Evening star., 1943-06-10
CHAPTER II.

The road to Baguio left the gull
and ran level toward the foothill.
for a half mile and then started
to climb and turn, following the
course of a river that had cut 6
deep gorge In the mountains. Ir
most places the cliffs on the inside
of the road rose almost vertically
and on the outside dropped down
steeply to the river. A retaining
wall kept automobiles from plung-
ing into the stream. Four or five
times the road crossed the river on
suspension bridges, and the last few
miles into Baguio were a steep zig
gag which had to be driven in Sec
ond gear
There were sentries and boxes
of dynamite on the bridges. A few
miles from Baguio a tollgate barred
the road, and the conscientious
gatekeeper was still collecting one
dollar for admission to the national
park, even with the war just over
the hills. He couldn't have COL
lected much that evening, for we
saw no other cars on the road.
AS we started up the road and
rounded the first bend we saw a
77-mm. gun mounted on a truck
equipped with wheels in front and
tractor treads in the rear. It was
manned by Filipino Scouts. They
had been fighting the Japs at Da
Mortis in the morning, and a few
minutes before we sighted them a
dive bomber had located them and
dropped three 100 Founders in the
hill over their heads. We saw
where the dirt and rocks had fallen
into their truck.
Those Japs are not so tough,
sir" they said. The Filipino
Scouts and especially our regiment,
the 26th Cavalry, can defeat them
at any time"
asked why they were not at
the front. They said, 1T is rather
dlfncult to determine exactly where
the front Is, sir. We were ordered
to withdraw to this position by our
commander, Col. Pierce"
We drove up the winding road
and over the zigzag and into the
outskirts OF Baguio. Through the
pine trees we could see the wooden
buildings Of Camp John Hay on a
nearby hill. 1t did not look badly
damaged. There were some Ameri-
can Army trucks drawn up at the
side of the road with a few officers
standing beside them. One Of them
had a blood-soaked handkerchief
wrapped around his head. His left
sleeve was cut off at the shoulder
and his arm bandaged In the twi-
light he looked like the drummer in
THE Spirit of '76."
He was Maj. Joseph Ganahl of
Euclid Heights. Cleveland, a West
Pointer and in peacetime a polo
player and hunter. He and Mai
Williams and Maj. Noble and their
Filipino Scouts had been fighting
the japanese advance from Vipan
down toward Lingayen, with a few
mounted 75s.
We've been fighting these fellows
Tor the past two weeks and holding
them pretty we'll Day before yester-
day the Japs hit us with a large
force, including tanks, and we start
ed to withdraw slowly down the
coast road to the cutoff to Baguio.
Last night they surrounded us. We
lound them holding a bridge be-
hind us, but we shot our way across,
then turned into road to our left.
away from the beach and toward the
mountains. All last night they were
hiring at us with rifles and machine
guns.
AT daylight this morning we
could see their ships out there. A
bunch OF them landed on the beach
and set up some 8S-millimeter guns
We shot back and forth for quite a
while, with considerable damage to
both sides. Finally, only one of nv
guns was flring and only about u
OF us were still alive and unwounded
The Japs were on the beach and on
the road to the south of us, and we
couldn't draw back through the
mountains.
I'VE were sitting there. exposed.
In the middle Of the rice fields. Then
their dive bombers came over, to add
to the merry hell of it, and I stopped
piece Of bomb and fragment of
shell and rifle bullet. Nothing Sc
rious, though.
I'VE decided our only chance was to
try to fight our way out to the south.
l put the survivors in the two trucks
that were still running. There
weren't many survivors, and most of
them were wounded.
I'VE drove back onto the road
without getting hit, and turned
south. About half mile up ahead
the road passed through a cutout
In a hill, which rose to about 20
feet on each side. The Japs opened
up on us from the top OF the cut
with machine guns.
Our leading gun truck was badly
shot up and was limping along at
only three miles an hour. The Sec
ond one couldn't pass it on the mar
row road.
When we reached the cutoff we
ducked low in the trucks and held
our breath. Machine-gun bullets
bounced down on us and few of us
got new wounds. We got through
because the Japs were too stupid to