Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

There was an enemy strong point between the 2d and 3d Battalions of the 32d Infantry, but since Colonel Logie was anxious to continue the advance of the regiment and straighten the line between the battalions, he ordered the battalions to bypass the strong point, while the 1st Battalion under Maj. Leigh H. Mathias was ordered to move from its assembly area and reduce it. The lines were straightened somewhat, but the swamps and the heavy foliage made contact very difficult.

The 2d and 3d Battalions came under fire from 75-mm. guns emplaced in bunkers; tanks reduced these bunkers and the advance continued. A report of the 32d Infantry boasts that “the reduction of pillboxes was right down our alley.”[13] By 1520 the 3d Battalion, 32d Infantry, had reached the regimental beachhead line; shortly thereafter the 2d Battalion came abreast of the 3d.

The 1st Battalion of the 32d Infantry, however, experienced difficulty in reducing the bypassed strong point, which it reached in the middle of the afternoon. The Japanese defenses consisted of one 75-mm. and one antitank gun emplaced in bunkers and four machine guns in pillboxes; these were completely surrounded by an elaborate system of trenches and foxholes and were occupied by approximately two platoons of riflemen.[14] When the battalion reached the position, Companies A and B, with Company A on the right, were on a line behind five medium tanks and one M8 self-propelled 75-mm. howitzer from the Cannon Company. As the troops moved across an open field toward a hedgerow, the Japanese opened fire upon Company A. Company B also received fire as it moved beyond the hedgerow. After several men had been killed and others wounded, Company B halted until the Japanese positions could be neutralized by the tanks and the howitzer.

As the tanks emerged from the hedgerow they came under heavy fire from the Japanese antitank gun. Although some of the tanks were hit, no serious damage was done; but the howitzer received a direct hit that set it ablaze and exploded its ammunition.[15] The crew abandoned the burning vehicle. Pfc. Fedele A. Grammatico crawled up under enemy fire, removed the machine guns, which were intact, and brought them safely back behind the lines. In the meantime, Company A tried to advance and knock out the enemy antitank gun but the Japanese stopped the company with direct fire.

Both companies were halted. The struggle resolved itself into a battle between the tanks and the Japanese in entrenched positions. The tanks finally silenced the enemy, and the infantrymen moved in with rifles and bazookas and cleared out the foxholes. After the reduction of this strong point, the 1st Battalion tried to overtake the 2d and 3d Battalions. This was not possible, and at 1800 the 1st Battalion formed its own perimeter.

The 184th Infantry found little opposition in its area, but excessive heat and the difficulty of maintaining communication in the high cogon grass rendered its progress difficult. At 0900 the regiment secured the Dulag airstrip and continued its forward movement against sporadic rifle and machine gun fire. Contact had been broken with the 32d Infantry, and at 1245 a gap of 3,000 yards existed between the regiments. At 1515 the 184th Infantry was ordered to hold up its advance and establish contact with the 32d.[16] It had advanced approximately 1,000 yards beyond the division beachhead line.

On 21 October an unidentified Japanese soldier wrote in his diary:

Finally the enemy’s gunfire and bombardment has reached our field and road area (except the runway). Gunfire seems to fade to Dulag area during the night. It seems that enemy tanks are approaching San Pablo vicinity. We are preparing for them.... Barracks and fuel dumps are to be burned. I am awaiting the opportune moment....

I feel alive during the night and dead during the day. Though life and death are separated by a thin sheet of paper I will not die until I see a face of a Yankee.[17]

During the night of 21–22 October all field artillery battalions delivered harassing fires, and just before the assault they fired a fifteen-minute barrage.