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Battle of Mindanao
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Battle of Mindanao
The Battle of Mindanao (Filipino: Labanan sa Mindanaw; Cebuano: Panagsangka sa Mindanaw; Japanese: ミンダナオの戦い) was fought by the Americans and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese forces on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines as part of Operation VICTOR V. It was part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the southernmost portions of the archipelago from the Imperial Japanese Army.
The campaign for Mindanao posed the greatest challenge for the liberating Allied forces, primarily for three reasons: the island's inhospitable geography; the extended Japanese defenses; and the strength and condition of the Japanese forces, which contained the significantly remaining concentration of combat troops in the Philippines.
Like most of the Philippine Islands and other similar places the U.S. Army operated elsewhere in the Pacific, the geographical conditions of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, offered very little inspiration for soldiers who would have to fight there. It boasted a long and irregular coastline, and the topography was generally characterized as rugged and mountainous. Rain forests and numerous crocodile-infested rivers covered the terrain, the rest by either lake, swamp or grassland. These grassland regions—along with dense groves of abacá trees, a source of hemp fiber—offer the worst obstacles, limiting vision and sapping the strength of soldiers.
The few roads in Mindanao further complicated the problem of movement. The generously named Highway 1 cut across the southern portion of the island, from just south of Parang on Illana Bay in the west to Digos on Davao Gulf in the east and then north to Davao. The other, Sayre Highway the main north-south road, started at Kabacan, midway between Illana Bay and Davao Gulf, then ran north through the mountains of Bukidnon and Macajalar Bay (off Misamis Oriental Province) on the northern coast.
The strongest of the Japanese defenses were concentrated around the Davao Gulf area, which was heavily mined to counter an amphibious landing, and in Davao City, the island's largest and most important city. Artillery and anti-aircraft batteries extensively ringed the coastal shoreline defenses. Believing that the Americans would ultimately attack from Davao Gulf and also anticipating that they would be eventually driven from the city, the Japanese also prepared defensive bunkers inland behind its perimeter where they could retire and regroup, with the intention of prolonging the campaign as long as possible.
On 10 March 1945, the U.S. Eighth Army—under Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger—was formally ordered by General Douglas MacArthur to clear the rest of Mindanao, with the start of Operation VICTOR V, with expectations that the campaign would take four months. Eichelberger had misgivings about the projected timetable. His Eighth Army staff came up with a more effective plan.
Instead of the expected headlong frontal assault on the Japanese defenses, the plan called for securing a beachhead at Illana Bay in the undefended west, then driving eastward more than 100 miles (160 km) through jungles and mountains to strike from the rear. The objective, which called for achieving surprise and pressing forward quickly and aggressively by the invading forces, Eichelberger deemed, could unhinge the Japanese both physically and psychologically. The key to success involved the beachhead performance of the landing force and the ability of units to maintain the momentum of their attack, preempting Japanese reactions, and hopefully before the rainy season started, which would impede movement.
Ground operations were assigned to X Corps, under Major General Franklin C. Sibert, with Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff's 24th Infantry Division and Major General Clarence A. Martin's 31st Infantry Division as the principal combat units. Amphibious Task Group 78.2 (TG 78.2), under Rear Admiral Albert G. Noble, was tasked to carry the 24th Division and X Corps headquarters to the assault beaches near Malabang by 17 April to secure a forward airfield. Five days later, the 31st Division was expected to be in Parang, 20 miles (32 km) south, located near Highway 1, the route to Davao.
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Battle of Mindanao
The Battle of Mindanao (Filipino: Labanan sa Mindanaw; Cebuano: Panagsangka sa Mindanaw; Japanese: ミンダナオの戦い) was fought by the Americans and allied Filipino guerrillas against the Japanese forces on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines as part of Operation VICTOR V. It was part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines during World War II. The battle was waged to complete the recapture of the southernmost portions of the archipelago from the Imperial Japanese Army.
The campaign for Mindanao posed the greatest challenge for the liberating Allied forces, primarily for three reasons: the island's inhospitable geography; the extended Japanese defenses; and the strength and condition of the Japanese forces, which contained the significantly remaining concentration of combat troops in the Philippines.
Like most of the Philippine Islands and other similar places the U.S. Army operated elsewhere in the Pacific, the geographical conditions of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, offered very little inspiration for soldiers who would have to fight there. It boasted a long and irregular coastline, and the topography was generally characterized as rugged and mountainous. Rain forests and numerous crocodile-infested rivers covered the terrain, the rest by either lake, swamp or grassland. These grassland regions—along with dense groves of abacá trees, a source of hemp fiber—offer the worst obstacles, limiting vision and sapping the strength of soldiers.
The few roads in Mindanao further complicated the problem of movement. The generously named Highway 1 cut across the southern portion of the island, from just south of Parang on Illana Bay in the west to Digos on Davao Gulf in the east and then north to Davao. The other, Sayre Highway the main north-south road, started at Kabacan, midway between Illana Bay and Davao Gulf, then ran north through the mountains of Bukidnon and Macajalar Bay (off Misamis Oriental Province) on the northern coast.
The strongest of the Japanese defenses were concentrated around the Davao Gulf area, which was heavily mined to counter an amphibious landing, and in Davao City, the island's largest and most important city. Artillery and anti-aircraft batteries extensively ringed the coastal shoreline defenses. Believing that the Americans would ultimately attack from Davao Gulf and also anticipating that they would be eventually driven from the city, the Japanese also prepared defensive bunkers inland behind its perimeter where they could retire and regroup, with the intention of prolonging the campaign as long as possible.
On 10 March 1945, the U.S. Eighth Army—under Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger—was formally ordered by General Douglas MacArthur to clear the rest of Mindanao, with the start of Operation VICTOR V, with expectations that the campaign would take four months. Eichelberger had misgivings about the projected timetable. His Eighth Army staff came up with a more effective plan.
Instead of the expected headlong frontal assault on the Japanese defenses, the plan called for securing a beachhead at Illana Bay in the undefended west, then driving eastward more than 100 miles (160 km) through jungles and mountains to strike from the rear. The objective, which called for achieving surprise and pressing forward quickly and aggressively by the invading forces, Eichelberger deemed, could unhinge the Japanese both physically and psychologically. The key to success involved the beachhead performance of the landing force and the ability of units to maintain the momentum of their attack, preempting Japanese reactions, and hopefully before the rainy season started, which would impede movement.
Ground operations were assigned to X Corps, under Major General Franklin C. Sibert, with Major General Roscoe B. Woodruff's 24th Infantry Division and Major General Clarence A. Martin's 31st Infantry Division as the principal combat units. Amphibious Task Group 78.2 (TG 78.2), under Rear Admiral Albert G. Noble, was tasked to carry the 24th Division and X Corps headquarters to the assault beaches near Malabang by 17 April to secure a forward airfield. Five days later, the 31st Division was expected to be in Parang, 20 miles (32 km) south, located near Highway 1, the route to Davao.
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