Battle of Visayas: Difference between revisions

|commander1={{nowrap|{{flagicon|United States|1912}} [[Robert L. Eichelberger]]}}<br />{{flagicon|United States|1912}} [[Rapp Brush]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1912}} [[William Howard Arnold (general)|William H. Arnold]]<br />{{flagicon|United States|1912}} [[James M. Cushing]]<br />{{flagicon|Philippine Commonwealth}} [[Macario BPeralta Jr.|Macario P. Peralta Jr.]]<br />{{flagicon|Philippine Commonwealth}} [[Ruperto Kangleon]]

|commander2={{flagicon|Empire of Japan|army}} [[Sōsaku Suzuki]]{{KIA}}<br />{{flagicon|Empire of Japan|army}} [[Takeo Manjome]]{{KIA}}

About a week into the [[Panay]] and northwestern [[Negros Oriental|Negros]] operations, Operation VICTOR II, the [[Battle for Cebu City|seizure of Cebu]], Bohol, and southeastern Negros, was underway. The [[Americal Division]] under Maj. Gen. [[William Howard Arnold (general)|William Howard Arnold]] was tasked by Gen. Eichelberger for the operation. Some 14,500 Japanese troops held Cebu, but 2,000 Japanese soldiers under Maj. Gen. [[Takeo Manjome]] were contained in northern Cebu by about 8,500 guerrillas under Lt. Col. [[James M. Cushing]]. One-third of the Japanese forces in Cebu were combat-ready, with an extensive network of formidable defensive positions around the city.

On 11 April 1945, well before the fighting in Cebu subsided, the Americal Division went to action elsewhere, as Bohol island and southeastern Negros became the next targets, when a battalion of the 164th Infantry landed on [[Tagbilaran City]] on Bohol's western coast. With the assistance of local guerrilla forces led by Major Ingeniero, the battalion pushed inland, located the defenders and cleared the island of Japanese resistance by the end of the month, at a cost of seven men killed.

On 26 April, remnants of the 164th went ashore at [[Sibulan, Negros Oriental|Sibulan]], some five miles (8&nbsp;km) north of [[Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental|Dumaguete]], rendezvoused with a Reconnaissance Troop of the 40th Division, and in two days, attacked the 1,300 strong Japanese force entrenched in forbidding hill positions surrounding [[Dumaguete]].<ref>{{Citation|title=The Fight for Dumaguete, 1945. Pt.6|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKnesqzFz3Q|language=en|access-date=2021-11-09}}</ref> Major combat operations continued until 28 May 1945, when the Japanese positions fell and Filipino guerrillas assumed responsibility for mopping up operations. The 164th Infantry suffered thirty five men killed and 180 wounded in southeastern [[Negros]], while the Japanese lost 350 men and fifteen were captured.

[[Category:Military history of the Philippines duringcampaign World(1944–1945)|* War II|Visayas2]]