The book is entitled "Under the Southern Cross" the saga of the Americal Division written by Captain Francis D. Cronin by the Combat Forces Press, Washington D 1951, which is actually a biography of the Americal Division, under the command of Maj. Gen. William H. Arnold, a Division that saw action from Guadalcanal … to the Leyte Landing and the campaign to liberate Cebu. It’s a 430-page book with two whole chapters devoted solely on the liberation of Cebu… a chapter entitled "A Liberation is Planned" and the other "Beachhead". The Division originally called "Task Force 6814" was renamed Americal because it was formed in New Caledonia in 1942.
The planning of the Liberation of Cebu had been hatched in Leyte under the guidance of Gen. Eichelberger’s Eighth Army called the "Victor Operations" and placed under the command of Gen. Arnold. At the break of dawn on March 26,1945, E-Day was commenced by the Victor II attack group with 59 assorted ships from the Seventh Fleet’s Task Force 74, composed of five destroyers, four assault personnel destroyers, eight minesweepers, 17 LSTs, 11 LSMs and 14 LCIs. At exactly 0730 the heavy guns of Task Force 74 opened fire on the Talisay beachhead to soften fortified enemy positions, including the rocket-firing LCIs.
An hour later the firing ceased and five Amphibious tractors or LVT’s (Landing Vehicle Tracked) bearing the first soldiers belonging to 1st Battalion of the 182nd Infantry of the Americal Division rolled into Green Beach 1 between the main Talisay town and Barrio Tangke and was met with only sporadic sniper fire and an occasional machinegun fire. The first wave having been ashore in Talisay and the soldiers thinking Japanese resistance was minimal, when suddenly, ten of the first wave’s 15 LVTs were simultaneously disabled or destroyed by improvised mines which littered Green Beach 1.
The mines alone stopped the American advance as casualties have to be removed and the injured removed from the battered LVTs. A traffic jam ensued as other landing vehicles also arrived, while the first wave couldn’t move forward. It took an hour and a half for US Army engineers to plow out the mines so that the armored advance could move again. It was an hour and a half of anxiety… with US soldiers not certain what the Japanese forces would do next. If they conducted a counter attack… the Americans would have been dead ducks trapped between the shoreline and the seashore. But luck held out, Japanese resistance was minimal… represented only by the minefield and a few determined snipers.
By 9:30 a.m., medical operations were established to give emergency care to the first American casualties, and the American advance continued meeting only ineffective Japanese resistance, slowed down only by anti-tank ditches, log fences and steel rail obstacles. Pillboxes and manned barricades were littered in Talisay, but some of these Japanese defenses were not even manned and were soon overrun by the invading forces of the Americal Division.
By mid-afternoon, the 182nd Infantry was on Highway 1 (now the Natalio Bacalso Ave.) in Pardo and met a Japanese delaying force which fled after a short skirmish which left some 88 Japanese defenders dead with 10 taken as prisoners. Lt. Col. Cushing’s Philippine Army’s 82nd Division was placed under the Americal Division’s command and control and was tasked to secure the Buhisan Dam, Cebu City’s water reservoir. But while they reported to Gen. Arnold that they had captured the Buhisan Dam, but a recon found out that the 82nd Division had taken positions overlooking the Buhisan Dam.
Meanwhile, while landing operations continued steadily, a lookout on board the USS Conyngham spotted what looked like a submarine headed for Cebu City and with the USS Flusser, they opened fire on its conning tower and it submerged, but it was not ascertained whether they sunk the sub. The next day another midget sub was found by the USS Newman and depth charged. But this action was enough to disrupt the landing operations in Talisay to prevent US ships from being torpedoed out of the water.
By nightfall, the 182nd Infantry’s 1st Battalion secured the railway bridge crossing the Managa River, while elements of the 132D Infantry was at the outskirts of Basak. By 4 p.m. Gen. Arnold transferred his command from the USS Spencer, the flagship of the Attack Group and went on shore. By this time, the Americal Division’s losses were listed at eight killed and 39 wounded, mostly from the destruction wrought by the minefields of Green Beach 1 in Talisay.
We shall be writing about this in the next columns to come.