THE HISTORY OF THE 6TH CAVALRY RECONNAISSANCE TROOP MECHANIZED
Introduction
In 1941, the former Japanese Navy was roaming the Pacific asking, "Where is the United States Navy?" On Bataan, American and Filipino men in arms were wondering, "Where are the reinforcements?" Stateside, people were asking, "How long does it take to get an army?" There was fighting in progress, and at least four more years of fighting to be done if the nation could gather its power in time to fight. There was drafting of men for the services. There was a demand for 40,000 tanks and 100,000 airplanes. There were defeats in the Philippines, and on the sea and at Singapore and in Malaya, and in Africa, and in the Dutch Indies and New Guinea. This then is the condensed history of one small unit born in those times and its subsequent participations in the war.
Formation
Orders activitating the 6th Reconnaissance Troop were received in mid-year 1940 at Fort Riley, Kansas. Almost one year later, the Troop's training had been completed. Using the Troop's personnel as a nucleous, the 6th Reconnaissance Squadron was formed in July 1942 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and these men who already had been trained were set to work training the new squadron. Transfers from the infantry and artillery units of the 6th Motorized Division and replacements were used to complement the squadron and bring it to full strength. In September and October, the 6th Motorized Division moved by motor convoy to Tennessee to compete in the Second Army Maneuvers and the squadron received its first test. These were the days of the Red and Blue armies, the days of the "yoo-hoo," and the days of the bombing of Fort Darwin in Australia and Port Moresby in New Guinea. In November, the 6th Motorized Division entrained to Yuma, Arizona and established camp there preparatory to desert training. This was climaxed by the comparatively secretive three-week maneuvers wit the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions. March of 1943, found he 6th Motorized Division moving by rail to Camp San Luis Obispo, California where it gaisoned until shipping overseas the following September.
Embarkation
While at Camp San luis Obispo, a War Department change, demotorized the 6th ivision. With ths change, the Reconnaissance unit of the Division was reduced from a Squadron to a Troop, and on May 25 1943, the 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance was activated with a complement of seven officers and one hundred ninety-four enlisted men. Most of the men came from old Troop "A" of the Squadron and the balance were picked men from the remaining Troops of the Squadron. Almost one month later, the 6th Infantry Division, with the Troop attached, was alerted for overseas movement. The following September, the Troop passe through the Port of Embarkation at San Francisco and embarked on September 20 aboard the U.S.S. William P. Biddle, a navy transport. The Troop debarked September 26 at Honolulu, Oahu: and established camp at Cocoanut Grove, approximately twelve miles west of Honolulu. These were the days when the Japanese invasion forces had been turned back in the Coral Sea, at Lilne Bay, in India and in the Solomons. These were the days when Germany had Russia by the throat at Stalingrad and when the Africa Korps had pushed the Aussies and the Tommies almost to the El Alamein Line. These were the days when Japanese troops on Kiska and Attu, far to the north of Honolulu's palm tees, began reading picture books of beautiful American women with the promise of one for all when America was invaded. In October, the Troop was ordered to attend the Ranger School at Schefield Barracks. The Ranger Schooling period was four weeks of bitter, heart breaking training in jungle combat tactics. After completing the school, the Troop was moved to the Unit Jungle Training Center and acted as instructors and assistant instructors while the remainder of the 6th Infantry Division was going through jungle training. In January, the Troop returned to Cocoanut Grove and made preparations for further overseas movement later that month. It embarked on the USAT Sloterdyke and sailed for New Guinea, arriving at Milno Bay, New Guinea February 7, 1944.Immediately a camp was constructed and a program of jungle training was initiated. In April, the Division moved fifteen miles east to Hihila Plantation and built another camp. This camp area was located at the waters edge and free time was spent boating, fishing, and swimming. In May, Division Headquarters decided to equip the Troop with amphibious tanks to be used in forth coming operations in New Guinea. Seventy men were flown to Oro Bay, New Guinea to receive training as drivers, crew members, and mechanics on the amphibious tanks. The Troop received its thirteen amphibious tanks on the first of June and promptly serviced them before loading aboard the Liberty ship USS Edward S. Hough on June 12 and headed for Maffin Bay, Dutch New Guinea.
Operations
Maffin Bay is a shallow anchorage near what then was the Japanese strongpoint of Sarmi. Wadke Island, a lonely clump of land and coral and cocoanut trees, situated on one side of the Ba already had been taked after a bitter fight. The Troop arrived at Maffin Bay aboard the USS Edward S Hough on June 18. Sixth Division infantrymen had relieved the 158th Regimental Combat Team on the narrow foothold held on the mainland, and the Troop disembarked to hear the steady hammering of infantry machine guns and the whoop of motars and the bark of artillery. This was the first for the Troop to be where two opposing forces, each seeking to kill the other were not face to face. The Troop's first fire fight came on June 24 in a landing operation to gain control of a rocky prometory commanding the bay's finest anchorage. It forced the landing and suffered its first casualties. Following this full scale engagement the Troop was relegated to patrol and counter patrolling in densely wooded, swampy areas honeycombed by the enemy. The Troop functioned smoothly, taking its losses and dealing out punishment of its own, until the Divison was relieved and begun its own staging. The Troop embarked aboard an LST in Maffin Bay July 26 just as dusk was settling from the mountains. The convoy arrived off Cape Opamarin, near Sansapor, early in the morning of July 30. In the bay facing from Sansapor, stood two twin islands, Amsterdam and Middleburg, which the Troop secured by ship-to-shore and then shore-to-shore operations. Following soon after "D-Day", in Sansapor, the Troop was detailed to the Kor River operations, and on August 13 the entire Troop assembled for the first time and the first hot kitchen food since leaving Maffin Bay. That night two chaplains reached the Troop area. A Protestant chaplain conducted services beneath the hanging vines over the tank park, while the Catholic chaplain and his followers chose a spot near the Table River were engineers were building a large bridge of mahogney lumber across the stream. Sansapor developed into something different than what the Troop's cavalry training had led it to expect. It sent raiding parties the length and breadth of Vogelkop Penninsula. It traveled by fast PT boat, it moved by lazy LSM, it marched into the interior jungles and swamps for days at a time. It entered into a strict garrison existence, training one week and patrolling against the enemy the next week. It spent five long months of long days and longer nights in Sansapor. Monotony was broken only by mail from home, Jap planes at night, antics of natives, and three gold star days over a period of three months when each man at breakfest had one real, bonafide egg.
Liberation
Vehicles including armord cars, half tracks and 1/4 ton trucks were given the Troop in December for the next operation in the liberation of the Philippines. The Troop embarked aboard two LSM"s on December 26. After two days of idly riding the waves in the bay, the convoy began to move at dusk. Behind them in the Army Cemetery where stood a soldier guard and where fluttered the Stars and Stripes slept some of the Troop's former members. The sea was the roughest, the LSC'S were the smallest ships, the convoy was the largest, the enemy action was the most determined, but the trip was the most pleasant the Troop had undergone to date. The Troop's amphibious tanks, manned by members of a Provisional Plantoon attached to the Troop, churned up to the beach at H Hour on S Day January 9, 1945 on schedule, one man being wounded. The remainder of the Troop began its landing operations a few minutes later. Jeeps were rolled off the LSM'S to disappear out of sight in deep water and to necessitate man handling before reaching shore. For two days, the Troop remained land locked between Lingayen Beach and the Binloc River. It finally crossed over an engineer fill on the third and less than two hours later engaged in its first fire fight wth the enemy on Luzon. The Luzon operation was divided into several phases, roughly as follows...
On The Plains
It was out-and-out cavalry reconnaissance work. The Troop fronted for the Division from the beach at Lingayen to the Pampanga River. The Troop felt out the enemy's dispositions, taking its ambushes and running when it had to, returning again as soon as it was supplied with gas and ammunition and rations. Patrols and platoons and sections were lost and then found. The Troop got in place far ahead and stayed far ahead of the Division's front-line elements. It snaked its way south to Pampanga River, then cast along the river, and finally made its run to Dingalen Bay and Baler Bay on the east coast of Luzon.
On The Hot-Spot
When the Division was jumped east of Manila to grind out the Shimbu Line, the Troop filled three functions...It first was established at a spot know as Hot Corner. For twenty-four long days it bucked up against a strong counter-reconnaissance screen established by the enemy between the Troop and Ipo Dam. No day went by without at least one patrol being chased from an observation post either by enemy foot troops or enemy artillery. The Troop perhaps reached its lowest mark in its history during this ordeal. Men would drop from heat exhaustion, from the fever and disease. A well-fed, well trained, well-equipped, axious and numerically superior enemy with artillery backing, often tried and often came near eating up a troop. In the second function the Troop was called upon to furnish fire support to the infantry as it battered its heads against the Shimbu Line. This was done primarily with armored cars, using them to close and neutralize enemy cave defenses. In its third function the Troop was called upon to patol the Division's main supply road against enemy infiltrations, and for certain escort duty. When guarding the MSR was at its highest, the Troop was detailed regularly to investigate and anhiliate groups of the enemy who had infiltrated through the lines and had been cornered.
On The Milk Run
Supposedly relieved from combat, the Division was sent to a new location in the west-central section of Luzon. During almost a month of patrolling, the Troop engaged the enemy more times, killed more of the enemy and captured more prisoners of war then at any similar period in its history. The Troop planned to garrison with the Divison at Camp Patrick, named for General Patrick, commading general of the Division, who was killed in the Shimbu Line.
On The Ball
The Division's contemplated stay at Camp Patrick was cancelled when it was ordered to mop-up in Cagayan Valley. Here, the Troop entered a new phase of work. It supported the infantry in forcing, curve by curve, hill by hill, barrie by barrie, its progress up to the final core of enemy resistance. The Troop convoyed supply trains and personnel, evacuated casualties and forced anbusendes. It expended more ammunition in this phase of the operation than at any previous time in its combat history.
Contemplation
As this is being drawn to a close, the peace with Japan appears almost ready to be signed. What the Troop's future moves will be, are unknown. Eighteen men already have left for Stateside on the Army's "Point System". Five more men are alerted. The remainder of the Troop is hoping, and some have reasons to hope for a retun home by Christmas. This then, is prepared as modest and brief history of the Troop. It will contain home addresses of men still in the Troop and men who already have departed from the Troop. It may not be the last unit history to appear.
Commemoration
This is August 1945. There is no Japanese Navy. There are no more heart breaks on Bataan. Our nation produced its army on time. Fort Riley, Kansas, still has its ivy clad, soapstone buildings. Tennessee is still Tennessee, with the yoo-hoos. The desert is as dry by day and as cold by night as ever. The moon still shines on Cocoanut Grove, and the rain still pours down upon Hihila Plantation. The waves still wash upon Rocky Point, and at Samapor the young native, named Sabu, may still be searching to capture a live pig so that he can buy himself a wife. The flags still flutter over the places where the Troop has left men behind to sleep in the land that their blood stains and their lives freed, and there is the measured beat of the sentry's foot so that they never shall be left alone. Men dream of home again after years of away from home. Some day, no doubt, the 6th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop will be deactivated. On its final morning report, and with its last "Order Arms" and its last bugle note, will be conspiciously lacking the black and white evidence of the labors and lives of men so briefly touched upon on these pages. (Approved For Mailing. Passed by Base Censor.)
Other Links
Members of the 6th Calvary Reconnaissance Troop
In Memoriam
