The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-31
Americans, Filipinos
 Smashed Backward
Continued from Page D

1 American troops are holding, now only 30 miles from the capital at the nearest point to the south. Be- hind the tanks and artnored cars are thousands upon thousands of Japanese robot infantrymen, face- less men walking upright into ma chine gun fire, picking their way among the bodies of their dead which are thick in the coconut groves, in the fields and on the slopes of the hills.
 A communicate of the command of the United States forces in the Far East, issued at 1i:20 e. m. (9:20 p. m. Tuesday EST) from the field headquarters of Gen. Douglas Mac- Arthur said:
 '"The enemy is driving in great force from both north and south.
 "fIis dive hombers practically con. trol the roads from the air.
 '"The Japanese are using great quantities of tanks and armored units.
 Being Pushed Beck
 "Our lines are being pushed back"
 Tn the north Japanese forces which had driven across the Agno river line, were pushing down on Manila over the Palnpagna plains.
 Tn the south, the United States and Philippines troops were trying to hold a line anchored at Mt. Ma pulling, overlooking o great lagoon of Manila bay, e bare 30 miles south of Manila.
 Dispatches from United Press staff correspondents at the front told of 6 gallant fight against over- whelming odds.
 American machine guns and rifles and bayonets, and Q pitifully few field guns and tanks, were exacting fearful price in lives for every mile the Japanese made, but the U. s. forces were being forced back nearer and nearer to Manila, as the defenSeless capital awaited Q new visitation of Japanese bombing planes.
 Air raid sirens sounded at 7;i2 0. m., but the "all clear" came 70 mln- utes later without incident.
 Apparently Japanese reconnais- sance planes had been sighted in the capital area, toward which the fronts were now approaching.
 Defenders stand We'll
 George Teodoro, United Press staff correspondent with the Amer lean Philippines forces on the southern front, reported that the defenders were making stubborn stand on a line which, anchored on Mt. Maquiling, extended along the boundary of Tayahas and Batangas provinces in a generally northeast ward direction.
 Here the Japanese, their tanks, planes, guns, cavalry and infantry constantly reinforcer, were driving in from the east coast, from the di- rections of Atimonan and Mauban, along the 25-mile long lagoon of Manila bay.
 United States army egineers were blowing Up roads all along the front, and in the process they had iso- lated from Manila the city of Santa Cruz, capital of Laguna province: the famous nearby tourist resort of Pagsanjan and other towns.
 Despite tho fury of their drive Teodore reported, the Japanese made little progress in their drive yesterday, and all reports empha. sized the terrible losses of the Jap- anese as they walked into the fire of the American and Philippines troops.
 Behind the front, there was an ever-swelllng procession of trucks, llorse-draw nVehicieS, bakers. and groeers' wagons, bicycles, hand carts and struggling, weary men, women and children, fleeing before the Japanese advance with bundles of clothing and boxes of provisions, seeking the dubious safety of Manila.
 Tn the fields many farmers, re- fusing to leave their crops, worked through the night threshing their ripened rice.