On 18 November 1944, the 11th Airborne Division joined the Battle of Leyte by landing unopposed on Bito Beach, off Bito Lake, Leyte. The advance party from division headquarters had flown up from New Guinea to select an area for the division's encampment. Because the more desirable areas along the east coast had already been occupied, Bito Beach became the bivouac area for the division. The 187th GIR set up its first bivouac near the Filipino village of Abuyog. For its first few days on Leyte, the regiment cleared and policed the beach by moving landed supplies to rear-area dumps, built a base camp, and readied itself for its first taste of combat. It would not be long in coming. On 22 November, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, the US Sixth Army commanding general, formally attached the 11th Airborne Division to Major General John R. Hodge's XXIV Corps, consisting of the 96th Infantry and 7th Infantry Divisions. General Hodge directed General Swing to relieve the 7th Infantry Division along the Burauen-La Paz-Bugho line and destroy all Japanese forces in that area, protect and secure all corps and air corps installations in his area of operations (AO), protect the Leyte Gulf supply bases and shipping, and coordinate operations with the 96th Infantry Division on his northern flank, running generally on an east-west line through Dagami. Swing knew that the fighting strength of his division consisted of seven small infantry battalions supported by three field artillery battalions with twenty-four 75mm pack howitzers and twelve sawed-off 105mm howitzers. But he put his division in motion piecemeal as the situation demanded. Overnight, the division went from a theater reserve role to direct combat.