PLACE… SOUTH PACIFIC…INVASION, MacArthur returns.

Leyte, Central Philippines, October 20, 1944. I’m a long way from Chicago, My outfit, the Seventh Division scheduled to make the beachead with units of the sixth army on MacArthur’s Return to the Philippines. The navy is pounding the beach with everything but the kitchen sink, it looks like a giant 4th of July… One has a sort of numb feeling, you know this is happening, but it’s like a movie in slow motion not for real. My platoon climbs over the side of the transport and into the fragile looking landing craft, some of the men have trouble as we are carrying heavy packs with as much as possible to drop on the beach. When we left Hawaii, the ship seemed so bigand the closer we got to Leyte the smaller it seemed, sure hate to leave it now. Some of the men are acting like Joe Cool, and the rest like myself are scared… no John Wayne. Rumors have it the first couple waves caught hell going in. But will keep our fingers crossed and our heads down and fight. And to think that guy in the draft board shook my hand and said he would give anything to take my place. Getting closer to the beach, you can hear incoming fire from the beach area, shells from the enemy guns hitting the water around the landing crafts. Wow! We landed, the LCV landing craft is up on the beach but the ramp is jammed and won’t open, we go to the back and start climbing over the sides before the enemy gets our range. The water comes up to about our hips as we start for dry land, hoping one will not step into a shell hole with all the equipmewnt we are carrying you could drown. The waves came in and now the water is up to the chest and im moving like I weight 300 pounds. It seems the tree cover is a million miles away… The next time MacArthur wants to go some place… I’ll take a rain check.

LEYTE ISLAND OCTOBER 20, 1944 TO DECEMBER 25, 1944
Japanese Imperial Army units wiped out March 1945.