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Tara Island - Philippines Oct 1944

Discussion in 'Land Warfare in the Pacific' started by ceejay, Jan 16, 2011.

  1. ceejay

    ceejay Member

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    Can somebody tell me if there was any fighting on Tara Island in the Philippines in Oct 1944. If so, would you have any idea which divisions would have been there at that time?
     
  2. syscom3

    syscom3 Member

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    Tara is near Mindoro island, thus it would not have been in harms way untill Late Dec 1944. Since there appears to not have been any airfields on this small island, its strategic significance was nil. Palawan was invaded towards the end of Feb 1945 so if any military action took place, it would have been around that time. I wouldn't doubt that only a token small Japanese force was on the island and any combat was of the brief and mopping up type.
     
  3. ceejay

    ceejay Member

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    Thank you. I'm trying to find an island that sounds like "Tawa", but not sure whereabouts in the Pacific it is.
    An American serviceman was killed in action on Oct 28 1944 on a small island with a similar name. I know his name, Harold Allan Preston, but can't find out which of the services he fought with. I thought that I could find the island and then narrow down which divisions fought around the area at that time.
     
  4. syscom3

    syscom3 Member

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    The fight for Leyte was in that time frame.
     
  5. kerrd5

    kerrd5 Ace

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    Do you know his state of residence?


    Dave
     
  6. ceejay

    ceejay Member

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    Sorry Dave I don't. I have very little information. What I have is from the memory of a woman who knew this man when he was stationed in NZ in 1943/44. Unfortunately time has taken it's toll and she has forgotten a few details, some of them being the most important ones.

    He was a Top Sergeant, an engineer (army, navy?) but not a marine as the marines records were searched and his name did not show up. I can't find any sign of a death record for him and I have trawled through the online military records at the archives and anything else that is online. There were two US Divisions in Auckland in 1944, the 25th and the 43rd. So far I have drawn a blank.
     
  7. Biak

    Biak Boy from Illinois Staff Member

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    This may be a stretch but the dates fit and what with pronunciation ?

    Tanauan, Leyte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    Liberation of Tanauan by the Allied Forces in World War II
    On October 1944, during the famous Leyte Gulf Landings, part of General MacArthur's landing forces, the X and XXIV Corps from the United States Sixth Army, including the soldiers of the Philippine Commonwealth Army of the 91st, 92nd and 93rd Infantry Division, pushed toward Tanauan to liberate the town from the Japanese occupying forces. In the early days of the campaign to liberate the island, the Air Force was desperately in need of airstrips for US planes. The Tacloban airstrip, which was captured by the Sixth Army early on during the landings, was already crowded, and both the Buri and San Pablo airstrips in the vicinity of Burauen were fast deteriorating due to bad weather, coupled with its unsatisfactory soil conditions, making it hard for the US fighter planes to land safely. The Fifth Air Force decided to abandon the Burauen airstrips and chose to build a new one located 7 miles south of Tacloban, the Tanauan airstrip.""


    Good luck and we'll keep looking.
     
  8. ceejay

    ceejay Member

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    Thanks, I'll keep reading and hoping.
     
  9. Drew Childers

    Drew Childers Member

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    The 25th were involved in the Luzon landing in Jan '45, not the Leyte landing. My mom's brother was in the 25th.

    Just realized I replied to 3 year old thread, I see a way to edit but not to delete, so I'm adding this comment.
     
  10. lwd

    lwd Ace

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    Nothing wrong with a little thread necromancy. :)

    I seem to recall reading that once the US landed the Phillopino resistance liberated a fair amount of the territory. Sometimes they had US personel with them either holdouts or attached post invasion. I suspect that the record keeping for some of these operations was minimal.
     

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