AMERICAN FORCES 90 MILES FROM MANILA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 11, 13 January 1945, Page 5

AMERICAN FORCES 90 MILES FROM MANILA

LITTLE RESISTANCE

Lingayen Airfield In Operation N.Z.P.A. end British Wireless Rec. noon. WASHINGTON, Jan. 12. General Mac Arthur announces that the Sixth Army has penetrated 12 miles from the Lingayen beachhead, seizing the terminals of four major highways to Manila, also a section of the railway. Contact with the enemy is increasing.

American patrols, probing across the Agno River, are only 90 miles from Manila. Three armoured columns are now probably within easy gun range of the Agno River line, along which the Japanese may attempt their first stand.

A United Press dispatch from the front stated that one American column had seized an important road junction to the south of Umanday, suggesting that Mangataron, 18 miles inland, may have fallen. Observers said that the Americans could probably cross the Agno in strength without major resistance were it not necessary to consolidate their flanks against enemy blows from the east and west.

The National Broadcasting Corporation, broadcasting from Honolulu, quoted a Tokyo broadcast ordering the Japanese Fleet to end the passive resistance so far shown American moves and aid the Japanese forces opposing the Luzon invasion. Rapidly Consolidating The American landing force in Lingayen Bay is rapidly consolidating and enlarging the occupied area. It has not yet reached the stage of a general advance on Manila nor has it met any serious opposition. The beachhead is reported to be 25 miles wide with an average depth of nine miles.

United States aircraft are already flying from the Lingayen airfield, which engineers are busy enlarging.

The Japanese nave not yet succeeded in assembling a big enough force to challenge the American Army. The possibility of further landings south of Manila is probably at present in the enemy's mind. Tokyo radio says: "A third American convoy, including more than 100 transports' and more than 100 landing barges, escorted by ten carriers, has reached Lingayen Gulf and is advancing boldly in the face of our fierce attack."

Pushing rapidly Inland, the Americans on Luzon encountered the first Japanese resistance on their eastern flank at the point of maximum penetration, nine miles from the coast, says the New York Times correspondent in the Philippines in an earlier dispatch. Fighting is occurring along the highway running for seven miles between the villages of Manaoag and Pozurrubio. The enemy has not yet organised a continuous line.