The Battle of Manila: February 4, 1945 — I Like to Hear Myself Talk History

The Inferno Begins

**37th Infantry troops cross the Tullahan River just north of the city**
*US National Archives*

The fourth of February marked the arrival of the 37th Infantry in the city, and just as with the cavalry the previous evening the troops were welcomed by jubilant civilians as they marched warily into the city after crossing the Tullahan River to the north, slowed by the Japanese having destroyed the bridges. One of the first major structures they came upon was the Balintawak Beer Brewery, which stood intact and fully stocked. The GIs quickly set about remedying that situation, and soon were marching into the city sipping cold beer from their helmets as they were showered with gifts from the civilians lining the streets. General Beightler himself was hit in the head with a bottle of beer thrown by an overly enthusiastic civilian as his jeep entered the city, and remarked with amusement at the sight of his men with their helmetfuls of beer.

**Civilians greet a GI as he enters Manila**
*US National Archives*

Meanwhile, the 1st Cavalry was dealing with the humanitarian crisis that liberating the starving prisoners at Santo Tomas posed. The troopers shared their field rations, but that was not nearly enough to help a population of about 3,000, all on the brink of starvation. Aid had come in the night, as the Catholic Bishop had provided food for the internees, and today 10,000 K-rations were on their way after being requisitioned the night before. On top of this issue, the Japanese remained inside the education building with their hostages, and attempts to dislodge them with gunfire had proven ineffective. Negotiations had gone nowhere as well, despite the best efforts of a British missionary by the name of Ernest Stanley, whose fluency in Japanese had landed him a job as interpreter for the Japanese guards and a reputation as a collaborator and the most hated man in the camp.

***Frankie Lewie, a US Army nurse held at Santo Tomas since the fall of Bataan, renders aid to a wounded Japanese guard as liberating GIs observe***
*US National Archives*

Stanley had been held in the camp since the fall of Manila in 1942, and his knowledge of the Japanese language had given him a special standing in the eyes of the guards, and he had enjoyed special quarters during his incarceration. This had, of course, led to him being generally despised among the other internees, who considered him to be a sellout, although to this day his true motivations remain somewhat mysterious. Some sources even cite him as being a British agent, responsible for revealing to MacArthur that the Japanese intended to massacre the internees, and thus spurring his order to send the flying columns to Santo Tomas, although this has never been confirmed (at least from the author’s sources). He had been taken into the Education Building when the guards retreated there, and now he acted as intermediary between Commandant Hayashi and the American cavalrymen outside. His efforts were fruitless again through today, as the Americans refused to concede, while the Japanese refused to release their hostages and surrender. The standoff thus endured throughout the day and into the night once again.

**A Sherman tank supports cavalrymen as they hunt Japanese snipers near Santo Tomas** *US National Archives*

In addition to the holdouts in the Education Building, the streets around the campus were still not secure. Japanese snipers in particular were a problem, and cavalrymen had been ordered to root them out as best as they could, supported by armored vehicles. The 37th Infantry was advancing to reinforce them, but until then the position of the cavalry at Santo Tomas and Malacañang Palace remained tenuous.

The infantry of the Buckeye Division were on their way, marching down the same roads used yesterday by the flying columns on their dash to Santo Tomas. As they approached Bilibid Prison they encountered the same strongpoint at the adjacent Far Eastern University, as well as the growing inferno as the Japanese burned the districts north of the Pasig.

**Smoke obscures the view down a street near Bilibid Prison**
*US National Archives*

Bilibid Prison had been used by the Japanese to hold POWs since the fall of Corregidor, and when the sun rose on February 4th it remained under their control, even though the prisoners had heard the exchange of gunfire the night before. Today, prisoners observed the passage of American armored vehicles toward the Pasig, and the sounds of battle had intensified throughout the day. The Japanese guards had made some attempts to fortify the prison compound, constructing reinforced positions on the grounds and emplacing machine guns, and many inmates were fearful of the coming battle for the facility when, at around 10:30AM, the commandant, Imperial Japanese Army Major Ebiko, summoned the ranking POW officer and the leader of the civilian internees to his office.

After being shown inside, they were read a proclamation by the commandant, before being handed a handwritten English version:

“1. The Japanese Army is now going to release all the prisoners of war and internees here on its own accord.
2. We are assigned to another duty and will be here no more.
3. You are at liberty to act and live as free persons, but you must be aware of the probable dangers if you go out.
4. We shall leave here foodstuffs, medicines and other necessities of which you may avail yourselves for the time being.
5. We have arranged to put up sign-board at the front gate, bearing the following contents:
’Lawfully released prisoners of war and internees are quartered here. Please do not molest them unless they make positive resistance”

— Proclamation of Release made by Bilibid Commandant Ebiko, February 4, 1945 (Scott, p174)

The fears of the prisoners turned out to be unwarranted, as the IJA troops at the prison began to evacuate. The guards formed orderly lines and marched out, boarding trucks and loading all of their weapons and supplies, including livestock. The prisoners armed themselves with baseball bats to guard the entrances to the prison, and settled in to wait, as attempting to leave while the burning streets were filled with Japanese snipers was ill advised at best.

**An American patrol engages a Japanese sniper**
*US National Archives*

Elements of the 37th Infantry were advancing slowly toward the prison, faced with heavy resistance from within the Far Eastern University across the street, but they were able to neutralize the Japanese troops near the main gate. Others forced their way into a storage room and from there accessed the prison yard, making contact with the internees and taking control of Bilibid.

As the Americans attempted to approach the Pasig Japanese resistance intensified, blocking their access to the financial center of Binondo, as well as the river. As some units of the IJA withdrew across the river to form a secondary line, other Japanese troops crossed with loads of explosives and fuel, fanning out through the financial and residential neighborhoods to the northwest that the Americans had not yet reached. Explosives were planted in many of the buildings, and gasoline spread as accelerant. Witnesses would later report seeing the Japanese enter the Singer Building with explosives, the structure exploding shortly after they departed and starting a large fire. A similar scene was also witnessed at Land Bank building, where Japanese soldiers used hand grenades and molotovs to set fire to the building before moving on, and the same at the China Bank on Calle Dasmarinas. This would combine with fires set the previous day in Tondo to add to the growing inferno north of the Pasig. In addition, today Admiral Iwabuchi orders the destruction of the Quezon Bridge, the last intact span over the river.

Also today, the Japanese continued to escalate their campaign of terror against the civilian population. In addition to incidents of rape and murder of individuals, particularly in the residential areas around Tondo, another massacre occurred today at a cigarette factory, where fifty civilians were bound by the Japanese and bayoneted. There were only six survivors.

**A Japanese truck burns after attempting to pass an American machine gun position near Malacañang Palace**
*US National Archives*

To the south, the Angels of the 11th Airborne division marched northward, and at 2130 they reached the Parañaque Bridge, just alongside the old Army Air Force base at Nichols Field, and the the southern edge of the city. Here the paratroopers encountered dug in Japanese forces around the partially destroyed span, with machine guns and emplaced naval cannons: the edge of the Genko Line.

The fighting for the bridge was fierce, and the paratroopers were not able to reduce the Japanese positions as the fighting raged into the night. The Genko Line represented the strongest prepared defensive positions in the Manila area, consisting of, to quote the official history of the 11th Airborne Division:

“A series of concrete pillboxes, mutually supporting, and extending in depth six thousand yards through the Manila Polo Club. It stretched east across Nichols Field and anchored on the high ground of Mabato Point along Laguna de Bay. The rear of the line was based on the high ground of Fort McKinley. Five- and six-inch guns and 150mm mortars were set in concrete emplacements, facing south, and 20-, 40-, and 90mm anti aircraft guns were strategically situated to assist in the ground defenses. Many of the concrete pill boxes were two and three stories deep. The Japs had evidently copied the line from German fortifications of concrete and steel pillboxes scattered in depth. Some of the forts were stone and had dome shaped roofs piled high with sod and soggy dirt and so grown over with a tangle of weeds that they could be recognized only a few feet away. Embrasures were narrow but controlled a wide field of fire. Most of the pillboxes were defended by two men and either a .50 caliber machine gun or a 20mm automatic weapon. Some positions were occupied by only one Jap, who stayed at his post until he was killed.”

— The Angels: A History Of The 11th Airborne Division, 1943-1946, US Army, page 81

**General Eichelberger speaks to Filipino guerillas during the 11th Airborne Division’s advance on the city**
*US National Archives*

The first full day of the Battle of Manila came to a close with an ever larger area of the city ablaze, as the US 37th Infantry Division entered the city, along with more elements of the 1st Cavalry. To the south, Iwabuchi’s Genko Line had been engaged by the 11th Airborne paratroopers advancing from Tagaytay Ridge, and already the threat of encirclement was quite real. In Santo Tomas, the former internees reveled in their freedom, even as the Japanese held others hostage in a final holdout in the campus Education Building. Finally, as dusk fell the prisoners at Bilibid Prison, including some of the “Battling Bastards of Bataan” had finally been liberated.

As Admiral Iwabuchi ordered his forces to escalate their destruction of the city, and Japanese resistance only intensified, it became increasingly clear to the Americans that Manila would not fall easily. In a show of this realization, 6th Army commander General Krueger changed the battleplan for Manila. Instead of the 37th Infantry taking the city while the 1st Cavalry drove to the east, now both divisions were tasked with the capture of the city, with the 1st Cavalry flanking to the west, securing the city reservoir before moving to the city center through the Paco district. The 37th Infantry was tasked with pushing directly through the teeth of the Japanese defenses and penetrating to the Intramuros and the government buildings in the Ermita district.

Sunday, 4 February

The Inferno Begins

Monday, 5 February

Saturday, 3 February

I Like to Hear Myself Talk History