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Category: History

Cebu 2015: The Ghosts of World War II, 70 Years Later

Published by D C on June 6, 2015
  • Tracked amphibious landing vehicles (LVT) make their way ashore. In the distance, Talisay Beach is masked in thick smoke. The larger craft at center is an LCI, the type of ship Company G landed in. Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, 80-G-259254.
  • Americal Division Veterans Association tour group at Museo Sugbo, Cebu City, 2015. Source: Americal Division Veterans Association.
  • Filipino military forces re-enact the Americal Division landing at Talisay Beach on the 70th anniversary of the battle. Source: Dave Colamaria.
  • Comparison of the landing at Talisay Beach in Cebu, with 1945 at top, and 2015 at bottom. Source: top photo Naval History and Heritage Command SC 264198, bottom photo Dave Colamaria.
  • Dave Colamaria at an overlook on top of Babag Ridge, looking down on the sprawl of Cebu City below. Source: Dave Colamaria.
  • Sam Arnold (left) and Dave Colamaria pose with the newly dedicated monument at the site of the Japanese surrender on Cebu. Source: Dave Colamaria.

In March 2015, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Cebu, an island in the Philippines. Along with a group of men from the Americal Division Veterans Association (all veterans of the war in Vietnam), I spent a week on the island touring sites with ties to World War II. This included several locations where the 182nd Infantry engaged in combat. It was a very emotional experience for me, retracing the footsteps of my grandfather, Ed Monahan. He served as First Sergeant for Company G of the 182nd on Cebu, from their amphibious landing in March 1945, until he was rotated home on points in May 1945, with the heaviest fighting completed.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to post a short series of stories on the Cebu trip. I am going to post them in an order approximating the sequence of events that the fighting on Cebu occurred, rather than how our trip was scheduled. The first piece will look at the extravagant ceremonies hosted by the people of the Philippines to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Americal Division’s landing at Talisay Beach, on 26 March 1945 (read Part I here). Next I’ll look at some of the sites in the urban center of Cebu City, which was seized shortly after the successful landing at Talisay (read Part II here). We’ll move from there into the imposing hills of Babag Ridge, scene of the bloodiest fighting of the campaign (read Part III here).  A visit to the west coast of Cebu affords the chance to tour some World War II pillboxes and tank barriers (read Part IV here). And lastly, we’ll finish up with a piece on the dedication of a new monument at the spot where thousands of Japanese troops surrendered to the Americal at the end of the war (read Part V here).

The main purpose of our visit was to attend this new monument dedication. My grandfather was not present when the Japanese on Cebu surrendered to the Americal Division at the end of the war. So in a way, I saw this trip as a way for me to bring some symbolic closure to the war for him. On that last day in Cebu at the monument dedication, I did find that closure, in a deeply satisfying and emotional moment I’ll describe in my story on the ceremony.

After completing the Cebu portion of the trip, I had a brief stopover in Manila, where I visited the graves of men from Company G who were killed during the war. You can read that story here. To learn more about the battle for Cebu, read the story here. Please check back throughout the month as a I post the details of the 2015 trip. The journey begins with the reenactment of the Talisay Beach Landing.

Memorial Day 2015: Remembering the Dead of Company G

Published by D C on May 24, 2015
  • The names of 53 men from Company G killed in action, in roughly chronological order. It remains uncertain whether this is a complete list of those killed in the company, but it is certainly a close approximation. Source: Edward Monahan Collection.
  • Just a few of the men from Company G, 182nd Infantry Regiment, killed during World War II.
  • Manila American Cemetery, 28 March 2015. Source: David Colamaria.
  • Manila American Cemetery, 28 March 2015. Source: David Colamaria.
  • Manila American Cemetery, 28 March 2015. Source: David Colamaria.
  • Just a few of the hundreds of panels inscribed with the names of Americans still Missing in Action from the Pacific during World War II, at the Manila American Cemetery, 28 March 2015. Source: David Colamaria.
  • Grave at Manila American Cemetery of Private First Class Carlton O. Duley, killed in action, Bougainville, 7 March 1944. Source: David Colamaria.
  • Grave at Manila American Cemetery of Private First Class Arnold M. West, killed in action, Bougainville, 1 October 1944. Source: David Colamaria.

I’ve spent a good deal of time this Memorial Day weekend finalizing the Killed in Action page for the Company G website. It was important to me to have it finished for Memorial Day. The foundation for this list of KIA is my grandfather Ed Monahan‘s handwritten list of men, numbering 53 dead (see Photo #1). Based on the list of the dead in the back of the Americal Division’s book Under the Southern Cross, as well as an initial scan of Company G’s morning reports, and of course the burials listed by the American Battle Monuments Commission, I feel that this list is a nearly complete accounting of the dead for Company G. I’ll continue to investigate this as part of my ongoing research. I suspect that there may be some names missing from the list, but I am quite comfortable stating that those listed were in fact the names of those killed during the war. Just a few of their faces can be seen in Photo #2.

In March, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Cebu, in the Philippine Islands, as a part of a trip with the Americal Division Veteran’s Association, to witness the dedication of a new monument at the spot of a major Japanese surrender at the end of the war (read about it here). The final stop on my trip was the Manila American Cemetery, final resting place for over 17,000 American casualties in the Pacific during World War II. On the strikingly beautiful grounds of this cemetery (see Photo #3, Photo #4, Photo #5) lie the remains of 10 men from Company G. On the walls of the missing, the names of 4 other men from Company G are inscribed (see Photo #6). During my visit on 29 March 2015, I stopped to pay respects to each man. It was a powerful, emotional morning, under a bright sun, with a brisk wind coursing over the quiet cemetery grounds. With the help of my mother, Claire Ciampa, my wife Angie, and the son of another Company G man, Ed Gekosky, we had assembled small ribbons prior to my departure for the Philippines. I left a ribbon with the Americal Division insignia and a symbol of each man’s home state at each grave (see Photo #7, Photo #8). It felt like a very small gesture to me, inconsequential when measured against the sacrifice these men had made. For weeks, I had been conscious of the fact that these men had likely never had a personal visitor, given the thousands of miles separating them from home. I wanted my visit to mean something – for these men to be remembered.

I hope that others out there will see and visit the Killed in Action page on this site, to remember the great sacrifice these men made. And I hope that some will read this story on Memorial Day, to help keep all of their memories alive.