Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

On 28 November, after receiving orders from General Arnold, the commanding officer of the 184th Infantry, Col. Curtis D. O’Sullivan, outlined to his battalion commanders the new roles they were to play. The 184th Infantry was to relieve the 32d Infantry and then attack to the front and cover the division’s left sector. The 1st Battalion of the regiment was to relieve Company F, 32d Infantry, from the beach inland to a clump of trees held by the enemy 600 yards inland. Parts of Companies A and C were already at the edge of the grove. The 2d Battalion, 184th Infantry, with the 57th Field Artillery Battalion in direct support, was to relieve Companies G and E of the 32d Infantry, tie in with Company L of the 32d Infantry, and attack in the direction of Hill 918. The 3d Battalion, in regimental reserve, was to take a position in San Agustin. The 32d Infantry was to fall back to Tinagan.[39] At 1700 the 2d Battalion, 184th Infantry, relieved the 2d Battalion, 32d Infantry, at Damulaan.[40]

At 1945 on 28 November elements of the 26th Division attacked from the southeast and northeast the right flank of Company A, 184th Infantry, at the bamboo thicket and pushed it back fifty yards. Battery B, 57th Field Artillery Battalion, fired at the southern point of the enemy infiltration and also 100 yards to the west.[41] The Japanese attack was stopped, and the 1st Battalion held fast and dug in.[42]

Company E, 2d Battalion, hurriedly moved into a position from which, if requested, it could support the 1st Battalion. The 81-mm. mortar section of the 2d Battalion was prepared to place fire in front of the zone of Company A, and two platoons from Company C were in position to fill a gap existing between the 1st and 2d Battalions.[43] By 2045 the 3d Battalion, 32d Infantry, and the 2d and 1st Battalions, 184th Infantry, were on a line from right to left.[44] The night was quiet except for sounds of enemy activity in front of the 2d Battalion.[45]

At 0900 on 29 November Company A of the 1st Battalion and Company F of the 2d Battalion, after a mortar barrage, attacked to retake the lost ground and to overrun the Japanese position in the bamboo thicket. They regained the ground without opposition, but as the troops approached the thicket they met strong resistance. For the rest of the day the battle seesawed back and forth as elements of the 184th Infantry and the 26th Division contested for control of “Bloody Bamboo Thicket,” as it came to be called. Between 1820 and 1920, Company A repulsed three heavy enemy attacks and killed an estimated fifty to eighty Japanese.[46] At 1800 Companies A and F made a co-ordinated but unsuccessful attack against the Japanese. They dug in for the night in positions from which they successfully withstood enemy attacks.[47]

The following morning both battalions sent patrols to scout out the strength and installations of the enemy. At 1045 Company A, which had been in action for several days, was relieved by Company C and moved to the old position of the latter.[48] At 1400, after a ten-minute artillery preparation, Company C and two platoons from Company F on its right were to move out toward a ridge 150 yards north in order to strengthen the lines and secure positions on the commanding terrain—part of which was the bamboo thicket over which Company A and the enemy had fought.

The companies moved out on time and met little resistance until they had penetrated twenty to thirty yards into the thicket, when the enemy strongly opposed any further advance. The troops of the 184th Infantry, however, steadily pushed on, and by 1603 Company C, with the platoons from Company F just behind it, had cleared the bamboo thicket. Since the line of Company C extended over a wide front, it was tightened and shortened and tied into Company B. By 1730 the troops of Companies C and F had consolidated their positions and formed a night perimeter on the forward slope of the ridge.[49] Shoestring Ridge was firmly in American hands.

Battles of the Hills

The attempts of the 26th Division to drive the Americans back had been checked, but the front lines remained practically the same as they had been at the outset of the battle for Shoestring Ridge. It had become apparent that the most one regiment could do was to conduct a holding action and that if the 7th Division was to continue the advance it would be necessary to commit a stronger force against the Japanese. Elements of the 26th Division were by now firmly ensconced in the hills that overlooked Highway 2 and were in a position to contest bitterly any forward movement of the 7th Division.

A series of sharply edged ridges with many spurs, heavily overgrown with bamboo thickets and high cogon grass, rose from the coastal plain to the central mountain range. ([Map 17]) One of these, Hill 918, was especially important tactically, since from it one could observe the entire coast to the south, and as far as Ormoc to the north. About four fifths of a mile northeast of Hill 918 was the barrio of Kang Dagit, and about one and a half miles north of the hill was Kang Cainto.[50] Other important high points were Hill 380, between the Palanas and Tabgas Rivers and about one and a third miles east of Balogo on Highway 2, and Hill 606, between the Tabgas River and Calingatngan Creek and approximately one and a third miles east of Calingatngan on Highway 2.