Note 17 — Chapter XVII · Battle of the Airstrips

By 5 December the XXIV Corps was lulled into a sense of false security. The 2d Battalion, 511th Parachute Infantry, which had been in the Burauen area, had rejoined its regiment, which was fighting for the mountain passes on the trail to Albuera. The 3d Battalion, 306th Infantry, on the northwestern approaches to the airfields, reverted on 5 December to the control of the 77th Infantry Division, which was embarking for the Ormoc operation. The only infantry unit in the Burauen area at the time of the Japanese attack was the 1st Battalion, 187th Glider Infantry (less one company), which was on San Pablo airfield. The G-2 periodic report on 5 December at 2000 stated with regard to the general situation in the Burauen-Dagami-Mount Alto area: “An examination of reports of action in this area since 1 Nov may well warrant the assumption that organized resistance has about ceased.”17 But before morning, the remnants of the Japanese 16th Division hit the Buri airfield.