Leyte - Unparadise Island



We came to Bito Beach in November 1944, it was raining and we would come to know this place as "Unparadise Island". With lots of rain, mud and Japs. The beautiful South Pacific was not all it was cracked up to be. Swamp land to the west of us. Bito Beach was not much to look at, north and south of this so-called beach was two heavy running rivers.

Our first task was to unload our equipment from personnel transports (APA) and cargo ships (AKA), making it safe and secure from air raids. It took about 5 days of back breaking labor to move all the rations, ammunition, gas and oil, vehicles, clothing and all the odd ball stuff to the rear. It was all dumped in a coconut grove to the west of the beach.

The 127th Engineers started to build a pile roadway across the swamp to our rear. At the same time work also started on two bridges over the two rivers that tied us on the north and south. With the building of the bridges an amphibious tractor battalion sent "gators" to act as ferries across the two rivers. The bridge across the swamp was completed first, now we could move 2 1/2-ton trucks out on what was to become known as US Highway 1, better known to the grunts as "Mud Road". It was to become the main supply route for all traffic, running from Abuyog to the south to Dulag to the north.

In late November, a few days after our arrival, we received orders to relieve the 7th Infantry Division in and around the line Burauen-La Paz-Bugho and destroy all Japs in that area. As the 11th Airborne Division setup for the fighting in the Leyte Campaign the 24th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions were doing battle with the Japs on the northeast. The 96th Division and the 7th Division were doing battle with the Japs in the lower foothills on and around Dagami and Burauen. When we relieved the 7th Division they were going to the south, across the mountains by the Abuyog-Baybay road, which was clear of Japs, attack due north, catching the Japs between their attack and that of the 24th and 1st Cavalry Division attack. Better known as a squeeze play or trap the Japs.

Don't put the Japs down, they were tough fighters and were willing to do or die for the Emperor. We were willing to oblige them and it would cost us dearly in manpower also. The 77th Infantry Division landed between Albuera and Ormoc and hit the Japanese in the rear. The 11th Airborne Division moved across an unmapped pass, totally destroying two Japanese divisions in the mountains, cutting off any escape route to the east. Through thick mud and heavy rain, over crudy foot trails, the 11th Airborne Division pushed west to clear the Leyte mountain range of it's Jap soldiers. It was a baptismal of rough exhausting fighting. We now knew why war is hell.

The 511th Regiment moved into a muddy area by the Daguitan River. The 187th Infantry was left on Bito Beach, whose job it was to secure the rear. The job of securing the Air Corps Headquarters was given to two artillery battalions, the 674th and 675th, taking away their big guns and making them mud infantry. The 188th Infantry was given the job to secure the southern sector, backing up the south flank of the 511th Infantry, whose job it was to flush out the Japs in that sector. The 127th Engineers were spread from every mud hole in the Division sector. The bulk of the 127th Engineer Battalion was at San Pablo, building and repairing the Burauen road and the San Pablo Airstrip.

First engagement by 511th Regimental, C Company was ambushed by the Japs who were dug in on both sides of the river waiting for just such an opportunity. The 1st Platoon attacked the Japanese on the right bank, lost 8 men and killed 20 Japs, then were cut off from the remainder of the unit and withdrew toward Lubi. The 1st Battalion was ordered to locate the company and relieve them. A patrol of three squads led by Lieutenant Varna was dispatched to find C Company and walked into an ambush by the Japs. Lieutenant Varna was killed at the head of his patrol, and the patrol returned to Manarawat, never locating C Company. The 2nd Battalion of the 187th Infantry was ordered to relieve the 2nd Battalion of the 511th Infantry, located in the town of Burauen, from positions on the heights just west of the town, and the 2nd Battalion was ordered to move up to the west on the North Trail to help the 1st Battalion in relieving C Company. C Company and the command group were having a hell of a time of it. Ammunition was low and food was almost all gone. In the heat of first combat a lot of mistakes were made and the troops were learning how to fight this type of enemy. Using more ammunition than was smart, they shot only when they thought they could hit the Japs. On the second night nine men punched through the circling Japs to obtain reinforcements and lead them to C Company's position.

Spotting planes started dropping food, ammunition, and medical supplies but most of it landed in the middle of a clearing, which was under fire by the Japs. C Company could not get to it. Another goof and another learning experience. The decision was made for the 2nd Battalion to fight it's way directly into the position of C Company, joined by 1st Battalion, and together they relieved C Company. The 2nd Battalion was in contact with the Jap forces.

At Catabagan a Banzai attack hit on the small outpost, but a lieutenant in charge, a Coast Artilleryman, put a call in to the Godfrey communication station, which in turn went to work and called for artillery fire. The call was answered with heavy firing by the field artillery, a concentration was dumped on the surprised Japs and thirty-two of them died for the Emperor that day.

On December 4, the first combat parachute jump of the 11th Airborne Division was made by A Battery of the 457th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. The airborne plan for giving the infantry much needed artillery support. Thirteen trips had to be made to get all the equipment and troops into that area. It was completed and with perfect precision. Nobody was hurt even though the men jumped from three hundred feet, and from that day on A Battery provided 360-degree support to all the infantry fighting in the mountains.

Another weird jump took place in order to free all of the 511th for it's mission of clearing the mountains. The paratroopers of B Company of the 187th Infantry were parachuted in and took over the mission of securing the Manarawat position, hospital and supply dumps. The Division Artillery air fleet of eleven Piper Cub planes made it to the dropzone and shoving out a paratrooper on each run. The 187th was followed by a platoon of the 127th Engineers, led by Lieutenants Clift and Brugh, and followed by bundles of shovels, axes, picks, and saws for clearing trees on the plateau so that L-4s could land. From then on evacuation of seriously wounded from the Manarawat hospital was possible. Top credit for heroism should go to the 221st Medical Company, 5th and 7th medical personnel of portable surgical hospitals. They saved many a soldier's life from the hands of death.

The Japs 16th Division was to attack the San Pablo and Burl Strips from the northwest. The 1st Battalion of the 187th Infantry was moving into Burauen Heights at this time and met a portion of this force and destroyed them.

On or about 1800 on the evening of December 6th, a flight of Japanese bombers were flying high, over the San Pablo Airstrips. The bombers circled well overhead, dropped a few bombs, one of which set a gas dump on fire, and the accompanying fighters remained high and well out of range. The anti-aircraft crews around the various strips pumped shells into the air, but did not hit any of the planes, succeeding only in expending all their ammunition. The ack-ack guns quieted down because they ran out of ammunition. Two flights of C-47 type aircraft came in slowly over the fields, at a low altitude. Suddenly Japanese paratroopers filled the sky. Between 250 and 300 men of the Jap Katori Shimpei Force, a group of hand-picked highly trained Japanese troops, dropped on the strips and attacked in all directions. For help in assembling after they were on the ground the Japanese had a system of bells, whistles, horns, and distinctive songs for each small unit of the force.

The Jap paratroopers had been commanded to destroy the liaison planes and the supply dumps. They set fire to the planes and everything inflammable in the dumps. They attacked the bivouac of the Division personnel manning the supply installations and destroyed the camp. At the time of the attack there were plane personnel, supply personnel and a few cooks. Most of these men dug in and defended the south side of the strip until morning. The only personnel of the Division present at this time were from the 127th Engineers, the 511th Signal Company and Headquarters Battery of the Division Artillery. Special Troops, Colonel Davis setup his engineers as infantry and proceeded to the strip with orders to attack across the strip the following morning and secure it, destroying all Japanese they found. During the night the Japs ran back and forth, yelling. "Everything is useless! Surrender, Surrender!", they screamed. At the same time everyone on our side was just shooting the hell out of them. One of the platoons of the engineers, under Lieutenant Pergamo, attacked during the night to clear the strip of Japs. The Engineers who were armed with three machine guns succeeded in scattering some of the Jap units and in digging in on the slightly higher ground at the southwest corner of the strip. One of the attacks came very close to the engineers before the Japs finally quit.

The 674th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion was ordered to leave it's guns on Bito Beach and get to the strip area to fight as infantry. At daylight on the 7th, Colonel Davis and his multi-branched force moved out to attack the strip and relieve our troops who had been caught in and around it. Just as the attack was being launched Colonel Hoska arrived with his 674th, and like in ancient times they wheeled in on line with the 127th and joined the fight. On the left were the engineers, drawn up along the southern edge of the strip. On the right was the artillery, similarly drawn up in battle formation on the southern edge. In the center, between the two outfits, was the Division Commander. Word went out that "General Joe" was in the line, yelling as he directed the two commanders in the attack. They in turn screamed at their units and the attack was on. The Japs were holed up all around the strip, the strongest resistance was met in front of the engineers, pushing across the strip and a couple of football fields beyond the north edge before the ammunition and water ran out forcing them to halt and set the line. The 674th Artillery/Infantry pushed across the strip and into a coconut grove several hundred yards north of the airstrip. Here they stopped and dug in for the night. Behind them dead Japanese were removed from the strip, and the few L-4 planes remaining after the Japanese attack immediately took off, even under Jap sniper fire.

One of the men defending the airstrip at the time of the Japanese attack did appear in Ripley's "Believe it or Not" column. He is William (Lucky) M. Irving, a corporal, and he was setting up a machine gun when a Jap sniper shot at him. The bullet struck a bandoleer of .30-caliber ammunition, which was hung over Irving's shoulder, and ricocheting struck a hand grenade, which he was carrying in his breast pocket. He should have waved goodbye to this good earth but the grenade exploded outward and left him clean as a whistle. Six other men standing near by were also unhurt. Irving was the only man not surprised, but he was used to just this kind of luck. He is a man who had had two streamers in one jump, his main and his reserve, both collapsed. The reserve finally popped open some seventy feet from the ground and the only injury he received was a slight bruise on his hip.

Some of the bad things that go on during combat were rumors. One such was that the Fifth Air Force and the 44th Station Hospital, on the west side of Burauen were being attacked. We heard that the Japs had gotten into the hospitals, were going down the aisles butchering the patients with sabers, and ruthlessly killing the doctors. As rumors usually are, these were highly exaggerated. Lieutenant Hurster of the 187th had set up a perimeter around the hospital with forty men grabbed from his cooks, supply personnel, and drivers in the 187th Regimental Headquarters. This group of unlikely fighters held and no Japanese got through it during the night. The next morning nineteen Japs were found dead outside it. Lieutenant Hurster had persuaded the hospital commander that his perimeter would hold, and that the evacuation of the hospital was unnecessary. Next morning patrols sent west across the rice paddles in front of the hospital succeeded in killing seventeen more Japs. This was the end of the Jap 26th Division's part in the so-called attack. Gallant soldiers lost their lives, especially the troop carrier and anti-aircraft units on Buri Strip. Had the Jap's 26th Division been able to get through our division in the mountains and achieve their part in the attack we might have lost Burauen and the airstrips. For sure, the situation would have been much worse. This action increased a hundred times the 11th Airborne Division soldier's hatred for the Japs.

© Copyright C. J. Johnson & Associates 1997
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction, adaptation,
or translation without prior written permission
is prohibited, except as allowed under the
copyright laws. 10/97




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