The Landings at Nasugbu - The 11th Airborne's Invasion of Southern Luzon in World War II

0:00South Toronto, here we come to Bethany and the elves are taking off South Toronto, Toronto, Toronto If the filthy rich and can't be a snake on the ground The air is full of proof of sense, the battle of the ground They'll destroy the fish, the paint will kill the lake, the end will come South Toronto, Toronto, Toronto If the glory of the glory once you're ready, here we go South Toronto, Toronto, Toronto

0:31Hello friends, thank you for joining me today for this episode of Down From Heaven, the 11th Airborne Division in World War II and beyond. I'm your host, Jeremy Holm. I am a former American bobsled athlete who has turned 11th Airborne Division historian to honor my grandfather, 1st Lieutenant Andrew Carrico, and all of his buddies who defended freedom in World War II. Now I am the author of three books on the angels, and it's an honor to travel across the United States

1:01lecturing on the history of the 11th Airborne from 1943 through today. And speaking of lecturing, I recently had the opportunity to do a live Q&A with my new friends in Morioka, Japan. This lecture was held to help open a wonderful museum exhibit that focuses on the allied occupation of Japan, and I was able to shed light on the 11th Airborne's time in occupation duty from 1945 to 1949, and also explain how our angels helped Morioka and the Amori and Iwate prefectures rebuild after the war.

1:37So we discussed how two nations who were previously enemies came together to create a partnership that still exists to this day.

1:48So to all my friends in Japan, Tomodachi ni naraite ureshi desu. Hope I said that right, but I think you got the gist of it. At the same time I was sharing the 11th Airborne's early history in Japan on this particular video conference, A group of our modern Arctic angels were in-country holding training exercises with the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force and other multinational partners. Now these exercises reinforced interoperability, trust, and shared commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.

2:19And the historian in me was excited to hear that these angels visited what the 11th Airborne Division called Camp Crawford in Hokkaido, which is now an operational JGSDF site. Now the angels originally built Camp Crawford in 1946 and they stayed there until heading back to the States in 1949. So this site represents the decades-long ties between the United States and Japan. But if you'd like to listen to the audio recording of my lecture on the 11th Airborne Division's time in Japan with Morioka,

2:53that episode will be coming soon, so stay tuned. And as you know, all of our episodes are available on the streaming service of your choice. We have all the options on the table of Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and so forth. And I hope you'll give that episode a listen. You know, it was a wonderful experience chatting with the people of Morioka, and I'm grateful to now be known in Morioka as Jeremy-san. So I guess I can officially say that I'm big in Japan. Now the topic of today's video is a piece of the 11th Airborne Division's history in World War II that does not get a lot of attention.

3:29So you know me, I wanted to tell the full story. Almost everyone knows that the 11th Airborne Division fought in the battle for Manila and helped liberate Luzon from Imperial Japan in 1945. But here's the question. How did they get to Manila? Where did that part of the story begin? Well, let's jump in and find out. After the 11th Airborne Division's bloody campaign to liberate Leyte in 1944, the surviving angels came down from the mountains to rest and re-equip on the beaches near Beto through January of 45.

4:02Now, these angels were exhausted. G511's David Webb said, Battles across Leyte produced a truly pitiful-looking bunch of paratroopers. An ordeal we all wanted to forget. Exhausted, sick, and wounded, we had done ourselves proud, but were too tired to realize it. Or, too tired to give a damn might be more fitting. Now, as their bodies healed, these angels spent time on the beaches and swimming in the ocean. Some took to exploring the surrounding areas and visiting nearby units,

4:34including two paratroopers who did what most privates would never dream of doing. They called on a five-star general. That's right. Two angels basically knocked on General Douglas MacArthur's door and asked to come in. Here's the story. The 511 PIR's PFC Ralph Marisicki and Private Charles Fewerson have been tasked with delivering a captured enemy map of California with invasion sites marked on it to Division Commander General Joseph Swing's headquarters.

5:06Now, this map had been found during the Leyte campaign on a dead Japanese officer in the officer's satchel. So, after visiting Swing's CP, these two angels were tasked with carrying the map up to Tacloban, to General MacArthur's headquarters. And so, off they went. And upon arrival, Private Fewerson turned to his buddy and said, Ralph, we are never going to get another chance to be this close to General MacArthur. Why don't we visit him?

5:36Right? I mean, a paratrooper's confidence. Well, a duty sergeant outside General MacArthur's office did not quite see it that way, so he turned the angels away. But being angels, they persisted, and they found Lieutenant Colonel Roger Egberg, who was General MacArthur's physician. So, the two angels talked to the good doctor, explained the situation, and the colonel said to come back in an hour. So, Charles and Ralph did so, and General MacArthur greeted them and welcomed them into his office.

6:08Saying that he had visited both of their hometowns, so Cleveland and the Bronx. And, you know, MacArthur and these two angels spent about 10 minutes talking about the 11th Airborne's campaign on Leyte. And, you know, they were looking at operational maps, and these two paratroopers later said they were surprised with just how aware General MacArthur was of what the angels were doing in the mountains. And so, they boldly asked the general, they said, why are the newspapers back home not reporting on what we're doing?

6:39So, General MacArthur explained that he was leaving the 11th Airborne Division out of his headquarters' official communiques. He wanted the angels to be kind of a secret weapon for them. And so, that answer satisfied the two paratroopers. But the division commander, General Joseph May Swing, when he heard about this interaction between his angels and General MacArthur and General MacArthur's response, General Swing kind of laughed and he said, he had Blarney all right, which, as you know, means skillful flattery.

7:11But before leaving General MacArthur's office, the two angels asked him another question, one that all their buddies had been wondering about during the Leyte campaign. And they asked, why is the 11th Airborne Division being used as ground infantry instead of for some special aerial insertion operation or mission? So, General MacArthur told them, he said, that there was plans in the works, that they would be able to use their training in the near future.

7:43Well, MacArthur's plans, at least what he was hinting at, is the topic of today's episode, the angels' invasion of Southern Luzon. And today's episode is kind of more of a part one. Part two will cover the angels' jumps on Tegaitai Ridge and the battle for the Aga Pass. Now, before Charles and Ralph headed back to the division, they walked out with General MacArthur out of his office and into kind of the waiting area, which, to paint the picture, it was full of all these generals and high-ranking officers that were waiting to see the general.

8:16And they were kind of annoyed that these two lowly privates had taken so much time that they had to wait to meet with General MacArthur. So, General MacArthur kind of, he shook their hands and he said, tell your boys that I'm real proud of the 11th Airborne. And when that got spread around the division, another angel declared, praise from Caesar. So, something was in the works for the angels. And the next indicator came on January 2nd,

8:47when General Swing had lunch with General Robert Eichelberger, who was now commander of the U.S. 8th Army. And they were discussing what role the 11th Airborne Division would play in the upcoming invasion of Luzon. General Eichelberger later wrote in his journal, he said, I like Joe's outfit. They look like they'll fight plenty. And they would. Now, Eichelberger had been tasked by General MacArthur with landing on southern Luzon to contain the enemy forces south of Manila.

9:17And the general wanted the angels for this fight in particular. So, eight days later, on January 10th, General Eichelberger and General Swing met again to discuss the initial plans that had come down from MacArthur's HQ. And neither General Eichelberger nor General Swing were fans of what they read. And here's why. So, a week later, on January 17th, General Swing and his assistant division commander, Brigadier General Albert Pearson,

9:47who everybody called Big Al, they went to a briefing at General Eichelberger's headquarters. And in attendance was the Navy's Admiral Frank Fletcher and 5th Air Force Chief of Staff, Major General Donald Hutchinson. Okay, so a lot of brass in the room. So, plans were discussed for 8th Army's invasion of southern Luzon. And while General Swing was happy to hear that, yes, his angels were going to participate, he hated the plans that he was hearing. So, we have to remember, U.S. 6th Army had landed up north of Manila at Legayan Gulf

10:21and were pushing south towards Manila. So, back in early December of 44th, there had actually been talk of attaching the angels to General Walter Kruger's 6th Army for that invasion up north. But that idea was ultimately rejected because, at the time, Allied Air Units really were unable to handle a divisional airborne mission. So, in the end, the angels were assigned to General Eichelberger's 8th Army. And that's the good part. The bad part was that to prevent the enemy's forces in southern Luzon

10:55from moving north into Manila and up to engage 6th Army. The plan was for the 11th Airborne to drop reinforced companies from the 511th Parachute Infantry, kind of piecemeal, across southern Luzon. So, these 200-man units would, for the most part, have very limited support, although Filipino guerrilla groups would assist in some of those areas. So, General Swing is hearing all this, and he's looking at the maps,

11:26and he's looking at the intelligence, he is looking at the enemy's strength, the estimated enemy's strength in these areas. And he immediately knew that his men were going to suffer high and unnecessary casualties. So, Captain John Conable, who served in the division's 457th Parachute Field Artillery, and then was later quartermaster, he said, General Swing was livid at the suggestion that we be scattered all over. Swing was always first in line to defend his men.

11:58So, he told the powers to be, quote, If you want to take my division from me, relieve me of command, but give my men a fighting chance.

12:11The general later wrote to his father-in-law, General Peyton March. Yeah, that General Peyton March. He explained what his feelings, and he said, In my estimation, the Battle of Luzon is going to take everything we've got out here, and maybe a little bit more. So, rightfully, General Swing pushed for a concentration of his forces, and not a wide dispersal. He later said of these initial plans that they would have frittered away the division, the strongest single weapon GHQ had in reserve,

12:43once the 6th Army had been committed. Moreover, such dissipation would have failed not only to contain the 30,000-odd Japanese in southern Luzon, but it would have permitted them to rush to the reinforcement of the Shimbu line east of Manila, which, as it was, proved a very mean obstacle to the 6th Army. Now, the concept of dropping the 11th Airborne Division piecemeal across southern Luzon, well, that came from General MacArthur's headquarters, and particularly the S-3 section under Operations Chief Lieutenant General Stephen Chamberlain.

13:16And I want to point out that 8th Army's General Robert Eichelberger, he completely agreed with General Swing's assessment of these initial plans. He highly disagreed with what was going to happen. So, but thankfully, due to General Swing's very vocal opposition, and with the support of General Robert Eichelberger, these initial and awful concepts of breaking up the 11th Airborne and dropping them across southern Luzon, those were dropped. So instead, on January 2nd, the Angels received the final plans

13:47for their operation in Field Order No. 17, which said, the 11th Airborne will land one regimental combat team on X day at H hour in the Nasugbu area, seize and defend a beachhead. 511th Parachute Regimental Combat Team will be prepared to move by air from Leyte and Mindoro bases, land by parachute on Tagaitai Ridge, effect the junction with the force of the 11th Airborne Division moving inland from Nasugbu. The 11th Airborne Division,

14:18reinforced, after assembling on Tagaitai Ridge, will be prepared for further action to the north and east as directed by commanding General 8th Army. Now, you'll notice that that last part was a little bit vague, and that will be the subject of some future episodes. For now, General Eichelberger wanted the 11th Airborne Division to land in southern Luzon on the beaches of Nasugbu, and this was part of Operation Mike 6, and the date was set for January 31st, which really only gave

14:49the angels about six days to finish their preparations. So, General Swing decided that his amphibious landing force, the one that was going to hit the beaches at Nasugbu, this is in Luzon's Batangas province. So, General Swing decided that the amphibious force was going to consist of the 187th and 188th glider infantries, supported by elements from the 127th Airborne Engineers, and the 674th and 675th glider artilleries.

15:20Now, in these few days before the operation kicked off, numerous lectures were held in the division's war room, which, you know, included sand tables, aerial photographs, maps, and so forth. And a lot of these briefings were actually given by 11th Airborne troopers who had served on Luzon, including in southern Luzon, before the war began. So, wonderful intel. Now, the division's 408th Quartermaster Company had one of the toughest jobs at the time

15:52since about 90% of the division's supplies of personal equipment had been destroyed either by the Japanese during their surprise attack on the airfields at Barawan, and also just by Leite's jungle environment, which, you know, destroyed equipment, shoes, you name it. So, 408th was very busy in these few days, very hectic. Now, I do want to backtrack for just a second. Before these last-minute rushes and

16:22preparations were going on, General Swing actually sent Silver Star recipient First Lieutenant Robert Dickerson, who selected Staff Sergeant Vernon Clark to go with him. But these two were sent on a recon mission to, you know, recon the landing beaches and to obtain information and intelligence from the local Filipino guerrillas about the disposition of enemy forces in Nasugbu and then inland as well up to Tagaytai Ridge. And they also wanted to verify

16:52that the roads from the beaches to Tagaytai Ridge were passable for the division's transportations, you know, the trucks and the jeeps and so forth. So, these two angels arrived at Nasugbu via a submarine and then they jumped in, you know, rubber rafts, came to shore where they were met by local Filipino guerrillas. So, again, Dickerson and Clark landed at Nasugbu to gather intelligence for the enemy defenses in that area, but also they wanted to see what was going on in Lucina and the Filipino

17:23guerrillas that they met up with, well, they said that there were an estimated 2,000 Japanese at Nasugbu with an additional 12,000 enemy nearby who were supported by artillery and tanks. So, bad news for an understrength airborne division that was lightly supported. So, even worse, there were potentially 7,000 to 15,000 Japanese around Tagaytai Ridge where the 511th PIR's RCT

17:53was planned to land in just a few days' time. Now, the Angels were never ones to avoid a fight. Not then, not now. But those numbers were a little bit concerning, right, considering the Angels are only going to have light artillery to support them and no armor. So, the negative reports were substantiated by Captain John Richmond of the 503rd PIR. So, Captain Richmond had been sent to the area to gather some intelligence, and this was prior to the 503rd's famous jump on Corregidor.

18:25So, Captain Richmond made his way back to General MacArthur's headquarters with his own intel, and he said the situation was worse than they actually thought. When Dickerson, Clark, and Richmond all reported in and they started tallying up the estimated numbers, they realized that the 11th Airborne, if they landed at Nasubu, they could potentially find themselves outnumbered 6 to 1. So, PFC George Doherty of the 511th's headquarters company of the 3rd Battalion, he said the odds

18:55for success were overwhelmingly against the 11th Airborne Division in light of the intelligence reports. So, George then rightfully called the Angels' landings one of the most thrilling and courageous moves by an Army commander to make the commitment of a small airborne division to the task that three divisions were planned to execute. So, that's right, initially three divisions were going to participate in the landings at Nasubu, but ultimately

19:25because of some changes in operational needs and so forth, it was going to be just the 11th Airborne Division alone. So, instead of three, it's now dropped to one facing intense odds. So, it's not surprising that General MacArthur's headquarters almost issued orders canceling 8th Army's landings at Nasubu. That was until General Robert Eichelberger intervened at General Swing's insistence. Now, Swing and Eichelberger both said that they knew at the time that

19:57intelligence reports that came from Filipino guerrillas were sometimes exaggerated and incorrect. And so, they decided that they were willing to take that gamble of landing, but with a compromise. Instead of landing the division's 187th Paraglider Infantry Regiment at Lucina, and then landing the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment at Nasubu, they decided that they would cancel the Lucina landings and then land both regiments at Nasubu.

20:27The amphibious landing force would then push inland, but if it ran into too much resistance, the angels would withdraw back to the beaches at Nasubu, and then make their ways back to the ships offshore. And if that happened, the 511th PIR's drops on Tagaitai Ridge would be cancelled. So, General MacArthur's headquarters agreed with this compromise, so on January 26th, the angels who were going to sail to Nasubu practiced some amphibious landings on Leyte's

20:58Beetle Beach from assault craft. And then the next day, January 27th, 1945, the angels who were headed for Nasubu, they boarded four APDs, or fast destroyer escorts, 32 LCI's, landing craft infantry, eight LSMs, landing ship mediums, and six LSTs, which is a landing ship tank. So, kind of an interesting thing I found when I was researching this assault for our three

21:29books on the angels in World War II, I found that the angels didn't actually know what ships were coming until they arrived on January 25th. So, the loading of supplies took about 24 hours and then, you know, everybody got underway. Sergeant Edward Hamrich of the 188th Glider Infantry, he said, the four days aboard were spent cleaning our weapons because by now we were known as the mud hogs of Leyte and body and equipment had to be revived. Now,

22:00the angels transports were part of the 120 ship Navy Task Force Group 78.2 under Rear Admiral William Fetchler and since their LCIs lacked cooking facilities, a bunch of the angels actually complained. They said, hey, we didn't get our traditional steak and eggs last meal before we hit the beaches. But on January 31st, which was X day, at seven o'clock in the morning, things kicked off and the angels on deck

22:30watched 18 A-20 Havocs and nine P-38s fly over and they just raked the landing beaches. And those beaches are beautiful, by the way. Now, Subbu today, just like before the war, is a sought-after tourist destination. But on January 31st, 1945, the U.S. Navy bombarded Red Beach. Captain Leo Crawford, who was in command of the 188 Company C, he was watching the

23:02Navy blast the beaches and he said, you know, he turned to Major David Walker, who was in the same boat as he was, and he said, we're going to have to find another beach because the Navy is obliterating this one. And no one was really complaining because the Angels and the Navy both knew that the Japanese had the landing beaches zeroed with two 75-millimeter gun batteries and several machine guns, you know, all of which were emplaced, you know, at Wawa and on the high grounds at

23:32Nasubu Point and San Diego Point. So some of the Navy's firing was actually in the direction of those known enemy emplacements, while the rest was simply to soften up the landing beaches. So the Angels of the 188th 1st Battalion moved to shore at 815, and they did so in, you know, four columns of LCVPs, which, you know, long name is landing craft vehicle personnel, which are more commonly known as Higgins boats. And you've probably seen those on Saving Private

24:02Ryan or any footage of the D-Day landings at Normandy. Now the 188th 2nd Battalion would follow in the larger LCMs at about 830, and I do want to point out that both the 187th and the 188th only had two battalions, not three. So these two regiments that are about to hit the beaches, they're about half the size of a standard infantry regiment in World War II.

24:29And this is a map overlay of the Red Beach landing zones with Nasugbu behind it. You can see the 188th's phase lines, but the Angels ended up moving faster than the estimated times it would take for their objectives. Now everyone carried 1K and 2D rations and one unit of fire for the assault, and one of the Angels joked, we did not see our personal baggage until two months after the landing. But the 188th's Captain Leo Crawford, he said, we made a

25:00run for the beach, the front end dropped down, and we jumped off into four or five feet of water, which you can see some actual footage of here that I dug out of the archives. It is a little grainy, but you have to remember it's early in the morning, and this footage is being shot during the assault in 1945.

25:21Now jumping off in the five feet of water wasn't really that big of a deal for anyone who was over five feet tall, but Leo's radio man, Fred Cole, he was about 5'4", so he stepped into the water and Leo said he just disappeared. So, you know, the radio man joked that he preferred to be next to the 6'4", Captain Crawford, because Leo offered a bigger target for Japanese snipers. But Leo got the last laugh after the situation was deemed to be

25:52non-life threatening. He said, in late afternoon, Fred and I were standing together and a sniper shot him through the knee, a nice clean hole with hardly any blood. Evidently, the sniper picked him because he had the radio. And although he was wounded, Fred Cole stayed by Leo's side throughout the rest of their time in Nasugbu. And while Leo put the tough radio operator in for Bronze Star, Leo said, quote,

26:22Some jerk at regimental headquarters wanted to know what Fred had done to deserve it, and as far as I know, he never got it. Now over in their own Higgins boat, Sergeant Edward Hamrich of the 188th headquarters company, he said, I don't think we were in our ship headed for shore for five minutes when Mike Levicus, my clerk, let me know in a whisper, Ed, do you know today is my birthday? I did not say

26:52anything to Mike then, but I did offer up a silent prayer. Lord, please let Mike have his next birthday, and if not, see that I am not around if you deem otherwise.

27:06And I do want to point out there was some light resistance to the angels' landings in the form of some artillery fire and machine gun fire. Shortly after moving off the beach, Sergeant Hamrich said, he came upon a site which he never forgot, he said, you know, there by the side of the road, lying side by side, were two men, which I only saw alive and well a half hour before. I think I changed from a boy to a man at that moment. And the Nasugbu landings

27:36were made by pretty boys. Most of the angels were 18 or 19 years of age, as you can see in this footage here of a gun crew of the division's 475th Glider Field Artillery, which had just hit the beaches at Nasugbu. Now, the 188th 1st Battalion's landings were being led by Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Laflame, who was acting as the regiment's guide. Colonel Laflame was one of those angels who had served in the area before the war. He actually told his

28:06men, my wife and I used to come to these beaches to relax. But seven minutes after hitting the beach, Colonel Laflame sent a radio message back saying that the landings were mostly unopposed. So, since the 188th Artillery had yet to land due to some difficulties, which we'll talk about in a second, Colonel Laflame sent Company C, which was again under Captain Leo Crawford, he sent Company C north towards Nasugbu Point to take out

28:37the enemy's 75mm gun that was there that the Japanese could actually pull back into a cave after firing. So, the Navy's firing on the gun was proving ineffective. And Captain Crawford said, we had been in continuous action since before dawn with little rest the previous night. everyone was exhausted. The company had about 10 casualties out of 130 that went ashore that morning. The next morning, we jumped off in the attack again and very easily cleaned out

29:07Nasugbu Point. Now, Leo's company did have some help in their assault. So, naval fire was carefully called in and it hit about 300 yards from C Company's positions. And the angels quickly moved in and eliminated the last Japanese on the point, which sits north of the town of Nasugbu. So, C Company is sent north to Nasugbu Point to take care of the gun there. And then after the 188th 2nd Battalion lands, E Company is sent

29:38south to take care of the gun and machine gun positions on San Diego Point. And E Company said they had to use flamethrowers and demolition kits to achieve their objectives. So, fun fact, the angels used flamethrowers over 200 times in their operations around Laguna Day Bay. Mostly they were using the M2 model and the things you find when you're digging into the archives or research. But I really put that tidbit in there for all of you living historians

30:09out there who are reenacting and portraying the 11th Airborne Division at events. So, thank you for putting in that work. I know you appreciate the tiny details. But the rest of the 188th 2nd Battalion moved to secure Lyon and then eliminate the Japanese forces there and so they were really protecting the division's right flank. And while all this is going on, Lieutenant Colonel La Flame is moving the rest of the 188th into Nasugbu itself which proved

30:40to be kind of a trick. This photo was taken a few years before the War of the Landing Beaches but you can see