Note 27 — Chapter VIII · Southern Leyte Valley: Part Two

The Buri airfield was northeast of Burauen, with a heavily wooded area on its northern edge. On the northern and western edges the Japanese had constructed pillboxes in the high grass and heavy brush, together with mutually supporting machine gun pillboxes interlaced with extensive trench systems. On the southern side of the airstrip the enemy had twenty strong field fortifications. Approximately 1,000 enemy troops were defending the sector—elements of the 20th Infantry Regiment, the 98th Airfield Battalion, and the 54th Airfield Company. The airfield had been extensively mined with 100-pound aerial bombs buried nose up in the runway and scattered throughout the dispersal area. Some of these bombs had electric fuzes and could be detonated by enemy troops hidden in foxholes a short distance away.27