(CONTINUED FROM ABOVE)
On 9 April, after an artillery preparation of approximately two thousand rounds, I and L Companies pushed straight forward five hundred yards and acquired the remainder of the Fishhook against slight resistance. Tanks and pack 37mm guns proved invaluable in accomplishing the mission. In this terrain, the T-32 s often more effective than the tanks in knocking out pillboxes, for they could be brought very close to the target before opening fire.
From the 10th to the 12th, the 3d Battalion remained in position on the Fishhook, sending patrols in all directions to find and destroy Jap stragglers and snipers in the area. On the 12th they were relieved by the 2d Battalion, and moved to the Division Rest Area at Puncan.
The rest Camp at Puncan had been opened on 6 April in accordance with a Division plan to give combat troops a two-week period of rest and relaxation. One battalion from each regiment was to go in a rest camp; on 5 April, the Division had been continually in contact with the enemy for a period of seventy eight days. In addition to the nerve-tension inevitable during combat, the men were weary to the bone from constant marches and counter-marches over some of the roughest terrain on Luzon. The 2d Battalion, for instance, had ridden only four miles during all its maneuverings between the beachhead at Lingayen Gulf and the Putlan River Valley.
The 1st Battalion was the first to benefit from the plan, moving into the camp on the 6th of April. On the 12th, they moved to the Putlan River Valley and relieved the 2d Battalion, which in turn relieved the 3d Battalion at the Fishhook near Kapintalan.
Upon relieving the 3d Battalion on 12 April, the 2d Battalion continued the mission of seizing and securing Kapintalan. The 13th was spent reconnoitering enemy dispositions. At 0845 on the 14th, E Company jumped off from the Fishhook and advanced northward into a deep draw toward the high ground which was there objective. Early in the afternoon they reached the end of the draw, and spent the rest of the afternoon searching for a route to their objective. At nightfall, no opposition had been encountered. Company F, meanwhile, had moved east from Scar Hill and occupied the positions formerly held by E Company on the Fishhook.
At 1245 on the 15th, E Company reached its first objective without opposition. G Company meanwhile, was attempting to reach the crest of a ridge near E Company’s objective. At 1300, three caves and four pillboxes were spotted on the route of advance. T-32 37mm guns were employed against them, but they proved to have been abandoned, and the company continued its march. On the morning of 16 April, they passed through E Company’s positions and continued to higher ground to the north, where they encountered Japs in well prepared positions. An artillery concentration was placed on the area, and G Company pushed on. In the preliminary skirmish which occurred this day, the company killed two Japs and had one of their men killed. Pushing forward the next morning they encountered several more pillboxes and killed twenty-one Japs. At 1030, F Company passed through G Company’s lines and kept going until, in mid-afternoon, they were stopped by heavy and continuous 47mm, mortar, and machine gun and rifle fire from a deep wooded draw in their line of advance. Since it was too late to attack, they withdrew one hundred yards and dug in for the night.
At 1130 the next day, E Company passed through G Company’s lines and after an artillery preparation pushed into the draw from which the enemy had stopped the F Company drive the day before. By nightfall they had reduced the enemy strongpoint and reached the high ground at the head of the draw, and on the morning of the 19th the company had moved out down the ridge toward Highway #5. They advanced slowly during the day, meeting little opposition, but encountering numerous deserted caves and emplacements. The slow advance was due to the fact that each cave had to be investigated and destroyed, to prevent the Japs infiltrating back and reoccupying them – which may have been their intention. On the morning of the 20th, the forward elements of E Company reached Kapintalan Bridge on Highway #5, and, finding a large pillbox under the bridge, destroyed it, killing seven Japs.
From the 21st to the 23rd, the 2d Battalion patrolled extensively to the northeast, and swept the draws and ravines around Kapintalan, sealing caves and destroying emplacements and other Jap installations, including one large bamboo barracks. On the evening of the 21st, two Japs were observed going into a cave at the turn of the highway above Kapintalan Bridge. Only one came out. The next morning, G Company sealed the cave with demolitions. It was opened again at 1400 and yielded eighteen suffocated Japs, a brand new 47mm anti-tank gun, four Enfield rifles, two 1903 US army rifles, an M-1, a Jap .25 caliber rifle, and a light machine gun.
Reconnaissance patrols to the west of Highway #5 had disclosed the presence of a concentration of Jap positions which the 2d Battalion, totally committed to their present zone of advance, were not able to handle. On the morning of the 17th, therefor, Company C was attached to the battalion with the mission of advancing and destroying the enemy in this area. By nightfall they had advanced five hundred yards from the jump off point, entered a deep ravine in which they encountered opposition from two enemy pillboxes, and destroyed them.
On the morning of 18 April the remainder of the 1st Battalion, leaving only D Company to guard the eastern approaches to the Putlan River Valley, moved up near C Company’s location east of Highway #5 and south of the 2d Battalion’s positions, with the mission of clearing the area of enemy pillboxes and caves. Company C, meanwhile, continued to move southwest down the deep wooded ravine they had entered the day before, reducing several enemy emplacements. At noon, Company B jumped off to catch up with company C. By 500, C Company had advanced another four hundred yards, and B Company held ground to their north. During the day, seven caves were sealed and a machine gun emplacement destroyed.
The next day the two companies, continuing side by side down the draw, destroyed eighteen caves, six pillboxes, and encountered a number of spider holes. In addition, they knocked out a 70mm gun. Progress was slow down this draw not due to enemy action so much as the thick jungle growth, and the necessity of eliminating every cave or pillbox discovered. At the end of the day, the forward elements of B Company were six hundred yards south-southeast of Kapintalan Bridge; an advance of six hundred yards during the day.
On the 20th, forward elements of both companies reached the highway, B company encountered no resistance; C Company engaged in two firefights, both times with small suicide groups which delayed the advance only temporarily. The battalion spent the 21st mopping up in the area they had taken. Six more caves were destroyed and twenty-one Japs killed; this the last enemy resistance in the ravine. By nightfall on the 21st, Highway #5 was cleared of the enemy as far north as Kapintalan Bridge.
D Company, relieved in the Putlan River Valley by the 25th Reconnaissance Troop, rejoined the battalion on the 22nd. Although the road was clear as far as Kapintalan, many bypassed Jap positions remained in the draws and ravines east of Highway #5, and it was not until the 28th that the job was completed.
SEE MORE AT:
http://www.cacti35th.org/regiment/history/hist_index.htm
toward bottom of page under heading:
LUZON
The Campaign in the Plains
and
The Campaign in the Mountains
