. The very reverse was true of the Japanese garrison, whose unity was destroyed as soon as the paratroops landed in their midst. Thus, although not sufficiently recognized by the line troops, the fact that three battalions of Yanks could jump into the very center of a larger force of Japs, and could completely disrupt their elaborate fortifications was as much a triumph of staff organization as any other single factor.

The Regimental Headquarters units jumped on the first wave with the lead battalion (the 3rd); and different staff groups, as fast as they could assemble, immediately began to establish headquarters in the garrison barracks at the head of the parade ground. This building, which our Army engineers had erected before the war, was a huge, three-story, concrete structure, so solidly constructed that even the intensive bombing of two seiges had not altogether shattered its room or corridors. Many of them were caved in; all were filled with rubble; part of the upper floors hung by their reinforced steel mesh from which the concrete had been blasted away; but much of the building was intact, as parts were very habitable, and altogether it served it served as an excellent gathering place, storehouse, dormitory, hospital, office building, observation point, Command post and citadel. Its great size adapted it to all of these uses, to which it was immediately converted.