World Battlefronts: A Place to Run to

The fighting on Leyte was in many ways the most remarkable of the Pacific war. The Japs made only a halfhearted attempt to defend the beaches, then fled inland in disorganized haste. Before they could regroup for a real fight, they had lost half their total force — 14,405 killed and wounded, by General Douglas Mac-Arthur's count.

Major General John R. Hodge, commanding the XXIV Corps (7th and 96th Divisions), called the fighting the fastest in the Pacific war, observed that "the Japs will run if they have a place to run to ......

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