LEYTE TO MINDORO
In 1944, about a half dozen
enlisted and myself were the last remnant of the 3rd Attack
Group to leave Leyte for the move to Mindoro. Space in the boat for the 3rd
had been totally exhausted. There was no room for us, a pile of small gear and
a tent or two. Somehow we got access to a Jeep and since one of the men was a
professional scrounger, we were kept going with C & K rations which he
obtained. We literally belonged to no one and spent four days of boredom and
concern.
We had heard
that the small convey our 3rd Group members were on enroute to
Mindoro had been attacked by Japanese aircraft. Supposedly an ammunition ship
was blown up taking out a neighboring vessel, but we had no idea if our 3rd
Group contingent had been lost or not. We finally got word that we were going
to board a ship for a destination unknown.
First we had to load on small
personnel craft. We quickly discovered that the small crew had lifted some of
our important personal items. I made a quick trip up to Tacloban to see the
Harbor Master. He sent military police down to our craft and the lost items
were summarily returned to us. Sometime later that day or evening, we loaded
onto a large ship, probably an LST.
The next morning we were
astounded to find ourselves in the middle of a fleet of nearly 1000 ships,
accompanied by 3000 landing craft with over 200,000 men aboard these vessels.
Baby aircraft carriers ringed the fleet and 40 U.S. vessels were sunk or
damaged by Kamikaze suicide attacks. Enemy submarines also stalked the fleet.
In a day or so, our ship had worked its way to the edge of the fleet and after
a 300 mile or so trip, we were dropped on the beach at San Jose, Mindoro. The
fleet we were in was the mammoth Lingayen, Luzon invasion force, which was
larger than most of Eisenhower’s invasion fleets in the European theater.
So that is the saga of a
remaining remnant of the 3rd Attack Group that finally made its way
to Mindoro. Shortly after our arrival, our planes flew up from Hollandia making
our Group whole again. We quickly had missions assigned as this was the start
of the 3rd’s Philippine operations that saw us ranging all over
Luzon, Panay, Cebu, Negros and Legaspi. Although the Japanese were in retreat,
the Group had its share of losses as well as the other Groups in operation.
On a personal note, I finished
my 52 missions in July and was on a ship in the middle of the Pacific when the
A-Bombs were dropped and the Pacific war finally drew to a close. The San
Francisco Bridge was a beautiful sight as we arrived at the U.S.A. The
joy was, of course, dimmed by the thoughts of friends who were lost forever.
Robert Bucholz
The Navigator
90th Squadron 3rd
Attack Group
