Work on the Tacloban airstrip had been handicapped at first by the heavy concentration of troops, supplies, and equipment in the area during the early stages of the operation. Thereafter, work was further hampered by the insufficient supply of coral for surfacing the runway and by the very heavy traffic concentrated on the haul road because of the necessity for unloading cargo over White Beach. By 25 December, 1 runway, 50 dispersal areas, 536,000 square feet of alert apron, 1 diagonal taxiway, 1 parallel dispersal taxiway, and 8,943 feet of additional dispersal taxiways had been constructed.
OPERATIONAL LOSSES AT THE BURAUEN AIRFIELDS forced their abandonment and the construction of the field at Tanauan.
The Dulag airfield was located on the flat flood plain of the Marabang River. The difficulties encountered were numerous: time lost because of excessive rains that amounted to thirty-five inches in forty days; air alerts; very poor drainage, which required the construction of a system of drag-line trenches to the river; and very poor access roads. The access roads required an excessive expenditure of time, labor, and material in order to maintain traffic to the airfield. One runway, 2 alert areas with gravel surface and 2 with mat surface, 1 matted transport parking area, 133 dispersal areas, and 24,200 feet of dispersal taxiways were constructed by 25 December.
In the latter part of November all construction work was stopped on the three airfields in the Burauen area, but not before considerable time and effort had been expended in futile attempts to make the airfields usable.[1] Since these airfields could not be made serviceable, General Krueger received permission from General MacArthur to construct an airfield in the Tanauan area, and moved his headquarters from Tanauan to Tologosa on 28 November in order that construction might be started. The new site had a good sandy surface, its drainage was satisfactory, and it proved to be an excellent location for an airfield. By 16 December the field became operational, and by the 25th there had been completed 1 runway with mat surfacing, 1 overrun, 90,000 square feet of warm-up area, 120,000 square feet of alert apron, 1 parallel taxiway, and 26 large dispersal areas.[2]
Roads
The rehabilitation of roads presented problems as vexatious as those in airfield construction. In southern Leyte Valley, the road that ran from Dulag through Burauen to Dagami soon became impassable for about two miles on each side of Burauen. This section of the road was completely rebuilt by dumping approximately three feet of gravel over it. The remainder of the road was kept open most of the time by permitting only one-way traffic. The other roads were just as bad. After heavy rains the road in the Army Service Command area was frequently under at least two feet of water. The streets in Tacloban disintegrated so rapidly that much engineer effort was required to keep them open. Such maintenance was necessary to assure continued operation of the many supply and administrative facilities located in the city.[3] The roads on the west coast were, if possible, even worse. Upkeep of the roads in general required a “profligate expenditure of engineer troops.” It was found that a battalion could accomplish no more in a month than a platoon could have carried out in a week under good weather conditions. The roads required a rock or gravel foundation one to three feet thick, whereas a road-metal surface of three to four inches on an earth base was normally adequate. Since priority was given to work on the principal roads and airfields, the construction of access roads, as well as hardstands for hospitals, depots, and other needed installations was greatly delayed. In this connection General Krueger stated: “This, in turn, greatly affected the supply situation, including construction materials, by lack of access to the depots, lack of storage space into which to discharge ships, and lack of facilities and spare parts to permit repair and servicing of engineer heavy equipment as well as other critical transportation and combat vehicles.”[4]
On 21 December General Krueger estimated that after the elimination of certain projects on which informal agreements had been reached, the extent of completion by 5 January of the other projects would be as follows: main supply roads, 50 percent; access roads, 20 percent; Air Forces installations (exclusive of air depot and assembly plants), 44 percent; hospitals, 40 percent; base supply and services, 25 percent; oil and aviation gasoline storage (exclusive of naval oil storage which had not been started), 50 percent; Navy installations, 20 percent; and headquarters construction, 40 percent.[5] The gloomy prognostications of Sixth Army engineers had proven all too true.