MacARTHUR ON LEYTE ISLAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 250, 21 October 1944, Page 5

MacARTHUR ON LEYTE ISLAND

Back In Philippines

INVASION FORCE STATED TO BE 250,000 MEN

(N.Z.P.A. Copyright.—Rec. I 1.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, October 20. « "Our troops are having a tough time and are being subjected to heavy mortar and artillery fire, but no one expected this to be an easy operation," said a broadcast direct from Leyte Island, where the Americans have made the first invasion of the Philippines. The broadcaster added that the first party drove inland 500 yards before the Japanese fired a single shot. General Mac Arthur went ashore with one of the landing parties, wading knee-deep through the water. -The broadcaster quoted General Mac Arthur as saying: "I'll stay for the duration now." The United Press correspondent at Philippines Headquarters states that General Mac Arthur's army totals at least 250,000 men. The Associated Press correspondent with General MacArthur says that for the first time' since General Mac Arthur's forces started the long fighting way back to the Philippines they are not plunging into a jungle campaign. Orderly rows of coconut palms fringe sandy beaches on the eastern coastline of Leyte for 40 miles. An all-weather highway skirts the coast, joined at several points by lateral roads leading through the broad Leyte Valley.

For the first time since Batan, General Mac Arthur's army and artillery will have room for manoeuvre, the artillery having wide fields of fire in the battle for the valley roads and the island's half-dozen airfields.

Tokyo radio, in an English language broadcast, declared that Japanese forces were about to launch a full-scale onslaught against the enemy on Leyte Island. A special South-west Pacific communique states: "In a major amphibious operation we seized the east coast of Leyte Island, 600 miles northward from Morotai (Halmahera Group ) and 2500 miles from Milne Bay (New Guinea), where our offensive started nearly 16 months ago. The landing splits the Japanese forces in the Philippines in two. Tacloban (chief town of Leyte Island) was secured with small casualties. The landing was preceded by a heavy air and naval bombardment which was devastating in its effect. Our ground troops are already extending their hold." Leyte Island, in the Central Philippines, is a mountainous island about 120 miles long and up to 45 miles wide. The chief town of Tacloban has a population of 30,000. The Philippines have been in Japanese hands since May, 1942, after outnumbered American and Filipino troops—heroes of the epic stands of Batan and Corregidor—had been overwhelmed.