The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-02-18
Vital Points
Seized, Says
Gen. Arthur
Japanese Completely Sur.
prised By Airborne
Troop Invasion

MANILA, sunday, rep. lo.-LfD-s
American paratroopers and water-
borne ir6antrymen have seized de.
cisive points on Corregidor Fort
ress rock in Manila Bay, assuring
it's complete capture and clearing
the gate of the vast bay for return
of the United States Fleet, Gen.
Douglas Macarthur announced to.
day.
The descent of the parachutists,
veterans of New Guinea fighting
squarely atop the Rock COM
pletely surprised the Japanese and
effected the capture of the islands
defenses and mighty guns from the
rear.
Infantrymen hit the islands
shores shortly after the paratroops
landed. They leaped from the craft
which brought them from recently
captured Bataan, Immediately ad.
vanced inland and joined the sky.
borne troopers.
The landings were effected "With>
light casualties following CO.
ordinated bombardment by war-
ships of the U. S. Seventh Fleet and
planes of the Far Eastern Air,
Force.
The storming of Corregidor,
which the Americans yielded May
6, 1912, almost five months after
the Japanese landed on Luzon Is
land, was a two-way action.
Paratroopers of the 5o3rd Para
chute Regiment were dropped from
planes. This was the unit which
spectacularly landed at Lac, New
Guinea, earlier in the war.
These paratroopers were drop
ped on the topside of Corregidor
taking it's batteries and defenses in
the rear" Macarthur said.
1.-THE enemy was completely sur
prised by the air landing"
Then elements of the oath Divis-
ion of Maj. Gen. Frederick A. Irv-
ing, which played heroic role in
the October invasion of Leyte, were
ferried across the four-mile chan
mel from Bataan. They landed on
Corregidor's south shore.
These hard-fighting Yanks threw
the Nipponese garrison Into com.
plete dislocation," headquarters
related.
The Oath Infantrymen advanced
inland and effected a swift junction
with the paratroopers.
Securance of Corregido-' opens
Manila Bay to the United States
fleet a month and a week after
Macarthur invaded Luzon Island.
The japanese fleet was unable to
use the bay until their invasion
forces had been on Luzon almost
half year.
Macarthur said the action "opens
this great harbor to our fleets"
singularly using the plural in re-
ferring to naval groups.
On Bataan, captured from a
strategic standpoint although the
peninsula still harbors considerable
enemy forces hiding in TIE hills.
Macarthur announced the rescue Of
81 officers and men who had been
there since the outbreak of the
war. Sixteen were Americans,
three Dutch and two British.
In south Manila, Japanese gar.
rison which has ignored an ulti-
matum to surrender or even to
release thousands of unarmed civil
ians was further reduced in bitter
street and building battles south Of
the Pasig river mouth.
The Yanks scored gains in the
vicinity of Fort Mckinley, east Of
Nelson airfield.
In the Zambales mountains near
captured Clark air center north
vest of Manila, the 10th Division of
Maj. Gen. Rapp Brush wiped out
more enemy or ups.
1t. Gen. George C. Kenney's Far
Eastern Air Force ripped into en-
envy airdromes in the Philippines
IN the islands of Negros, Cebu and
Mindanao.
Mitchell bombers, Drawing bad
bombed Japanese troop
formations on Formosa, destroyed
4 highway bridge, ripped up rail-
way lines and demolished IS loco
motives.
Off Formosa's northeast coast
the Sakishima Islands,
small freighter was sunk and sew
sral others damaged.
Japanese squeezed into the old
Continued on Page Seven; Col. 81