More Intel Reports on Jap Movements in Batangas from the 3rd Bn 49th Regt Hunters-ROTC
[TRANSCRIPTION]
The Intelligence Group, 3rd Batallion, 49th Regiment, 47th Division is an affiliate of the Hunters-ROTC guerrilla organization commanded by Eleuterio Adevoso and one of the largest outfits that operated in Southern Luzon during the Japanese occupation and subsequent liberation. This intelligence group operated from the then-town of Lipa and was commanded by one Jose Alex Katigbak. In this page is a transcription1 of an intelligence report dated 2-9 February from the intelligence group of the 3rd Battalion.
[p. 1]
UNITED STATES PHILIPPINE ISLANDS FORCES
THE HUNTERS OR ROTC GUERRILLAS
ATTACHED TO THE 6th U.S. ARMY
S-2 REPORT
From: February 2, 24:00 P.M.
To: February 9, 24:00 P.M.
February 3, 11:00 a.m.
No. 6
Maps: Refer to the map of Southern Luzon published by the Bureau of Coasts and Geodetic Survey, Manila, 1936.
1. The enemy continues to strengthen its defenses in the Malarayat area.
2. a. The barrios is Lipa where there are concentrations of enemy troops are Latag, Anilao and Antipolo, Tibig, Dagatan, Lumbang, Talisay, Sapac, Bubuyan and Sabang. These barrios are gathered within the immediate vicinity of the Malarayat mountains, except Tibig and Anilao and Antipolo. The troops in Tibig are believed to be staying there temporarily. The estimate of the number is not very accurate as no one could come close to the camps. The Military Police has just raided the barrio and its vicinity.
There in Anilao, approximately 100 in number, man the defenses on Anilao Hill, on the Lipa-Rosario Road.
In Latag, there are approximately 200 infantry troops. They have under their care a large quantity of bullets.
Sabang shelters approximately 200 infantry men. They have constructed no permanent defenses. They may finally leave the town to join the Malarayat defenses or [unreadable word] to north.
In Sapac, there are 400 men both of the infantry and the artillery. Those in Bubuyan are included in the figure.
In Talisay (Lipa, Batangas) are 350 men of the infantry and the artillery groups.
In Lumbang, there are 250 infantry men.
In Dagatan, there is only a small number stationed there to guard the entrance to the Malarayat area.
The town of Santo Tomas has the biggest concentration of troops in the barrio of Suloc. Suloc has approximately 3000 men. It is the center of the entire Malarayat area. Gen. Yamashita has been reported persistently as being in Suloc.
In Santa Clara, there are approximately 1200 men, both of the infantry and the artillery.
In San Luis, there are approximately 200 infantry men.
In San Joaquin, there is the Medical Corps consisting of 100 men.
In the town of Mataasnacahoy, in the landing field, there are approximately 40 men guarding the supplies which have not yet been moved, and manning the anti—ircraft guns that have been installed there.
In San Juan, there are only a few guarding the communication lines.
In Rosario, there are approximately 200 infantry. This has been reported to us by outsiders, not by our own observers.
(We have no reports from other towns of our sector.)
b. The unit in Sabang is under Major Tanabe. In Sapac, Lieut. Col. Torigne [not sure, blurred in the original]. In San Joaquin and Santa Clara, under Major Ohara. (Some reports on this point are incomplete.)
[p. 2]
c. The Japanese Army uses only land routes to this area. Its supplies and troops pass along the national highways and the roads it has built towards the defensive installations. There is a bridge between Calamba and Santo Tomas; Santo Tomas and Tanauan; Sabang (barrio) and Lipa; Lipa and San Jose; Lipa and Cuenca. Northeast of Santo Tomas is Mount Makiling, 1144. East of Tanauan is Mount Olila, 375. East or somewhat northeast of Lipa are Mount Dalaga, 793 and Mount Malipunyo, 1004 of the Malarayat Mountains. Somewhat southeast of Lipa is the Lipa Hill or the Anilao Hill, 335, a lonely mount on the Lipa-Rosario road. Northeast of Rosario is Tombol Hill. And dominating the road between the town of San Juan and the barrio of Laiya, on the beach of Tayabas Bay, are the mountains of Sampiro. The national roads are in parts of asphalt and in parts gravel and sand. They are in [a] poor state, but available in all seasons. The roads built by the Japs will not be available during the rainy season because they are surfaced with ordinary soil. These roads do not follow straight lines but curve here and there, wherever there are tall trees to hide them from above. Their motor vehicles are all in [a] dilapidated state. The number is inadequate to meet the army’s needs. So that the Japs are forced to commandeer any kind of vehicles available in the locality where they happen to be. Bull carts, calesas, horses, cows, carabaos, charcoal-fed jitneys and trucks are either bought or commandeered to meet the needs of the hour.
d. The major defensive works of the enemy in Lipa are the airfield in Lipa and the two dispersal fields in Santo Toribio and Malvar; the Lipa Hill (Lipa); and the defenses constructed at the base of the Malarayat Mountains. In all these defensive works, trenches and foxholes have been built. The airfield has been abandoned. There, defenses are not fully mapped. Other than the road built by the enemy near Guinting, there are several narrow roads that lead to the Malarayat defensive works. Anilao (or Lipa) Hill is right on the Lipa-Rosario road.
e. The buildings of the Rose Packing Co. on the road to Rosario from Lipa is the enemy’s biggest rice bodega in this town. It is almost full. At the southern end of Aguinaldo Street of this town in the backyard of residential buildings is a gasoline depot. It is [a] fairly big one. In this same place are ammunition. In Bulacnin, 4-8 kilometers from the church and lying 23 degrees northwest of the same is the biggest gasoline dump in Lipa. It is the only place still carefully guarded by the enemy. These dumps consist of big nipa buildings constructed under tall coconut trees. The rice stored up in these bodegas are partly confiscated from the local producers and proprietors. We have not noticed any supply (food) that has been brought in from Japan.
f. There is none.
g. I notice no new equipment nor new adaptations of old equipment.
h. The morale of the enemy is very low. To the Japanese, the most demoralizing weapon of the United States is the airplane.
i. I have none.
3. a. The airfield in Lipa is situated between Mataasnacahoy and Lipa, on an area of more than 500 hectares lying in the space bounded by the Lipa-Mataasnacahoy road and the Lipa-San Jose road. The dumps are mostly empty now. Only that located in Bulacnin is still full. It is a gasoline dump. The buildings in the airfield are now empty. The airplane hideouts are located near the airfield under the coconut trees. The secondary landing fields in Santo Toribio and Malvar are in reality dispersal areas. The runways in the Lipa airfield are each 800 meters long. One is concrete, the other is not. They cross each other at a point 200 meters from their west ends. The airfield installations are covered with leaves. Sometimes, they are built under the surrounding vegetation. There are no searchlights. ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS HAVE BEEN RE-INSTALLED IN THE JAPANESE LANDING FIELD IN LIPA.
b. There are no enemy airfield activities now.
c. There are no enemy air activities.
d. The runways were riddled with holes when the U.S. airmen raided the field last week.
e. The air force in Lipa has evacuated and abandoned the field.
f. All targets in the airfield have been removed; those located in the town have likewise been removed, except a few. The gasoline deposited in the former PC barracks; the gasoline dumps near the Balete road in the barrio of Bulacnin; the gasoline deposited in the orchard near a private house at the south end of Aguinaldo Street.
g. In this season of the year, the weather is generally dry.
[p. 3]
The winds will be mostly fair. Once in a while, however, winds from the east. The mornings are frequently misty.
4. a. The PQOG continues to be the only dominant guerrilla group in this sector excluding the Hunters. Its head for the province of Batangas is Esteban Mayo. Luansing has established his own Batangas Guerrillas. They have had no previous military training. Their equipment is poor but good enough as the equipment of guerrillas general go.
b. Their supplies are insufficient and often prove embarrassing.
c. All guerrilla units in this sector are at present friendly to the Hunters.
d. These units require no definite qualifications for admission.
5. None.
6. None.
7. The garrisons continue to raid and harass the civilians living in the barrios. Many are killed on the ground that they are guerrillas.
8. None.
9. None.
) ) ) ) ) ) ) )
[Sgd.] Alex Isagani