As the rainy season added its wet misery to the Philippine fighting, two U.S. armies and their guerrilla allies clumped doggedly through the mud, compressing the Japanese into soggy pockets. Inside these pockets the Japanese continued to resist as well as any army can without help of sea or air power.
On Luzon, Americans and guerrillas captured the Ipo dam, 25 miles northeast of Manila, and prepared to restore one-third of the capital's water supply. In the north, U.S. troops entered Balete Pass, gateway to the fertile valley where a major Japanese force was holding out.
On Mindanao, southernmost Philippine island, U.S. troops...