The 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry, under Colonel Clifford, operated west of Highway 2 on Kilay Ridge, behind the Japanese front lines. It “wrote a brilliant page in the history of the campaign”[25] but, since its influence on the situation was not appreciated until later and since it affords an excellent example of a battalion fighting independently, the operation of “Clifford’s Battalion” will be discussed separately.
Battle of Kilay Ridge
When General Krueger told General Sibert to push the X Corps south with all possible speed down Highway 2 toward Ormoc, the latter had selected the 24th Division to make the drive. General Irving wished to protect the sides of the road and prevent the Japanese from sending reinforcements north up the highway. On 9 November he therefore ordered the 34th Infantry to send a battalion around the Japanese west flank to harass the enemy’s rear and thus relieve the pressure that was holding up the frontal attack of the 21st Infantry on Breakneck Ridge.
Nipponese Caught Napping
At 0100 on 10 November Colonel Dahlen, commander of the 34th Infantry, alerted the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry, for an amphibious landing to take place at 0700. The battalion had been in contact with the enemy for twenty-one days and was reduced to an effective strength of 560 men. The 1st Battalion, with an observer’s party from the 63d Field Artillery Battalion, was ordered to move from Capoocan in eighteen LVT’s and proceed seven miles northwest up the coast of Carigara Bay.[26] It was then to move inland and seize Kilay Ridge, which was west of the Ormoc road some 3,000 yards behind the Japanese front lines.[27]
At 0700 the battalion, under Colonel Clifford, moved out, taking every available man on the mission and leaving only a minimum of cooks and drivers behind. Since the troops had to hand-carry their equipment the Headquarters Company left the antitank guns behind, and Company D took only one section of heavy machine guns and one section of 81-mm. mortars. Colonel Clifford used the men thus released to carry other weapons and ammunition. Because of the scant time allowed by the orders, the battalion left without sufficient rations.
At 0750 Clifford’s battalion went aboard the LVT’s and at 0930 arrived at its destination. Debarking without opposition it pushed rapidly inland and at 1145 reached a hill approximately one mile from the landing area. At dusk the 1st Battalion reached a ridge in the vicinity of Belen and about 2,000 yards north of Agahang. There it set up a night perimeter. Since his maps were inaccurate, Colonel Clifford relied upon the services of Filipino guides from this time until the end of the mission. The rugged and muddy hillsides, made considerably worse by almost constant rain and fog, were similar to those encountered by other units fighting in the area.
At 0730 on 11 November Colonel Clifford sent out patrols to pick up a promised airdrop of rations. The battalion had been without food since the morning before. At 0910 Colonel Dahlen ordered Colonel Clifford not to move on to Agahang, which was about 3,800 yards northwest of Limon, until he received rations. The rations were not forthcoming but at 1400 Dahlen told Clifford to obtain the promised rations at Agahang, to which the battalion then proceeded. No supplies were received, but Filipinos furnished the unit with bananas, cooked rice, boiled potatoes, and a few chickens. A night perimeter was set up.[28]