Photo By Lori Stewart | Illustration of a Japanese improvised grenade from an August 1945 "Intelligence Bulletin"... read more read more
by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
TECHINT TEAM ARRIVES IN PHILIPPINES UNDER FIRE
On Mar. 10, 1945, following an intense aerial and naval bombardment of Japanese defensive positions, Maj. Gen. Jens A. Doe’s 41st Infantry Division landed on the beachhead near Zamboanga on the western tip of Mindanao. Dubbed Victor IV, this was the second and perhaps most highly opposed of five Eighth Army operations to clear the southern Philippine Islands of enemy forces. Accompanying the tactical troops was a technical intelligence (TECHINT) team armed for analysis, not combat.
Beginning in 1944, the Army’s Pacific TECHINT effort was consolidated into the 5250th TECHINT Company (Separate) (Provisional), under the general supervision of the assistant chief of staff, G-2, U.S. Army Services of Supply. The 5250th assigned tailored teams comprised of personnel from the technical services—chemical warfare, medical, quartermaster, engineer, ordnance, and signals intelligence—to tactical forces when needed. These teams captured enemy materiel for analysis to determine the state of Japanese resources, to develop effective countermeasures to Japanese weapons and tactics, and to exploit enemy technologies for American benefit. The teams also wrote detailed reports on new weapons and potential dangers tactical forces might encounter on the battlefield.
TECHINT Unit #1 was attached to the Eighth Army’s headquarters following its landing at Leyte in October 1944. For the five Victor operations, the unit reorganized into five teams that were attached to the divisions for each operation. All TECHINT personnel reported directly to their respective service chiefs in Leyte but also communicated with Lt. Col. Erle H. Julian, the technical intelligence coordinator in the Eighth Army G-2 office, who ultimately kept the 5250th informed.
The first of the Victor TECHINT teams (V-III) had gone ashore at Palawan on Feb. 28, 1945. Ten days later, on Mar. 10, the V-IV team arrived in time to accompany the 41st Division’s 162d and 163d Infantry to clear Japanese defenders from the Zamboanga Peninsula and the Sulu Archipelago. Even as the V-IV team came ashore four hours into the operation, the Japanese continued its shelling and mortar fire from the higher ground around the beach. The team made its way, under fire and across roads heavily mined and booby-trapped, to Zamboanga City, three miles from the beachhead. There, it established its headquarters and began pushing out into the areas slowly being cleared by the infantry.
The team’s personnel had varying levels of success capturing Japanese materiel. The medical intelligence expert, 1st Lt. Travis Bowden, quickly found the Japanese had taken all their medical materiel with them when they withdrew into the mountains. Shortly thereafter, Bowden was wounded by Japanese machine gun fire and had to be evacuated. Pvt. James Stephen, engineer intelligence, secured several pieces of automotive equipment left behind as the Japanese moved into inaccessible areas. He turned usable equipment over to civil affairs units to help move supplies and civilians.
Ordnance Capt. Ernest Cameron secured many pieces of abandoned enemy equipment. He noted that, in addition to their regularly issued weapons, the Japanese soldiers had “improvised every conceivable item that could be made locally” into a weapon. This particularly applied to mines, which the Japanese had created from wooden boxes, rigged artillery shells, naval depth charges, and torpedo warheads. He called in a Naval Mobile Explosives Investigation Unit to handle the latter two types safely.
Finally, 1st Lt. George Ford, signals intelligence, made one of the most significant findings by the team. Securing a Japanese Type 97 portable wireless telephone set, he discovered it could receive signals from American SCR-610 and SCR-300 (Walkie-Talkie) short-range radios from distances up to 3,000 yards. Knowing messages had often been sent in the clear on these American sets, he immediately informed the division’s signal officer, the G-2, and the division artillery of those sets’ vulnerabilities.
In late March, the team moved on to the Sulu islands, where they found little of interest but noted their discovery of some items of German and American origin. They wrapped up their Victor IV mission on Apr 26.
New issues of This Week in MI History are published each week. To report story errors, ask questions, request previous articles, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: TR-ICoE-Command-Historian@army.mil.
| Date Taken: | 03.07.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.07.2025 16:01 |
| Story ID: | 492289 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 28 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, TECHINT Team Arrives in Philippines Under Fire (10 MAR 1945), by Lori Stewart, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
