Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
16 December – Douglas MacArthur was promoted to Five-Star General. ?It seemed that General MacArthur’s promotion to General of the Army would require assistance from many sides.? It posed a problem in the respect that there was no such object as a five-star insignia in existence in the Pacific.? A…

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
John Holland, 11th Airborne Division For another insight into the landing at Bito Beach, Leyte, John Holland, of the 675th Glider Field Artillery/11th Airborne Division speaks here… “February 18, 1943, I was assigned and shipped by train to Camp MacKall, Hoffman, North Carolina, and I arrived on the 22th.  The…

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
Native outrigger canoes meet up with a Coast Guard transport. [Please do not be offended by certain remarks, remember that these letters were written 77 years ago when people lived in another time and another world]. As the ships drew closer to Leyte, the American soldiers already on shore were…

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
3 November – When the Japanese 57th Regiment arrived at Limon, Gen. Krueger’s 24th Division was on the other side of the mountain range.  Rather than attack the lightly defended enemy positions, he halted his troops.  For some reason, he was expecting a possible enemy amphibious landing and the US…

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
Leyte, Oct. 1944 20 October – the X and XXIV Corps of the 6th Army, under General Krueger, made their amphibious landing on a 25-mile (40 km) stretch of coastline between Dulag and Tacloban on the eastern side of Leyte. At 0945, the 1st Cavalry went ashore on White Beach,…

Originally posted on Pacific Paratrooper:
LST’s # 66,67,18,245,102 on 20 October 1944 While the Imperial Navy was floundering in their attempts to halt the persistent invasion of Leyte, Gen. Yamashita was in his headquarters at Fort McKinley on Luzon. ?He was receiving very little information from his own people and upon hearing of the US…

Originally posted on ITALIAN HUSBAND OF A FILIPINA Italyanong Asawa ng Isang Pilipina:
As those of you who have been following my blog for a while know, I speak Tagalog or Filipino (my wife’s native language) rather fluently. Was it hard for me to learn it? What does it mean to learn a language? Well,…

Of the 327-man crew, only 141 survived that day. Source: Wreck of USS Johnston discovered 77 years after its sinking at the Battle of Leyte Gulf