Installment 70: The Invasion of Leyte Island in the Philippines: October 20, 1944 The Japanese had controlled the Philippines since very early 1942. It was where General Douglas MacArthur was located when he was ordered by President Roosevelt to escape to Australia to avoid capture. MacArthur loved the islands and wanted very badly to win the islands back. In spring 1944, he was given orders to plan doing just that. Leyte was the first island in the chain chosen for liberation. Air attacks began that summer, leading up to the invasion date of October 20. The landing location selected was on the east side of the island from Tacloban south to Dulag because the roads and topographical features would provide an avenue for fast movement of tanks and troops. It was believed there were 20,000 Japanese on the island, but following the initial landing, Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya,” quickly moved reinforcements from other nearby islands that brought his strength to nearly 60,000 men. By this point in the war, the Americans were able to make landings in sometimes overwhelming numbers, which was the case on Leyte. During the operation, 120,000 men would be landed on Leyte. Four full divisions – 1st Cavalry, 24th, 96th, and 7th – began storming ashore at 10:00 A. M. following four hours of naval bombardment, and though they experienced opposition, for the most part they were able to move steadily inland. The American advance was rapid enough for General MacArthur, who in 1942 told the Philippine people, “I shall return,” to walk ashore at 1:30 that afternoon and announce over radio, “People of the Philippines, I have returned! By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil. As the American army pressed quickly inland, MacArthur was able to reinstitute civil government to the island on October 23. But with Yamashita’s reinforcements arriving, the Japanese became more and more organized in their defense. They launched numerous air attacks beginning October 24, though within four days their effectiveness was greatly diminished as they lost planes and their airfields were destroyed. It was then that the Japanese began their use of the kamikaze suicide pilots who were ordered to crash their aircraft into transports and their escorts. They also committed their entire remaining surface fleet, in three groups, to disrupting and destroying the American fleet and invasion force. This led to one of the greatest air and sea battles in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which began October 23, 1944. I will write about that on Thursday. When the Americans hit the much more mountainous region on the western side of the islands, their advance slowed to where other landings in the Philippines had to be pushed back. So it was decided to land the 77th Infantry Division in Ormac Bay on the west side of Leyte on December 7. As the 77th moved inland it caught the Japanese in a big pincer that squeezed them and soon what was left of their four divisions on Leyte was destroyed. MacArthur declared the end of organized resistance on the island on Christmas Day, though small groups and individuals continued their fight until early May 1945. Other islands in the Philippines could now be taken back from the Japanese, with the prize, Luzon, with its capital city of Manila, invaded on January 9, 1945. General Yamashita, who had escaped Leyte, amassed over 285,000 men there, including many dedicated kamikazes, and all were waiting for the American, Australian, Filipino and Mexican soldiers, sailors and airmen. On Leyte, the Japanese lost 50,000 men with only 389 captured alive. Many made their escape with Yamashita to Luzon. The Americans suffered 3,500 killed and nearly 12,000 wounded. With the loss of Leyte, the Japanese had no hope of controlling the Philippines for much longer. For my dad, Lt. Ed Lyga, this was the third stop on his voyage across the Pacific during World War II, the first being Hawaii as part of the defense against further attack, the second his D-Day landing on Saipan, and finally on March 31, 1945 seeing the big 155-mm guns of his artillery group fire the first land-based shots of the Okinawa invasion. His 531st Field Artillery arrived at Leyte from Saipan in early December and was attached to the 77th Infantry Division when it landed at Ormac on December 7. His Battery B (four guns) was placed on the beach pointing seaward and until late in his life he didn’t know why. It turned out they were there because of a perceived threat that what was left of the Japanese fleet was approaching to attack and destroy the American landing. It never materialized and Battery B didn’t fire a shell on Leyte other than to range their guns on targets on nearby Ponson Island. However, he did see a kamikaze hit a transport ship in Ormoc Bay. Another story he told was how one day he was ordered to report to a PT-boat. The boat had orders to reconnoiter nearby Negros Island, but needed another officer aboard. He said he had no problem with it until the boat captain decided to go up one of the island’s rivers, which was concerning because he thought of what a Japanese 50-calibre machine gun could do to the small wooden boat. He also related how once things settled down on Leyte, he would take a small boat out to remaining sunken beach obstructions. There he would fish or drop hand grenades, collect the dead and stunned fish that came to the surface, and give them to the Filipinos. Always looking for a new fishing spot, he was! Bernie Isaacs was a native of Independence, Wisconsin, who as a Lieutenant, junior grade was navigator aboard LCI(L)-965, a large infantry landing craft. His LCI(L) landed men at Ormoc in December 1944. While there he witnessed more than 75 kamikaze attacks on American ships. After the war ended, he was in command of the ship when it returned to the States. The American flag flown at her decommissioning is in the Veterans Memorial Museum at Independence High School. Early in the war, he was placed in charge of the physical training of a group of men from whom the first black naval officers would be commissioned -- the famous Golden Thirteen. Though he lived in Ohio after the war, he never forgot Independence. When the new school was built and no money was available for a new baseball field, Bernie simply wrote a check for it. He was a good friend of President and Mrs. Clinton, as well as John Kerry and brought Kerry to Independence during his presidential campaign. Bernies foundation continues to endow several scholarships for Independence students pursuing higher education. I knew Bernie well; he was a good man. Images: Map of Leyte Island showing landing areas of the American invasion force. Ormoc Bay, where the 77th Infantry Division landed on December 7, is directly west of the October 20 beaches; 2) Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the “Tiger of Malaya.” He was later tried and convicted of war crimes and hanged. His whole trial and resulting execution has been considered by many legal scholars to have been a miscarriage of justice; 3) General Douglas MacArthur wading ashore on Leyte in his triumphant return to the Philippines. The man on the far left is Philippine President Sergio Osmena. My dad’s commanding officer while in Hawaii, Major Charlie Cameron, later served on MacArthur’s staff and told me in 1997 that despite the General’s imperious personality, he sincerely cared about the men under his command, and they would have followed him anywhere; 4) The monument memorializing MacArthur’s return to the Philippines that can be seen near the site of his wading ashore; 5) Lt. (j.g.) Bernie Isaacs; 6) Photo of the men from whom the first black naval officers were chosen and commissioned. Bernie Isaacs was placed in charged of their physical training. In the photo, he is in the second row, middle.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 00:11:33 +0000
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