9 January 1945 – Lingayen, Luzon Landings

Operational Map for Lingayen landing.

With Mindoro secured, American forces were now just south of Luzon. While MacArthur’s intention was to make his main landing assault at Lingayen in northern Luzon, elaborate attempts at deception were made in the south.

Mac had his aircraft unceasingly make reconnaissance flights and bombing missions in southern Luzon. Transport aircraft made many paradrops with dummies, while minesweepers cleared Balagan, Batangas, and Tayabas Bays. Filipino resistance fighters in southern Luzon, too, were called to conduct major sabotage operations. All the effort was to provide a false notion that the American landing was to take place in southern Luzon instead of Lingayen.

landing beaches, Lingayen Gulf

General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commander of the Japanese ground forces in the Philippine Islands, must have been made slightly unsure, for he did not move his headquarters to northern Luzon until after the landing had already taken place at Lingayen.  The U.S. Sixth Army was waiting to start their Luzon campaign.

The opening amphibious operation at Luzon, unopposed by the Japanese except for air attacks, landed more men than the first wave of the Normandy landing, and 175,000 were ashore within the first few days, securing a beachhead twenty miles wide.  At 09:30 hours, the 6th and 43rd divisions of the XIV Corps went in, between Lingayen and Damortis.

As at Leyte, the LST’s were grounded some distance from shore, but this time they had their pontoon causeways, which splashed down around 1100. Also, at Lingayen Gulf there was a more liberal use of LVT’s, invaluable in the terrain behind the beaches—a region of rice paddies, fish ponds, and swamps, through which meandered many streams and several good-sized rivers.

Vice Admiral Shigeru Fukudome noted after the war that he “had no advance information of [American] movement against Lingayen until the fleet actually departed.” Even by then, the Japanese believed the landing would be attempted around Manila Bay, and they “were taken by surprise when Americans appeared in Lingayen and started landing there.”

Nevertheless, Yamashita knew well that the vast coastlines of Luzon meant defenses established closed to the shores would be useless; instead, most of his men were fortified well inland, leaving only small units closer to the shore to delay the advance of American units.

Also on this date, 28  aircraft from USS Ticonderoga attacked their secondary target Heito Airfield in southern Taiwan (the primary target, Toyohara Arfield was covered in clouds), damaging the facilities.  USS Yorktown (Essex-class) launched attacks on Taiwan as well, in direct support of the Lingayen landings on Luzon and US Navy Task Force 38 attacked airfields on the Japanese-held Chinese island.

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Military Humor – 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Herbert Beck – SD; US Army, ETO, Pfc, POW

Katherine Despit – Bayou Blue, LA; USW Air Force, WWII (Ret. 20 y.)

David Feageans – Gretna, VA; US Navy, WWII, PTO, pilot

John Hillerman – Denison, TX; US Air Force, Sgt., SAC maintenance, (beloved actor)

Neil King – Winnipeg, CAN; RC Navy, WWII

Charles Malt – Pittsburgh, PA; US Navy, Vietnam

Stanley Oakes – Vancouver, CAN; RC Army, WWII, engineer

Overland Park – Rockhurst, KS; US Army, 187th RCT

James Simon – Conrad, MT; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-17 pilot, 351/8th AF

Arthur Wyckoff – Traverse City, MI; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO

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