The bad news of the heavy losses of "Operation Multi-Four" further strengthened Yamashita's belief: "Wright is finished!" However, he could not openly disobey the orders of Terauchi and Tokyo, so he called Suzuki on November 15: "The Thirty-fifth Army will do its best to eliminate the enemy of Wright, and its minimum goal is to prevent the enemy from using the island airfield." In the event that troops can no longer be transported, Luzon will be the main battlefield in future battles in the Philippine Islands. ”
Suzuki was overwhelmed by Yamashita's ambiguous orders. But he knew that at present, he must guard the "Broken Neck Ridge" at all costs, otherwise the US military would march south along The Second Route, threatening the safety of the rear port of Ormoc. He ordered the First Division to launch a counterattack, to which Kataoka could only smile bitterly. The offensive of the US army is higher than the wave, and it is extremely difficult for him to even hold the existing position, let alone a counter-offensive? On 19 November, he ordered the 1st Wing of Thera Yoshida to brave the rain to come from Pina Hills to assist in the defense of the main position at Mount Limon. In response to American tanks and flamethrowers, the Japanese lit the grass and trees around the positions with gasoline as a fire as a barrier, and then condescended to block the road through the ridge. The Americans concentrated 250 artillery pieces to bombard the positions of the First Wing, and the Japanese could only return fire with only 36 guns. The First Division was worthy of the elite division, and they put small groups of American troops into positions, while the follow-up troops intercepted them with terrain and precise firepower, and then annihilated the American troops in the urn with white blades. Although Kruger issued one after another urgent orders, the US offensive was never able to achieve a major breakthrough.
Compared with the death, what was even more unbearable for the Japanese soldiers guarding the ridge was the lack of water and vehicles. Fortunately, it has been raining recently, so they can use the rain to moisturize their thirsty throats. The small amount of dry food they brought with them when they landed on the island had long been eaten, and the eight members of Yasuda's squadron squatting in the cave could only eat one rice ball. After dark, Lieutenant Yasuda led three squad leaders up to the top of the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, the Americans were eating, and the scent of the wind made people even more hungry. Yasuda proposed sending two soldiers to kill the enemy and grab food, which was immediately approved by the three squad leaders.
Two soldiers were sent on this difficult task, and the others waited anxiously all night. They heard the explosion of grenades and the firing of machine guns in the distance, and thought that the two comrades must have been killed. But at dawn the two soldiers returned, with a large bag of booty. The two ambushed an American machine gun position in the dark and brought back everything they could find. Unfortunately, all they had grabbed were a few boxes of bullets and cans of cigarettes that their weapons could not use, and there was no food they needed much. A Japanese soldier lit an American cigarette. "Ah, I don't even know what the smoke smells like," he said, taking a deep breath, "and my head is dizzy." ”
Detachment Leader Shen Ziqing, who was a primary school teacher before joining the army, had only a few people left in the squadron, and he had replaced Lieutenant Hachihiro who had died in battle as the squadron leader. Once, while expanding the bunker, the Son of God spotted a lizard and immediately pounced on it. But the lizard climbed very fast and disappeared into the crevices of the stone in an instant. Several of the companions were extremely excited when they heard about it, and everyone chased and intercepted together, and finally cut out the lizard from the stone crevice. Someone peeled off its skin, cut it into several pieces with a dagger, and boiled it in a lunch box. Everyone was divided into a small section, and after eating, they all felt that they had strength again, as if they had taken a stimulant.
At the same time as the 1st and 57th Wing fought a bloody battle at "Broken Neck Ridge", the Japanese 49th Wing had already landed on Hill 552 on November 14. Wing Commander Koura Jiro Daisaku decided to carry out the original raid plan, and led his troops north to raid a stronghold behind The Caligala on the 18th. The U.S. army did not expect that the exhausted Japanese army would launch a flanking offensive, and it was suddenly in chaos. The First Japanese Brigade tore open the American line west of Kabochin, killing more than 100 Americans in hand-to-hand combat and destroying an artillery position. A large number of American soldiers and logisticians fled into the jungle, and some even jumped into the sea to escape and were picked up by destroyers. By the 20th, the U.S. military publicly admitted to losing more than 400 troops.
On 21 November, Kataoka ordered Koura to attack the main American flank of Mount Limon and respond to the division's main forces in a frontal battle. The Forty-ninth Wing, which had been fighting fiercely for many days, was at the end of the crossbow, and they were soon counterattacked by the superior forces of the American army, and lost The 552 Heights on the 30th. Koura launched a night raid that night to retake the heights, but he soon received orders from Kataoka to rush to the rescue. After leaving 130 soldiers to delay the American attack, Koura led the main force of the wing to quickly move in the direction of the division headquarters. When they joined Kataoka on December 7, there were only 353 officers and men left.
The U.S. army poured more tanks, heavy artillery, and flamethrowers into The Broken Neck Ridge, and the decline of the Japanese army became more and more pronounced, and the Fifty-seventh Wing was reduced to less than 400 men. On 23 November, the 128th Regiment of the 32nd Division, which replaced the exhausted 24th Division on 16 November, broke through the natural danger into Limon, and the three-week bloody battle of "Neck Ridge" ended with the Victory of the Americans. With more than 1,500 American casualties and Japanese losses of about 5,250, the battle around Broken Neck Ridge became the bloodiest conflict in the Leyte Operation. On the 25th, Kataoka ordered the remnants to assemble near Route 2 south of Limon in an attempt to hold the Americans back and make further plans after the main force of the Twenty-sixth Division had arrived.
But the Twenty-sixth Division, which had lost all its heavy weapons during the landing, was doomed to be hopeless. At the same time as the Battle of Broken Neck Ridge was raging, on the south road, the U.S. Seventh Infantry Division passed through the island through the path that the Japanese considered impassable, and attacked north towards the Japanese rear of Ormoc Harbor. In the Brunn area, they were met with stubborn resistance from the remnants of the Japanese Sixteenth Division and made slow progress. American reinforcements seemed to be endless forever, and they could land at any location they chose, with air and sea supremacy. On 22 November, MacArthur put two regiments of the Eleventh Airborne Division on the Southern Front. The remnants of Makino numbered less than 3,000 men, their weapons and equipment were depleted, their supplies were cut off, and they could not stop the rapid and rapid offensive of the two US divisions, so they had to flee to the mountains west of Brunn to carry out guerrilla operations.
The pressure on the island-guarding forces is increasing. On 23 November, the Japanese again summoned up the courage to launch "five more operations" to deliver supplies and ammunition to the island. The first fleet of No. 101, No. 141, and No. 160 set off from Manila under the escort of the coastal defense ship No. 46, and on the 24th, it was attacked by US aircraft, all 3 transport ships were sunk, and the No. 46 coastal defense ship was sunk by the US military on the way back on the 25th. The second fleet of transport ships No. 6, No. 9, and No. 10 set sail from Manila under the escort of the destroyer "Bamboo", and on the 25th, it was attacked by the US army, the Sixth and Tenth sunk, and the Ninth and "Bamboo" returned home injured. "Five more operations" were a complete failure.
At the strong request of MacArthur and Kincaid, halsey led the 2nd and 3rd Groups of task force 38th to the waters east of the Philippines in the early morning of November 25 to strike Japanese targets around Luzon. In the afternoon of the same day, the heavy cruiser Kumano, which had survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf, was attacked by a combination of 8 fighters, 3 dive bombers and 9 torpedo planes of the Ticonderoga, and was hit by 4 bombs and 5 torpedoes and sank in Dasol Bay.
The Japanese immediately launched a counterattack, and the "Yoshino Team", composed of 8 special attack aircraft and 6 escort aircraft, attacked the US task force. Bogan's Second Brigade— Halsey's flagship, the New Jersey, was among them — was the first to be attacked. A Japanese aircraft swooped toward the Hancock, and the aircraft carrier's anti-aircraft gun fire happened to shoot it down overhead, and the wreckage of the Japanese wing crashed into a 20 mm gun. Two special attack aircraft attacked the Independence. One of them plunged headlong into the flight deck, and the explosion tore open a large hole in the deck and induced a fire. Another plane crashed almost parallel to the deck, burning debris scattered everywhere to spark more fires, and the bomb it was carrying exploded after falling from a hole into the hangar. The most unfortunate was the Capote, whose combined impact caused the light carrier's deck and portside to be wide opened, killing 36 sailors and seriously wounding 16.
Sherman's Third Brigade was also not spared. 2 special attack aircraft rushed to the "Essex", although 1 was volleyed into a fireball, but the other 1 special attack aircraft that hit the deck still caused 9 sailors to be killed, 6 missing, 44 injured on the spot, 1 "Avenger" was also destroyed, and even Sherman's cabin was ignited. The Intrepid was also hit and caught fire, and smoke obscured everything but the bow. Burning gasoline spilled along the ship's side, and a series of explosions occurred in the cabin. Due to damage to the flight deck and lifts, the 75 aircraft that had previously attacked the enemy could not be recovered, so they had to fly to the Essex, Hancock and Ticonderoga to make a temporary landing, refuel and fly directly to the Tacloban airsliff. 17 aircraft aboard the Intrepid were damaged, 69 dead and 35 seriously injured. The carrier was so badly wounded that it could not be repaired at Pearl Harbor, and had to return to San Francisco on the west coast for major repairs, and did not return to the front until March 1945.
Since October 29, Japanese kamikazes have killed at least 328 Third Fleet people, destroyed about 90 aircraft, and had at least three carriers to return to base for overhaul before they can return to combat. Halsey canceled the plan for the next day's attack: "Attack only at the appearance of valuable targets and critical moments, which will protect the fast aircraft carrier from frequent exposure to enemy suicide planes, and change this situation at least until the defense technology is perfected." ”