Red Arrow Men

The 32nd Division on the Villa Verde

John M. Carlisle

• Publisher: Barajima Books
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781839741685
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Red Arrow Men: The 32nd Division on the Villa Verde Trail, first published in 1945, is the account of 'embedded journalist' John Carlisle with the U.S. Army's 32nd Infantry Division in Luzon, Philippines, in 1945. At that time, the 32nd was engaging the Japanese on the Villa Verde Trail. It would take 119 days of fierce, close-quarters combat to advance slightly more than 20 miles over rough, jungle-covered terrain, and seize their objective of the Cagayan Valley. As author Carlisle states in the Foreword: "This was a mauling fight against the Jap in his remarkable defensive positions, against the terrain, supply and climate. In those 119 days the Red Arrow boys fought 22 miles, sometimes 35 yards at a time, with the Jap never more than 30 feet away. The division killed 9, 000 Japanese and took 50 prisoners. It lost 4, 226 men, about a third of the division strength." Their hard-won victory saw the surrender of Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita and his exhausted, starving troops. Red Arrow Men portrays these experiences from the perspective of the foot-soldier, most of whom were from Michigan, and Carlisle talked with many men (and a number of WACs and female Red Cross workers), and relates their moving stories. Of note is that in World War Two, the 32nd Division logged a total of 654 days of combat, more than any other United States Army division.

 

« 1 » — Death Stalks the Trail

There is no harder fighting by American troops anywhere on the far-flung war fronts of the world than on the Villa Verde Trail, 6,000 feet up in the Caraballo Mountains.

For 90 days, as this is written, the rugged troops of the 32nd Division have fought their way 20 miles up the foot-path trail, building a road with armored bulldozers, climbing up the precipitous ridges and hills on the flanks, fighting the Japs yard by yard.

In those 90 days the 32nd has killed 6,000 Japs, taken 24 prisoners and out-fought, out-gamed and outmaneuvered the best troops in the Japanese army.

This is a fight to the death up here in the clouds. The Japs won’t retreat. They won’t surrender. They dig in to die for their emperor.

They are dug in on the high ground in deep, well-camouflaged caves. They “look down the throats” of our boys and cover our positions with machine gun and mortar fire.

Our troops have to fight in the draws in the dense undergrowth, then up the slope. I watched two companies fight their way up a steep ridge for 35 yards in one day. Later that night they repulsed a sharp counterattack.

When our long-range machine guns, mortal’s and artillery open up, the Japs hide in their deep caves, dug into the slope of the ridge.

The Red Arrow troops of Maj.-Gen. William H. Gill fight their way against heavy machine gun fire up to these caves and seal them with demolition charges. Our troops dig trenches toward the caves, pushing sandbags ahead of them as they dig, until they get close enough to throw their demolition charges.

The sun is broiling hot. The fighting is at a close-up range of 30 feet.

The Jap resistance is stubborn and fanatical, but these are seasoned Yank troops, most of them with 37 months overseas, veterans of the steaming jungles of Buna, the kunai grass and flooded rivers of Saidor, the matted forests of Aitape and the muddy mountains of Leyte.

The Villa Verde Trail was cut through more than a half-century ago by a Spanish priest, Juan Villa Verde. It was a foot-path to bring religion to the Filipinos in the valley on the other side of the mountain.

This campaign over the trail has strategic military value of great importance to the campaign in Northern Luzon, and because of that its Jap defenders have been ordered to fight to the last man.

So, for the 32nd, it is a campaign of annihilation. But a division cannot move along a foot-path. It must have a road.

It is one of the great stories of the war how its engineers have built a road 8 to 12 feet wide, cutting away the sides of mountains and putting up bamboo rails as protection against deep cliffs, all under fire.

Bight behind the infantrymen is an armored bulldozer, making the trail. The Jap snipers try to pick them off. Jap machine guns up the trail blaze away. The veteran “cat” (bulldozer) drivers have won the respect of the hard-bitten infantryman.

Our supplies and ammunition come up part of the way by truck, and then are relayed by Filipino carrier trains. A portable hospital has been built in a gully, and ambulances rumble down to it throughout every day.

The riflemen carry the brunt of the fight. Our valiant scouts and patrols feel out the enemy. Then the rifle companies go in. They crawl slowly down a slope, then slowly up an enemy-held slope—crawling, shooting, fighting. Scrub pine and coarse cogon grass cover the mountainside. Many of the slopes, though, are sparsely wooded, baking hot by day and freezing cold by night.

At night the Japs make Banzai attacks. They organize small suicidal squads, equipped with 10-pound and 20-pound “satchels” of TNT and dynamite set off by grenades. They creep up, wearing rubber “sneakers,” and throw their murderous “satchels” into our defense.

The Yanks have perimeter defenses against these attacks. They always wipe out the Japs. Two riflemen in a foxhole take turns on the alert through the cold, freezing nights.

There never is a moment when the Yanks are safe anywhere on the road. Some of them have been knocked out by Jap artillery fire. Some of them have had land mines ahead of them. But the work goes on, every hour, every day. Almost inconceivable is the determination of the engineers.

This is, in fact, a “Little Burma Road,” challenging all the pathways through the mountains to our positions, and going up to the front there is a four-mile stretch where the Japs on Yamashita Ridge, 1,200 yards away, and the Japs on Mt. Imugan, 2,000 yards away, sweep the trail with machine gun fire and 47 millimeter field pieces.

Every day and every night the fight goes on. The 32nd is winning it, against all odds, against all hardships. It is a great division and this campaign on the Villa Verde Trail will long be remembered in the military history of the American Army.

 

« 2 » — Mines on Bamboo Poles

Our jeep party started up the Villa Verde Trail, after fording a small stream, at 6 a.m., long before breakfast, to take advantage of the cool early mornings of Luzon.

An MP checked traffic up ahead on the telephone and motioned us to start up the trail. The road, which the engineers had built under terrific handicaps, was small and we crawled around a sharp S turn in second.

Thick yellow silt lay heavy on the road, and our wheels churned up a heavy cloud of dust that could be seen for miles around. Our trip was just a succession of sharp S turns on the mountain road. All about us were ridges, high peaked mountains, and deep cliffs and gorges.

More than halfway up the 20-mile road, which was won by 90 days of hard fighting and is still uncompleted, while the fighting goes on, we stopped at one of our camps on the hillside.

I had breakfast with Chief Warrant Officer Morris Samsky, Detroit; a very good breakfast of cream of wheat, one egg, wheat cakes and syrup, and hot coffee.

Samsky and Sgt. Fred A. Pomeroy, Detroit, showed me a clay model of the fighting front up ahead, where our troops were attacking the Japs on mountain ridges on both flanks of the trail.

Our 155 howitzers opened up suddenly from a nearby hillside. Seconds later we heard them hit on Yamashita Ridge, a Jap stronghold, with terrific explosions.

“That’s beautiful music,” said Samsky, smiling broadly.

A bunch of GI’s were standing on the hillside below us, roaring with fun. I walked down the slope where Sgt. Sam Cotton, of Mason, Mich., was playing with Suzie, a pet monkey he has had for seven months. He caught Suzie in the Leyte campaign and put a small leash on her until she became friendly.

Suzie jumped into his arms, snuggled in the crook of one elbow, and then showed her teeth to a Filipino Joe.

“Suzie hates the Filipinos,” Cotton said. “But she’s a lot of fun and a lot of company. She sleeps with me at night. When I toss her out of the blankets in the morning, Suzie gets mad and scolds the daylights out of me.”

I sat on the hillside awhile with Lieut. Tom J. Cleary, of Cleveland, and Lieut. Clarence N. Kennedy, of LeRoy, N. Y., getting some dope on the campaign.

After the battle of San Manuel, Luzon, where the Japs were given a sound drubbing, they retreated up the trail. The 32nd cut their rearguard to pieces from San Nicolas to Tayug, and then took up the trail.

The “Cat” tractors followed the front line troops, building the supply road with dynamite and bulldozers.

One of them was knocked out by artillery fire and another went over a cliff. The early fighting was for the water points. The Nips would fight hard for one, then retreat to another; finally, they dug in and refused to retreat.

The Nips plastered the Yanks’ part of the trail with long range machine guns, 15 guns, 75 mortars, 90 and 150 mm. knee mortars, and 47 mm. artillery field pieces. They attacked our lines at night with sacks of dynamite, shovels and trenching tools in hand-to-hand Banzai attacks.

Japs in the Cacayan valley on the other side moved up to support them. The fighting developed from one hill to another on both sides of the trail.

The Japs used “lunge mines” against the Yanks, long bamboo poles with mines attached to them; they attacked with bayonets on long bamboo poles.

All the Nips carried battle flags wrapped around their abdomens, flags of white with red centers, all bearing the names of relatives written on them.

The Japs covered their foxholes with straw for camouflage.

They dug into caves of four rooms, with manhole entrances, all built on the reverse slopes to escape our artillery. Our artillery made direct hits on them; our troops crept up and tossed dynamite into them.

“These Nips are funny people,” said Lieut. Kennedy. “A Jap officer, in white gloves and a long saber, stood on a ridge looking at us. A self-propelled 105 of ours blew him up, and the boys cheered.”

I went for a walk on the hill and was lucky to run into Maj.-Gen. W. H. Gill, of Colorado Springs, Col., the division’s tough, rugged commander. I told him I was going up to the front.

“It’s a little hot up there today,” he said. “In fact, every day. Keep your head down.”

I got into another jeep and we started for the front.

« 3 » — The Battle for Dog Hill

Maj.-Gen. W. H. Gill, the fighting commander of this mountain fighting division, told me it was wise to look like a GI at the front.

So I put on my new GI green fatigues, replaced my fatigue cap with a green helmet, pulled on my combat boots, and took off the metal war correspondent’s insignia, I filled my canteen from a Lister bag.

Our party climbed into a jeep and we started up the Villa Verde Trail in a broiling sun. Pvt. Theodore E. Metzger, Detroit, was driving, with a Garand rifle in the rack in front of him.

Lieut.-Col. Benjamin O. Turnage, of Farmville, N. C., of the 6th Army staff, and Capt. Carl K. B...

Table of contents

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• DEDICATION
• FOREWORD
• « 1 » - Death Stalks the Trail
• « 2 » - Mines on Bamboo Poles
• « 3 » - The Battle for Dog Hill
• « 4 » - Daredevil Pilot Posts Yanks
• « 5 » - Generals in Fox Holes
• « 6 » - Yank “Valentines” For Japs
• « 7 » - Sneak Attack on Hospital
• « 8 » - 32nd’s Hours of Combat
• « 9 » - The Laughing General
• « 10 » - Lucky Oddities
• « 11 » - Time Out For a Slugfest
• « 12 » - A Laugh On the Japs
• « 13 » - Forward on Hands and Knees
• « 14 » - I Take a Tumble
• « 15 » - The Sergeant Gets the Beer
• « 16 » - A Senseless Banzai Charge
• « 17 » - Planting TNT In A Cave of Japs
• « 18 » - Seven WACS and Seven Joes
• « 19 » - WACS on the Villa Verde Front
• « 20 » - Nothing Stops the GI Road Gangs
• « 21 » - “Brooklyn” Wins a Stripe
• « 22 » - Engineers Work Miracles
• « 23 » - In and Out of a Jap Ambush
• « 24 » - Medics Are Heroic Too
• « 25 » - A Note to Those Who Wait
• « 26 » - Medics Never Rest
• « 27 » - Red Blood Saves Lives
• « 28 » - School Children Buy Mercy Planes
• « 29 » - Messman Makes Mess for Japs
• « 30 » - Time Out to Jest
• « 31 » - Communiqués Are Understatement
• « 32 » - Builders and Fighters Both
• « 33 » - Manila Bares A Wounded Heart
• « 34 » - “The Little Man of Football”
• « 35 » - 119 Grueling Days
• « 36 » - Not One Remained Alive
• « 37 » - “Little Boy” Leads the Way
• « 38 » - How They Got Their Stars for Gallantry
• « 39 » - Villa Verde is a Panorama of War
• « 40 » - A Dress for a Filipino Girl
• « 41 » - 90 Pounds of Misery
• « 42 » - The Colonel Was a School Teacher
• « 43 » - The General Waits for the Private
• « 44 » - Your Boy Died a Hero
• « 45 » - El Lobo Means the Wolf
• « 46 » - A Gallant Captain Lives in Memory
• « 47 » - The Price of Successful War
• « 48 » - Gill’s Boys Get the Best
• « 49 » - Memo of a Red Cross Girl
• « 50 » - Red Cross Sparks Morale
• « 51 » - Nurses Often Write For Them
• « 52 » - A Place to Feel at Home
• « 53 » - Jungle Juice for GI’s
• « 54 » - A Narrow Escape
• « 55 » - Ambulance With Wings
• « 56 » - Cause for Hatred
• « 57 » - Smiling Through Cakes of Mud
• « 58 » - To Marcos, the Igorot
• « 59 » - 78 Heroes Receive Medals
• « 60 » - With a Catch in His Voice
• « 61 » - Michigan Heroes Rate High
• « 62 » - Jap Atrocities Invade a Dream
• « 63 » - A Memory of Luzon
• « 64 » - A Villa Verde Jeep
• « 65 » - Vivid Memories For Home
• « 66 » - Battle Casualties Are Always Game
• « 67 » - Suicide Planes Attack Medics Too
• « 68 » - Medics Scorn Snipers
• « 69 » - Doctors and Cooks Combine to Save Lives
• « 70 » - It’s Painful to Say Goodbye
• « 71 » - Yamashita