US Vet’s kin makes nostalgic trip tracing the Liberation of Eastern Mindanao in 1945

Harry Balser and his wife Mary recently undertook a nostalgia trip to retrace the journey taken by his Uncle Macy’s unit during the liberation of Eastern Mindanao eight decades ago.

Harry and Mary Balser at the Gen. Douglas MacArthur Memorial Landmark (at Del Monte Airfield No. 1) in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon.
(Photo courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

Balser’s Uncle Macy Carneal served as an infantry man with the 155th Regiment of the  US Army’s 31st Infantry “Dixie” Division. Since he had no children, he would often regale his favorite nephew Harry with tales of the war in the Pacific in their hamlet at Phoebus, Virginia which created an interest in the young boy about the Second World War.  

“The Philippines was a big part of my uncle’s life, and that also made me curious to see what the fighting was all about, and how his campaign was conducted. We didn’t have maps of Mindanao like we have now, so I never could really visualize the campaign. Gen. Robert Eichelberger’s memoir, Our Jungle Road to Tokyo, provided me very good documentation on the path of the campaign, and fairly good documentation on what transpired along the ‘roads’ through Mindanao.  So, this was my starting point along with my uncle’s book of Division history,” Balser explained. “I didn’t know what to expect exactly for the battles that were fought on Mindanao. Most of the reading that I have done indicates that the battle campaign of the 31st infantry division was more or less unknown, and an underreported campaign, at least, when compared to the fighting on Luzon.” 

After consulting Dr. Richard B. Meixsel, assistant professor of history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia (who has written books about the US military in the Philippines during World War II), the Balsers contacted Gina Cuerdo-Amador, a tour guide based in Bukidnon, to arrange their trip and finally managed to make it through in September, 2024.

A rough Japanese sketch of (possible) escape routes out of Davao City at the IMIN Japanese-Philippine Museum, Mintal, Davao City. (photo courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

The couple linked up with their guide in Davao City on September 15 and after a tour of World War II sites in the city, proceeded to Fort Pikit and Kabacan in Cotabato via Digos City, where Carneal started his Mindanao campaign wading ashore in Parang, in April 22, 1945 with the 31st Division.

(Photos courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

Uncle Macy

Balser’s uncle was a sports fisherman/hunter, very comfortable in the woods. skilled woodsman, able to live off the land, read signs on the forest trail, find his bearings by the stars, which served him very well as infantry, and was often the point man of his unit’s jungle patrols. He worked closely with Filipino guerrillas (who were held in high esteem by General MacArthur) in determining the disposition of Japanese soldiers.

With Ed and Gina Amador at Fort Pikit, Cotabato. (photos courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

Somewhere between Kabacan and Bukidnon, he got too far ahead of his column, so he and some guerrillas melted into the jungle and found a farmer who agreed to hide them somewhere behind his chicken coop until he could rejoin his column. From that point on he loved the Philippines because they saved his life.

At the junction of Bukidnon and Cotabato provinces in Sayre Highway, Mindanao.
(photo courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

“It has really been fascinating, it’s a story I had a concept for, but it was very abstract. I knew Cotabato, the Sayre Highway, Kabacan, but they were very abstract concepts in a map, it’s very exciting to see, I didn’t have a visual concept of what I would find so it was all surprise, it was all new, a place that I’ve never been. It was just like a movie that unfolded as the camera rolls!” Balser exclaimed.

Lake Pinamaloy, Don Carlos, Bukidnon. (photo courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

From Cotabato, the Balsers traveled to Valencia City, Bukidnon with a stop at Lake Pinamaloy in Bukidnon, site of the Battle of Colgan Woods (a.k.a. The Battle of Pinamaloy) which was the deadliest battle encountered by the 31st Division during World War II, when its 124th Regiment battled the Japanese 2nd Battalion, 74th Regiment, under the command of Major Hotta.

The Battle of Colgan Woods by Jackson Walker. This painting depicts Chaplain Thomas Colgan braving Japanese gunfire to come to the aid wounded medic Robert Lee Evans. Both were killed. (courtesy of Mrs Marion Hess, President, 124th Infantry Regiment Association)

In the fighting for Colgan Woods and Maramag, an area the size of a city block cost the 124th Infantry Regiment 69 men killed and 177 wounded from 6 to 12 May 1945. The woods were finally taken after six days of mortar fire, dive bombing by Marine SBD scout bombers dropping high explosive and napalm, daily infantry assaults, with the arrival of the artillery finally spelling the end of the battle. About half of the Japanese battalion defending the Colgan woods were killed in action, with the remnants retreating into the mountains to conduct guerrilla warfare. American estimates placed the number of Japanese casualties from this action at 580.

Next, the party toured the historic Cinchona Forest Reserve in Barangay Ka-atoan in Malaybalay (now a part of Lantapan) which provided much needed quinine to the USAFFE in Bataan which was flown there by the little Bamboo Fleet, and which delayed Bataan’s surrender longer than the Japanese Imperial Forces had planned, upsetting their timetable for the conquest of the Southwest Pacific which enabled the Allied to rally and eventually push them back and defeat them.

Also in Malaybalay was Camp Casisang, a National Historical Landmark where the remnants of the USAFFE’s Mindanao Force were interred along with their commander Maj. Gen. William F. Sharp and Gen. Manuel A. Roxas, who at the time was the titular head of the Philippine Commonwealth Government, and later became the first president of thee Philippine Republic in 1946.

(photos courtesy of Gina Cuerdo-Amador)

Moving further north, the party next toured the Del Monte  Lodge where Gen. Douglas MacArthur and his family stayed on March 13-17, and the Gen. MacArthur Memorial Marker at the terminus of Del Monte Airfield No. 1 in Bgy. Dicklum from which MacArthur and party took off in two B-17E bombers on the final leg of their breakout to Australia.

The tour concluded with a tour of historic sites in Cagayan de Oro City, including Gaston Park where the Battle of Cagayan between the Mindanao Battalon under Gen. Nicolas Capistrano were repulsed by the US 40th Volunteers under Colonel Edward A. Godwin on April 7, 1900; and the MacArthur Memorial Marker in Bgy. Puntod where Gen. MacArthur and party landed on March 13, 1942 after their successful breakout from the Japanese blockade of Corregidor.

The Dixie Division

Uncle Macy’s unit, the 31st Infantry Division (“Dixie”) was an infantry division of the United States Army National Guard, organized in 1917 during World War I from the national guardsmen of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, the division did not see action and was demobilized in January 1919.

Reorganized in 1923 with national guardsmen from Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, it was mobilized in 1940 during World War II, and spent several years training in the US.  In 1944 it was sent to the South-West Pacific Area, fighting in the New Guinea campaign and in the Battle of Mindanao in the Philippines.

The 31st Infantry Division was made up of the 124th Infantry Regiment, 155th Infantry Regiment, 167th Infantry Regiment, 114th Field Artillery Battalion,116th Field Artillery Battalion, 117th Field Artillery Battalion, 149th Field Artillery Battalion, 31st Signal Company, 731st Ordnance  Company, 31st Quartermaster Company, 31st Reconnaissance troop, 106th Engineer Battalion, 106th Medical Battalion, and 31st CIC Detachment.

Clearing Eastern Mindanao X Corps 17 April-30 June 1945.

On 22 April 1945, the 31st Infantry Division landed on Mindanao to take part in the liberation of the Philippines, along with units of the 24th and later 40th Divisions. Moving up the Sayre Highway and driving down the Kibawe-Talomo trail, fighting in knee-deep mud and through torrential rains, the 31st with the help of Filipino guerrillas forced the enemy to withdraw into the interior and blocked off other Japanese in the Davao area. After the end of the war the division was demobilized in December 1945.

Future Plans

“Of course, our trip focused on more than just military history. We took in the scenic beauty of the Philippines, met the people, and enjoyed experiences that delighted visitors. I am sure those kinds of things are an everyday part of working in the tourist industry,” Balser noted.

He plans to write an account of their journey for their travel club newsletter, and report to Prof Meixsel what he experienced during his trip.

“I would really like to see Mindanao and the people of Mindanao remember more vividly what happened and make the history come alive for themselves, I really think it’s a great attraction for visitors. People in Mindanao are missing a piece of history by not having a more tangible experience and feeling of it, because obviously the freedom that the Philippines has, was paid for and it should be appreciated.”

Cuerdo-Amador agrees. In most significant sites there were no monuments, and local guides were unaware of what happened there during World War II.

“It was ironic that in Davao City, my guide colleague found no information at all about the Second World War. Fortunately, Digos City had much more data, and a very enthusiastic historian to boot in Vice Mayor Johari Bana who showed us around!”

Despite this, she still plans to create specific WWII-themed tours for Mindanao focusing on significant battles and other sites. At present, she only tours guests to nearby monuments and battle sites in the immediate areas they requested.

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