The Wilmington morning star., 1945-01-10
MACARTHUR LEADS
MEN INTO LUZON
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lands and through the China Sea,
Japan tried practically everything
in her waning but still dangerous
power to smash the American as
sault.
From the deck of his warship
Macarthur witnessed the full saw
agery and vindictiveness of an
enemy's desperate but futile eff
forts.
Macarthur left Corregidor in a
small, frail torpedo boat under
the cloak of darkness. In its furtive
crossing, the small party hid by
day from the enemy who then
commanded air and sea. He re
| turned to Luzon on powerful
warship, one of many which es-
corted hundreds of transports and
landing vessels.
| Steaming brazenly into waters
which japanese propagandists
have euphoniously described as a
"Great East Asian co-prosperity
lake." our convoy never deviated
from its course in spite of attacks
by submarines, planes that were
recklessly hurled at our ships, de-
stroyers which attempted to cut
across our path.
MAN battle stations to repel
submarine attacks" blared the
loudspeakers and a torpedo cut
through the waters. Macarthur
barely paused in his measured
pacing of the deck, and never
missed a puff On his three-inch
deep barrelled corncob pipe, as a
nearby destroyers brought the
midget sub to the surface witty
charges, and then finished off the
raider by a head-on ramming.
Early the following morning a
single plane dropped a bomb be-
tween us and nearby destroyer.
Standing that day bare-Aeaded by
the open rail, again with his corn
cob firmly between his teeth, Mac
Arthur watched another japanese
raiding plane hover for a momAnt
directly overhead then make
tracks in a sky pock-marked by
our gunbursts.
A few moments later, MacArth-
ur saw and heard the guns of eight
warships concentrate on a bomber
which sank a scarce 100 yards
away.
One wing was blown off by a
five inch shell burst, the plane
spun around like top and crashed
into the sea.
AS our force was steaming north
on the Luzon coast that night,
three Japanese destroyers made a
dash from Manila Bay. One OF
our picket destroyers went after
them, sinking two and forcing the
third to flee through the night, be-
fore they had a chance to attack
our ships.
Yesterday morning Macarthur
was again at his railing. To the
east the mountains of Bataan were
fading from sight when more raid
ers came over. This time they con-
centrated their attention on one
of the Seventh Fleets jeep carriers
whose planes had been shepherd
ing the convoy in our way north.
AS our Warships approached
Lingayen Gulf early this morning,
Macarthur again witnessed the
abandoned remnants of japanese
airpoWer.
Just before he left his warships
and made shore in a small land
ing craft, another single enemy
plane plunged through a hail of
Warship gunfire to add to the dam
age reported in the first conmuni-
Que from Lingayen.
The enemy made another sur
face attack when the little mine
sweepers approached Lingayen
Gulf the night of January S. They
suddenly were beset by two Japa-
nese destroyer escorts.
A battle seemed imminent. but
again an alert American destroyer
lnterposed, driving off the raiders
by gunfire. Later, fighter and tor
pedo bombers sank one Japanese
destroyer and probably another.
The full magnitude of the convoy
was not evident until the warships.
fast transports, slow landing craft,
and huge supply train was drawn
up before the four landing beaches
at dawn this morning.
Stubby little Japanese fighter
planes, nesting 1OO-pound bombs
under each wing, and fat-bellied
dive bombers made a number Of