Push on the Islands

In the Philippines the Japanese, with the initiative still in their chubby hands, appeared to be starting their big push this week. Off Lingayen Gulf, 120 miles northwest of Manila, the U.S. forces reported sighting a flotilla of 80 enemy transports, announced that the major drive had begun. General Douglas MacArthur had long anticipated a heavy attack at Lingayen. An earlier thrust, in which the Japanese tried to put down troops from 154 motorboats, had been beaten off by a Philippine division which did not let a single Jap soldier reach shore alive. But more attempts were bound to come.

Therefore canny Douglas MacArthur had committed only a small part of his force to battle on the big island of Luzon. The battles at Legaspi, Aparri and Vigan, where the Japanese had set up beachheads, had been predominantly Air Force shows. The Japanese had grabbed these beachheads apparently to set up airdromes, and they had succeeded, though with heavy losses to men, transports and naval support. General MacArthur still kept a hard core of resistance centered around Manila.

Meanwhile the Japanese opened up a new sector last week, swinging far to the south in an enveloping action. Off Davao, 600 miles south of Manila on the Moro-inhabited island of Mindanao, the enemy appeared one day with four transports, naval and air support.

Davao had no defenses to compare with those on Luzon. Strategists have long recognized that in a pinch Mindanao might have to be abandoned to the Jap--who would still be far from his objective, with no solid land bridge to the north. Davao's defenders were a comparatively small force headed by a 51-year-old Texan, Lieut. Colonel Roger Hilsman.

For his defense Colonel Hilsman had more problems than a small force, a long supply line and the size of his opponent (who probably came from the Japanese base at Palau in the Mandated Islands 600 miles east of Davao). Colonel Hilsman's worst problem was likely to be the Japanese population of Davao, estimated as high as 25,000, composed predominantly of men and flecked heavily with youngsters whose carriage and demeanor bear the unmistakable marks of military training.

Colonel Hilsman's first act when the war began was to throw 1,500 Japanese into the clink. When the Japs struck at Davao, first by an aerial assault and then by landing party, the news from Mindanao thinned out. All Manila could say was that "fighting continues." The Japanese were not fighting a silly, diffused battle for the Philippines. They were playing heavily on the assumption that they could wear down Philippine supply--especially of planes and ammunition--and strike hard before more could come from the mainland. In snatching Davao they were also going after a base, 1,600 miles from Singapore, that could be another link in a chain around the Philippines, through the Mandated Islands, from Tokyo to Singapore. If the Japanese could grab it, while they also set themselves up in North Borneo, they would have a fairly well-protected detour around the submarine-guarded narrows in the South China Sea.

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