Leyte: The Return to the Philippines

by M. Hamlin Cannon

MAP 17

BATTLE OF THE RIDGES

5–12 December 1944

General Arnold wished to attack north with two regiments abreast. He therefore ordered Colonel O’Sullivan to send out a strong patrol to the front of the 184th Infantry but not to attempt any advance until the 17th Infantry could arrive from the east coast. On 3 December, when most of the 17th Infantry had reached the west coast, General Arnold called a meeting of his regimental commanders. He told them that the 7th Division was to renew the attack north at 0800 on 5 December with regiments abreast, the 17th Infantry on the right and the 184th Infantry on the left, and secure the Talisayan River about three and a half miles north, together with the intervening enemy positions on Hills 918, 380, and 606. The boundary between the regiments was to be roughly 2,000 yards from the beach.[51] At this time the front-line units of the 26th Division, which had been occupying a hill about two miles northwest of Damulaan, withdrew to the Palanas River and a hill northeast of the river. A battalion of the 26th Division was on the western slope of a hill north of the river.[52]

On 4 December the 184th Infantry prepared for the attack and sent patrols from the 1st and 2d Battalions to the front. These patrols penetrated as far north as Balogo. The 17th Infantry spent the day in moving forward the various elements of the regiment.[53] By nightfall the units of the 7th Division were in readiness for the offensive which was to start the following morning.

Hill 918

On 4 December General Arnold ordered Lt. Col. O’Neill K. Kane to move the tanks of the 776th Amphibian Tank Battalion by water under cover of darkness to a position 1,000 yards at sea to the west of Balogo, the next coastal town, about a mile to the north of the front lines. The tanks at dawn on the 5th were to assault the beaches in that vicinity and fire on the town and on the north slopes of hills and ravines in the area. These movements of the tank battalion were to be closely co-ordinated with the 184th and 17th Infantry Regiments, into whose areas the attack was to be made.

At 0635 on the 5th, the tank battalion in a column formation started to move north over water. The tanks advanced toward Balogo until they were at a point offshore about 200 yards from the town. They then continued north in a column formation and fired into the town of Tabgas. At the mouth of the Tabgas River, just short of Tabgas, the tanks attacked in line formation. Moving ashore at 0700, they sent approximately 2,550 rounds of 75-mm. ammunition in direct fire against the northern slopes of the hills that confronted the 7th Division.

The tanks completed their mission, took to the water again, and headed north for a mile to reconnoiter the area around Calingatngan. They then turned south and started for the bivouac area. On the return, Colonel Kane, elated over the success of their previous landing and wishing to use up the remaining ammunition, ordered the tanks to land 500 yards south of the Tabgas River. From here the tanks fired and then withdrew unhindered by enemy fire. At 1045 they were back in their bivouac area.[54]