Note 65 — Chapter XIII · The Mountain Barrier: Part Two

By the end of October the XXIV Corps, having secured the southern part of Leyte Valley, the Dulag-Burauen-Dagami-Tanauan road net, and all airfields in the area, was ready for the next phase of its mission. General Hodge thereupon immediately initiated operations whereby the XXIV Corps was to liberate southern Leyte concurrently with the drive of the X Corps in the north. General Hodge’s plan called for the 96th Division to make a holding attack east of the mountains while the 7th Division drove north from Baybay up the coast of Ormoc Bay.65 (See Map 2.) He therefore ordered the 96th Division to defend the Tanauan-Dagami-Burauen-Dulag area and to relieve as rapidly as possible all elements of the 7th Division in the area. Finally it was to mop up all enemy forces in its zone and to furnish security for all the principal roads and installations in the area.66 General Bradley on 2 November ordered Colonel Dill’s 382d Infantry to relieve the 17th Infantry of the 7th Division in the vicinity of Dagami, to send strong reconnaissance and combat patrols into the hills to the west and northwest, and to destroy all enemy forces encountered.67