 1940. The Off Shore Patrol's development was more problematic with only two of the British boats being delivered before war in Europe cut off all further deliveries and a struggling effort to build boats under license locally produced only one boat by October 1941. President Quezon and others fully recognized that the naval defense was inadequate protection against any first rate naval power but the Philippines had neither the money nor industrial base to provide adequate naval force and thus had to rely on unstated, but presumed assumptions that the United States Navy would not idly stand by with the Philippines under attack. When war with the Japanese began the Philippine Army was six years from its founding in December 1935 and about five years from the 1946 date at which it was to be fully operational. The naval force that was to protect it against a first rate naval power was now in ruins at Pearl Harbor and the Japanese had pilots standing by fueled and loaded bombers in Formosa preparing to strike the Philippines. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Philippine Commonwealth Army」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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