Philippine Liberation

After the dinner, they laid my grandfather down on the bed and his mother initiated healing her son by using herbal medicating first aid. My grandfather Rafael then called a quack doctor nearby and asked for herbal medicine to lower the high fever of his cousin caused by malaria. On the following day, while my grandfather was still asleep, my grandmother Antonia cut off his long thick hair and beard using bigger scissors. My grandfather rested in a peaceful environment with his family but was tormented by nightmares and horrible things he experienced in the war that kept on troubling him for a few months. On August 1st, 1944, President Quezon died of tuberculosis in Saranac Lake, New York. He suffered from tuberculosis and spent his last years in hospitals, such as at a Miami Beach Army hospital in April 1944. On the day of his death, Vice President Sergio Osmeña succeeded the Presidential throne of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, from 1944 to 1946. In the early afternoon of October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur returned after two and a half years. When my grandfather and his family heard the news on the radio about General MacArthur's return, that was the moment of truth for them to overthrow the negative thoughts inside about the oppressing enemies. From the day of General MacArthur's return, the Philippine liberation began which was initiated in the sea and air. This was the battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest naval battle ever recorded. The Japanese expected the American forces to land on the two large islands of the Philippines, either in Luzon or Mindanao. This theory is based on the speculation of the Army officers such as General MacArthur and his staff, therefore they must land in the middle part of the country, on the island of Leyte. The battle was precipitated by a U.S. amphibious assault on the central Philippine island of Leyte. Eventually, the Japanese responded with Sho-Go (Victory Operation), a plan to decoy the U.S. Third Fleet north, away from the San Bernardino Strait, while converging three forces on Leyte Gulf to attack the landing; the First Attack Force was to move from the north across the Sibuyan Sea through the San Bernardino Strait, with the Second Attack Force and C Force moving from the south across the Mindanao Sea through the Surigao Strait. As the Japanese forces moved into position southwest of Leyte, submarines of the U.S. Seventh Fleet discovered the First Attack Force and sank two heavy cruisers west of Palawan on October 23. A series of almost continuous surface and air clashes followed, especially in the Sibuyan Sea, while the U.S. Third Fleet chased the Japanese decoy. Finally, on the 25th of October, the three major engagements of the battle were fought, almost simultaneously. At the Surigao Strait, battleships and cruisers from the Seventh Fleet destroyed C Force and forced the Second Attack Force to withdraw. Meanwhile, the First Attack Force passed through the unguarded San Bernardino Strait and inflicted heavy damage on the Seventh Fleet escort carriers off Samar but withdrew unexpectedly just as they seemed ready to attack the landing operations. In the north, off Cape Engaño, part of the Third Fleet sank Japanese carriers while another part moved south, attacking and pursuing the First Attack Force. My grandfather fully recovered from his illness after two months. He used to tell stories with his cousins about the battles he fought all the way back from the outbreak of war in December 1941. He also stated to my grandmother Antonia that he was willing to return to the army and continue his duty until the Japanese will be wiped out from the country. According to my grandmother, my grandfather was badly tormented by what he experienced and he was really willing to rejoin the USAFFE again. Even my great-grandmother could not stop his son from rejoining the USAFFE when he already finalized his decision. In the following year, in the 3rd week of January 1945, by a Manila Railroad Company train, now PNR(Philippine National Railways), my grandfather traveled to Manila to report to the new USAFFE Headquarters despite the danger he might encounter, as the province of Pampanga and the city of Manila was heavily guarded by the Japanese. He brought his uniform with numerous torn to be recognized easily by the officers as a USAFFE Soldier. He told a lot of things about his service in USAFFE and even shared some of the story scenes after being paroled in Camp O'Donnell. Eventually, he was ordered to join the group of a USAFFE Guerilla Captain named Manuel Colayco, and possibly they will be deployed on the 1st week of February, to liberate the city of Manila. As the years went by since he joined the USAFFE, my grandfather remembered his sister, Rosita. He knew that his sister might still be uninformed about what really happened to him since the outbreak of war as his Mother and Wife were both chosen to reside in Lubao, Pampanga. After the meeting with the officers, my grandfather visits his sister in Caloocan city. When he arrived, his sister shouted and embraced his brother with an excited feeling upon seeing him then he told a lot of stories to his sister about his experience. Both his sister and her husband were astonished upon hearing what really happened to him when he was deployed until the fall of Bataan, two years earlier. He also stated that he decided to rejoin the USAFFE and will continue his duty until the Japanese will be defeated. My grandfather then had to leave his sister Rosita but he promised to return and would have to stay in Lubao for a while until the duty will call on him. On January 26, 1945, US Army Major Bob Lapham traveled from his location near the prison camp to Sixth Army headquarters, 30 miles (48 km) away. He proposed to Lieutenant General Walter Krueger's intelligence chief Colonel Horton White that a rescue attempt be made to liberate the estimated 500 POWs at the Cabanatuan prison camp before the Japanese possibly killed them all. In late January 1945, a plan was developed by Sixth Army leaders and Filipino Guerrillas to send a small force to rescue the prisoners. Lt. Colonel Henry Mucci assigned Captain Robert Prince as the Assault Commander. A group of over 100 Rangers and Scouts and 200 guerrillas traveled 30 miles behind Japanese lines to reach the camp. 30th of January 1945, in a nighttime raid, under the cover of darkness and with distraction by a P-61 Black Widow night fighter, the group surprised the Japanese forces in and around the camp. The strategy of the raid was very accurate to liberate the Prisoners of War. A few days before the raid, American reconnaissance Aircraft began capturing photos from above while the Alamo Scouts sat around the site to ensure a successful operation. The 6th Ranger Battalion was assigned to this mission. On the 28th, the battalion was deployed in the city of Cabanatuan. Upon reviewing the photos, they saw the interior of the Prison Camp, allowing the battalion to plan a strategic offensive rescue operation, on the night of the 30th, "The Great Raid" began. The Americans besieged the front gate of the Prison Camp, using a pistol, the gate was unlocked and the assault begins. While the raid of the Americans was from the front gate, the guerrillas entered from behind the Prison Camp to rescue the American Prisoners. The Rangers, Scouts, and Guerrillas then escorted the POWs back to American lines. Captain Robert Prince and another Guerrilla leader, Captain Juan Pajota, had considered freeing the prisoners within the camp. Hundreds of Japanese troops were killed in the 30-minute coordinated attack; the Americans suffered minimal casualties. The Great Raid was one of the most successful rescue operations recorded in the Pacific Theater.

General Tomoyuki Yamashita, an Imperial Japanese Army General in Luzon divided his Army into three groups, Shobu, Kembu, and Shimbu. Shobu group has 152,000 men who will defend the mountainous north of Luzon, the Kembu group has 30,000 in the west of Clark Field and Shimbu group of 80,000 men fortify the Mountains east of the capital city, Manila. The American forces arrived in Manila from several different directions. By December 1941, Manila had been declared an open city by General Douglas MacArthur. Though the Japanese had not intended to put a lot of resources into defending Manila, rear admiral Sanji was given the assignment to defend the city to the last man. General MacArthur anticipated that the city of Manila would be recaptured. In fact, the announcement came on February 4th. By then, his staff had even planned the victory parade. This was right at the beginning of the Battle of Manila, a month-long war from February 3 - March 3, 1945. On the 2nd day of February, my grandfather returned to the USAFFE Headquarters located in a town near the city of Manila. The officers then issued weapons such as pistols, rifles, and grenades for the Infantry Regiment to prepare themselves for possible deployment on the following day. Though General MacArthur wanted to protect Manila and the civilians living in the city, the massive devastation of the battle still could not be avoided. The Japanese who had been able to hold off the American Infantrymen became overwhelmed with fire from attack destroyers, tanks, and howitzers. The attack from the Americans left the Japanese troops facing capture or certain death. In their anger, the Japanese troops would retaliate against civilians which were the victims of some of the most severe brutality. These acts of brutality are now known as the Manila Massacre. Some of the acts which the civilian population suffered included rapes, massacres, and violent mutilations. On the 9th of January 1945, the Sixth U.S. Army under Lt. Gen. Walter Krueger waded ashore at Lingayen Gulf and began a rapid drive south in the Battle of Luzon. On 12 January, MacArthur ordered Krueger to advance rapidly to Manila. The 37th Infantry Division, under the command of Major Gen. Robert S. Beightler, headed south. After landing at San Fabian on 27 Jan., the 1st Cavalry Division, under the command of Major Gen. Vernon D. Mudge, was ordered by MacArthur on 31 Jan., to "Get to Manila! Free the internees at Santo Tomas. Take Malacanang Palace and the Legislative Building." On 31 January, the eighth United States Army of Lt. Gen. Robert L. Eichelberger, consisting of the 187th and 188th Glider Infantry Regiments of Col. Robert H. Soule, and components of the U.S. 11th Airborne Division under Maj. Gen. Joseph Swing landed unopposed at Nasugbu in southern Luzon and began moving north toward Manila. As the Americans converged on Manila from different directions, they found that most of the Imperial Japanese Army troops defending the city had been withdrawn to Baguio City, on the orders of General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Yamashita planned to engage Filipino and U.S. forces in northern Luzon in a coordinated campaign, with the aim of buying time for the build-up of defenses against the pending Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. Yamashita ordered the commander of Shimbu Group, Gen. Shizuo Yokoyama, to destroy all bridges and other vital installations and then evacuate the city as soon as any large American forces made their appearance. However, Rear Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi, commander of the Imperial Japanese Navy's 31st Naval Special Base Force, was determined to fight a last-ditch battle in Manila, and, though nominally part of the Shimbu Army Group, repeatedly ignored Army orders to withdraw from the city. The naval staff in Japan agreed to Iwabuchi's scheme, eroding a frustrated Yamashita's attempts at confronting the Americans with a concerted, unified defense. Iwabuchi had 12,500 men under his command, designated the Manila Naval Defence Force, augmented by 4,500 army personnel under Col. Katsuzo Noguchi and Capt. Saburo Abe. They built defensive positions in the city, including Intramuros, cut down the palm trees on Dewey Blvd. to form a runway, and set up barricades across major streets. Iwabuchi formed the Northern Force under Noguchi and the Southern Force under Capt. Takusue Furuse. On the 3rd day of February, the Infantry Regiment of my grandfather has been deployed in the city of Manila under the command of USAFFE guerrilla Captain Manuel Colayco. My grandfather and his comrades then moved to a town outside of Intramuros and faced the enemies with their rifles. Dozens of Japanese and USAFFE guerrillas were killed but the battle continued until the enemies moved back inside the walled city of Intramuros. General MacArthur, though opposed to the bombing of the walled city, approved the heavy shelling which resulted in the deaths of over 16,665 Japanese alone within Intramuros.

On 4 February, the 37th Infantry Division freed more than 1,000 prisoners of war, mostly former defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, held at Bilibid Prison, which had been abandoned by the Japanese. The battle within Manila also included several "special" operations. These included the rescue of allied civilians and POWs interred behind enemy lines, major river crossing operations, and the attack on a European-style medieval fortress, the Intramuros. While his main effort was the fight within the city, MG Griswold's XIV Corps also commanded and controlled significant supporting actions. The elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division under Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and seized a vital bridge across the Tullahan River, which separated them from the city proper, and quickly captured Malacanang Palace. A squadron of Brig. Gen. William C. Chase's 8th Cavalry, the first unit to arrive in the city, began a drive toward the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas, which had been turned into the Santo Tomas Internment Camp for civilians and the US Army and Navy nurses sometimes known as the "Angels of Bataan". Since 4 January 1942, a total of thirty-seven months, the university's main building had been used to hold civilians. Out of 4,255 prisoners, 466 died in captivity, three were killed while attempting to escape on 15 February 1942, and one made a successful breakout in early January 1945. Captain Manuel Colayco, Lt. Diosdado Guytingco, and some of their troops were about to guide the American First Cavalry to the front gate of the University of Santo Tomas in Espana, Sampaloc. While the Captain and his men were approaching the gate of the University, my grandfather and his comrades were now in Dimasalang, a place nearby. This was the moment when he got the opportunity to fire a machine gun again. In this battle, both groups in Dimasalang and Espana faced the fury of the remaining Shimbu troops of Yokoyama. Tragically Captain Colayco became an allied casualty of the city's liberation while guiding the American troops with Lt. Guytingco to the gate of UST. Struck by Japanese bullets, Colayco died seven days later in Legarda Elementary School, which became a field hospital. At 21:00, five tanks of the 44th Tank Battalion, headed by "Battlin' Basic," headed into the compound. The Japanese, commanded by Lt. Col. Toshio Hayashi, gathered the remaining internees together in the Education Building as hostages and exchanged potshots with the Americans and Filipinos. The next day, 5 February, they negotiated with the Americans to allow them to rejoin Japanese troops to the south of the city, carrying only individual arms. The Japanese were unaware the area they requested, was now the American-occupied Malacañan Palace, and soon afterward were fired upon and several were killed including Hayashi. The 40th Infantry Division continued its attacks in the Fort Stotsenburg area north of Manila to keep the lines of communication to Lingayen open. Outside the city elements of the 1st Cavalry Division, joined later by the 6th Infantry Division, continued attacks to secure the mountains around Manila, an action necessary if the port was ever to be usable. By the last week of January, the Sixth Army had completed the first phase of its Luzon Campaign. XIV Corps had pushed the Kembu Group off of Clark Field and the successes of the I Corps in the north protected the lines of communication from Lingayen. The Sixth Army, with XIV Corps as its main effort, began working on the tactical problem of actually getting troops to Manila. It was apparent by January 27 that the enemy occupied the Fort Stotsenburg area northwest of Manila in such numbers that the potential existed for them to inhibit the XIV Corps advance on the city. The battle of Manila marked the first and only time in the Pacific War in which American troops met the Japanese in the struggle for a major city. The XIV Corps operations are an example of a successful corps-level attack to seize a large city. It is also an example of the tremendous costs associated with urban warfare. Perhaps overshadowed by the February 19 invasion of Iwo Jima and probably censored by MacArthur's staff, XIV Corps' brutal fight in Manila is not widely known. This urban battle was a unique and influential event for American forces in the Pacific Theater. It challenged the conventional wisdom that major cities would be declared"open", as Paris was in 1944. It signaled a change to the tactical focus on the jungle and amphibious operations that preoccupied the Army in the Pacific since 1942. Since atomic bombs made an invasion of the Japanese home islands unnecessary, we can only speculate on the results of urban combat in Japan.

In the following week, the Infantry Regiment of my grandfather eventually deployed in Escolta, Sta. Cruz and other Regiments with American troops were deployed in different places in Manila. Two weeks after his deployment, my grandfather visited the ancestral house of my grandmother in Grace Park, Caloocan City. He stayed for a while until his brother-in-law, the husband of his sister Rosita eventually saw him standing at the front gate of the house. His brother-in-law then came closer and had to talk to my grandfather for a while. He also warned my grandfather about the Japanese troops in the area. He had to thank his brother-in-law for the information but he never knew that later he will be betrayed, that man was a Makapili, he then informed a group of Japanese that there was a USAFFE Soldier nearby and told them the exact location of my grandfather. My grandfather was at the gate when he saw the Japs approaching. He will be captured if he chose to stay therefore he climbs up through the wall and had to run for his life on the roofs. The Japanese fired dozens of gunshots at him but my grandfather kept on running and jumping on every roof to be strayed from the chase. When there was no roof to jump on, he had to run on the ground for approximately five minutes, then he successfully misleads the enemies by hiding behind a tree. From that moment, my grandfather knew that there was no other person to blame for the incident. Later on, he knew that his brother-in-law was responsible for informing the Japanese, and in fact, he was a Makapili. After the incident, he just returned to Manila and was deployed in the battle on the following day with the USAFFE's Machine Gun Company. In this deployment, they were accompanied by the U.S. troops and the liberation of Manila was now visible in the eyes of the Allies. However, the final outcome of the Pacific War did not make the XIV Corps experience in Manila irrelevant. There are important lessons to be drawn from a consideration of the events which drew XIV Corps into an urban battle as well as from an analysis of their response to the challenge. MacArthur and his staff drew their conclusions about the defense of Manila from ULTRA intercepts of Yamashita's orders to his subordinates. Yamashita's intent for the Army to abandon Manila was known, but the plans of the Navy's Admiral Okochi and Admiral Iwabuchi were not. Failure to analyze the Japanese command structure led SWPA to believe that Yamashita's orders applied to all Japanese forces in Luzon. This early and fundamental intelligence failure, compounded by MacArthur's continual disregard for intelligence estimates which did not conform to his operational concept, influenced how the American battle for Manila developed. In the battle for Manila, Major General Griswold and his XIV Corps successfully applied tactical methods established by a European-based doctrine, adapted to their experience of jungle warfare against the Japanese, to seize a defended, major urban area. They fought the way they had trained, even though the enemy and the terrain did not conform to that which they trained for. It is significant that none of the XIV Corps' operations to seize Manila were seriously hampered by any lack of supplies. In spite of their extended, vulnerable supply lines, dependent upon a distant logistics base, and faced with consumption rates greater than the divisions had previously experienced, the logisticians kept up. The wounded were evacuated and treated in forwarding hospitals. The enormous consumption rates for all types of ammunition never really gave Griswold reason to pause. Shortages in mortar and some artillery ammunition that did occur resulted from theater-wide shortages, not a lack of distribution efforts. Manila confirmed the primacy of overwhelming firepower in the attack and the accepted doctrine that attacking a city is essentially the same as attacking a fortified area. XIV Corps soldiers still learned some things about urban combat that didn't support their doctrine and previous experience. Mine detectors did not work in the metal-strewn urban rubble as they did on a jungle dirt path. One perfectly executed attack was stopped in its tracks by masses of noncombatants fleeing the battle. And significantly, the more homes, businesses, and hospitals they destroyed taking the city, the more civilians they had to shelter, feed, and care for. Griswold's Corps successfully answered the challenges of urban combat in Manila. Determined defensive efforts by the Japanese aside, these challenges were significant.