Word: valencia
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...well as the feats of skill and daring, which have marked the development of carrier war. But beyond the what, when & where of naval air war, Jensen tells the how: how a boy from Alameda feels in combat over Truk ("Those Grummans are beautiful planes," said Lieut, (j.g.) Eugene Valencia; "if they could cook, I'd marry one"); how a baby-faced lad from Athens, Ga. came to be known as "One-Slug" McWhorter ("You just sat back, pressed the button and he blew up and wasn't there any more"); and how planes are lost, in combat...
...airfields were being built on the western, drier side of the island, and captured fields were swiftly repaired and improved for Allied use. One at Valencia, in the Ormoc corridor, was put to use the day after capture. Now it could be told that airfields built at Burauen and Dagami on the wet, eastern slope had been abandoned after a month of struggle against rain and mud. It was because of this setback that the Japs had enjoyed temporary superiority over Allied land-based air forces, and the U.S. Third Fleet had to be held off the islands to make...
...balance that, before they recovered their poise, the 77th had penetrated Ormoc. But there the Japs stood, and stood fast. Most of last week the 77th used its artillery to blast a group of coconut log and concrete blockhouses 600 yards north of Ormoc on the road to Valencia. The Japs still had artillery and mortars, still had enough infantrymen to make three desperate counterattacks...
...enemy drive was stopped by machine guns, and the enemy dead that day were estimated at 500. But no position constructed like Coconut Grove could withstand the artillery pounding indefinitely, and at week's end it was mopped up. The 77th swiftly pushed west and north, closing on Valencia...
Farther north, the 32nd Division and the 1st Cavalry Division (dismounted) were engaged in equally bitter, hand-to-hand combat, but drawing steadily closer to Valencia and a junction with the 77th. Japanese lines were beginning to crumble. But it had taken the bloodiest fighting of the second Philippine campaign to make them crumble. Leyte was not the pushover it had seemed when Douglas MacArthur returned to the Philippines nine weeks...