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The
final preparatory barrage lasted from 0730 to 0830 on the 23d. Using both
area and point fire, the artillery, tanks, TD's, SPM's, and mortars
plastered the walls of Intramuros and covered the entire interior except for
a section roughly three blocks wide and four blocks long in the west-central
portion of the Walled City. At 0830 the support fire ceased, and the
infantry assault began. Ten minutes later artillery began firing again, this
time laying the high explosive, smoke, and white phosphorus along a
100-yard-wide strip between the east and west walls to seal off the southern
third of Intramuros and prevent the Japanese in that area from observing
movements to the north or sending reinforcements northward. This fire lasted
approximately half an hour. Table
4 gives the amounts of
artillery fire expended in support of the assault. The total weight of the
artillery fire was roughly 185 tons, to which the 4.2-inch mortars of
Companies A and D, 82d Chemical Mortar Battalion, added about 45 tons--over
3,750 rounds--of smoke and high explosive.13
XIV Corps Artillery reported that by reason of their
great accuracy the 8-inch howitzers were the best weapon used against the
walls while the 240-mm. howitzers, with their heavier and more powerful
projectile, proved most effective against buildings. With 155-mm. howitzers,
considerable advantages seemed to have accrued by employing unfuzed
high-explosive shells to open
fissures in the walls, since the unfuzed shells penetrated more deeply
before explosion than did those with impact or delayed fuze settings. The
fissure thus opened was easily enlarged by subsequent employment of
high-explosive shells with delayed settings.
TABLE 4
ARTILLERY EXPENDED IN SUPPORT OF THE ASSAULT ON INTRAMUROS
| Caliber |
Rounds |
|
| |
High Explosive |
Armor Piercing |
Smoke and White Phosphorus |
| |
|
| 75-mm. tank guns |
450 |
150 |
. . . . |
| 76-mm. TD guns |
450 |
150 |
. . . . |
| 105-mm. field artillery howitzers |
4,753 |
. . . . |
93 |
| 155-mm. field artillery howitzers |
1,723 |
. . . . |
23 |
| 240-mm. howitzers |
39 |
. . . . |
. . . . |
| 8-inch howitzers |
72 |
. . . . |
. . . . |
| Total |
7,487 |
300 |
116 |
Source: Relevant sources cited in n. 12.
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