[Homer_J_Simpson]

On 21 December, at about 1645, the lead elements of the 77TH Infantry and 1ST Cavalry Divisions linked up on Highway 2, at a road junction between Kananga and Libongao. The entire highway was now open from Pinamopoan in the north to Ormoc in the south.

“The Ormoc Valley, in which the Japanese had so tenaciously resisted the American advance, was now securely in the hands of Sixth Army. The northern and southern prongs of the trap had closed. There remained only Palompon as an exit for the Japanese forces. To the securing of that port, the X and XXIV Corps, acting in concert, could concentrate their main efforts. Plans had been readied. The Sixth Army was poised in a position from which it could drive westward to the sea and bring the Leyte campaign to a successful conclusion.” (Cannon 346)

32nd Division history in World War II

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Continued from December 19.

Winston S. Churchill, Triumph and Tragedy