American landing in Leyte

This first air raid took place on September 12, 1944, more than a month before the American landing in Leyte. The area most often under bombing raids after that first one was the landing field which the Japanese had been trying to complete for their own planes. So many civilians had been recruited to work on that airfield with neither food nor decent wage. For camouflage, many planes were hidden under the coconut trees and covered with green abaca nets. The plan of the enemy to use the landing field was never realized because the American bombers always left the place with huge craters in it. Bombs were also dropped along the provincial highway from the landing filed to the town. After one bombing sortie, the large depot in Lo-oc near the Dumaguete wharf blew up in a flaming holocaust. Added to this was the shelling from the sea by U.S. Navy gunboats. The Japanese knew that their occupation of Dumaguete had come to an end. Another major objective of the American raids was Guy Hall on the Silliman campus, the headquarters of the Japanese. The walls of the building were damaged by American B-25 strafing operations. After a number of raids by the American planes, the Japanese transferred their headquarters to the home of the late Mr. Miguel Amil in Piapi. No damage was done to Oriental Hall, the headquarters of the Bureau of Constabulary. The underground resistance men inside the town kept the Americans informed of the whereabouts of the Japanese. At first, American bombings were frequent, but later, there were long quiet intervals between raids which seemed to mislead the Japanese into believing that the Americans were not coming again.63 The Japanese did not fire back for fear they might be located. Besides, they had no anti-aircraft guns with which to fight back effectively.