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The 1st Cavalry Division's drive toward Manila had begun
just after 1900 on 31 January, when a small force from the division started
toward Cabanatuan from the assembly area west of that town. In the lead were
elements of the 1st Cavalry Brigade.
The World War II brigade structure of Maj. Gen. Verne D. Mudge's dismounted 1st Cavalry
Division differed greatly from that of the triangular infantry division of
the period.12 Instead
of three infantry regiments the 1st Cavalry Division had four cavalry
regiments--the 5th and 12th in the 1st Cavalry Brigade, the 7th and 8th in
the 2d Cavalry Brigade. Each regiment had two cavalry squadrons, each
smaller than an infantry battalion, as opposed to the three battalions of an
infantry regiment. Each cavalry regiment contained a weapons troop armed
with 81-mm. mortars, .30-caliber and .50-caliber machine guns, and bazookas,
but there was no heavy weapons troop within each squadron. The cavalry
regiments lacked the antitank and cannon companies of an infantry regiment.
1st Cavalry Division Artillery was composed of one 75-mm. howitzer
battalion, three 105-mm. howitzer battalions, and, for obvious reasons, an
attached 155-mm. howitzer battalion. Reinforcing combat and service
attachments brought the division's strength up to nearly 15,000 men,
somewhat less than the strength of the reinforced 37th Division at the same
time. On paper, each of the four cavalry regiments numbered 1,750 men--in
contrast to the 3,000-odd of an infantry regiment--but none of the 1st
Cavalry Division's regiments was up to strength. The division had received
few replacements since entering combat on Leyte in October, and it had come
to Luzon after very little rest from its arduous campaign through Leyte's
mountains.
For the drive to Manila, General Mudge organized two
reinforced motorized squadrons that soon became known as Flying Columns.
Each included a cavalry squadron, a medium tank company, a 105-mm. howitzer
battery, other supporting elements, and sufficient vehicles to lift all
troops. Mudge placed the two Flying Columns under Brig. Gen. William C.
Chase, commander of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. Chase's groupment also included
the Provisional Reconnaissance Squadron, which contained the division's own
302d Reconnaissance Troop and the headquarters and light tank companies of
the attached 44th Tank Battalion.13
On the morning of 1 February the 2d Squadron, 5th
Cavalry, nucleus of one of the Flying Columns, forded the broad Pampanga
north of Cabanatuan and by 1300 had established firm contact with a force of
some 250 Japanese infantrymen supported by two or three 75-mm. artillery
pieces. 14 The
Japanese group held up the 2d Squadron, 5th Cavalry, until the 1st Squadron,
8th Cavalry (not part of a Flying Column), forded the Pampanga south of
Cabanatuan and fought its way into town against the Japanese rear. (See Map
- The Approach to Manila) By dusk the two units had cleared most of Cabanatuan, and other
elements of the 5th Cavalry finished mopping up the next day. On 3 February the 12th Cavalry, responsible for
protecting the division's long line of communications down Route 5, took
over in the Cabanatuan region as all troops of the 5th and 8th Cavalry
Regiments moved south behind the Flying Columns.
About the same time that 2d Squadron, 5th Cavalry,
started into Cabanatuan from the north, the Provisional Reconnaissance
Squadron forded the Pampanga about five miles south of town and by 1330 on 1
February was at Gapan, where, thirteen miles below Cabanatuan, Route 5
crosses the Peņaranda River. So far, the provisional unit had encountered no
opposition as it sped south across hot, baked farm land, but Japanese rifle
fire from the south bank of the Peņaranda killed Lt. Col. Tom H. Ross,
commander of the Provisional Reconnaissance Squadron and the 44th Tank
Battalion, as he led a patrol onto the Route 5 bridge at Gapan. Capt. Don H.
Walton, commanding the 302d Reconnaissance Troop, immediately assumed
control of the men at the Gapan bridge and, leading a dash across the span,
probably forestalled its destruction. Walton's force, together with Troop G,
8th Cavalry, which arrived from the vicinity of Cabanatuan before dark, set
up defensive perimeters to hold the Gapan bridge for the Flying Columns.
The main body of the leading Flying Column, built around
the 2d Squadron, 8th Cavalry, passed through Gapan during the night of 1-2
February and by 0900 on the 2d was moving into Sabang, on the Angat River
thirty-five miles south of Gapan and seven miles northeast of Plaridel. 15 The
column, after establishing contact with the 37th Division, made no attempt
to cross the Angat at Plaridel--the bridges were down and the area south of
the Angat in the Plaridel region was in the 37th Division's zone.
Accordingly, the Flying Column forded the Angat about five miles north of
Plaridel in the vicinity of Baliuag, where, three years earlier, elements of
MacArthur's withdrawing forces had delayed Japanese forces attempting to
reach the Calumpit bridges along the Angat River bank roads through
Plaridel.16 The
Flying Column's somewhat ticklish fording job--the river was wide, although
not too deep at Baliuag--was accomplished as crowds of Filipinos cheered the
cavalrymen on. To neither the 37th nor 1st Cavalry Divisions had the
Japanese offered serious resistance along the natural defense line of the
unbridged Angat.
While the 2d Squadron, 8th Cavalry, was busy near
Baliuag, the other Flying Column had reached Sabang and, fording the Angat
there, struck east through gently rising farm land along Route 65 toward
Norzagaray, thirteen miles distant. The aim of this maneuver was to
ascertain if Shimbu Group units
believed to be holding high ground east and southeast of Norzagaray had any
intentions of sallying forth to fall on the left flank of the 1st Cavalry Division. If the Flying
Column met strong opposition, or if the Japanese attacked it, the 1st
Cavalry Division might have to halt its advance toward Manila until it could
bring up additional strength. If no serious threat developed, the 5th
Cavalry's group would swing back southeast from Norzagaray and follow the
8th Cavalry's Flying Column across the Santa Maria River at Santa Maria, ten
miles southeast of Baliuag. At dusk on 2 February patrols of the 8th Cavalry
were approaching Santa Maria, having followed circuitous, third-class roads
from Baliuag in order to keep out of the 37th Division's zone.
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