Cavite at the heart of war: The battle for Carabao Island that reopened Manila Bay

While Corregidor and Fort Drum loom larger in Philippine World War II memory, a smaller and lesser-known battleground off the coast of Cavite played an equally critical role in reopening Manila’s harbor to Allied forces: Carabao Island.

Carabao Island sits at the mouth of Manila Bay and was home to Fort Frank, one of four fortified islands — alongside Corregidor’s Fort Mills, Caballo Island’s Fort Hughes and El Fraile Island’s Fort Drum — that formed the U.S. military’s Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. Built in the early 20th century to guard the bay’s entrance, these island forts fell to Japanese forces in 1942 following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, becoming Japanese strongholds for nearly three years.

By April 1945, as Allied forces pushed to liberate Luzon and reopen Manila’s port for supply operations, recapturing the fortified islands became a priority. On April 16, 1945, after three days of aerial and naval bombardment, soldiers of Company A, 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment landed on Carabao Island. As they scaled its rocky terrain, they came under fire from Japanese troops holding out in bunkers and caves carved into the island.

Advancing through fire-and-maneuver tactics, the American forces gradually overcame the entrenched defenders. Within two days, Carabao Island was fully secured, marking one of the final engagements in the campaign to clear Manila Bay of Japanese resistance.

The recapture, coming alongside the liberation of Corregidor and Fort Drum, proved decisive in securing safe passage for ships carrying food, weapons, fuel and reinforcements into Manila’s port — supplies critical to sustaining the broader campaign to liberate the Philippines.

Today, Carabao Island remains largely quiet, its wartime fortifications weathered by time. But the island stands as a reminder that Cavite was not merely a witness to history — it was also a stage on which some of the final battles of the Pacific War were fought, helping pave the way for Allied victory in the Philippines.