European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 17, 1945, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Both the big Mirror reflectors and the boors guns of the 43d division anti aircraft found new fobs to do in the lost Days of the Philippines by John Mcleod yank staff correspondent with the sixth the the sunsets of the Manila Bay area Are Gold and if you Are in the proper Frame of they Are a wondrous thing to not in that Frame of mind and not enjoying the Sunset were two 43d division machine Richard Smith of and Elmer Shelby of they were sitting in a Hole scratched on top of a Chalk Hill near ipod dam in the Manila watershed the Sunset meant Only to them that it would soon be pitch there  be any Moon that and it would probably they  be Able to see japs than a foot away from their it meant another in the Long succession of nights when they  get any when a Jap grenade might land in their Hole any when they were afraid to leave their Hole for a second for fear if a Jap didst shoot them one of their own buddies the Sun Sank behind the mountains to the William Burton gets a weird As he polishes one of the 43ds and the Light faded to a misty drizzle began to but then something and Light a the two gunners looked at each other in then looked somewhere behind them searchlights were clicking one after until there were 16 of them in a semicircular radius behind the 43d divisions slanting their 800mil lion candlepower beams into the Clouds Over the Battle the Light from the reflected Down on the area from the flooded the whole front with Light As Strong As that of a full Moon on a cloudless that first night the lights came Shelby recalled we didst sleep but that was just because we were so excited by it and talked All night about somebody should have thought of using searchlights a Long time we had a lot of trouble with men going off their nuts on new the lights would sure have helped now we can Tell whether some shape out ahead of us is a Jap or Only a Smith thought the most important things were that a fellow can get up to take a stretch now without being afraid one of our own Guys will shoot and we can take turns on guard and some of us can from that first night until the ipod dam was the 43d division was supported by 16 of the 60inch searchlights of reinforced Battery a of the 227th Moonlight cavalry Searchlight a 30man patrol from easy company of the 169th infantry credited the Light with Sav ing their by silo getting japs who attempted to surround them and Cut them off in a the 172d infantry praised it for helping them repulse night Banzai the Field artillery liked the Light because it made working the guns easier when you could see the and and medics said it Cut the time needed for night litter hauls by at least 60 a 43d division staff officer summed it up at first i thought the proposal for using the lights was a lot of Monkey now i am sold on the Searchlight for use As a weapon against the the men operating the searchlights had never had any practice in this sort of thing at the British used the night lighting which they called artificial successfully in but against the japs it was comparatively working in support of the the Searchlight Crew kept its lamps burning All night except for the few seconds required once an hour to change the lamps in previous stations at Hollandia and the working strictly As a had never kept its lamps on for More than half an hour at a they just told us to set up the lights for and we did the batters co explained made the first reconnaissance on a and we were operating the next saturday the placed several Hundred Yards Are not dug in to any the men were expecting plenty of trouble from Jap artillery fire and night infiltration but so far they Haven had since the lamps Are set up in Defi Lade behind a its hard for artillery to get the exact and As for night apparently with the Countryside lighted up the japs have been unable to work through the infantry perimeters to get Back to the big acting squad Leader Dominic Mont amino of Ozone offered one idea toward local defense to which the men at his position had Given some if we saw pm sneaking up on he we could turn the Searchlight right on them and Blind just As the Searchlight battalions ran out of orthodox missions to so did the ack ack boys in the automatic weapons and gun Bat in some of the latter outfits have been converted into trucking and my it is Only that when the infantry runs into targets that seem just the meat for a gun with a High a Flat trajectory and a rapid rate of fire that the Tackack battalions should be called As in one urgent Case in Northern Field Artil Lery ammunition was running and there seemed to be More a ammo stacked around than anyone knew what to do the a 90s have been used in the Philippines in support of the americal division at Cebu As Well As with i corps 37th division near Baguio and the 25th division at Balete the antiaircraft artillery Flat trajectory guns Are especially useful in direct fire against Cave positions because they can shoot straight into the Mouths of whereas the Field artillery the shells of which lob from the gun to the target in a High can Seldom do better than place their Load right outside the Cave the Only Tackack outfit that was trained and equipped for something like the kind of ground support work it is now doing is the 209th aaa automatic weapons battalion self the self propelled is the important the 209th was reorganized and equipped at new Guinea with Hal tracks especially mounted with boors 40s and quadruple mounted it was designed for Mobile anti aircraft Protection for fast moving it made the lingayen Landing on Day and rolled Down the Central Luzon Valley with the 37th and 1st cavalry guarding such valuable objects As Bridges on the it got in its first fire fight with Jap ground troops while supporting the 1st in fighting in the Nova Liches water shed District outside once the fighting there died Down the 209th was put on the move again and it seeded some of its units were with the 32d division blasting away at Jap positions on Yamashita which commands a Long Sec Tion of the bitterly contested Ville verde Trail in the Northern Luzon the 209ths  boors and strafed away at the Ridge while the divisions artillery pounded with its it Doest make any claim to knowing for certain How Many Jap positions were knocked out by the lighter guns and How Many by the All we explained William 112point platoon sergeant from Fern is that for certain begot two japs we saw digging Over there in a capote other than we just blast away at anything we think looks like a anything some patrol out on the Ridge thinks we should shoot then we Hope for the Powers said he reckoned most of the men in his outfit would just As soon not stay attached to the infantry All the time but would like a crack occasionally at some kind of guard duty in a civilized As for he i dont like that Garrison id rather get shot at once in a while than stand another full 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