Clearing the Central and Southern Philippines would liberate millions of Filipinos from Japanese occupation and eliminate the last bastions of Japanese resistance in the islands. MacArthur was willing to undertake these operations for the sake of the larger political, military, and humanitarian objectives at stake. MacArthur assigned this mission – the Victor series of operations in the Musketeer Operations Plan – to Lt. Gen. Robert Eichelberger’s Eighth Army, which was already engaged in clearing the remaining Japanese forces from Leyte. MacArthur was determined to extend the Philippines campaign beyond Luzon, despite lack of specific authorization from the JCS, which had counted on Filipino guerrillas to liberate the remainder of the Philippines south of Leyte, Samar, Mindoro, and Luzon. The Visayan–Mindanao campaign was an amphibious blitzkrieg, with Eighth Army conducting thirty-eight amphibious landings in forty-four days – nearly one a day – from February 19 to April 3, 1945, earning for it the nickname “Amphibious Eighth.”