Cotabato and Davo
This was not an assault landing, and we came ashore
on ramps prepared for the purpose by troops which preceded us. Our skipper,
new at the game, got off into the harbor with six of our men still aboard.
I had to go find them the next day.
We moved inland a short distance to assemble and to
get ready to proceed to the interior of the island. The day we moved
towards the interior, we got word that Germany had surrendered. This
was of course wonderful news, but we were too busy to celebrate at the
time. Arriving at a point towards the center of the island, we learned
that the 31st Division would move north, up the center of the island,
and that the 24th Division would move East, towards Davo.
Both divisions had to cross the Palangi River, and
we had only one pontoon bridge. We had quite a confused situation and
experienced a considerable delay, our people not getting across until
after dark. It took us until almost morning to find the troops we were
to lead up the island.
When we did find our troops, we learned that our mission
was to precede the lead units up the Sayre Highway, which proved to
be a one-lane dirt road. We were to leave at noon, accompanied by a
few engineers, mounted, with the main body of our troops following some
six hours later, walking. We were to "establish and maintain contact
with the main Japanese force", which was retreating north, up the
island.
Moving up the island on schedule, we soon picked up
evidence that we were not too far behind the Japs. Small wooden bridges
over creeks and streams had been burned that afternoon and other signs
showed that we were getting close. Just before dark, we accomplished
our mission. We "established contact". "Maintaining"
it would be no problem. Actually, we rode through a rather large ambush
force and then managed to back out. That was really a close one. The
Japanese wanted the larger contingent and we were certainly not of strength
to take on the main force. We drew back, deployed on the side of a large
hill an awaited our main force. Sometime after midnight, our troops
caught up with us and we turned the job over to them.
The lead unit moved on up the road a short way before
encountering resistance, at about the point where we had been through
the ambush. The firefight that followed lasted several days, but we
were unable to utilize our armored cars, because the bridges had been
destroyed and we couldn't move up. One of the bridges had spanned a
deep gorge at the corner of a hairpin turn in the road and it took several
days to overcome this problem.
Once we were able to move, we made our way up the island, but were not
really able to properly utilize our equipment. Progress was slow and
resistance varied in intensity. The infantry troops were having a tougher
time than we were at this point.
The terrain had become semi-mountainous, with large
grass fields, and the weather in the daytime was hot in the daytime
and cold at night. Movement was a little faster now, but we were still
somewhat restricted in the use of our equipment. At about this time,
I developed a serious sinus infection and had to check into the hospital.
They told me there that it was dangerous for me to try to continue on
as I was doing and evacuated me to Leyte to a field hospital, over my
objections.
In the field hospital, they told me I couldn't stay
in that climate without an operation and that was something that they
were not properly equipped to handle. The result was that I wound up
headed for home, again over my objections. My next move was aboard a
Navy transport ship, bound for the States.
Preamble
| Part 1 | Part 2
| Part 3 | Part 4
| Part 5 | Part 6
| Part 7 | Part 8
| Part 9 | Part 10 | Part
11
