December 8, 1941: Clark Air Base is attacked by Japanese forces in the theater-wide surprise attack on US bases. While given a nine hour advance warning of the Pearl Harbor attack, most of the aircraft at Clark were caught on the ground and destroyed. The fighters that did get airborne during the raid were unable to reach the altitude of the attacking bombers and were torn apart by Zeros at low level, resulting in many being shot down. In less than a day the USAAC presence in the Philippines had been eliminated and the islands opened to invasion.
