Hoping to spare the city, both its physical infrastructure and its inhabitants, MacArthur strictly prohibited aerial bombing of Manila. For the same reasons, he had restricted the use of heavy artillery; in the early stages of the battle, the big guns were limited to counterbattery fire (shooting back at enemy artillery) and to “observed fire on known enemy strong points.”32 But the enemy’s formidable defenses left the U.S. ground commanders with limited options. As their casualty rates climbed, they fell back upon their tried-and-true practice of pulverizing all structures from which enemy
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