Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

After a short lull Colonel Saito renewed the attack. There was no preparatory artillery fire, but the mortars and machine guns introduced the assault. The attack did not seem as determined as the previous one, though the number of troops was apparently about the same. The 32d Infantry again called down all types of fire upon the enemy. Elements of the 13th Infantry Regiment continued to advance, although “the carnage was terrific,”[26] and attempted to pass through the American lines. A strong enemy group moved into a bamboo grove on a nose in front of the center platoon of G Company. From this position the enemy launched an attack which the company resisted with grenades and bayonets. As Colonel Finn later reported: “The battle continued to flare up and die down as the valiant soldiers fought like devils to hold our lines.”[27] The 81-mm. mortars from the mortar platoon of H Company fired 650 rounds in five minutes, and fire from the 60-mm. mortars was “practically automatic.”[28] After an hour’s intense fighting, the enemy force withdrew.

The Japanese had not attacked the left flank of G Company. These troops heard the battle raging to the right and the sounds of the Japanese forming below them. A noncommissioned officer in charge of a listening post sent a man to get permission for his three-man group to withdraw. After receiving permission he shouted the order from a distance of fifty yards. As the men from the listening post started back, they were joined by the left platoon and two squads from the center platoon. Within forty-five minutes the two platoons, less one squad, plus the section of heavy machine guns, were moving south on the highway. “There was no thought in their minds that the withdrawal was not authorized.”[29] After proceeding down the road 250 yards they met the executive officer of Company H who ordered them back. It was too late, the damage was done. Though the left platoon was able to regain its position without trouble, the two squads from the center platoon found the enemy well dug-in in the bamboo thicket where the squads had been. It was later learned that there were about two hundred hostile troops with twenty machine guns in the thicket.

The Japanese were within the American lines and in a position from which they could fire on A Battery and the flanks of Companies E, L, I, and K.[30] Colonel Finn immediately took steps to contain the penetrators. The reserve platoon from I Company moved behind E Company to face north in order to stop any enemy troops moving south along the high ground. The squad of the center platoon of Company G that had remained in position was faced to the west in order to forestall any attempt to roll up the line of G Company. That part of G Company which had withdrawn was moved along the high ground behind E Company where it established contact with the rest of G Company that faced the bamboo thicket. The right of F Company was turned south along the highway. Although the enemy could not be denied access to the flat, open ground leading to Damulaan, the rear of E and G Companies was protected and the flat ground could be covered by fire. The Japanese apparently did not realize the predicament of the Americans, since they made no attempt to exploit it.

At the same time that G Company was fighting, the other companies, E, L, and I, were also hit, though the assault was not so heavy as the one against G Company. The commanding officer of E Company, next to G Company, felt that the situation left him “in a hell of a spot,”[31] but he held his position. The Japanese steadily persisted in their pressure against the lines of the companies and the fighting continued throughout the night. The defenders yielded no ground and effectively used many supporting fires to disrupt the attack of the 26th Division. The Americans counted 400 Japanese dead the next morning, but casualties of the 32d Infantry, despite the heavy fighting, had been surprisingly light. For the twenty-four hour period ending at 1430 on 27 November, four officers and fifteen enlisted men had been wounded and one enlisted man killed.[32]

Colonel Finn made plans for the recapture of the ground lost by G Company, and General Arnold made available to him part of the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry, which was at Caridad. The 1st Battalion, less B Company and two platoons from C Company, left Caridad at 0415 on 27 November, and by 0515 it was in Damulaan in readiness for the assault. Company G, 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry, was also available.

At the same time, the enemy was in the midst of preparing new plans. The Japanese felt that if they could recapture the Burauen airfields, all the American forces on Leyte would be in jeopardy. General Suzuki therefore ordered his troops to prepare for an operation at Burauen. In order to concentrate the 26th Division for his daring move across the mountains to strike at the Americans in the vicinity of the Burauen airfields, General Suzuki risked his right flank, leaving only a detachment consisting of the 12th Independent Infantry Regiment, one and one-half battalions of the 13th Independent Infantry Regiment, and one battery of the 26th Artillery Battalion with two mobile guns to prevent the Americans from reaching Albuera and cutting off the base of his attack. At the same time, staff members of the 26th Division moved south to direct operations against the 7th Division.[33]

These Japanese measures were taken just as General Krueger was able to reinforce the attack toward Ormoc. The commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry, at dawn on 27 November got his troops ready for the drive toward Albuera. He moved his battalion behind L and E Companies, 32d Infantry. Because of the limited area involved, the battalion commander decided that only A Company would make the attack. The artillery, mortars, and machine guns placed heavy fire on the bamboo thicket. At 0855 the troops moved out but were stopped by heavy machine gun fire after they had advanced about 200 yards. They then withdrew about fifty yards while the artillery and mortars again covered the area.[34] A second attack was also halted, and A Company again pulled back. At 1430 a very heavy artillery concentration was placed on the thicket.[35] Immediately thereafter C Company moved in swiftly and cleared out and secured the area by 1600. A total of 109 enemy dead was counted and twenty-nine machine guns were removed.

The defensive perimeters of the 32d Infantry were set up. With the addition of the 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry, the lines were much stronger. During the night of 27 November elements of the 13th Independent Infantry Regiment made minor attempts to infiltrate through the lines but were easily repulsed.

By now the Sixth Army had received substantial reinforcements. General Hodge therefore ordered the 7th Division to assemble all forces in the Baybay area as rapidly as the logistical situation would permit.[36] By 27 November sufficient troops had assembled to enable him to order General Arnold to make “an early and vigorous attack” to destroy the Japanese in the area and then capture Ormoc.[37] On 28 November all the assault elements of the 7th Division, with the exception of the 1st Battalion, 32d Infantry, which was patrolling in the vicinity of Panaon Strait, were either on the eastern shore of the Camotes Sea or on the way there. The 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry, and the 2d and 3d Battalions, 32d Infantry, were still engaging the enemy at a bamboo thicket on Shoestring Ridge south of the Palanas River and east of Damulaan.[38]

The troops of Colonel Finn’s 32d Infantry were weary. They had prevented the Japanese 26th Division from going south along the eastern shore of the Camotes Sea and had held back the best the enemy had to offer. General Arnold desired that the 7th Division push through the enemy lines with two regiments abreast toward Ormoc. The tired 32d Infantry was to be drawn back and replaced by the 184th and 17th Infantry Regiments.