On June 12, 1943,
the 34th Infantry replaced the 298th Infantry as a unit
of the 24th Division. The regiment moved to Australia with the 24th
Division, and later staged for the Tanahmerah Bay
operation that took place in April 1944. During the actual campaign, the 34th
was in task force reserve but assisted in mopping-up operations after the
objective, the Hollandia Airdrome, had been
seized.
Shortly after
this initial success of the 24th Division, the 34th
Regiment was attached to the 41st Infantry Division for the thrust
into Biak
Island. After a two- day crushing drive, the Sorido
and Boroke Airdromes were captured by the
regiment, which assisted in great measure in neutralizing Japanese resistance
on Biak.
A more
difficult task for the Regiment was to come in October 1944, at
Leyte
in the battle for the liberation of the Philippines. Spearheading the 24th
Division�s rapid thrust across
Leyte,
the 34th remained in constant contact with the enemy for a trying
period of seventy-five straight days of combat. It was on
Kilay Ridge that the heroic action of the
regiment�s first battalion won the Presidential Unit Citation. For three
weeks this group of men held the tactically important ridge against numberless
major attacks by the enemy. Short of rations and ammunition, the 1st
Battalion held its position against great odds, adding an illustrious chapter
to the history of the regiment.
In January
1945, the 24th was attached to the 38th Division for the
Luzon engagement where an unopposed landing was made north of San Miguel.
However, the remainder of the struggle in the vicinity of
Subic
Bay was particularly hard-fought. In one battle in the fight for
Bataan,
Company F suffered more than 90 casualties in one day. In a two-day period
following, the regiment counted 257 casualties.
At
Zig
Zag
Pass near Olongapo, the Japanese proved a
formidable foe. From excellently prepared positions in the aptly named pass,
they put the 34th Infantry to a severe test.
Zig Zag was a torment of twists and curves,
dips and rises, deep and narrow gorges and jutting cliffs to the men of the
Regiment as they battled relentlessly to destroy the enemy. It required many
days of bitter fighting, in which acts of individual heroism were legion, to
accomplish this mission.
The tired men of the 34th thought that surely their time for rest
had come, but word filtered down that Japanese had been seen embarking in
large numbers from Bataan for
Corregidor, and that this was to be their next objective. The regiment
was ordered to seize and secure Malinta Hill on
Corregidor
from landings on Black Beach near San Jose. There followed the most violent
days of war yet experienced. The regimental commander declared: �There is no
place to go, once you�re there, but forward. We simply take the hill at all
costs and stay there until we�ve killed all the Japs
or the Japs have killed all of us��
After
Corregidor
the Regiment rejoined the 24th Division in the Mindanao campaign,
becoming a leading element in this action. As in other campaigns the regiment
took an active part in blasting Japanese forces there, adding tremendously to
the success of the operation. The 34th Infantry Regiment led the
rapid advance from Pikit to
Digos and fought a fierce battle along the cliffs on the north bank of
the Taloma
River.
In October
1945, the 34th Infantry moved to Japan with the 24th
Division and spent the next five years in occupation duties on the Islands of
Honshu and Kyushu.
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