RATED AS WAR'S MOST INCREDIBLE LANDING

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

RATED AS WAR'S MOST INCREDIBLE LANDING

JAPS' WORST THREAT

Absence Of Counter-Attacks Causes Amazement

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 10.30. WASHINGTON, Oct. 20. The long-awaited attack against the Philippines is without doubt the war's most incredible invasion, says the Columbia Broadcasting System correspondent with General MacArthur in a dispatch received early to-day. "I watched tens of thousands of Doughboys plunge into the black smoke which still crowds Leyte's landing beaches. The most amazing part of the invasion is the fact that so far the Japanese have not attempted to interfere with this, the gravest threat to their conquered Empire. : \

"On the upper deck of my ship, men in steel helmets waited for the expected attack but none came. Of course enemy aircraft may sweep over the mountains here at any minute after dark to-night. "They are aimosu certain to make some sort of attack against the hundreds of ships milling in the gulf, but the fact remains that so far the enemy has not made a single concerted effort with submarines, planes or motor torpedo boats to interfere.

"It is as though a protective shield had been held over the invasion convoy. Invasion craft all day have disgorged men and equipment. bulldozers, jeeps, tanks and all the implements of American mechanised warfare.

"Already the spearheads of our. attack - columns are pushing inland towards the cluster of airfields in the lower end of the island. Preliminary reports state that casualties are unbelievably low. "There may be tough days ahead before General Mac Arthur leads his troops down Manila's streets, but so

far the combined skill of the American Navy and Army has caught the enemy off his balance." Vast invasion fleets set sail from their bases on Dutch New Guinea on Friday, October 13. The battle line of these formations stretched over more than 1300 miles of ocean. They ploughed north-west toward the Philippines in the strictest of blackouts and under absolute radio silence. General Mac Arthur was in personal command on board one of the warships. Units'of the American Sixth Army were packed into transports and they were protected by the Seventh United States Fleet, an Australian naval squadron and supporting elements of the Third United States Fleet, all with air protection.

Striking ahead of the invasion fleet were task forces of aircraftcarriers, Far Eastern air forces and the R.A.A.P. Naval air forces under Admiral Nimitz's command from the Central Pacific had been blasting Japanese targets in all parts of the Philippines for days before General Mac Arthur's armada set sail. They kept it up all the time as the invasion forces were approaching the island and while the landings were in progress.

When General Mac Arthur went ashore four hours after the landings* he had with him every able-bodied man who had escaped from Corregidor, where the Allied stand was made more than two years ago.