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.