61 years ago: The battle of Go Chan Hill

Last Sunday was the 61st anniversary of the Talisay Landing by the Americal Division, brought to our shores by the 7th Fleet from Leyte. But like what we wrote last Friday, if it were not for the well-placed mines planted by the Japs in Tangke Beach that disabled 10 Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVTs) that brought the US soldiers ashore, that invasion would have been a walk in the park. But eight US soldiers died and 39 others were wounded because of the landmines. Nothing much happened after that, except for a brief skirmish in Pardo, a delaying tactic by the Japanese forces. The first real battle still had to begin and that battle happened right here in Cebu City exactly 61years ago today.

What saddens me so much is that, a very few Cebuanos know about this story. They're the ones who were living in Cebu 61years ago and memories are fading fast. I'm kinda lucky that my uncle, Col. Manuel F. Segura (Ret) gave me a copy of a book by Capt. Francis Cron entitled "On the Southern Cross… The saga of the Americal Division" written way back in 1951. If not for this book, we'd never have known what really happened right on my own backyard, 300 yards, in a place now known as Ecotech Center, which was known then as Go Chan Hill. Actually, the Go Chan family still owns this piece of property today.

That first major battle for the Liberation of Cebu started three days after the Talisay Landings when the 1st Battalion of the 182d under Major John T. Murphy supported by the 716th Tank Battalion met stiff resistance as they tried to push through Go Chan Hill. Actually, it was a pincer operation, one company coming from the Guadalupe River, moving to what is Peace Valley today, while the other companies came from Lahug. In fact, howitzers pounded Go Chan Hill from gun emplacements in Hippodromo.

It was the first time that the Americal Division met with stiff resistance from the Japanese forces. They did not realize that Go Chan Hill was the first among the long line of hills that the Japanese used to defend the Island of Cebu. Aside from Go Chan Hill, they had Hills no.18, 19 and 21 all the way up into Horseshoe Ridge, Coconut Hill, Bolo Ridge and finally up to Babag Ridge, where the fiercest fighting between the Americans and the Japanese raged to regain the Island of Cebu.

The battle for Go Chan Hill lasted for three whole days, after which the Americal Division discovered a total of 85 pillboxes or machinegun nests that they neutralized (through flame-throwers) and more than 200 Japanese soldiers killed, with an American Sherman tank destroyed and a good number of US casualties. There they had to strip Company A of its remaining officers and men and merge them with Company B and C.

A few days later, the fighting went on all the way up to Babag Ridge in the Mountains of Busay. There, the Americans called in a massive air raid using 18 Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers and 18 Lockheed P-38 Lightnings to bomb the Japanese positions into submission. After the Battle of Babag Ridge, sporadic fighting would continue all the way to August, until the Japanese forces finally surrendered.

Today, Go Chan Hill is infested by squatters on one side, the carabao golf course on the other side and the Ecotech Center on its eastern slope and Martinez Compound on its southern flank. I used to hike up the Go Chan Hill from our house (as we live on the hill just next to it) and near its top, there's a huge cave room with a low ceiling where the Japanese apparently used as a command center. I'm sure that that room is still there.

Only when I got this book did I know how important this battle was for the liberation of Cebu. The fighting ended in August of 1945. Again, I wrote this article so that our fellow Cebuanos would remember what happened here in Cebu City 61years ago. It is my dream that someday, our children in elementary or high school would learn about the history of Cebu… not just from the Spanish period, but also during World War II where many Cebuanos died in that war.

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Last Monday's story about half-a-million protesters who rallied in Los Angeles to help undocumented migrants is now being debated in the US Senate. We do not know what the outcome of this will be, but we earnestly hope that it would benefit the migrants, many of who are Filipinos. While the Mexicans are the largest ethnic group who rallied in LA, the Filipinos are not far behind in number. Let's hope America responds positively!

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