GEN. MacARTHUR'S HQ IN THE
PHILIPPINES, Oct. 20 (AP)—
American, troops were driving
inland toward the fertile valleys of Leyte Island tonight in a powerful shell-
and bomb-prepared invasion which brought Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur, accompanied
by every able-bodied s u r v j v o r of Corregidor. back to the Philippines.
Operations are proceeding
according to schedule tonight. The Japanese were caught strategically off guard
by the attack.
MacArthur said, in a message to
Gen, George C. Marshall, U.S. Army chief of staff, that his troops had sustained
"extremely light losses," and that the enemy was taken unawares
because he expected an attack farther to the south.
The attack left the Japanese
forces on Mindanao—large island just south of Leyte—"no longer important"
because
they are practically cut off.
In one of the most dramatic
strokes of the war, MacArthur thrust his advanced headquarters600 miles north
from Morotai,
split the Japanese defenses in
half and brought his forces within 415 miles of the Philippine capital, Manila.
The ground forces which poured
ashore in the Gulf of Leyte from a huge convoy under the protection of a
terrific naval
and air bombardment knifed their
way on to the east coast of Leyte Island and swiftly seized three strong
beachheads
along an 11-mile stretch.
While the .American troops were
pouring ashore from northern and southern attack forces under shattering fire
from
battleships, cruisers and
destroyers, augmented by hundreds of Adm. William F. Halsey's fighters and
bombers, rocketfiring
ships were working close inshore,
lending direct support to the infantry.
On D-Day-minus-three, a combat
team landed on the northern tip of Dinagat Island and on the southern portion of
Homohon Island bordering the entrance to Leyte Gulf, securing and capturing enemy
installations.
Set
Marker Beacons
These forces set small marker
beacons as a guide for the convoy. Prior to D-Day, minesweeping units and
special naval demolition squads cleared the approaches to the objective area.
Tons of steel from naval units blasted the landing areas in preliminary bombardment
attacks yesterday and last night.
No Jungle to Fight on Leyte
LEYTE ISLAND. Oct. 20 (AP)—
For the first time since Gen.
MacArthur started fighting his way back to the Philippines his army will have
room to
maneuver. Previously his troops
have always had to fight a jungle campaign.
Leyte is the eighth largest
Philippine island, and orderly rows of palm trees fringe the sandy beaches of
the eastern
coastline for 40 miles south of
Tacloban.
Skirting the coast is an
all-weather road joined at several points by lateral roads leading through a
broad valley.
MacArthur's artillery will have
wide fields of fire in the battle for the valley roads and for the island's
half-dozen airfields,
of which Tacloban, three miles from
the town, is the most important.
Nature may take a hand in the
battle. This is the beginning of the rainy season, and near the end of the
typhoons. Scores
of rivers and streams criss-cross
Leyte Valley.
Trap SS Remnants
In Aachen's
Outskirts
The week-long battle for Aachen ended
at 3:30 PM yesterday when U.S. First Army doughboys cleared the last fanatical
SS troops from the ruined frontier city—the first German city of importance to
fall in this war.
A small pocket of Germans was
still holding out beyond the city limits, but the city itself was completely in
the hands of Lt. Gen. Courtney H. Hodges's army.
Dispatches said that for all
practical purposes Aachen was destroyed. Its famed cathedral was almost
undamaged, however. indicating how accurately American guns and Allied planes
had struck against purely military' objectives '" The punishment
administered the city after the Nazi commander had rejected surrender terms
offered on Oct. 10.
Ordered by Hitler to hold the
city at all costs, because its fall would have an ominous significance for
every other city
in the Third Reich, the SS troops
held out to the last.
A 155-mm. gun literally blew
apart the building which the Nazis had turned into a last strong point.
Reds Capture
Belgrade; Push
On in Hungary
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