Main Jap line on Bataan cut
Yanks in Manila continue mop-up
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – U.S. troops broke through the main Jap defense line on Bataan today. The Yanks advanced swiftly into the southern half of the peninsula to avenge the U.S. Army’s defeat there in 1942 – the bitterest of the war.
The breakthrough on Bataan came as other Yanks shot and bayoneted their way through the smoke-shrouded streets of Manila in a no-quarter battle against thousands of fanatical Japs holed up in the southern half of the city.
Vanguards of the U.S. 11th Army Corps all but sealed the conquest of Bataan yesterday with the capture of the Balanga-Pilar area in a five-mile advance down the east coast of the peninsula from Abucay.
Belanga and Pilar formed the eastern anchor of the defense line on which Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright’s heroic troops made their last stand on Bataan in the dark days of 1942.
The fall of the two towns put Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s forces astride the only remaining lateral highway on Bataan, running from Pilar to the west coast town of Bagac. With that line cut, the remaining Japs on the peninsula-appeared to have little chance of waging organized resistance for any length of time.
South of Pilar, the Americans were pushing into rugged, mountainous terrain only 16 miles from the southern tip of the peninsula and about 18 miles from Corregidor.
Blast Corregidor
Corregidor, guarding the entrance to Manila Bay, was rocking continuously to the blast of American bombs in a non-stop bombardment that clearly pointed to an imminent amphibious attack on the island.
A force of B-24 Liberators heaped another 112 tons of bombs on the rock fortress Wednesday without drawing an answering shot from the island’s gun batteries. Headquarters observers warned, however, that “the Rock” is not likely to be an “easy murk” for an American landing, since the Japs are well entrenched there and probably have plenty of big guns emplaced deep in the island caves, out of reach of bombs.
Swarms of U.S. attack planes were supporting the drive down Bataan.
Gain slowly in Manila
Inside Manila, however, the advance was going ahead more solely, with the heaviest fighting centered around Fort McKinley, on the southeastern outskirts of the city, and on the eastern and southern approaches to the old Walled City on the Manila waterfront.
The Japs in both pockets were being whittled down steadily, but they were fighting hard and ruthlessly, burning everything in the wake of their retreat and slaughtering Filipino civilians inside their lines.
One strong enemy group barricaded themselves inside the Philippine General Hospital while the Yanks closed in from three sides, firing cautiously to avoid injury to a number of Americans believed to be in the building.
Japs tricked
Captured Jap documents revealed that the enemy had been tricked completely by the American landing at Lingayen Gulf, 110 miles north of Manila, apparently having expected the main attack to come in the Batangas area to the south.
As a result, the Japs were unable to put up a really strong defense north of Manila and the conquest of the northern half of the city was relatively easy.
South of the Pasig River, however, the enemy concentrated perhaps 20,000 crack troops in and around the city, and covered the streets with mines, artillery and machine guns in the mistaken belief that they could turn the capital into a death trap for Gen. MacArthur’s troops.