This was followed by Vigan, Legaspi, Davao, and Jolo Island over the next few days[1] Prior to World War II, Aparri was considered a substantial port city, with a population of 26,500.

[1] On the Japanese side, General Homma had organized a detachment from the IJA 48th Division’s 2nd Infantry Regiment under Colonel Toru Tanaka.

The invasion force was supported by a flotilla of the Imperial Japanese Navy led by Vice Admiral Kenzaburo Hara, consisting of the light cruiser Natori , destroyers Fumizuki, Nagatsuki, Satsuki, Minazuki, Harukaze, Hatakaze, three minesweepers, six anti-submarine craft and six transports.

Reports of the landing soon reached General MacArthur’s headquarters in Manila, where it was correctly assumed that the objective was to seize airfields from which fighters could deploy for operations further south.

However, General Wainwright considered the landing at Aparri to be a feint to divide his already weak defenses, and decided not to offer resistance aside from destroying bridges on the route from Balete Pass.

Kelly was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and was extensively portrayed in Allied propaganda as the first war hero for flying his damaged aircraft into the smokestack of the battleship Haruna as the first kamikaze; however, there were no Japanese battleships in the area, and the only losses suffered by the Japanese in this attack was slight damage to the light cruiser Natori,[3] and the loss of minesweeper W-19,which was holed and beached.