GREAT ARMADA

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23029, 21 October 1944, Page 5

GREAT ARMADA

No Ships Lost (11.15 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 20. “The invasion force was the greatest ocean-going amphibious armada in history,” says a front line dispatch to the United Press. By nightfall more men would have been landed than came ashore in Normandy on D Day. Casualties have been exceedingly light, partly because the enemy was caught off balance. The advance inland is proceeding smoothly. Broadcasts from the scene of landings at Leyte reported that so far not a single American ship has been lost. Three days before the landings, American forces went ashore on Homonhon and Dinagati Islands to secure an entrance to Leyte Gulf. Two days before the landings, minesweepers started sweeping the area of the actual landings, preceded by a preliminary bombardment on Thursday night from battleships. Landings at Three Points Under a devastating bombardment from American battleships and American and Australian cruisers, United States troops landed along a 13-mile beachfront on the eastern shore of Leyte Island, reports the correspondent of the Combined Allied Press with the invasion forces. The landings'were made at three points. The first was San Ricardo, three miles south of Tacloban; the second between San Jose and Dulag, and the third at Poanan on the southern tip of the island. Carrier planes filled the skies, an the great battleships worked slowly along the shore, sending continuous salvoes of shells across San Pedro Bay. The great armada of hundreds of ships steadily landed troops and equipment, so far unmolested by the Japanese Navy. After eight hours, only one enemy plane appeared. President Osmena and BrigadierGeneral Carlos (Resident Commissioner) accompanied General MacArthur aboard a warship. The entire trip from New Guinea was made without interruption except for a single enemy plane, which was shot down.