. . . And a Few Marines: Marines in the Liberation of the Philippines (Phase Two: Luzon Dive Bombers)

On 29 January, a plane arrived from Leyte, and, to everyone's delighted surprise, out jumped Pomasl. He had quite a story to tell. After becoming separated from his flight in bad weather, he found he could not make radio contact, so he flew on instruments for an hour and a half, but was unable to break out of the overcast. Then his gas supply finally ran low and he decided to bring his plane down to make a water landing. As he came down out of the overcast, he found himself over land, at an altitude of about 500 feet. When he swung out over the water, he saw he was being fired on by small arms.

The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Presidential Unit Citation to

MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP TWELVE

for service as set forth in the following citation:

"For extraordinary heroism in action against enemy Japanese forces in the Philippine Islands from December 3, 1944, to March 9, 1945. Operating from the captured airfield at Tacloban, Marine Aircraft Group Twelve employed Corsairs as bombing planes to strike destructive blows at escorted enemy convoys and to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing their beleaguered garrisons by landing troops and supplies on western Leyte. Undeterred by intense aerial opposition and accurate antiaircraft fire, these pilots provided effective cover for ground troops, shore installations and Fleet units and, on several occasions, when ground troops were held up by heavy enemy fire, bombed and strafed Japanese positions, thereby enabling our land forces to advance unopposed.

"As hostile resistance lessened on Leyte, Marine Aircraft Group Twelve expanded its sphere of operations to strike at enemy garrisons on the Visayan Islands and southern Luzon and to support the Lingayen beachheads, neutralizing the enemy's lines of communication, his harbors, airfields and escape routes, and ranging far from base to provide aerial cover for ships of the Seventh Fleet and merchant-ship convoys operating in the area. During February and the early part of March, this courageous group gave direct support to Guerrilla units fighting on Cebu Island and aided in their rapid advance and the ultimate neutralization of the island. Well supported by skilled and dependable ground personnel, the gallant pilots of Marine Aircraft Group Twelve caused the Japanese severe losses in airplanes, installations and surface craft, contributing to the achievement of air superiority so essential to the success of the campaign and thereby upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

He set the plane down easily, tail first. It remained afloat for about a minute, giving him plenty of time to get out of the cockpit and onto the right wing, from which he lowered himself into the water and inflated his rubber boat. It was early afternoon, and land was about half a mile away. After he had been on the water a short time, three small canoes put out from shore, headed toward him. The men appeared to be Filipinos and seemed friendly, so he allowed himself to be placed in one of the canoes, while his rubber raft was taken in tow by another. Pomasl described what happened next:

As we headed for shore we were met by Japanese small arms fire; the natives all dove into the water and swam away, although all the shots landed short. I regained my raft and had begun to drift shoreward, when I noticed a Japanese soldier paddling out toward me in a small boat. A brief exchange of shots send the enemy scurrying back to land, followed by bullets from my .45 pistol. . . .

With a strong current pulling him towards land, Pomasl abandoned his raft and started swimming. Seven long hours after his plane went down, he finally got ashore on a beach. After a stay there of almost two days, he started inland. Suddenly 15 or 20 Filipinos appeared and ran up to him. They seemed to understand that he was the pilot of the plane which had gone down two days before, and one of them spoke a little English. They took him back into the jungle, where they brought him water and food, including rice, boiled chicken, eggs, bananas, and coconuts. He rested there until early evening on a mat they'd brought him, when his English-speaking friend returned with a pair of Japanese sandals for his feet. He learned then that the Filipino was a member of the Cebu Home Defense Force.

The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending the

MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP TWENTY-FOUR

for service as follows:

"For exceptionally meritorious service in support of the United States Sixth Army in the Lingayen Gulf and Manila, Philippine Islands Area, from January 23 to April 10, 1945. After landing at Lingayen with the assault forces on D-day, Marine Aircraft Group Twenty-Four operated continuously against Japanese forces, flying a series of more than 8,000 daring and brilliantly executed sorties despite relentless air and ground force opposition. Dauntless and determined, these units penetrated numerous hostile defenses ahead of our advancing troops and, destroying vital ammunition and fuel dumps, bridges, gun bastions and troop concentrations, effectively reduced the enemy's power to resist and contributed materially to the sweeping victory of our ground forces in this area. The heroic achievements of Marine Aircraft Group Twenty-Four reflect the skill, personal valor and steadfast devotion to duty of these courageous officers and men, and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

Moving out in the dark, they crossed over to the eastern coast of the peninsula, where they waited three hours for a boat which was to take them to Santa Rosa Island, the first step back towards Leyte. It appeared at about 2200 and added the two men to its cargo of nine refugees from Cebu City along with their household goods. Pomasl continued his story:

At this juncture, a man who spoke fairly good English identified himself as a captain in the Home Defense of Mactan and took charge of the situation until we made contact with American forces on Leyte. On Santa Rosa, I was hailed as a hero by the people of the island who had not had a white visitor since 1940 . . . .

Again, the lieutenant was overwhelmed with native hospitality, which recurred on every island he stopped at during the boat trip of several days to Leyte — including one greeting where he was hoisted on the shoulders of the Filipinos to carry him ashore. Concluding his account, Pomasl said:

. . . Departing the next morning, the 27th, we arrived at Bay Bay on Leyte in the evening. I went ashore and contacted an American Army M.P. detachment and reported to the Philippine Civil Affairs Unit the names of those who had aided me. After securing food for my Filipino friends, I bade them goodbye, drew a clothing issue from the Army, and left the next afternoon for Burauen, where I spent the night. The next day I traveled by jeep to Tacloban, when I was flown to Guiuan airstrip, arriving there on January 29th, six days after I'd taken off . . . .

While the Corsairs in MAGs-12 and -14 continued to show the quality of their work in spite of losses, the SBD dive bombers now at MAGSDAGUPAN would show something new in quality: flexible, pinpoint accuracy in truly close air support, directed right from the front lines of an infantry attack. Targets during just the first week on Luzon were spread in a 180 degree arc from north through east to south, up to 150 miles away, and included 10 towns in five different provinces.

The SBD was, in actuality, an obsolete plane, long since abandoned in its AAF version (the A 24). Over Luzon, however, it proved amazingly effective. Its dive bombing procedure was well summarized in a 1951 Marine aviation history:

The planes approached the objective area at an altitude normally about 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the target. The flight would then extend its formation so that each pilot could locate the target; once they had made positive identification, the attack began. The lead pilot pointed the nose of his plane down, followed by the rest of his flight, one plane at a time. Dive flaps were opened to keep the planes from gaining too much air speed while in dives approaching 70 degrees.

While the target was held in the pilot's sights, bombs were released at an elevation of about 2,000 feet. After that the nose of the plane was pulled toward the horizon, and the dive flaps were closed quickly for added speed. By this time the bombers would be about 1,000 feet above the ground, in a slightly nosed-down position.

The planes would continue losing altitude quickly until they were at treetop level. There they used their accumulated air speed for violent evasive maneuvers to avoid the usually heavy enemy antiaircraft fire. Then the planes continued on to a rendezvous point for another bombing attack, or perhaps several strafing runs before gathering for the return flight to the base.

A substantial number of flights were also made with delayed-fuse bombs released at 1,500 feet, and a pull-out at tree-top height. Air speed while using the flaps would be about 250 knots. Bombs varied from 100-pounders, 250s, 500s, and 1,000-pounders.

A dependable performer for the Marine Corps all through the early years of World War II, the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber was finally phased out in 1945. Early in the liberation of the Philippines, it demonstrated what dive bombers could do in close air support missions. Department of Defense Photo (USMC) 62393

These kinds of tactics soon led the press to label the VMSB squadrons "The Diving Devildogs of Luzon." Jerome's own homespun description of their pattern of hitting small targets with great precision was "Pickle Barrel Bombers." McCutcheon was precise in his definition of the function of the SBDs: "Aircraft in close support are, in effect, aerial artillery. No one claims that they will replace it [ground artillery] or are superior to it; they augment it."

There soon came a demanding mission to which the Marine SBDs were assigned — while Army and AAF senior officers watched and waited. It occurred when MacArthur directed Major General Verne D. Mudge, USA, to send a flying column of his 1st Cavalry Division to Manila to free the prisoners who had been interned at the Santo Tomas Camp there since 1942. MAGSDAGUPAN was to provide nine dive bombers to stay overhead at all times. They would scout out Japanese positions and troop concentrations to enable the column to avoid them. If necessary, the SBDs would bomb the enemy's strongholds. One Marine ALP would ride right with the column's commander, Brigadier General William C. Chase, USA, on the 100-mile trip. Chase was correctly concerned about his open flanks, with Japanese troops everywhere between his line of departure south of Lingayen and his target, Manila. The solution: Marine dive bombers would also protect the flanks. This was an excellent opportunity to prove the efficiency of the Marine mission control system using ALPs. Two radio jeeps and a radio truck, with a total of three officers and four enlisted Marines were assigned to the mission. They would relay the requests of the ground units for close air support missions directly to the SBDs. In reverse, the planes could communicate downward any information from their advance reconnaissance.

The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending the

MARINE AIRCRAFT GROUP THIRTY-TWO

for service as follows:

"For exceptionally meritorious service in support of the United States Sixth Army in the Lingayen Gulf and Manila, Philippine Islands, Areas, from January 23 to March 15, 1945. After landing at Lingayen with the assault forces on D-day, Marine Aircraft Group Thirty-Two operated continuously against Japanese forces, flying a series of more than 8,000 daring and brilliantly executed sorties despite relentless air and ground force opposition. Dauntless and determined, these units penetrated numerous hostile defenses ahead of our advancing troops and, destroying vital ammunition and fuel dumps, bridges, gun bastions and troop concentrations, effectively reduced the enemy's power to resist and contributed materially to our ground forces' sweeping victory in this area. The heroic achievements of Marine Aircraft Group Thirty-Two reflect the skill, personal valor and steadfast devotion to duty of these courageous officers and men, and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."

An interesting contrast to the handful of Marines in the ALPs and their direct ground-to-air communication was noted in the official Marine Corps history of World War II. In "astonishment" the Marine ALPs found that the AAF was also attaching its own "formidable" ALP. This consisted of:

. . . a DUKW [amphibian truck] (complete with Filipino houseboy), a weapons carrier, a jeep, 27 men and two officers . . . but its equipment was such that it couldn't keep up with the advance or semiexposed positions. Besides, for air support through that channel, requests would have to be forwarded and approved first by Division, then Corps, then Army and finally by 308th Bomb Wing.

In 66 hours, the column slashed through to Manila, and 3,500 internees were freed at Santo Tomas on 3 February. The Army was lavish in its praise for the performance of the SBDs and their ALPs. From the 1st Cavalry Division history:

Much of the success of the entire movement is credited to the superb air cover, flank protection, and reconnaissance provided by Marine Aircraft Groups 24 and 32. The 1st Cavalry's audacious drive down through Central Luzon was the longest such operation ever made in the Southwest Pacific Area using only air cover for flank protection.

Mudge had this to say:

On our drive to Manila, I depended solely on the Marines to protect my left flank against possible Japanese counterattack. The job that they turned in speaks for itself. I can say without reservation that the Marine dive bombers are one of the most flexible outfits that I have seen in this war. They will try anything once, and from my experience with them, I have found out that anything they try usually pans out in their favor.

The 1st Cavalry's dash to Manila had some very talented men in its ALPs. One of these was Marine Captain Francis B. "Frisco" Godolphin. He had been a language professor at Princeton University before volunteering at age 40. When he visited the 1st Cavalry before its drive, he ran into a staff officer who had formerly been a student of his. From this chance encounter and personal relationship came the plan to put nine SBDs overhead during the drive to Manila. This procedure circumvented the opposition of the AAF 308th Bomb Wing to direct control by the infantry units of their close air support.

Godolphin not only served in an ALP en route to Manila, but he also spent 38 continuous days in action. A Marine combat correspondent, Staff Sergeant David Stephenson, reported on some of his other exploits:

During the early part of February, the Seventh [Cavalry] Regiment had captured the Balera water-filter plant northeast of Manila. The Japs, determined to destroy the plant and pollute Manila's water supply, had been directing mortar and machine gun fire at the building from four positions. Finally they brought up rockets.

The rocket attack began at midnight. Captain Godolphin went to the roof of the plant with a sextant to determine the azimuth of the rock et position. Six enemy rockets landed within 40 yards of his CP [command post], but Captain "Frisco" got out alive with enough data to pinpoint the target for the SBDs the next morning. . . .

Godolphin also helped to direct the largest Marine strike on Luzon, an 81-plane attack east of the Marakina River. In preparation for this, it was decided to send a guerrilla lieutenant — a civil engineer graduate of the University of the Philippines — into the area to be bombed. The officer, disguised as a native civilian, sketched and plotted the Japanese positions by night. After sufficient information had been brought back, Godolphin called in the dive-bombers. He radioed his data to Major Benjamin B. Manchester, the air coordinator, who was circling the target, picking out each point of attack as it was described to him. Then Manchester sent his planes down for the kill.

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Commemorative Series produced by the Marine Corps History and Museums Division