Note 12 — Chapter VII · Southern Leyte Valley: Part One

At 1600 Captain Young reported that his troops had secured Labiranan Head. At the same time, friendly naval gunfire shelled Young’s troops.12 This gunfire was not stopped, since there were known Japanese positions in the vicinity and it was believed to be of more lasting importance to knock them out than to hold this one position. Captain Young evacuated Labiranan Head and withdrew his troops, who swam across the Labiranan River and formed a night perimeter on the south bank. At the end of the day the front lines of the rest of the 1st Battalion, 383d Infantry, were along the northern banks of the Labiranan River and on the high ground 800 yards west of Labiranan Head.13