Battle of Wawa Dam
Longest continuous combat during the Liberation of the Philippines.
The Battle of Wawa Dam, also called the Seizure of Wawa Dam, was a subsidiary action of the Battle of Manila aimed at securing vital water sources east of the capital. It was the longest continuous combat during the Liberation of the Philippines, lasting from February 20 to May 31, 1945. The battle proved critical in neutralizing the Imperial Japanese Army's Shimbu Group, which controlled the Sierra Madre mountain range east of Manila in Southern Luzon.
Quick Facts
- Part of
- the Philippines Campaign of World War II
- Date
- February 20–May 31, 1945
- Location
- Montalban, Rizal, Philippines
- Result
- Allied victory
Facts from the source article.
Background
After securing Bataan, the Sixth United States Army under Gen. Walter Krueger was tasked by Gen. Douglas MacArthur on February 7, 1945, to secure the hills east of Manila while moving for a pincer action on the capital with the Eighth United States Army. The objective was to secure the critical water source of Manila, including Wawa Dam on the Marikina River in Rizal. Krueger assigned Gen. Oscar Griswold's XIV Corps to this objective. The Imperial Japanese Army in the Philippines under Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita was split into three major forces; the Shimbu Group under Gen. Shizuo Yokoyama covered Manila and the Sierra Madre mountain range. Within the Shimbu Group, the Kobayashi Force under Gen. Takashi Kobayashi, with 12,000 troops, was tasked to hold the center line around San Mateo and Wawa Dam.
Battle
On February 20, 1945, the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 1st Cavalry Division crossed the Marikina River at Taytay to reach the east bank. Over the following two days, American troops spread out along the line before the Sierra Madre foothills, where they faced the Noguchi Force, which was concentrated near Antipolo. The Japanese had built a system of tunnels and artillery positions on Mounts Oro, Pacawagan, Mataba, and Yabang. These caves held retractable 105mm and 155mm guns that could fire across the Marikina Valley and lower hills, with machine gun nests for support. Each strong point was defended by about 25 Japanese soldiers. Drawing on lessons from the New Guinea and Solomon Islands campaigns, American and Philippine forces used both air and ground attacks against these positions. Pilots from the US Army 5th Air Force employed skip bombing, dropping napalm bombs from low altitude so they would bounce into cave openings. Ground troops then followed with high explosive shells, white phosphorus mortars, and flamethrowers. While this method worked well, it still slowed the advance, with each hill taking days or even weeks to capture. In one two-day effort, the 2nd Cavalry Brigade seized 137 caves and destroyed 446 tunnel openings.
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