The Pittsburgh Press (February 8, 1945)
Yanks shelling Japs in south half of Manila
Japs report U.S. tanks crossing river
MANILA, Philippines (UP) – U.S. troops killed off the last Jap resistance in northern Manila today and loosed a heavy artillery barrage on the surviving enemy forces holed up in the blackened, burning southern half of the capital.
Tokyo reported that U.S. forces, including amphibious tanks, began crossing the Pasig River at a point west of Malacanang Palace. A Tokyo broadcast said the Japs were “fiercely attacking the enemy.”
Vanguards of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division were cutting their way slowly into the Jap rear from the south, but the main U.S. forces were stalled temporarily along the north bank of the Pasig River, which bisects Manila from east to west.
Last bridge blown up
American hopes for a quick thrust across the river to wipe out the surviving enemy were dashed Tuesday night when Jap sappers blew up the last of the four Pasig bridges – the Jones span leading into the old Walled City.
Their foray nullified the work of a daring American naval officer who a few hours earlier had dashed through a hail of gunfire to remove a spluttering demolition charge from the bridge.
Cut off from all supply and reinforcement, the Japs still were fighting back defiantly in the southern half of the city, battling desperately to hold the 11th Airborne Division and hurling artillery and mortar fire across the Pasig River into northern Manila.
Some of the enemy shells were landing in the Santo Tomas University grounds. were thousands of liberated American internees were quartered.
At the same time, Jap demolition squads were roving wantonly through the southern city, dynamiting and burning homes and waterfront installations, even in the Walled City.
Most of the fires set by the enemy in the northern section were brought under control by U.S. 37th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions in their street-to-street cleanup of that half of the capital.
Mass along bank
The 37th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions were massed all along the north bank of the Pasig. but the wide and swift-flowing river was under heavy enemy fire and it was believed likely that the Japs would be able to hold out until the 11th Airborne Division breaks into their main positions from the rear.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s communiqué indicated that the 11th Airborne Division was still some distance from the river bank Tuesday, and elements of the 11th Airborne were still meeting stiff resistance from bypassed Jap troops around Nichols Field, four miles south of the city limits.
Far to the north, other U.S. forces were making good progress into the hills northeast of their Lingayen Gulf beachheads.
Units of the 32nd Infantry Division cut the Balete Pass road leading into the Cagayan Valley, closing the main escape route for sizeable Jap forces holding out in the Lupao-Munoz-Rizal triangle 17 to 30 miles farther south.
The communique revealed that the Japs have lost 48,000 killed, wounded or captured since the landing at Lingayen on January 9, against U.S. casualties of 7,067.
Meanwhile, the softening-up bombardment of the forts guarding the entrance to Manila Bay was stepped up with a 204-ton air raid on Corregidor and a smaller attack on nearby Caballo Island.