Here's someone you haven't heard of, but should have: Cyril Clowes.

Lieutenant-General Cyril Clowes, that is.

He was the Aussie commander in charge of one of the most important (if not THE most important) land battles of the Pacific Theatre: the Battle of Milne Bay. This was the battle that "broke the myth of invincibility" of the Japanese on land. It was the first victory over the Japanese on land. This was Midway in the mud.

Clowes' nickname was "Silent Cyril", because he was quiet, got the job done, and didn't big-note himself.

And you can see how that rubbed Macarthur the wrong way. During Milne Bay, Macarthur constantly hammered him for reports, while the bullets were flying, because Mac wanted something to feed the press - and take credit for. (Macarthur's infamous press censorship and control led to victories by Aussies, Kiwis, the Dutch, British, any non-American as "Allied Victories" to imply American involvement, but any American victories were reported as "American victories".)

Mac was pissed he was being denied the opportunity to grandstand for something he had little involvement in.

After the battle was won, Macarthur pulled strings and immediately got Clowes shifted to admin duties in Melbourne, and also sacked some of Clowes' friends. Macarthur stated Clowes had not shown sufficient "vigour".

Mac also had his lackeys bypass formal security procedures where possible, and they got insanely jealous of anyone who was privy to information they weren't. There was an intelligence room where one of his staff wasn't allowed into, but hung around in order to try to get intelligence fresh off the press and into Mac's hands personally.

One Aussie officer, IIRC, once walked out holding a report and when the toady tried to take it from him, the Aussie pulled out his lighter and burned it right in front of him just to show the lackey he couldn't have it.

There's a reason he's Trump's favourite general. Absolute image-over-substance.

He let the Japanese walk all over the Philipines because he was a) too chickenshit to leave his hotel and command until several hours after the bombing started, b) too hungover from the night before when he was partying with the President, or c) both a and b.

By the way, the President of the Philippines was paying him $300,000US - in 1940s money - to be their Generalissimo. Macarthur is the specific reason why US officers cannot be on the payroll of any other country - the law was made because of him.

US Politicians wanted to shit-can here any way they could, even before the war, but because Mac spent more time on publicity than, y'know, doing his job, there was immediate uproar from the public and press every time he was hauled in for stupidity.

Admiral Ernest J. King wanted to keel-haul him, and it's said that almost every strategic decision King made in the Pacific was to try to prevent Macarthur doing something incredibly stupid that would result in more Allied lives lost. Guadalcanal was a bloody battle for the Marines, but it kept Macarthur's stupid hands off it.