At the same time, the eastern slopes of Catmon Hill were being assaulted by elements of the 381st Infantry, which had been in Sixth Army reserve through 26 October. On 27 October Sixth Army had released the 381st Infantry to XXIV Corps control. At 1330 on the same day General Bradley ordered the regiment to relieve on the following day the 1st Battalion, 383d Infantry, which had been on Labiranan Head since 22 October. It was then to attack and capture Catmon Hill.
Catmon Hill had been under steady naval and artillery fire since A Day—20 October. The 96th Division artillery had constantly fired on targets of opportunity by day and harassed enemy positions in the area during the night. Starting at 2100 on 27 October, the 105-mm. howitzers of the 361st Field Artillery Battalion, the 155-mm. howitzers of the 198th Field Artillery Battalion, a battery of 155-mm. howitzers from the 363d Field Artillery Battalion, and the 75-mm. howitzers from the 780th Amphibian Tank Battalion were to deliver harassing fires on the hill until 1030 the following day. At that time all of the artillery units were to commence firing successive concentrations beginning at the bottom of the hill and working to the top in fifty-yard bounds. After the 381st Infantry, less the 3d Battalion, attacked at 1200 on 28 October, the artillery was to fire concentrations in front of the troops as they advanced.[52]
In making his plans for the capture of Catmon Hill, Col. Michael E. Halloran, commander of the 381st Infantry, decided to have the 1st Battalion make an enveloping movement from the northeast while the 2d Battalion pushed west along the main ridge. The 1st Battalion, 383d Infantry, from its position on Labiranan Head, would support the attack by fire. On the morning of 28 October the 381st Infantry, less the 3d Battalion, moved into position for the attack. After a thirty-minute preparation by the artillery, the 381st Infantry jumped off to the attack at 1200.
The 1st Battalion, 381st Infantry, moved to the foot of the hill, where it received “a bloody nose” from fire coming out of well-entrenched positions. It withdrew under cover of smoke and established a night perimeter in the vicinity of its line of departure. The 2d Battalion, however, met no enemy resistance and advanced rapidly. At the close of the day the battalion was just short of Labir Hill.[53] During the night the Americans expended 3,000 rounds of artillery ammunition on Catmon Hill, chiefly in front of the 2d Battalion sector. The plans for 29 October called for a morning attack by the 2d Battalion, supported by fire from the 1st Battalion, 383d Infantry, which had not yet been relieved; the 1st Battalion, 381st Infantry, was to seek a new lane of approach and attack at noon.
105-MM. SELF-PROPELLED HOWITZER M7 FIRING on Japanese positions on Catmon Hill.
After a thirty-minute artillery preparation, the 2d Battalion, 381st Infantry, moved out at 0830. With the support of a platoon of light tanks, the battalion easily secured both Labir and Catmon Hills. By 1300 the position had been consolidated. The 1st Battalion, 381st Infantry, supported by the massed fire of forty-five tanks and the Regimental Cannon Company, jumped off at 1200. The troops moved through a heavily fortified area, and at 1600 they established physical contact with the regiment’s 2d Battalion.
During the heavy pounding of Catmon Hill, the main body of Japanese troops, the 9th Infantry Regiment, had withdrawn from the hill on 26 October, unknown to the Americans, and rejoined the main force of the 16th Division in the Dagami area.[54]
At last Catmon Hill had been secured. The 1st Battalion, 383d Infantry, was relieved and passed to the Sixth Army reserve. The 381st Infantry’s command post was moved north of San Roque, and at 1800 its 3d Battalion rejoined the regiment south of this position. During 30 and 31 October the entire Catmon Hill area was mopped up—fifty-three pillboxes, seventeen caves, and numerous smaller emplaced positions were destroyed by demolition charges. The last enemy stronghold threatening the landing beaches had been removed.