Seventy years ago, the Victor II Attack Group of the Americal Division supported by the Seventh Fleet's Task Force 74 with 59 ships appeared off the coast of Talisay 6 kilometers from Cebu City for the much-awaited Liberation of Cebu. The Victor II Attack Group was formed in Tacloban City after the Leyte invasion and this was led by Maj. Gen. William "Hap" Arnold with the 132nd Infantry and some 14,000 US soldiers led by Col. Claude M. McQuarrie.
The Americal Division was formed in New Caledonia (hence the name Americal) and these soldiers were the most battle hardened amongst the US troops because they fought in Guadalcanal, in Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, in Hollandia in New Guinea, and all the way to the invasion of Leyte on October 1944.
If I am able to write about the exploits of the Americal Division it is because my other uncle, Dr. Alfredo Segura, who is a collector of World War II books, gave me two books on the Americal Division's exploits. The first book that he gave me was entitled "On the Southern Cross: The Saga of the Americal Division 1942-1945" by Captain Francis D. Cron and the other book was "Orchids in the Mud: A personal account by veterans of the 132 Infantry Regiment edited by Robert C. Muehrcke.
These books are very rare that one could hardly find them even in the USA. So basically we have a picture of what happened in Cebu exactly 70 years ago. There are only a few books about World War II in Cebu and my late uncle Col. Manuel Segura wrote the books "Tabunan and Koga Papers" about the life of the guerrilla movement during the Japanese occupation.
For most of this week, my good friend and fellow historian Prof. Jobers Bersales escorted ten Vietnam veterans belonging to the Americal Division, including Mr. David Taylor, the official historian of the Americal Division. They are in Cebu to grace the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Cebu in Tangke beach in Talisay today.
The Liberation of Talisay started with the bombardment by the 7th fleet to "soften" up the beaches of any mines. At exactly 8:30AM, Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT's) "Amtracs" left their mother ships and landed in Tangke Beach designated as Green Beach 1, 2 & 3 and they were only met with sporadic sniper and machine gun fire. Talisay was lightly defended.
As they landed on the beachhead, suddenly ten of the first fifteen Amtracs hit Japanese improvised mines and were destroyed or damaged. Somehow these mines were not neutralized by the naval bombardment. Soon a traffic jam ensued, as the first wave could not move forward as the troops had to wait for someone to clear the minefield. Later, the troops clearing the beach found three rows of improvised mines and cleared all of them.
The first day of the Liberation of Cebu was in a way uneventful. The total losses for Liberation of Cebu were 8 American soldiers killed and 39 wounded from the Amtracs that hit the minefield. Japanese losses were pegged at 88 killed and 10 Japanese soldiers captured. The real Battle for the Liberation of Cebu happened in Gochan Hill two days later.
***
Of course I expected that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front would end up justifying the killing or the massacre of the 44 fallen Special Action Force troopers. They would be totally stupid if their report would have said otherwise. With this report, the MILF has now justified the killing of some 26 SAF troopers who were already wounded with superficial wounds, but were finished off by the MILF terrorists. We all saw those cellphone video footages that were uploaded in Facebook and YouTube and let me tell you this… there was no justification for those senseless deaths.
So now we're in the crossroads. The Aquino Regime is still hell-bent on giving the MILF the Bangsamoro Basic Law even after the Mamasapano massacre, so the question is, should we "reward" these bloodthirsty bastards for killing the SAF men, especially the wounded ones? I don't think so. If Congress and the Senate continue to push for the BBL, then we must find ways to stop them from dismembering the Philippines.
At a luncheon hosted in Malacañang for the men's and women's Volleyball Teams of Ateneo de Manila University and the De La Salle University, Pres. Benigno Aquino III said Filipinos should stay together as one team to deliver "one big fight" against corruption." There he blows again! This President continues on to his fantasyland in his fight against corruption. If he was true to his word, he should have fired PNP Chief Alan Purisima when ABS-CBN exposed his luxurious villa in Nueva Ecija and his purchase of a very cheap Toyota Land Cruiser. But he did not.