The USAFFE forces in Bataan and Corregidor resisted the Japanese attack far longer than the Japanese had expected. Filipino and American soldiers fought together in trying to hold Bataan, hoping for reinforcements to arrive from the United Stated. The reinforcements never arrived, however, because the American Pacific Fleet had been severely hit in Pearl harbor, and the Japanese controlled the seas and sky in the Philippines. Because it had been foreseen that the Filipino - American forces would eventually have to give up, President Quezon and General MacArthur were evacuated from Corregidor to Australia.