American Soldiers Shelling of Mount Maculot, Cuenca April 1945

Fighting near Mt. Maculot in Batangas, 1945.  Image source:  United States National Archives.

The photo above shows United States Army soldiers shelling Mount Maculot in the town of Cuenca in Batangas. It has been downloaded from the United States National Archives, processed with graphic editing software to improve quality and then colorized courtesy of Algorithmia.

The original caption of the photograph above was

“Mortar squad of the 85^th Chemical Mortar Battalion shelling Mt. Macolod (this was how many American World War II documents referred to Mount Maculot), Batangas Province. On the left is Squad Leader Sgt. Harvey Blue, Lumberton, N.C., and loading at the 4.2 mortar is Lealon Pace, Ashville, N.C.”

The picture was taken on 13 June 1945, at the height of a United States Army assault on Mount Maculot. The battle here was regarded in some World War II documentation as among the fiercest in the Western Pacific Theater of War.