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General Douglas MacArthur, an old football player himself, gave the job of pulling the Statue of Liberty play on the Japs at Leyte to the outfit best fitted to execute it—the 77th Infantry Division, whose men carry Miss Liberty on their shoulders.
In one of the most daring operations of the Pacific War- General Walter Krueger, Sixth Army commander, admitted that it might have turned into an “American Dunkirk”—the Statue of Liberty Division made a landing behind the main Japanese defense line on Ormoc Bay.
Striking shortly after dawn, three years to the day after Pearl Harbor, the Doughboys of the 77th caught the Japs completely by surprise, and, in the heavy battles which followed, broke the back of the enemy defense of Leyte.
Ground opposition was light in the initial stages of the landing, but heavy Japanese air attacks pounded the Doughboys the first few nights. Three days later Ormoc, hub of the Nip defense, was captured, and the 77th pushed on against heavy opposition to join other elements of the X Corps. This junction ended organized Jap resistance, and on Christmas Day, 1944, the island was declared secure.
With the Guam and Leyte campaigns under its belt, the 77th could have been excused for thinking it had seen Pacific fighting at its roughest. But the worst was yet to come. From Leyte, the 77th plunged into the savage, bloody battle for Okinawa, right in the Jap’s front yard. Here the Doughs of the 77th ran into the heaviest artillery fire of the Pacific war. They were plastered day and night by field pieces of all sizes. The enemy’s pillboxes were superior to any he had used at Tarawa and Saipan. And facing the Division’s front was Shuri, central fortress of the Jap defense line on southern Okinawa. Innumerable ridges, all of which bristled with Nip defenses, blocked the way to the high ground commanding Shuri. The Doughs, working with tanks, flamethrowers, and dynamite charges, finally dislodged the enemy, but not without heavy losses.
The 77th was also given the job of taking Ie Shima, tiny island of the Ryukyu group. It proved to be just as mean as Okinawa. The Japs managed to survive the terrific naval and air bombardment that preceded the landing of the Statue of Libertymen, and when the Doughs hit the beaches charged from their caves and tunnels.
It was on Ie Shima that Ernie Pyle, most beloved of correspondents, was killed. He went ashore with the 77th Division to record the agonies of the foot soldier, and was killed by machine-gun fire.
The 77th began its fight against the Japs in July 1944 when it landed on Orote Peninsula, Guam, and relieved the 4th Marines. Within 8 days, the Division had occupied the eastern beaches, and followed up by capturing Yona, San Antonio, and Barrigada. The Division was in action 21 days and advanced 18 miles against a trapped and desperate enemy.
From Fighting Divisions, Kahn & McLemore, Infantry Journal Press, 1945-1946.
77TH INFANTRY DIVISION
AMERICAN MADE
