In lightning lunges U.S. troops invaded Cebu and Negros, the last of the larger Philippine islands. Liberation was proceeding apace. But on Luzon, where a sizable Japanese garrison was dug in. General MacArthur's men were fighting out a slow, bitter, bloody campaign.
From two directions Major General Innis Palmer ("Bull") Swift's I Corps moved on Baguio, summer capital of the Philippine Government. It was hard slugging over tortuous mountain terrain dominated by Japanese mortar and artillery fire. Progress was measured in yards. Fighting was a matter of probing the resistance with infantry patrols, then...