Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

At 2000, since the enemy completely surrounded Company B, Colonel Clifford ordered the company to break through and withdraw through Company A to the rear of the battalion command post. Under cover of machine gun and artillery fire, the company withdrew. When a litter train of the wounded was ambushed, one of the bearers was killed by enemy fire.

Within the new perimeter of Company B, 750 yards north of the battalion command post, Colonel Clifford established a rear command post and all communications moved to it. From this new location the mortars from Company D began to fire in front of Company A, the most advanced company. The battalion cached all supplies and ammunition in case the enemy should suddenly break through. The rains continued.

Colonel Clifford made tentative plans to withdraw during the night but abandoned them when General Gill ordered him to hold the ridge at all costs. Advance elements of the 32d Division had entered Limon, and the withdrawal of Clifford’s battalion would have left their western flank completely exposed.[41]

Fortunately the Japanese did not follow up the attacks on 23 November, but there was scattered automatic weapons and artillery fire. Next day American artillery and mortar fire repulsed a small enemy attack at 0830. A platoon from the battalion slipped through the enemy lines and brought information on the situation to General Gill. It returned with orders that the battalion was to hold fast. Two airdrops of supplies, although they drew enemy fire, were successfully recovered.

For the next two days there was comparative quiet in the sector except for patrol activity and intermittent fire. At 1000 on 25 November, General Gill sent Colonel Clifford the following message: “You and your men are doing a superb job. Hang on and keep killing the Japs....”[42]

At nightfall on 25 November, however, the semiquiet was shattered when an enemy force armed with automatic weapons, mortars, and artillery began a heavy assault against the perimeter of Company A. The company beat off the attack with losses to both forces. On the following morning, Colonel Clifford had Company C relieve Company A. At 1630 Colonel Dahlen informed him that he, Clifford, was “in a tight spot,” since the 32d Division could give “no immediate help,” and advised him to “use artillery and hang on.”[43] It became apparent that the Japanese were so disposed that they could launch attacks from different directions. Further evidence to this effect was supplied on 27 November, when a Japanese patrol of almost platoon strength got astride the supply line to Consuegra on the northern front of Kilay Ridge. A patrol from Company B dispersed the unit and killed three of the enemy. Colonel Clifford estimated that elements of the 1st Regiment were disposed as follows: a minimum of one reinforced company was south of him, at least two reinforced companies were on the ridge about 1,000 yards to the east, and a strong but unknown number of the enemy opposed him on the west. If this last force pushed northward Clifford’s supply line to Consuegra would be severed. From 1725 to 2020 on 27 November, Company C came under a strong long-range attack from enemy positions on the ridge to the east. A patrol from the 128th Infantry, 32d Division, brought Colonel Clifford the welcome information that reinforcements were en route.

The Main Effort

At 1000 on 28 November the battalion repulsed a small party of the enemy that attacked from the south. There was a lull until 1930 when the Japanese unleashed a strong effort to drive the defenders from Kilay Ridge and recapture it. The opening was marked by 90-mm. mortar fire upon the outposts of the battalion. Heavy weapons from the ridge on the east then began firing as at least two machine guns and many small arms began to rain lead from the west. The enemy fire rose to a crescendo as the mortars joined in and directed their heaviest fire at a platoon of Company C on the southwestern end of the ridge. The Japanese began to deploy troops, apparently in an attempt to reach a gulch to the west of the battalion’s positions. A heavy assault was launched from the south against Company C.

By 1955 the mortars of the battalion were brought to bear against the advancing Japanese as the crews worked in feverish haste to break up the assault. At 2015, although Company C now had mortar support, the enemy charged with bayonets and grenades. Fighting was at close quarters and the Japanese began to infiltrate the forward positions. An hour later the advance platoon of Company C pulled back to join the company, which had been cut off from the rest of the battalion. The fire fight continued throughout the night with constant rifle fire, numerous attempts at infiltration by the Japanese, and intermittent mortar fire.[44]

At dawn on 29 November the Japanese forces were still on the ridge in strength and their automatic weapons began to fire anew. All forward elements of the battalion were under attack and Company C was still separated from the rest of the battalion. A reinforced platoon from Company B, at 0730, was able to break through to Company C, kill six of the enemy, and seize two machine guns en route. As Company C’s ammunition was practically exhausted, Colonel Clifford immediately sent a carrying party forward. Since the Japanese had blocked off the trail immediately after the passage of the platoon from Company B, the carrying party was pinned down.