Note 14 — Chapter IX · Northern Leyte Valley: Part One
Reading edition
The 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry, passed through the 7th Cavalry at 0900 on the morning of 23 October. By nightfall the squadron had crossed and secured the Diit River bridge and routed small groups of the enemy. The 2d Squadron experienced difficulty in securing Filipino carriers for the trip up the Diit River and across the unmapped and unknown mountains to Santa Cruz. It resolved the situation by driving a truck through the streets and seizing every able-bodied Filipino in sight. These “volunteers” were sufficient to get the squadron to its night bivouac on the Diit River. The “indignant carriers [then] dissolved into the jungle.”14 The 2d Squadron established its perimeter near the village of Diit.