Invitation to Annihilation

The Battle of Leyte Island went into its fourth week, and it was less than ever the pushover it had seemed at first. There was a possibility that it might still become the biggest battle of the Pacific war. The nature of the fighting began to make it look something like Guadalcanal, but this time all the factors -- land, sea and air -- were in favor of the Americans.

By week's end the Japanese had more troops on Leyte than they had when Mac-Arthur's men landed on Oct. 20. Douglas MacArthur said last week that his troops had wiped out the original 35,000 defenders. But the Japs by steady reinforcement had replaced them, then had landed 10,000 more. Jap units identified included the 16th Division (now virtually annihilated, said MacArthur), the 1st, 30th, 102nd and the crack 26th Division which had last been heard of as a part of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria.

Tiger Returns. But to the Japanese the new commander of their troops in the Philippines was the surest indication of the Philippines' importance in the plans of Tokyo's High Command. General Tomoyuki Yamashita's arrival in Manila was announced with a flurry by Tokyo Radio. Fat-faced. Nazi-loving Yamashita. brutal, able conqueror of Malaya and Singapore. Bataan and Corregidor, was quoted as saying: "The only words I spoke to the British commander during the negotiations for the surrender of Singapore were: 'All I want to hear from you is "yes or no." ' I expect to put the same question to Mac-Arthur." The Philippines, said baseball-conscious Tokyo Radio, marked the final battle of the world series, with "the fate of the whole world" hanging on the outcome.

Typhoon and Jungle. Whatever was back of Yamashita's appointment, it was evident that U.S. forces faced a difficult task in cleaning up Leyte, an even tougher job in winning the rest of the Philippines. One day last week a 70-m.p.h. typhoon hit Leyte briefly and rain fell to mire the jungles nearly all week. Such weather inevitably favored the defenders. The U.S. drive on land slowed down to a walk after it had overrun about 50% of the northern half of Leyte. Ormoc, the key western port where the Japs landed and deployed in a ten-mile semicircle, could be approached only from the north or the south unless the U.S. troops attempted to come over the mountains between Dagami and Jaro--a stony, difficult path.

In the north, 1st Cavalry Division and 24th Infantry Division units, weary after more than three weeks of steady fighting --Major General Frederick Irving's 24th still bore Leyte's brunt--pushed southward from Carigara Bay, but had advanced no more than two miles by week's end. From the south the 7th and 96th Divisions progressed just as slowly while the Japs prepared for the big battle.

Men and Ships. The Jap did not land his reinforcements until he had paid heavily for the privilege. In spite of weather, Jap smokescreens and Jap fighter protection, land-based fighters and B-25s from Lieut. General George Kenney's air forces struck heavily. One day they sank seven destroyers and three troop transports out of a total of 19 vessels--but not until the men and supplies had been unloaded.

Next day MacArthur called for extra help from Admiral Halsey's Third Fleet flyers. Carrier-based planes caught the Japs further offshore, sank all ten ships of a convoy which included 8,000 men by MacArthur's estimate. Army and Navy flyers and antiaircraft gunners also shot down 81 Jap planes last week, bringing the total Jap losses over and near Leyte to 1,700 planes since Oct. 20. Whatever the price of holding the Philippines as long as possible, the Jap apparently was willing to fork it up. But it would not be the first time the Jap had fed thousands of men into battle with nothing more than the hope of killing a certain percentage of Americans before his own troops had been annihilated.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.