One of the largest tank battles in the Pacific theatre -------------------------------------------------------------- One of the largest Panzer battles in the Pacific theatre was during the American counter-offensive to liberate the Philippines specifically in the Armoured Battles for Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija. Today, the Headquaters of the Philippine Army Light Armored Division is in nearby Tarlac at Camp ODonnell with back-up from Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija: When the US Army landed at Lingayen Gulf on January 9, 1945, General Yama****as 14th Area Army and 2nd Tank Division defended Luzon. The 2nd Imperial Japanese Tank Division previously served in the Kwangtung Army (China) and was transferred to Luzon on July 24, 1944. Despite the loss of equipment and troops to US submarines in transit, conflicting orders, shortages of fuel, lack of air supremacy and guerilla activities, the tanks fought a series of battles against the American. Brief but intense tank battles occurred in Pangasinan Province in the towns of Malasiqui, Pozorrubio, Potpot, Urdaneta, Binalonan and San Manuel. Afterwards, more tank battles occurred in adjacent Nueva Ecija Province near the towns of Munoz and Lupao. ============ The OOB of 2nd Japanese Tank Division in the Philippines: 2nd Tank Divison 3rd Tank Brigade (Major General Shigemi) 6th Tank Regiment (Colonel Ida) 1 Light Tank Company, 3 Medium Tank Companies, 1 Gun Tank Company 7th Tank Regiment (Lt. Colonel Maeda) 1 Light Tank Company, 3 Medium Tank Companies, 1 Gun Tank Company 10th Tank Regiment (Lt. Colonel Harada) 1 Light Tank Company, 3 Medium Tank Companies, 1 Gun Tank Company Notes: The 1st Company/10th Tank Regiment and the 1st Company/6th Tank Regiment were sent to Leyte. Only tank units are stated. Other units are omitted. Gun Tank Company was equipped with Type 97 Medium Tanks. Real Gun Tank was not deployed. As the lots of units had been sent to Leyte, the 14th Army in Luzon became weak. When confronted with the American invasion to Luzon, General Yama****a, the 14th Army commander, gave up a decisive battle and decided a protracted struggle. Three years ago, he had attacked the British in Malaya and became a glorious victor. Now, he was a defender of Luzon and had to fight a hopeless battle against the gigantic forces of USA. General Yama****a intended to withdraw his forces into the mountain strongholds. He planned to use the 1st Tank Division to delay the Americans so that other forces could withdraw. He himself moved his HQ to Baguio. The 2nd tank division under the 14th Army also became weak by that time. From the beginning, it lacked one regiment and lost many tanks by submarine attack during transport. For the battle of Leyte, two companies were extracted from the division to send to Leyte as the reinforcements. Therefore, they had to use even old Type 89 Medium Tanks which had been retained on Luzon after the battle of the Philippines in 1942. The American forces landed along the Gulf of Lingayen on Jan. 9th. They overwhelmed the Japanese defenders and were breaking though the Japanese line. General Yama****a decided a counter-attack and ordered the 7th Tank Regiment to attack the American beachhead in Lingayen. The regiment dispatched a van consisted of one tank company and one motorized infantry battalion. In the night of 16th, the van advanced towards the beachhead, but they were ambushed by AT guns and suffered heavy losses. The next morning, American M4 Sherman tanks advanced and engaged with the tanks of the 7th Tank Regiment stationed in Urdaneta. The 47mm gun of Japanese medium tank was able to destroy Sherman only when shooting the side or rear of Sherman at close range. One platoon of 3rd Company ambushed Sherman tanks on the road to Urdaneta and destroyed two Shermans by flank fires. But, the platoon was destroyed by the attack of enemy tanks. Other tanks of 3rd Company swung around towards the flank of the troop of Sherman tanks and attacked them. However, a company commander tank was destroyed by the fire of Sherman tanks and they retreated. When the 7th Tank Regiment withdrew to San Manuel, 33 tanks remained and they dug in along the fan-shaped line. The Americans bombarded them in 5 days. In the morning of Jan. 26th, 15 to 16 Sherman tanks approached the Japanese defensive line. They came carefully not to show the side for the enemy and fired Japanese tanks from a safe distance. Japanese tanks were destroyed one by one. In the night of 27th, there remained only 7 tanks in the regiment. The regiment carried out a Banzai attack and brigade commander Shigemi and regimental commander Maeda were killed in action. The 10th Tank Regiment had sent the 5th Company to Baguio and the 1st Company to Leyte. The 3th Company deployed in Lupao and the remaining regiment deployed in San Ishidro. On Jan. 31st, the regiment was attacked by shipplanes and suffered a heavy loss. The regiment received an order of withdrawal from the division. They advanced forwards San Jose, but they were checked by the American forces. The regimental commander decided to abandon the tanks and the crews withdrew on foot. The 3th Company in Lupao was surrounded by the Americans and had been attacked by Sharman tanks in several times. On Feb. 7th, the company escaped the siege and withdrew into the eastern moutains of Baguio. During the retreat, they lost all their tanks. On D-Day, the 6th Tank Regiment was stationed in the southern part of Luzon. They moved north and reached at Gonzalez on Jan. 18th. There, they were order to deploy in Munoz in order to check the emeny forces. The regiment moved to Munoz and built a defensive position. The bombardment into Munoz began on Jan. 26th. On Jan. 27th, GIs attacked Munoz, but the regiments tanks repulsed them. The Americans stopped attacking and had been bombarding heavily in some days. The regiments tanks were destroyed one by one with bombardments. From Jan. 30th, GIs and Sherman tanks restarted the attack to Munoz. The regiment was surrounded by the American forces and its tanks decreased to approximate twenty. On Feb. 6th, the regiment was ordered to withdraw. In this night, the regiment intended to break through the siege, but the Americans found out the cars and tanks escaping from the seige and fired them furiousely. When the regiment reached at the mountain near San Jose, the regiments strenghts decreased to one fifth. The Iwa****a Independent Tank Company and Sumi Independent SP Gun Company fought at Clark Field togather with the main body of the 2nd Mobile Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Tank Division. After the fierce battle at the airfield, they lost their all tanks and retreated to the west mountains. In April, 1945, the American forces had been approaching to the 14th Army HQ in Baguio. The only tank force that General Yama****a had was the 5th Company of 10th Tank Regiment. The company had 3 Medium tanks and 2 Light Tanks. As the Japanese tank could not cope with the American tank, General Yama****a ordered the company to carry out a suicide-attack by tanks. One Type 97 Medium Tank and one Type 95 Light tank were attached with two explosives in front of the hull. They hid into a bamboo bush near the road between Baguio and Sablan on which the Amercian tanks would advance. When a column of Sherman tanks turned the corner about 100m far from them, they dashed forwards the column. The leading tank of the column was surprised at them and tried to go back, but it failed to turn and fell into a valley along the road. Japanese tanks clashed with enemy tanks and four tanks(two Shermans and two Japanese tanks) burned up. The Japanese crews who survived jumped off a tank and run into the enemy position, brandishing a Japanese sword. After this incident, the Americans would not advance for a week. pacificwrecks/people/veterans/thien/luzon/tanks/index.html www3.plala.or.jp/takihome/history2.htm
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 06:09:44 +0000
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