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Marine Sgt James M Milby, Sr..
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Contact Info
Home Town Mattaponi,VA
Last Address Mattaponi, VA
Date of Passing Nov 30, 2006
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MILBY James M. Milby Sr., 82, of Salem Farm in Mattaponi, Va., passed away November 30, 2006. Mr. Milby was a WWII veteran serving in the United States Marine Corps. He retired from Chesapeake Corporation as a boiler operator after 26 years of service. His parents, Melvin and Francis Roane Milby; and a brother, John Lowell Milby, preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Audrey B. Milby; a daughter, Beth Burch and her husband, Larry of West Point, Va.; a son, Jim Milby of Mattaponi, Va.; a granddaughter, Ashley Burch of West Point, Va.; and a beloved friend, Irene Longest of Dragonsville, Va. A funeral service will be conducted 2 p.m. Saturday, December 2, 2006 at Beulah Wesleyan Church, Shacklefords, Va. Interment in church cemetery. The family will receive friends today from 2 to 4 and 7 to 8:30 p.m. at The Vincent Funeral Home, West Point, Va. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the West Point Volunteer Fire and Rescue, P.O. Box X, West Point, Va. 23181 or Beulah Wesleyan Church Building Fund, 1539 Lewis B., Puller Memorial Highway, Saluda, Va. 23149
World War II/Asiatic-Pacific Theater/Luzon Campaign (1944-45)
From Month/Year
December / 1944
To Month/Year
April / 1945
Description On December 15, 1944, landings against minimal resistance were made on the southern beaches of the island of Mindoro, a key location in the planned Lingayen Gulf operations, in support of major landings scheduled on Luzon. On January 9, 1945, on the south shore of Lingayen Gulf on the western coast of Luzon, General Krueger's Sixth Army landed his first units. Almost 175,000 men followed across the twenty-mile (32 km) beachhead within a few days. With heavy air support, Army units pushed inland, taking Clark Field, 40 miles (64 km) northwest of Manila, in the last week of January.
Two more major landings followed, one to cut off the Bataan Peninsula, and another, that included a parachute drop, south of Manila. Pincers closed on the city and, on February 3, 1945, elements of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and the 8th Cavalry Regiment (organized as infantry) passed through the northern suburbs and into the city itself.
As the advance on Manila continued from the north and the south, the Bataan Peninsula was rapidly secured. On February 16, paratroopers and amphibious units simultaneously assaulted the islet of Corregidor. It was necessary to take this stronghold because troops there can block the entrance of Manila Bay. The Americans needed to establish a major harbor base at Manila Bay to support the expected invasion of Japan, planned to begin on November 1, 1945. Resistance on Corregidor ended on February 27, and then all resistance by the Japanese Empire ceased on August 15, 1945, obviating the need for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands.
Despite initial optimism, fighting in Manila was harsh. It took until March 3 to clear the city of all Japanese troops, and the Japanese Marines, who fought on stubbornly and refused to either surrender or to evacuate as the Japanese Army had done. Fort Drum, a fortified island in Manila Bay near Corregidor, held out until 13 April, when a team of Army troops went ashore and pumped 3,000 gallons of diesel fuel into the fort, then set off incendiary charges. No Japanese soldiers in Fort Drum survived the blast and fire.
In all, ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest American campaign of the Pacific war, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France.
