Word: homonhon
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...Nashville bore shoreward. The first land sighted by General MacArthur was the islet of Suluan, the first seen by Magellan when he discovered the Philippines in 1521. The first landings, on Homonhon, where Magellan had made his first landing, and on nearby Dinagat (see below), were only the preliminaries in MacArthur's vast and meticulously planned schedule of operations. His first major goal was Leyte, in the heart of the islands, where devoted Visayan guerrillas had been heard calling by secret radio for help a year...
...could not be made with the shattering surprise characteristic of other amphibious assaults in the Pacific. Surprise had to be sacrificed, because Leyte Gulf was guarded by three sentinel islands. On A-minus-three,* company combat teams from an Army Ranger battalion landed from light, fast assault craft on Homonhon, Dinagat and Suluan. Jap communications were hamstrung but not completely destroyed. Tokyo got some kind of word that something was afoot, but apparently could not make up its mind that this was it. Field Marshal Count Juichi Terauchi, once the butcher of North China and now island commander...
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