Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

On the following morning Colonel Hettinger ordered the 3d Battalion to hold its position until the 1st Battalion could come abreast. The 3d Battalion therefore limited its activities to sending out patrols. The 1st Battalion again attacked Corkscrew Ridge but made very limited gains.

Elements of the 57th Infantry had dug in on the reverse slope of the ridge, and heavy jungle prevented complete observation of these enemy positions. The Japanese regiment had placed automatic weapons to command the only routes of approach, thus forcing the American troops to move uphill in the face of hostile fire. The 2d Artillery Battalion had placed its guns so that they covered Highway 2.[17]

The 1st Battalion continued to besiege Corkscrew Ridge until 20 November, while the 3d Battalion remained on the ridge overlooking Limon. Late in the afternoon of 21 November, Colonel Hettinger ordered the 128th Infantry to seize Limon, and then move south to secure a bridge-crossing over a tributary of the Leyte River. The 1st Battalion was to contain the enemy on Corkscrew Ridge. The two assault battalions of the regiment got into position on the ridge north of Limon, the 2d Battalion on the east side of Highway 2 and the 3d on the west side.[18]

During the night the 120th Field Artillery Battalion delivered harassing fire along the road between Limon and the Limon bridge.[19] At 0800 the assault troops moved out. The 3d Battalion met little opposition, but the 2d met strong resistance from the 57th Infantry.[20] Company I encountered no resistance as it moved along a bluff which was just west of the town and which overlooked Limon and the bridge. Company K and the 2d Battalion pushed through Limon and at 1400 the leading elements crossed a tributary of the Leyte River south of the town. A determined Japanese counterattack forced back the left flank of the 2d Battalion and exposed Company K. A sudden flood of the stream, caused by heavy rains, cut off the advance elements of Company K south of the river from the rest of the company. These troops moved to the right and joined Company I on the bluffs. The rest of the company and the 2d Battalion established a night perimeter along a ridge east of the village. The 3d Battalion, less Company K, established itself for the night around the positions of Company I that overlooked the bridge and the tributary of the river.[21]

On 23 November the 128th Infantry straightened out its lines and consolidated its positions. For the next three days activity was limited to extensive patrols and the placement of harassing fire on an east-west ridge that overlooked the highway about 1,000 yards south of Limon. Entrenched on this ridge, elements of the 1st Division successfully resisted until 10 December all efforts of the 32d Division to dislodge them.[22]

With the occupation of Limon, the battle of Breakneck Ridge was over, but a number of bypassed pockets of resistance were not eliminated until mid-December. The battle cost the 24th and 32d Divisions a total of 1,498 casualties, killed, wounded, and missing in action, as compared with an estimated 5,252 Japanese killed and 8 captured.[23]

The Japanese had failed in their attempt to block off Highway 2 at the northern entrance to Ormoc Valley. In no small measure, the establishment and maintenance of a roadblock south of Limon by the 2d Battalion, 19th Infantry, and the defense of Kilay Ridge in the rear of the Japanese front lines by the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry, had made this achievement possible. (See [Map 13].) Under constant fire and greatly outnumbered, these units had prevented General Suzuki from sending additional troops into Limon. From 12 to 23 November the 2d Battalion, 19th Infantry, had defended the roadblock under extremely difficult conditions. The operations report of the 24th Division graphically summarizes the deeds for which the battalion received a presidential citation:

These bearded, mud caked soldiers came out of the mountains exhausted and hungry. Their feet were heavy, cheeks hollow, bodies emaciated, and eyes glazed. They had seen thirty-one comrades mortally wounded, watched fifty-five others lie suffering in muddy foxholes without adequate medical attention. Yet their morale had not changed. It was high when they went in and high when they came out. They were proud that they had rendered invaluable aid to the main forces fighting in ORMOC CORRIDOR, by disrupting the Japanese supply lines and preventing strong reinforcements from passing up the ORMOC ROAD. They were proud that they had outfought the Emperor’s toughest troops, troops that had been battle trained in Manchuria. They were certain they had killed at least 606 of the enemy and felt that their fire had accounted for many more. And they were proud that this had all been accomplished despite conditions of extreme hardship. Two hundred and forty-one of the battalion’s officers and enlisted men were hospitalized for skin disorders, foot ulcers, battle fatigue, and sheer exhaustion.[24]

AMERICAN TROOPS IN LIMON (above), and taking cover there as enemy shells hit the area (below).