Map Description

History Map of WWII:

The Philippine Islands: Leyte Island and the Visayas


Illustrating:

Sixth Army Operations on Leyte and Samar

October 17 - December 30, 1944

The Sixth Army's operations on Leyte and Samar (17 October–30 December 1944) exemplified a multi-phase strategy to dislodge Japanese forces under General Sosaku Suzuki’s Thirty-Fifth Army.

Initial operations began on 17 October when Lt. Col. Henry Mucci’s 6th Ranger Battalion seized Suluan and Dinagat Islands, followed by Homonhon on 18 October, securing Leyte Gulf’s eastern entrances and enabling naval forces to clear the area.

These actions paved the way for the A-Day landings on 20 October, where Sixth Army’s X Corps (1st Cavalry and 24th Infantry Divisions) and XXIV Corps (7th and 96th Infantry Divisions) assaulted Leyte’s eastern coast.

Inset   Ⓐ

Advance of X Corps to Carigara

X Corps’ northern thrust focused on securing Leyte Valley.

The 1st Cavalry Division rapidly captured Tacloban and its airfield by 21 October, then cleared the San Juanico Strait to isolate Samar.

Simultaneously, the 24th Infantry Division faced fierce resistance southwest of Palo, where Japanese forces entrenched in hills delayed their advance.

Through coordinated tank-infantry assaults and artillery support, the division broke through enemy lines by 1 November, reaching Carigara Bay’s port on 2 November after Suzuki ordered a tactical withdrawal.

This maneuver severed Japanese supply routes from the north and confined Thirty-Fifth Army to Ormoc Valley on Leyte’s western coast.

Inset   Ⓑ

Double Envelopment of Thirty Fifth Army

General Walter Krueger’s strategy to isolate Suzuki’s forces involved a pincer movement:

While X Corps pushed south from Carigara along Highway 2 into the mountainous interior, XXIV Corps’ 77th Infantry Division executed a surprise amphibious landing at Ormoc City on 7 December, bypassing Japanese defenses.

This coincided with the 7th Infantry Division advancing north from Baybay, creating a two-front squeeze.

The Japanese attempted to reinforce Leyte via the TA Operation (23 October–11 December), shipping troops through the Camotes Sea-initially uncontested due to limited Allied air control. Early convoys delivered reinforcements, but subsequent ones suffered heavy losses as U.S. air supremacy intensified. By 21 December, the 77th and 7th Divisions linked near Valencia, completing the encirclement and trapping remaining Japanese units in Ormoc Valley.

The campaign’s success hinged on logistical disruption (via TA Operation interdiction) and maneuver warfare, leveraging amphibious flexibility to outflank entrenched positions. Suzuki’s forces, though reinforced, collapsed under sustained pressure, marking the effective end of organized resistance by 30 December.

Credits

Courtesy of the United States Military Academy Department of History.

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