Note 35 — Chapter XX · Seizure of Ormoc Valley
Reading edition
The Japanese 5th Infantry Regiment had assembled in the Libongao sector with orders to proceed to the Valencia sector, but the 77th Division had advanced so rapidly that it was attacking the 35th Army Headquarters. The Takahashi Detachment suffered heavy casualties and withdrew to Matagob, on the Palompon road between Palompon and Libongao. The field artillery battalion and the engineering and transportation companies that had been left at Matagob were absorbed by the Takahashi Detachment. On 21 December General Suzuki ordered the regiment to make a defensive stand, so that the main force of the 35th Army could withdraw to the Palompon sector on the shore of the Camotes Sea.35