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by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian
6TH CIC COMBAT DETACHMENT SECURES PHILIPPINE TOWN
On 10 January 1945, 1st Lt. William C. Hartnett’s team from the 6th Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Combat Detachment arrived in the town of Mangaldan on the Philippine island of Luzon. Lieutenant Hartnett’s handling of the liberated town was hailed as a model example of the CIC’s methods for “organizing towns and barrios in the wake of combat troops.”
The Sixth Army landed at Lingayen Gulf on 9 January 1945. Coming ashore one hour after the assault forces was the 6th Infantry Division’s 6th CIC Combat Detachment, under the command of Capt. James R. Webster. Formerly known as CIC Combat Detachment “F”, Webster’s unit had participated in two New Guinea operations in 1944 before the invasion of Luzon, the center of Japanese occupation in the Philippines.
Not only was the landing at Lingayen Gulf one of the greatest amphibious landings in the Pacific Theater, it also included the largest number of CIC agents in a single campaign in the Pacific. The twenty-nine participating CIC detachments, which included sixteen combat detachments, were under the administrative control of the 441st CIC Detachment at theater headquarters in Hollandia. For the combat operations in Luzon, however, they were directed by the Sixth Army’s 306th CIC Detachment under Maj. Blair Labatt.
A CIC “combat” detachment, comprised of a variable number of officers, special agents, and CI-trained Filipino soldiers, moved forward with its assigned combat unit. Immediately upon a town being liberated by assault forces, the detachment provided internal security, secured and guarded vital installations, interviewed refugees, and countered any enemy espionage, sabotage, or subversion attempts. Once civil affairs units and an “area” CIC detachment arrived, the combat detachment rejoined its unit for its advance on the next town.
The day after landing on Luzon, Captain Webster sent his deputy, Lieutenant Hartnett, and an eleven-man team to secure the town of Mangaldan. Finding it impossible to drive across a river between it and the town, the team proceeded on foot and arrived with about twenty other Army personnel four hours later. Hartnett, a graduate of the University of Florida law school, established his headquarters in the local school building and quickly took steps to stabilize and reassure the panicked residents. He enlisted two local doctors to establish a temporary clinic to treat wounded civilians and organized a small defensive unit at the town hall to prevent a Japanese counterattack.
Only twenty-five years old at the time, Lieutenant Hartnett took control of the seat of government and gathered past and current local officials, police, former Philippine Army personnel, and local guerrillas for a meeting. After being introduced by the mayor, Hartnett encouraged cooperation and promised civil affairs personnel would soon arrive with provisions. He then announced the main purpose of his team: “We are interested in catching the spies of the Japanese [and] those people who helped the Japanese against the Filipinos and American [-backed] guerrillas.” He introduced his detachment’s Filipino members as translators for those who could not speak English. At a second meeting with the mayor, city officials, doctors, school and police representatives, Lieutenant Hartnett outlined his plan to reestablish the police force and government. In both cases, his words were met with enthusiasm and pledges of full cooperation.
While Hartnett organized the efforts of the town officials, his agents set to their tasks of securing facilities, documents, and materiel left behind by the fleeing Japanese; conducting loyalty checks; building white and black lists; and issuing travel passes. Within days, Hartnett and his team were relieved by an area CIC detachment and rejoined their division for multiple repeat performances over the next nine months. In September, following the Japanese surrender, the 6th CIC Detachment moved to occupation duty in southern Korea with the 6th Infantry Division. It remained there until 1949.
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| Date Taken: | 01.05.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 01.05.2024 14:21 |
| Story ID: | 461378 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 237 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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