Harrison Park to the Manila Hotel
When the 5th and 12th Cavalry Regiments reached Manila
Bay in Pasay suburb on 12 February, completing the encirclement of Admiral
Iwabuchi's forces, they immediately turned north toward the city limits.7 ( Map
- The Drive Toward Intramuros) The first known Japanese strongpoint in this area was located at
Harrison Park and at Rizal Memorial Stadium and associated Olympic Games
facilities near the bay front just inside the city limits. The park-stadium
complex extended from the bay east 1,200 yards to Taft Avenue and north from
Vito Cruz Street--marking the city limits--some 700 yards to Harrison
Boulevard, the 1st Cavalry Division-37th Division boundary. On the bay front
lay the Manila Yacht Club and the ruins of Fort Abad, an old Spanish
structure. Harrison Park, a generally open area surrounded by tree-lined
roadways, was next inland. East of the south end of the park lay a baseball
stadium similar to any of the smaller "big league" parks in the United
States. Due north and adjacent to the ball field was Rizal Stadium, built
for Olympic track and field events and including, inter
alia, a two-story, covered,
concrete grandstand. Still further east, near the banks of a small stream,
was an indoor coliseum, tennis court, and a swimming pool, reading south to
north. Beyond the small stream and facing on Taft Avenue lay the large,
three-story concrete building of La Salle University. The 2d
Naval Battalion and various
attached provisional units defended all these buildings.
The 12th Cavalry and the 2d Squadron, 5th Cavalry, took
two days to fight their way north through Pasay suburb to Vito Cruz Street,
rooting out scattered groups of Japanese who had holed up in homes
throughout the suburb.8 During
the attack, the 2d Squadron of the 12th Cavalry extended its right flank
across Taft Avenue to Santa Escolastica College, two blocks southeast of La
Salle University.
On the morning of 15 February, after an hour of
preparatory fire by one battalion of 105-mm. howitzers and a second of
155-mm. howitzers, the 12th Cavalry forced its way into La Salle University
and the Japanese Club, just to the south of the university on the same side
of Taft Avenue. The regiment also made an unsuccessful attempt to get into
Rizal Stadium. Meanwhile, the 5th Cavalry's squadron drove north along the
bay front, forcing Japanese defenders caught in the open at Harrison Park
into the stadium. Late in the afternoon cavalrymen broke into both the
baseball park and the stadium from the east but were forced out at dusk by
Japanese machine gun, rifle, and mortar fire.
The 5th Cavalry cleared the baseball grounds on 16 February after three tanks,
having blasted and battered their way through a cement wall on the east side of
the park, got into the playing field to support the cavalrymen inside.
Resistance came from heavy bunkers constructed all over the diamond, most of
them located in left field and in left center, and from sandbagged positions
under the grandstand beyond the third base-left field foul line. Flame throwers
and demolitions overcame the last resistance, and by 1630 the 5th Cavalry had
finished the job. Meanwhile, elements of the 12th Cavalry had cleaned out the
coliseum, Rizal Stadium, and the ruins of Fort Abad. The two units finished
mopping up during the 18th.
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