Battle of Manila (1945)

34

Background of news –
Manila, 1898 and 1945

By Bertram Benedict

As Manila falls into American possession, thoughts inevitably go back to the day in the war with Spain when the American flag flew over the city.

In each case, the Philippine capital lay open to capture because of a naval victory several months before – in 1945, the Battle of Leyte Gulf; in 1898, the Battle of Manila Bay. In each case the city was only lightly defended. But there the similarity ends. In fact, reading today of the capture of Manila in the Spanish-American War makes it seem 470 rather than 47 years ago.

At the outbreak of war in 1898, the U.S. Navy was divided into two parts, an Atlantic squadron and a smaller Pacific squadron under Cdre. Dewey. Dewey’s fleet wouldn’t be considered much of a fleet today. None of his six ships was over 6,000 tons, two were under 3,000, one was unprotected by armor. There were also a revenue cutter and two supply ships.

The commander of the Spanish fleet in the Pacific, Adm. Montojo, also had six ships, none over 3,500 tons, five under 1,500. There were a so-called battleship, two protected cruisers, two gunboats and something with a wooden hull which had to be towed because its machinery wouldn’t work. Several other Spanish warships at Manila were unfit for action because they were undergoing repairs.

Harbor entered May 1

The Spanish fleet sailed for Subic Bay to find out if this were a stronger position; not liking the setup there, Montojo took his force back to Manila. Dewey’s intelligence facilities were little better; he had to send several of his ships to Subic to find out if the Spaniards were still there, before making for Manila.

The American fleet entered Manila Harbor early in the morning of May 1. The shore batteries did not open fire until most of the fleet had slipped by. The Americans waited for the dawn, then opened fire on the Spanish ships at a range of about two and one-half miles, The American fleet sailed back and forth opposite the Spanish ships, and the Spanish gunners weren’t able to score any hits of consequence.

This was the pre-smokeless era, and after several hours the Americans had to stop firing for the smoke to lift so that they could see how much damage they had inflicted. When the smoke cleared, it was seen that the Spanish fleet had been badly damaged; another hour of firing finished it off completely.

Waited three months

Manila then lay open to capture, but Dewey had no troops to occupy the city; he therefore waited patiently in the harbor for infantry to come. It was three months before the troops sent out from San Francisco reached a total of 15,000. They landed unopposed. In the meantime, Aguinaldo, leader of the Filipino native force, had surrounded and besieged Manila with about 14,000 men.

Finally, on August 7, Dewey and Gen. Merritt sent a joint note to the Spanish commander at Manila. ordering him to surrender. He had some 13,000 men but no real facilities for resistance; he asked and was refused time to consult Madrid: on August 13, the Americans advanced, managing to keep the Filipino army out of it; the Spaniards fired only a few shots as token resistance, and then surrendered the city.

On the day before, a truce to all hostilities had been signed, but word had not reached the Philippines, so that Manila, like New Orleans in 1815, was an American victory won after the war was over.

35

Völkischer Beobachter (February 9, 1945)

Die Kämpfe in Manila

Tokio, 8. Februar – Den im Norden Manilas eingedrungenen feindlichen Truppen ist es gelungen, ihre Bodengewinne zu erweitern, aber die wichtigsten Punkte sind nach wie vor fest in japanischer Hand. Durch heftige Gegenangriffe werden dem Feind Verluste an Mannschaften und Material zugefügt. Von den feindlichen Landetruppen, die vom Süden her gegen Manila Vordringen, ist es nur einem kleinen Teil gelungen, den Südteil von Manila zu erreichen.

Im Gebiet von Clark Field behaupten sich die Japaner nach wie vor. Artillerie und Infanterie stehen in heftigen Angriffen. Die Zahl der Toten des Feindes sowie der Verwundeten wird auf etwa 7.000 geschätzt, während die Japaner nur geringe Ausfälle und Schäden hatten.

In Anbetracht der Kriegslage Verlegte die philippinische Regierung ihren Sitz nach Nordluzon.

36

The Pittsburgh Press (February 9, 1945)

Manila battle in bloodiest and last stage

Yanks storm Japs south of river

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – The Battle of Manila entered its last and bloodiest phase today as U.S. infantrymen swarmed across the Pasig River to root out and destroy the Japs trapped in the southern half of the city.

Doughboys of the 37th “Buckeye” Infantry Division crossed the Pasig in amphibious tanks and on pontoon bridges late Wednesday and quickly established a wide bridgehead on the south bank opposite the Malacanang Palace.

The Japs put up only weak resistance along the river bank, but they stiffened later Wednesday night and fought back savagely with mortar artillery and rifle fire.

Jap position disintegrating

Their position was disintegrating rapidly however and it was believed that all organized opposition would be crushed within a very few days at most. the advancing 37th Infantry Division was deep into the southern half of the capital early today and herding the Jap survivors back slowly into the waiting guns of the 11th Airborne Division moving up from the south.

Radio Tokyo said today that a third column of Americans was grouping troops and tanks at Quezon, 12 miles northeast of the Philippines capital, “in an attempt to make a detour around east to cut off the Japanese garrisons from the main forces in the ridge positions.”

The main body of the 11th Airborne Division was reported slightly north of Nichols Field Wednesday night, but forward elements apparently were well north of the enemy-held air base and cutting into the rear of the Manila garrison.

Flames rage

The desperate street battle was going ahead under a great pall of smoke and flame that blanketed the entire southern half of Manila. The Japs were still burning and wrecking wantonly inside their narrowing pocket and it was feared that the port and a vast area of the central city would be burned to the ground before the last enemy has been killed.

Tokyo broadcasts said Japs have evacuated all but a skeleton force from Manila and indicated that the Philippine presidential palace was among the buildings destroyed by their demolition squads.

The main business section of the city was reduced to blackened ruins, although most of the fires in the northern half had been brought under control and life in that American-held area was returning to normal.

Supplies pour in

Troops, supplies and ammunition were pouring into the city at a terrific rate following the repair of the bridges north of Manila, and there was little likelihood the remaining Japs could hold out for long.

Meanwhile, other U.S. troops practically completed the job of cutting Luzon in two along a line running southeastward from the Lingayen Gulf beachheads 110 miles north of Manila.

Units of the 25th and 6th Infantry Divisions wiped out the last Jap resistance in Munoz, Rizal and Lupao, 75 to 85 miles above the capital, after one of the bitterest fights of the campaign.

Blast 42 Jap tanks

In Munoz alone, the victorious Americans counted 1,242 enemy dead, along with 42 knocked-out tanks, 62 armored cars and 22 guns. The armored losses raised to more than 200 the number of Jap tanks destroyed on Luzon amounting to about two-thirds of the tank strength of the Jap 2nd Armored Division.

That was the only armored division the Japs had on the island, and Gen. MacArthur’s communiqué asserted that its remaining elements are now so scattered that they are no longer an effective fighting force.

Corregidor was bombed again by U.S. heavies on Tuesday, while other raiders hit enemy supply dumps at Divilacan Bay, on the northeast coast of Luzon.

Strong formations struck heavily at the Jap Fabrica Air Base on Negros Island in the central Philippines, causing widespread damage and starting fires that raged out of control for seven hours. Fabrice Airfield was believed to have been the source of repeated Jap raids on U.S. positions on Leyte Island.

37

Relatives to hear from internees

WASHINGTON (UP) – The Red Cross said today that 3,500 letters from civilian internees liberated at Santo Tomas, Bilibid and Santiago in the Philippines will reach relatives in the United States soon.

Red Cross workers delivered 4,400 messages from home to 2,708 Americans at Santo Tomas and an unestimated number to internees at Bilibid and Santiago. These messages were collected by Red Cross chapters in this country shortly after the invasion of Leyte last fall.

The Red Cross said comfort articles such as soap, toothbrushes and razors had been distributed to 3,677 internees at Santo Tomas. Fifteen Red Cross women workers from Leyte and Dutch New Guinea have received priorities to fly to Manila to aid in caring for the released internees and homeless Philippine civilians.

38

Japs destroy large section of Manila

Flames unchecked for six days
By Ralph Teatsorth, United Press staff writer

MANILA, Philippines – Fire and battle have disfigured Manila horribly in the past week and vast areas in the ancient city lie in blackened ruins today.

By the time the last Japs have been killed here, many parts of the center of the city and the port area will be unrecognizable and will have to be rebuilt entirely.

Huge fires set by gunfire and Jap demolition crews have been raging unchecked for six days and nights, casting a great pall of smoke and flames over the city that can be seen for miles.

Life is beginning to return to normal in the liberated northern half of the capital, but the booming of artillery and the occasional rattle of machine-gun fire are constant reminders that the war is still only a few hundred yards away.

Views destruction

I viewed the center of the city yesterday from the top of Bilibid Prison and the Malacanang Palace. Both were still under artillery and mortar fire, but had suffered only slight damage.

The greatest visible damage appears to have occurred in the main business district on the north bank of the Pasig River. Fires have leveled most of that area, including the Philippines National Bank, the National City Bank, the Jap and Philippine bazaars and the big department stores.

The Binondo, San Nicolas and Santa Cruz areas extending more than a mile inland from the harbor on the north side of the river also have been burned out. The Great Eastern, Marco Polo and Central Hotels and the Santa Cruz Church are among the familiar buildings destroyed in those sections.

Church blown up

The fire line ran roughly between the river and Azcarrage Street as far east as Bilibid Prison, but a section of the city between Bilibid and the railroad terminal also was burned to the ground. Wednesday night an entire city block just south of Santo Tomas University caught fire and was destroyed.

The fine San Sebastian Cathedral, whose towering steel spire was fabricated in Liege, Belgium, is still undamaged, but a church in the Binondo district, which the Japs used as an ammunition dump, has been blown sky high.

The Yaunco market district, where American tourists used to buy Philippine rugs, and the San Nicolas warehouse area both were burned.

Port area blasted

Air Force observers report that most of the port area south of the Pasig River has been destroyed by Jap demolitions, which began on January 6, as well as by American shellfire.

Manila’s famous Army and Navy Club and the high commissioner’s building, both south of the port area, are believed to be intact but the Yacht Club in which the Japs had emplaced artillery has been wrecked.

Many Jap bodies and smashed vehicles still litter Quezon Boulevard, and many more are being piled up in the Pandacan District, where the oil companies were located before the war. Bitter fighting is going on there today.

39

Adviser to Chiang freed from Japs

LONDON, England (UP) – The British radio reported today that W. H. Donald, famous adviser to Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, had been released from internment in Manila.

The report said Mr. Donald was captured by the Japs when they overran the Philippines but they never learned his identity.

Mr. Donald, an Australian, was known by Allied authorities to be a prisoner but the fact was kept secret because it was feared the Japs would execute him if they discovered his identity.

40

The Pittsburgh Press (February 10, 1945)

Cornered Japs battling fiercely inside Manila

Enemy falls back for death stand inside old walled city as 2 Yank divisions attack

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Jap resistance in southern Manila flared with renewed violence today as the cornered enemy fell back slowly toward the waterfront for a death stand inside the old walled city.

Fighting through a choking pall of smoke that covered virtually all South Manila, elements of two U.S. divisions hit the Jap front and rear in the Pandacan and Paco districts below the Pasig River.

Japs lash back

The converging attack was squeezing several thousand Japs slowly westward toward the burned-out port area, where they were expected to make their last stand behind the massive walls of the old Spanish city – the Intramuros.

After yielding the Pasig River crossing opposite the Malacanang Palace to the U.S. 6th Infantry Division almost without a struggle, the Japs lashed back suddenly at their pursuers with artillery, mortars and rifle fire.

Battle below city

At last reports, the 37th Infantry Division and vanguards of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division advancing from the south were rooting the Japs from their street barricades and ruined houses in a hand-to-hand battle that outdid in sheer ferocity anything Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s troops have experienced since they entered Manila a week ago.

Tokyo, after announcing that all but a skeleton force had been evacuated from Manila, began boasting that the Americans had fallen into a trap in the capital. That version appeared purely a propaganda invention, however, as front dispatches said Gen. MacArthur was moving overwhelming force into the city and that its complete liberation could not be delayed long.

More than 20 miles south of Manila, equally heavy fighting broke out around Tagaytay, where a pocketed Jap force launched two counterattacks against units of the 11th Airborne Division. Both thrusts were beaten off with serious losses to the enemy.

Northwest of Manila, vanguards of the 38th Infantry Division pushed 10 miles down the west coast of Bataan from the recaptured Olongapo Naval Base to reach Moron.

Seventy to 75 miles north of Manila, the hard-fought Pampanga River crossings at Rizal and Bongabon were finally secured by the U.S. 6th Infantry Division continued its advance up the Villa Verde trail leading to Imugan and the Cagayan Valley, after smashing Jap defenses five miles north of San Nicolas.

Planes aid Yanks

U.S. medium bombers and fighters worked over the enemy in close support of the advancing ground forces on all sectors, and joined in with light naval units in a coastal sweep that wrecked a great number of small Jap craft.

At the same time, Gen. MacArthur’s heavy bombers dropped 56 tons of bombs on Jap troop concentrations in the northern part of Cebu Island. Other fighters and heavies ranged more than 500 miles north of Manila to bomb and strafe the Heito barracks on Formosa and Jap rail and road traffic on the island.

In those and other forays over southern waters, the American airmen sank five to six enemy vessels, and destroyed at least six Jap planes.

41

The Pittsburgh Press (February 11, 1945)

Cavalry flanks Japs in Manila

Drives five miles around edge of city

GEN. MACARTHUR’S LUZON HQ, Philippines (UP) – The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, tightening the trap around Japs holding out in southern Manila, has crossed the Pasig River in a wide outflanking maneuver southeast of the capital and is within three miles of Manila Bay.

Troops of the 37th Infantry Division, widening their bridgehead across the Pasig in the center of the city, pushed ahead in house-to-house fighting on a front almost two miles long and within a mile and a half of the southern edge of Manila.

Battle in second week

As the Battle of Manila entered its second week, Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s daily war bulletin announced that the Japs had converted houses and public buildings into pillboxes and fortified strongpoints and were using artillery against the advancing Americans.

The bulletin disclosed that Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge’s 1st Cavalry Division, which made the first penetration of Manila last Saturday, had advanced five miles in its outflanking drive around the eastern side of the 14-square-mile city.

The cavalry struck eastward through New Manila, a northeastern suburb of the capital, and then plunged four miles southward to force the Pasig near the town of San Padro Makato, a mile southeast of the city’s lower boundary and five miles southeast of the river’s mouth at Manila Bay.

Striking to west

Gen. Mudge’s men were in position to strike westward to Manila Bay just below Manila and hopelessly trap the enemy still holding parts of the city south of the Pasig. The drive carried to within three miles of 11th Airborne Division troops fighting up from the south.

Inside Manila, Maj. Gen. Robert S. Beightler’s 37th Infantry Division systematically swept the city south of the river and at one point were about two miles northwest of the 1st Cavalry Division’s new bridgehead.

Dispatches said the Japs in Manila were fighting fiercely, holding out to the death in each strongpoint.

Great areas destroyed

It was said the Japs could not hold out much longer, but the destruction they are wreaking on the city is increasing steadily. By the time the last Japs are slain, great areas of Manila will be almost ashes.

Sixty miles north of Manila, around the upper Pampanga River, forward elements of Maj. Gen. Edwin Patrick’s 6th Infantry Division advanced four miles southeast into the town of Laur, 22 miles from the east coast of Luzon. That drive was threatening to split the entire island in two.

Along the Villa Verde trial, at the northern end of the American lines, elements of the 32nd Infantry Division continued advancing toward the Cagayan Valley which sweeps up to the northern Luzon coast.

Pounding Corregidor

Liberator bombers meanwhile continued pounding Corregidor Fortress at the mouth of Manila Bay and the Mariveles section of southern Bataan. They dropped more than 101 tons of bombs which set fires in both areas.

The Tokyo radio reported the Americans were concentrating vessels off the south of Manila Bay, possibly in preparation for an invasion of Corregidor.

42

Manila bureau reopened by UP

MANILA, Philippines (Feb. 9, delayed) (UP) – The United Press today reopened its Manila bureau and resumed service to a client newspaper, just six days after the 1st Cavalry broke into the Philippines capital.

UP was the first news agency to resume functioning in Manila.

Service was provided for The Fookien Times, a Chinese-language newspaper which was a pre-war client of the UP. The paper was published today for the first time since 1941.

The UP office was set up in Manila while Jap shells and mortar fire were still coming down, sometimes only 100 feet away. One shell nearly wrecked the bureau.

Nearly all the native pre-war staff of the UP reported back for work and worked with newly-arrived UP war correspondents in preparing copy for The Fookien Times.

43

Oberdonau-Zeitung (February 12, 1945)

Die Kämpfe um Manila

Japan erobert Flugplätze in China

Tokio, 11. Februar – Frontberichten zufolge toben die erbitterten Straßenkämpfe in Manila mit unverminderter Heftigkeit weiter. Während der andauernden feindlichen Luftangriffe ist die gesamte Geschäfts- und Ladenstadt Manilas, die Rizal Avenue, völlig dem Erdboden gleichgemacht worden. Die wenigen Hochhäuser auf der Escolta, die noch nicht zerstört worden sind, befinden sich weiterhin fest in japanischer Hand. Erbitterte Kämpfe, die von beiden Seiten durch das Eingreifen der schweren Artillerie unterstützt werden, toben im Gebiet des Flugplatzes südlich von Manila.

Das kaiserliche Hauptquartier gab am Sonntag-Nachmittag nachstehenden Bericht heraus: Unsere Einheiten, die nach der Besetzung des Flugplatzes von Suichuan, von Hengyang und Shiuchow aus weiter vormarschierten, haben auch die Flugplätze von Hengyang und Manchow eingenommen und haben am 7. Februar den Flugplatz Sincheng besetzt, so dass sich also die Gruppe feindlicher Flugplätze im Gebiet von Kanchow–Suichuan vollkommen in unseren Händen befindet.

44

The Pittsburgh Press (February 12, 1945)

Record raid on Corregidor softens up Jap defenses

U.S. tanks splinter enemy force in southern Manila into isolated pockets

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – The fortress of Corregidor in Manila Harbor where Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s Americans made their last stand against the Japs rocked today under the heaviest saturation bombing attack yet launched in the Pacific.

For nearly a week, the Jap anti-aircraft guns on the rocky fortresses have been silent, presumably knocked out by American bombs.

The terrific air attack, softening up Corregidor for an American landing, came as U.S. tanks and infantry columns splintered the Jap forces in southern Manila. The Japs were cut into scores of isolated pockets and infantry patrols were sweeping down burning streets to destroy them.

In the last 48 hours more than 500 bombing sorties have been flown against Corregidor and southern Bataan. Nine hundred tons of bombs have been dropped, 200 tons on Corregidor alone. In one attack

Hard-hitting armored units of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division broke open the Jap defenses Saturday with two quick thrusts across the Pasig River on the east side of Manila. One column drove south toward Fort McKinley while the second wheeled westward to link up with doughboys of the 37th Infantry Division in the Pandacan District.

The sudden breakthrough promised to close out the bloody street battle for Manila in short order. After eight days of fanatical resistance, the Japs were breaking up into small suicide squads.

Probably the strongest remaining Jap positions were around Fort McKinley on the southeastern outskirts of the capital and in the old Walled City on Manila Bay.

The 1st Cavalry Division forced the Pasig River in amphibious tanks early Saturday, crossing just beyond the capital’s eastern outskirts. Advancing rapidly southward, the Americans reached Nielsen Airfield a mile southeast of the city limits and just north of Fort McKinley.

A few hours later, a second armored spearhead crossed the river a half-mile to the west, near the Santa Ana racetrack, quickly mopped up Jap resistance in the area and pushed westward to join up with the 37th Division.

Drive mile from river

The 37th Infantry Division’s advanced spearheads were already more than a mile south of the Pasig at some points and their right wing was reported moving against the main Jap strongpoint behind the massive stone walls of the Intramuros on the waterfront.

Elements of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division, meanwhile, were moving up along the shores of Manila Bay into the Jap rear. By Saturday night, they were reported north of Baclaran, two miles south of the city limits and about the same distance southwest of Fort McKinley.

Other units of the 11th Airborne Division were still locked in a blood struggle for Nichols Field, five miles south of Manila, where a strong Jap force had been cut off from the main garrison inside the capital. The Americans captured 10 eight-inch guns and two six-inch guns in the area Saturday after a hard fight.

Race toward coast

Almost 70 miles north of Manila, spearheads of the 6th Armored Division were well on their way to cutting Luzon in two with a dash overland to the island’s east coast. Two columns advanced well beyond Laur and Bongabon and were reported 20 miles or less from their objective – Baler and Dingalan Bays.

Northwest of the capital, other U.S. forces continued their methodical destruction of the Jap units trapped in the foothills of the Zambales Mountains overlooking Fort Stotsenburg. The Japs were well-entrenched in a network of rock caves, and the Americans were using airpower and artillery to the utmost in order to keep down casualties.

Jap broadcasts asserted that the Americans have lost more than 30,000 men in the month-old battle for Luzon, half of them killed, against Jap losses of 6,500 killed or wounded. Last week, however, Tokyo placed the American losses at about 11,200 men.

Strong forces of Liberator bombers hit Corregidor Island on Friday, and more than 70 attack bombers worked over the southern shores of Bataan Peninsula on the same day, bombing and strafing the enemy without opposition.

American PT boats ranged north of Lingayen Gulf to sink 20 coastal craft near San Fernando and La Union.

45

2 more Manila papers receive UP service

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Two more pre-war client newspapers were receiving United Press service today from the newly-reopened Manila Bureau although street fighting continued in the city.

Service was resumed Saturday to the Philippine Herald and Mabuhay. Service had been resumed previously to the Fookien Times.

The Herald and Mabuhay are owned by Brig. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Philippines cabinet secretary for information and public relations and resident commission in Washington.

46

Völkischer Beobachter (February 13, 1945)

Manila in Flammen

Tokio, 12. Februar – Frontberichten zufolge toben die erbitterten Straßenkämpfe in Manila, die seit dem 2. Februar im Gange sind, mit unverminderter Heftigkeit weiter.

Die erste Angriffsspitze der US-Truppen, die in der Nacht zum 3. Februar das Regierungsgebäude, den Malacanang-Palast von Norden hereinzunehmen versuchte, wurde unter, blutigen Verlusten für den Gegner abgewiesen. In den darauffolgenden Tagen ging der Feind zur Großoffensive über, in der er Panzer, schwere Geschütze und auch amphibische Tanks zur Überquerung des Pasig-Flusses einsetzte. Einheiten der japanischen Armee, unterstützt von Marinelandtruppen, sind zum entschlossenen Gegenangriff angetreten, in dessen Verlauf jedes Haus, wie überhaupt jeder Meter Boden heiß umkämpft wird. Seit dem 4. Februar liegt Manila unter den dicken Rauchwolken riesiger Brände im Stadtgebiet.

Während der andauernden feindlichen Luftangriffe ist die gesamte Geschäfts- und Ladenstadt Manilas, die Rizal Avenue, völlig dem Erdboden gleichgemacht worden. Die wenigen Hochhäuser auf der Escolta, die noch nicht zerstört worden sind, befinden sich weiterhin fest in japanischer Hand. Erbitterte Kämpfe, die von beiden Seiten durch das Eingreifen der schweren Artillerie unterstützt werden, toben im Gebiet des Flugplatzes südlich von Manila.

Yankees verbluten auf Luzon

Tokio, 12. Februar – Die Ausblutungsstrategie General Yamashitas gegenüber den feindlichen Invasionsstreitkräften auf Luzon hat nach hier vorliegenden Meldungen seit dem 8. Jänner bereits zum Ausfall von rund 30.000 Mann der feindlichen Streitkräfte an Toten und Verwundeten geführt.

Somit haben die Amerikaner den vierten Teil ihrer auf 12 Divisionen geschätzten Truppen auf Luzon verloren. Weiterhin zerstörten die japanischen Einheiten in vier Wochen 172 feindliche Geschütze aller Kaliber, 200 Panzer und 260 Lastwagen beziehungsweise Traktoren, während 71 Flugzeuge abgeschossen wurden.

47

The Pittsburgh Press (February 13, 1945)

Three divisions joined in Manila

Fighting deadliest of Pacific war

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Three U.S. divisions linked up inside Southern Manila today.

The Yanks blasted the Jap garrison back into the burning waterfront in the deadliest, close-in fighting of the entire Pacific war.

The decisive juncture, sealing off the last avenue of escape for the trapped Japs in Manila, came as Bataan and Corregidor across Manila Bay were rocking under a tremendous bombardment by hundreds of U.S. planes.

More than 200 tons of high explosives were showered down on Corregidor Saturday and Sunday, while a big fleet of Army and Marine planes ripped up the southern corner of Bataan with another 500 tons.

Guns knocked out

It was the greatest land-based aerial blow ever struck in the Pacific, and apparently was intended to clear the way for an amphibious assault on Corregidor. Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s communiqué reported that the giant guns on “the Rock” appeared to have been knocked out of action.

At the same time, a force of U.S. Thunderbolt fighters caught 35 troop-laden Jap barges off the east coast of Bataan in daylight Saturday and blew them out of the water, killing an estimated 2,500 enemy troops.

Herded toward bay

There was no indication whether the barges were evacuating troops from Bataan, Corregidor or Manila. There was even a remote possibility they may have been trying to sneak reinforcements into the capital to aid the Jap garrison in its finish fight.

Inside Manila, meanwhile, the survivors of several thousand enemy troops compressed into a narrow pocket south of the Pasig River were fighting with redoubled ferocity as the Americans herded them slowly back to the bay.

Gen. MacArthur revealed that virtually every street in the capital had been sown with mines and booby traps and that his troops were moving slowly to hold down casualties and spare the city from destruction insofar as possible.

The communiqué said units of the 1st Cavalry and 37th Infantry Divisions joined forces near the Paco railway station while other cavalry spearheads linked up with the 11th Airborne Division on the southwestern end of the capital near the Polo Club.

Planes hold off

The Japs now were compressed into a pocket measuring about three square miles.

The Americans were using artillery only against pinpointed targets and their overwhelming airpower was holding off because of the danger to Filipino civilians inside the Jap pocket.

Observers who had served in the European theater described the fighting as fiercer than any of the western battles, excepting possibly Stalingrad. Almost to a man, the Japs were fighting to the death for every street barricade and pillbox.

North of the capital, units of the U.S. 6th Armored Division cut Luzon in two with a lightning thrust to the island’s east coast at Dingalen Bay. Large quantities of ammunition were captured in the advance. Field reports said the Japs in that sector had retreated northward.

48

The Pittsburgh Press (February 14, 1945)

Two main prizes in Manila seized

Battle’s end in sight, MacArthur declares

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Nichols Field and the U.S. Navy’s wrecked anchorage at Cavite were back in American hands today.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur proclaimed triumphantly that the end of the battle for Manila is in sight.

With Manila’s two main military prizes reconquered, Gen. MacArthur’s tanks and infantrymen swarmed in from all. sides to finish off the remaining Japs trapped along the flaming waterfront and around Fort McKinley, on the city’s southeastern outskirts.

The doomed Japs were writing off their three-year stay in Manila in a last orgy of fire and blood. Thousands of terror-stricken Filipinos escaped into the American lines with word that the Japs were massacring men. women and children indiscriminately in the teeming residential districts still under their control.

Inside the old Walled City, where the bulk of the enemy garrison was digging in for a last stand, the Japs barricaded the streets and ordered all civilians into their homes.

Then they fired the buildings and machine-gunned the occupants as they tried to flee.

Captured by paratroops

Units of the 11th Airborne Division, advancing on Manila from the south, captured the Nichols Airfield yesterday after more than a week of savage fighting, and then pushed on along the shores of Manila Bay to take the Cavite Naval Base.

At Cavite, which was burned once by the Americans before they abandoned it in December 1941 and now again by the Japs, Gen. MacArthur’s troops captured 10 enemy seaplanes and a battery of three-inch guns intact.

Armored spearheads of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, meanwhile, broke through to Manila Bay north of the 11th Airborne, clearing the Pasay District, and wheeled north toward the Walled City. They also mopped up a small Jap pocket around Nielson Airfield, near Fort McKinley.

The 37th Infantry Division was also moving in on the Walled City from the east and southeast, in conjunction with the 1st Cavalry.

Japs lose 68,000

Gen. MacArthur announced that the Japs so far have suffered more than 68,000 casualties in the five-week Luzon campaign, against 9,683 American losses – 2,102 killed, 192 missing and 7,389 wounded.

Eighty-five miles northeast of Manila, troops of the 6th Armored Division cut clear across Luzon win their second hold on the island’s east coast at Baler. Another column previously had reached the east shore at Dingalan Bay, 30 miles below Baler. The Baler Airfield was found abandoned.

Japs beaten off

Northeast of the Lingayen beachheads, the Japs attempted a night raid on Rosario but were beaten off in short order.

Systematic mopping-up operations were reported continuing in the foothills of the Zambales Mountains overlooking Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg, 40-odd miles north-northwest of Manila.

49

Japs fire Catholic center, shoot fleeing refugees

Attempt to chain door fails – only 700 of 2,000 are believed to have survived
By Robert Crabb, United Press staff writer

MANILA, Philippines – The Japanese have run amok in southern Manila in a wholesale massacre of Filipino civilians trapped inside their lines.

Eyewitnesses said the Japs fired the Catholic refugee center at the College of La Concordia with incendiary grenades, after trying to chain the doors to prevent the refugees from escaping.

The center houses about 2,000 persons, including many blind, insane, wounded and sick. Only about 700 are known to have survived by running a mile-long gantlet of Jap gunfire.

Spanish-born Mrs. Denis Allmond, wife of a chief quartermaster in the U.S. Navy, escaped from the burning center with her two children, Denis Jr., 4, and Janet, 5.

Mrs. Allmond said the Japs tried several times to chain the doors of the main building at the center, which was operated by the Sisters of Charity.

Men inside the building, who had put out three fires started by the Japs, unchained the doors, and get most of the refugees out. Then the Japs mowed them down with machine-gun fire.

“All except about 700 were killed, including most of the infants,” Mrs. Allmond said.

Many of the Sisters, all of whom were Filipinos, were among the missing or known dead.

First-hand evidence of Jap atrocities was also uncovered by clean-up squads of the U.S. 37th Infantry Division. The Doughboys found the bodies of 200 Filipino men, women and children who had been killed by the Japs.

Many of the victims were bound before they were shot.

The bodies of eight members of the Filipino Constabulary were found in the Pasig River. They had been tied up, shot and then thrown into the river.

50

The Pittsburgh Press (February 15, 1945)

Japs in Manila make last stand

Yanks closing on old Walled City

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – U.S. troops today threw an armored cordon across the burning Manila waterfront.

The Yanks swung in from the south and east to storm the last big center of Jap resistance in the old Walled City.

The bulk of the Jap defenders were being herded slowly back behind the massive walls of the Spanish city – the Intramuros – under savage attack by tanks and infantrymen of the U.S. 1st Cavalry and 37th Infantry Divisions.

Face Jap Marines

Most of the Jap artillery in the area had already been silenced, and the main opposition came from machine-gun nests, snipers and hundreds of mines sowed through the streets.

The storming of the Intramuros, however, was expected to be a quick and bloody affair. Many of the enemy in the waterfront trap were known to be Imperial Marines, the toughest and most fanatical of all Jap troops. It was likely that their last stand would be a no-quarter fight to the death.

A smaller pocket of enemy resistance, centered around Fort McKinley on the southeastern outskirts of Manila, was also being reduced slowly by U.S. artillery and dive-bombers.

Gain on Bataan

Isolated Jap strongpoints also extended clear across the city from Fort McKinley almost to the waterfront. None of these strongpoints was held very strongly, however, and they were being mopped up by U.S. tank and infantry forces.

On Bataan, meanwhile, other U.S. troops cleaned out a number of troublesome Jap pockets along the Olongapo-Dinalupihan road traversing the top of the peninsula. The Yanks drove 11 miles down the east coast to capture Abucay. Abucay was the eastern anchor of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s first defense line on Bataan in 1942.

Farther to the north, units of the 40th Infantry Division struck out into the hills west of Fort Stotsenburg. The troops routed strong Jap forces entrenched in a network of caves there and seized large quantities of food, clothing and ammunition.

51

The Pittsburgh Press (February 16, 1945)

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.

52

Liberated prisoners give $708 to Red Cross

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – The liberated Baguio internment camp has contributed 1,405 pesos, 56 centavos (about $708) in genuine Philippines currency and coin to the Red Cross, it was disclosed today.

The money, saved for more than two and a half years, represented a commissary surplus at the time the internees were transferred to Baguio from the former Army post, Camp John Hay, where they had to buy their own food.

53

The Pittsburgh Press (February 17, 1945)

Yanks recapture Bataan after seaborne invasion

All important objectives on peninsula quickly seized by MacArthur’s troops

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – U.S. troops have deemed historic Bataan with a bold seaborne landing on the southern shores of the peninsula under the guns of Jap-held Corregidor.

“We have captured Bataan,” Gen. Douglas MacArthur announced in a triumphant communiqué.

Less than 48 hours after the landing, all the peninsula’s militarily-important objectives were in American hands. Gen. MacArthur’s troops were pursuing the disorganized enemy over the same dark around where on April 11, 1942, some 30,000 Americans and Filipinos laid down their arms and began their tragic death march to Camp O’Donnell.

Japs flee into hills

Covered by the big guns of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and the bombs and bullets of hundreds of American warplanes, a big invasion convoy swept into the mouth of Manila Bay at dawn Thursday to spill tanks, troops and guns ashore at Mariveles.

The startled Jap coastal defenders fought back briefly, then broke and fled into the hills under a storm of rockets and gunfire.

Corregidor’s giant batteries, partially neutralized by days of continuous aerial and naval bombardment, fired a few bursts at the convoy but they were silenced quickly by salvoes from American cruisers and destroyers.

Captured by first wave

Mariveles, where the remnants of the American-Filipino army embarked for Corregidor after the fall of Bataan three years ago, was captured by the first wave of attacking infantrymen, who found the town reduced to rubble by the preliminary air and sea barrage. All of the native population had fled before the attack began.

Doughboys of 38th Infantry Division who made the surprise landing fanned out to the east and west of Mariveles. They quickly established contact with spearheads of the 6th Infantry Division advancing down the east coast of Bataan.

Limay and Lamao were captured by the 6th Infantry Division’s 1st Regiment in an 11-mile advance south of Pilar and the juncture was made at an undisclosed spot on the 15-mile coastal strip between Lamao and Mariveles.

The linkup sealed off several thousand Japs in the mountainous and militarily-useless southwestern corner of Bataan. The survivors were badly scattered and disorganized, however, and it was indicated the fight had become a large-scale mopping-up operation.

A third American force was rapidly sealing off the west coast of Bataan in an advance south from Moron toward the highway terminal at Bagac, 13 miles northwest of Mariveles.

Gen. MacArthur’s communiqué paid high tribute to the covering support of the Seventh Fleet, particularly the daring minesweepers that combed the approaches to Mariveles Bay for two days under direct fire from Corregidor.

Speed Manila mop-up

The triumph on Bataan momentarily overshadowed the savage battle still raging in the streets of southern Manila. Units of the U.S. 37th Infantry Division, the 11th Airborne and the 1st Cavalry were slowly chopping down the enemy’s major pocket of resistance on the Manila waterfront in and directly south of the old Walled City.

The mopping-up was proceeding more swiftly, although the remaining Japs were still fighting for every barricaded house and street corner in the city.

Marikina and Santo Nino village, 5½ miles east of Manila, were captured, and American units on the southeastern outskirts of the capital seized two airfields at Mandaluyong and fought their way to the west gate of Fort McKinley.