On January 31, 2012, the beautiful town of Nasugbu will be celebrating the 67th Anniversary of the famous Nasugbu Landing that eventually led to the liberation of Manila on Feb 03, 1945. The following article is from MANILA: The Approach March by Robert Ross Smith which I got from Battle of Manila.
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| Photo from www.battleofmanila.org |
"Plans for the employment of the 11th
Airborne Division on Luzon had undergone many changes. At one time the
division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph M. Swing, had been prepared to drop in
the Central Plains in front of Sixth Army forces driving south from Lingayen
Gulf. GHQ SWPA had abandoned this plan when, as the Lingayen target date
approached, the Allied Air Forces reported it would have neither sufficient
airfields nor transport planes to lift the entire division at the time its
employment would be most meaningful. Next, MacArthur's headquarters made
plans to use the division in a series of minor, diversionary operations along
the southern and southwestern coasts of Luzon, ultimately narrowing the series
to two RCT-sized landings on the south coast. But the employment of highly
specialized troops for minor operations seemed wasteful and would tend to
create almost insoluble problems of supply, command, and administration. Even
two landings, one at Nasugbu on the southwest coast 45 miles from Manila and
the other at Tayabas Bay, 75 miles east of Nasugbu, produced one major problem.
To achieve desired results and to assure that the Japanese would not destroy
the two RCT's in sequence, the landings would have to take place
simultaneously. The Allied Naval Forces, however, could not provide
sufficient escorts and fire support vessels for two simultaneous landings. If,
on the other hand, the 11th Airborne Division made a single assault at Nasugbu,
the Allied Naval Forces could make both fire support ships and escorts
available. The Navy could solve the support problems even more easily if the
airborne units landed at Nasugbu shortly after XI Corps went ashore on Luzon's
west coast north of Bataan, for many of the same support vessels could
participate in both operations.
A single landing at Nasugbu promised to produce other desirable results.
For one, it would tend to pin Japanese forces in southern Luzon, preventing
them from redeploying northward to oppose Sixth Army's drive to Manila. For
another, from presumably good beaches at Nasugbu the 11th Airborne Division
could drive toward Manila, fifty-five miles distant, along an excellent road.
Upon reaching the shores of Laguna de Bay, a large fresh-water lake lying
southeast of Manila and separated from Manila Bay by the narrow Hagonoy
Isthmus, the division could cut the main southern routes of reinforcement and
withdrawal to and from the capital. Again, the Nasugbu beaches might prove an
excellent place to land the 41st Infantry Division, a GHQ Reserve unit that was
scheduled to move to Luzon to reinforce Sixth Army. Finally, the 11th Airborne
Division could easily secure the Nasugbu beachhead against Japanese
counterattack, since all the approaches to it ran through narrow passes in
rugged hill country. No other landing points in southern Luzon combined the
obvious advantages of Nasugbu Bay.
On 20 January, having weighed all the pros and cons, General
Eichelberger recommended to General MacArthur that the 11th Airborne Division
make a single landing at Nasugbu Bay. The Eighth Army's commander intended to
send the division's two glider-infantry RCT's ashore in an amphibious assault
and then push them inland about twenty miles along Route 17 to Tagaytay Ridge
where the highway, having come east across steadily rising ground, turns
sharply north and runs gradually downhill to Manila Bay. Two or three days
after the landing at Nasugbu, the 11th Airborne Division's 511th Parachute
Infantry would drop on Tagaytay Ridge to secure it for the foot troops and to
seize nearby stretches of Route 17 before the Japanese could assemble to defend
the highway. Once the entire division had assembled along Tagaytay Ridge, it
would make ready to drive northward to Manila.
While approving Eichelberger's plans for
a single assault at Nasugbu, MacArthur's concept of the 11th Airborne
Division's employment was by no means as ambitious, at least initially, as
Eighth Army's. Instead, MacArthur directed Eichelberger to land one RCT at
Nasugbu Bay in a reconnaissance-in-force to ascertain Japanese strength,
deployment, and intentions in the Nasugbu-Tagaytay region. If it appeared that
the Japanese had relatively weak forces at Tagaytay Ridge, then Eichelberger
could assemble the entire division there and reconnoiter to the north and east
to determine Japanese dispositions and to contain Japanese forces throughout
southwestern Luzon--rather a far cry from mounting a drive to Manila. MacArthur
set the date for the Nasugbu assault for 31 January, two days after XI Corps
was to land north of Bataan.
The organization and missions of the forces involved in the small-scale
Nasugbu landing were similar to those of previous amphibious operations
undertaken within the Southwest Pacific Area. Task Group 78.2, under Rear Adm.
William M. Fechteler, loaded and landed the assault troops. The task group
numbered about 120 ships and landing craft of all types, its largest vessels
being APD's and LST's. Fire support was provided by Task Unit 77.3.1, which
consisted of a light cruiser and two destroyers. Planes of the 310th
Bombardment Wing, based on Mindoro, provided air support.
The 11th Airborne Division, which had been seasoned during the Leyte
Campaign, numbered approximately 8,200 men. Its two glider-infantry regiments,
the 187th and 188th, had about 1,500 men apiece (half the strength of a
standard infantry regiment) and each contained two battalions of three rifle
companies each. The regiments had no heavy weapons, cannon, or antitank
companies. The 511th Parachute Infantry totaled about 2,000 men distributed
among three battalions, each of which contained only three rifle companies.
Artillery consisted of two 75-mm. pack howitzer battalions, a 105-mm. howitzer
battalion armed with a short barrel howitzer that lacked the range of the 105's
of a standard infantry division, and an airborne antiaircraft artillery
battalion armed with 40-mm. and .50-caliber guns. Reinforcements included the
Cannon Company of the 24th Division's 21st Infantry; Company C of the 532d
Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment, the 2d Engineer Special Brigade; two antiaircraft
automatic weapons batteries; and various service units. A Mindoro-based
battalion of the 24th Division's 19th Infantry was available on call.
The 11th Airborne Division expected to meet 7,000 Japanese in the
Nasugbu-Tagaytay area, the bulk of them from the 17th and 31st
Infantry Regiments, 8th Division. The airborne unit believed that about
500 Japanese defended the shores of Nasugbu Bay and that the main Japanese force,
some 5,000 strong, held Route 17 at Tagaytay Ridge and a defile a few miles
west of the ridge where the highway passed between the peaks of
two extinct volcanoes.
The estimates were correct in general but wrong in detail. Shimbu
Group, responsible for the conduct of operations in southern Luzon, had
entrusted the defense of the region south of Manila to the Fuji Force, a
composite unit under Col. Masatoshi Fujishige, who also commanded the 8th
Division's 17th Infantry.
Numbering some 8,500 men, the Fuji Force was composed of the 17th
Infantry, less 3d Battalion; the 3d Battalion, 31st
Infantry; a battalion of mixed artillery; and combat engineers and service
troops of the 8th Division. Co-operating with Colonel Fujishige (and
soon to pass to his direct command) were about 5,000 troops of the 2d
Surface Raiding Base Force, a Japanese Army organization made up of
suicide boat units, called Surface Raiding Squadrons, and their base
support units, designated Surface Raiding Base Battalions. The Raiding
Squadrons, on paper, each contained 100 suicide boats and a like number of
men; each Base Battalion numbered about 900 troops, most of them
service personnel. Five or six of theRaiding Squadrons, which had lost
most of their boats to Allied air and naval action before or shortly after the
11th Airborne Division's landing, ultimately became available to Colonel
Fujishige, as did an equal number of the Base Battalions. Normally,
the squadrons were amalgamated with their support battalions to form a single
entity for ground combat operations.
With
a large area and an extensive coast line to hold, Fujishige originally deployed
the bulk of his troops for defense against an Allied attack from the south
rather than the west. In the area of immediate interest to the 11th Airborne
Division he stationed his West Sector Unit, an organization of 2,250
troops built on a nucleus of the 3d Battalion, 31st Infantry. The West
Sector Unit's largest concentration--600 infantry with artillery
support--held the defile just west of Tagaytay Ridge, while another 400
infantrymen defended a southwestern nose of the ridge. The West Sector
Unit had only 100 troops at or near Nasugbu; the remaining men were
scattered in small garrisons throughout southwestern Luzon."
