In honor of all veterans I'm sharing this writing from my Uncle Don. He was one of my dad's brothers and served in the army during WWII.

Initial Landing on Leyte Island 1944   

written by Staff Sgt. Donald J Johnson 11/3/2011

The morning of October 24, 1944,
the 727th Amphibian Tractor Battalion, which was attached to the 24th Infantry Division landed on different beaches on Leyte Island in the Philippines. We had been working for some time getting our Amphibian tractors field ready for a MIKE ONE Invasion, and we all had been wondering where we were headed? Our tractors were soon ready to be loaded on transport ships at Hollandia, New Guinea. We were on our way to make a landing on some unknown beach.

The early morning light

showed much activity. There were many ships in the harbor, fighter planes in

the air, and soon "dog fights” between the Japanese "Zeros“; and our

own fighter planes. There were Japanese suicide planes heading for our ships.

We were about a mile from Red Beach, but we were relieved to know that the Air

Force and other activity was there preparing us for an infantry landing. We all

knew there was a war going on here.

We received orders to

disembark from the ship, and soon our amphibian tractors loaded with up to

forty infantry soldiers went down the ramp and headed for Red Beach. Our

greatest concern now was mortar fire from the beach. Two of our three-man crew

were protected by making our travels and landings by periscope, but our tractor

commander and the cargo of infantry were at great risk with little enemy opposition,

and we were able to land on Red beach. The tractor ramp was lowered, and the

infantry soldiers were left to secure the beach.

Our responsibility after

landing the infantry was to carry ammunition, food, and other needed supplies

to the front lines. It was also our mission to return the dead and the wounded

to hospital ships, and later, as the beach was secured, to medical facilities

along the beach. We made these trips with the help of our periscopes until the

area to the front lines was secured because of sniper attacks. Land mines

planted along our routes of travel were the next concern.

In the darkness of the early

morning, following the day after our initial landing, we heard the Japanese

Zeros approaching the beach. Our three-man crew had been asleep above the

driver and radio areas of our tractor. Lighted tracer shells soon surrounded

us, as we headed for our fox hole under the ramp of our tractor. It was

frightening to see those lighted shells but we felt relatively safe with the

armor coat of steel over us, and we in our fox hole. We were relieved when the

planes departed, but happy that we had remained in a protected area, as soon we

were experiencing a “banzai attack" by a platoon of Japanese soldiers. The

platoon of enemy soldiers ran among our tractors shouting "banzai"

"banzai”, (the meaning of the shouted word was unknown to us) in the

darkness of that early morning. I'm sure that we all felt fear. This was a tactic

used by the Japanese army, to put fear in the lives of their enemy. It was sure

nice to soon experience the approaching light of day. I believe that we all

must have thanked the good Lord for allowing us to survive that night.

We continued to land troops

for action on many other beaches on the Philippine Islands, and other Islands

in the Pacific. We were later assigned to work with the Australian Army and

landed many troops on the Islands in the Netherlands East Indies. We landed

many Australian troops on the islands on and around Borneo.

Staff Sgt. Donald J. Johnson