Bert Jay Adams Immediately following the fall of Leyte in the Philippines, coordination was made and plans were finalized for the invasion of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. These plans involved my Grandpa, Bert Adams, and his unit, the 40th Infantry Division, which were still securing airfields on the island of New Britain. On December 27, a convoy of 148 amphibious ships carrying men, artillery, and supplies departed Manus Island for the island of Leyte. This convoy (referred to as the Amphibious Force) arrived at Leyte on the afternoon of January 4, 1945. At Leyte, Grandpa would have seen the largest collection of ships he had ever beheld. This was the force that would invade Luzon. That night, the Amphibious Force embarked on a 200-mile journey towards Lingayen Gulf on the northwest corner of the island of Luzon. They sailed at the trail of a naval convoy more than 40 miles long. There were ships of every typeaircraft carriers, destroyers, cruisers, fuelers, transports, etc.and among them, a light cruiser called the Boise with General Douglas MacArthur on board. At that time, the Japanese had only about 200 planes remaining in the Philippines, and they were beginning to lack the fuel and ammunition necessary to continue aerial operations. This led to a desperate but lethal use for the remaining aircraftkamikazes. Between the 2nd and 6th of January, two ships were sunk, 30 ships were damaged, 330 men were killed, and 760 men were wounded by Japanese kamikazes. Most of these losses occurred at the lead of the convoy; but in the rear, where Grandpa's unit was, the greatest threat came from Japanese submarines. One of these fired two torpedoes at the Boise (with General MacArthur on board) but both missed their target. On January 7, kamikazes made their first appearance among the Amphibious Forces at the trail of the convoy but had no success. On the 8th, they returned; and with no more than fifteen planes, the Japanese damaged two aircraft carriers and three transports. After the harrowing 200-mile voyage, the Amphibious Forces taking part in the invasion of Luzon (including Grandpa's unit) arrived in Lingayen Gulf early on the morning of January 9, 1945. Everything was ready for the invasion. What is usually a very chaotic operation was quite orderly that morning, despite the fact that three kamikazes made their appearance a few minutes after 7:00 a.m. At 7:45, one of these crashed into the front battery of the light cruiser Columbia, known to her crew as 'The Gem of the Ocean'. Already hit by two kamikazes previously, this plane killed 24 men and wounded 68 more. Surrounded by landing craft, the Columbia (2 1/2 miles from the beach) was not able to maneuver away from the suicide attack. Grandpa Adams remembers seeing a cruiser hit by a kamikaze that morning; and since this was the only instance where this occurred, it must have been the Columbia that he saw as he was in one of the nearby landing craft. At 9:00 a.m., the fleet of landing craft began moving towards the beach, adhering to the pattern used successfully during the invasion of Leyte. Surprisingly, there was almost no enemy resistance; the fortifications on the beach were not manned. In fact, the Infantry of the 40th Division landed, captured a Japanese airfield and the city of Lingayen, and made no contact whatsoever with the enemy. This was the first time that the Japanese had employed this confusing tactic. Due to the lack of enemy contact and the speed with which the Infantry was able to push inland, the 40th Division established a beachhead more than nine miles wide and almost six miles deep before the sun set on D-Day. This tremendous success baffled intelligence officers at all levels, for everyone had expected strong resistance as they had seen in the past. In spite of this change in Japanese tactics, the Americans decided not to deviate from their original plan for the invasion. This meant that Grandpa's unit, which had not been a part of the initial waves, would remain aboard an LST (landing ship tank) in the Lingayen Gulf over ni ght. Shortly before the sun set at 6:46 p.m., several small ships ignited "smoke pots" to fill the Gulf with a layer of thick smoke and hide the remaining ships from the nightly barrage of kamikazes. 70 The men who had gone ashore were the lucky ones in this instance. At 3:20 a.m. on January 10, the battleship Philip detected three small boats on her radar screen. They turned out to be Japanese suicide boats. Eighteen feet long and made of plywood, each of these craft carried two 260-pound depth charges, a small machine gun, and several hand grenades. With crews of two to three men, approximately 70 of these boats had the mission to destroy the ships in the Lingayen Gulf. Rumors circulated later, which claimed that Japanese men pulled from the water the following day were "suicide swimmers" who swam out into the gulf with explosives strapped to their bodies attempting to sink the American ships. Some sources claim that these rumors proved to be unfounded (that they were actually crews of the suicide boats), but it is no surprise that there are contradictions. According to official records, 'it was a very dark night; very few people saw anything at all, there was a great deal of confusion, and many conflicting stories.' However, some facts were clear, one of the American landing craft was sunk and nine others damaged, including one where Grandpa Adams happened to be pulling guard. Grandpa recalls that the Japanese 'swam' out into the gulf and hung an explosive charge of some type to the ladder on the back of the ship. It exploded and split one of the propellers in half, bending the other. In one of the official historical records, LST-925 'reported a hole below the waterline, and her starboard engine out of commission.' Based on the similarities between this report and Grandpa's recollection, I assume he was aboard this particular ship. According to Grandpa, many of the men sleeping below the deck suffered broken bones and other minor injuries (specifically, 'men sleeping on the left side of the ship broke their left arms, and men on the right side of the ship broke their right arms.') He believes that this event may have had something to do with his own hearing loss. In the darkness and the chaos that ensued, not knowing whether the ship would sink, the Navy personnel on board threw all of the flotation devices overboard. However, Grandpa remembers that none of these were tied to the ship in any way, so had they needed this flotation equipment; they would have been searching blindly for it in the water. Despite all of the confusion, they were able to 'tie on' to another ship on [their] left-hand side in order to remain afloat, meaning that the ship must have been taking on water. This is another basis for my assertion that Grandpa must have been aboard LST-925, since the damage reported by this ship coincides with Grandpa's memory of what happened. While the infantry, who had gone ashore in the initial assault, maintained a strong hold on the beachhead, vehicles, artillery, ammunition and supplies were unloaded onto the beach. Because of unexpected delays in unloading the ships in the bay, it was three days before Grandpa and those aboard his LST (still being towed and kept afloat by another ship) were able to go ashore. After a voyage lasting almost three weeks and covering hundreds and hundreds of milesthreatened by danger above and below the wavesGrandpa was back on dry land. In support of the 40th Division (as part of the XIV Corps), Grandpa and the 222nd Field Artillery Battalion began pushing south from Lingayen towards the Philippine capital of Manila along Route 13; but the going was slow. Numerous rivers, large and small, crisscross the low-ground south of Lingayen Gulf, and nearly every bridge in the area was either destroyed or damaged. Those not rendered useless by the Japanese had been destroyed by American bombers and naval gunfire, so U.S. Army engineers went to work repairing these bridges or constructing new ones, a time consuming process. Nevertheless, the U.S. forces continued to advance. By 17 January (eight days after the first landings), the Army had over 175,000 troops ashore, and the 40th Division had pushed almost 30 miles inland, with only 30 men killed and 90 wounded. By this time, it had become clear to military planners that the Japanese did not intend to defend the Central Plains, the area south of Lingayen Gulf. The task of capturing Clark Field fell to XIV Corps, of which Grandpa's unit was a part. The operation began in earnest on January 20, 1944. Still encountering nothing more than light resistance, the 40th Division moved quickly from 20-22 January, approaching Clark Field from the north on the morning of 23 January. It was here, near the city of Bamban that scattered Japanese elements became more concentrated, blending a determined defensive line. To the west, secure in the barren heights of the Zambales Mountains, Japanese artillery, mortars, and machine guns could lay easily observed, fire into the gathering mass of troops and vehicles that comprised the XIV Corps, preventing a continued advance as well as preventing American use of the airfield. This being the case, the commander of XIV Corps ordered the 40th Division to swing 90 degrees west and clear the high ground, enabling the remainder of MV Corps to seize Clark Field and continue on toward Manila. With infantry probing up the steep hills, Grandpa's unit, along with other artillery assets of the 40th Division would provide the fire support necessary to clear the key terrain of the Zambales Mountains. Various intelligence estimates that 4,000 to 8,000 Japanese troops were defending on or near Clark Field. It 71