William C. Chase - World War II

World War II

In 1941 Chase, now a lieutenant colonel, was posted to VIII Corps, then commanded by Major General Walter Krueger. As such, he participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers. In December 1941, he was posted to the Amphibious Force, Atlantic Fleet, then under the command of Major General Holland Smith. Based at Marine Corps Base Quantico, the Amphibious Force practiced Amphibious warfare tactics on Chesapeake Bay.

In 1942, Chase assumed command of the 113th Cavalry, an Iowa National Guard unit. Initially a horse-mechanized unit, the 113th Cavalry soon became fully mechanized. It moved from its original station at Fort Clark, Texas, to Camp Bowie and then to Fort Hood, where it provided school troops for the Tank Destroyer Center.

Chase was promoted to Brigadier General in March 1943 on assuming command of the 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division. The division was then stationed at Fort Bliss but was already preparing to move to the South West Pacific. The 1st Cavalry Division had therefore been dismounted, but the division and brigade commanders and their staffs were still on horseback. The 1st Cavalry Division staged at Camp Stoneman. Chase departed from San Francisco on 3 July on the transport USAT George Washington.

The 1st Cavalry Division arrived in Australia and continued its training at Strathpine, Queensland. Training there was more vigorous than at Fort Bliss, and Chase broke his heel bone in a training accident. In December 1943, the 1st Cavalry Division sailed for Oro Bay, where it staged for its next operation, the Admiralty Islands campaign. Chase was chosen to lead the assault. Here, his tactical expertise came to the fore. He resisted the temptation to overrun the island of Los Negros, and thereby overextend his forces, and instead formed a defensive perimeter that made good use of the terrain. From this position, he was able to defeat a series of counterattacks by the numerically superior Japanese garrison. The crisis passed, Chase's force was reinforced by the rest of the division, and the 1st Cavalry Division was then able to overrun the islands. Chase was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the campaign.

The 1st Cavalry Division remained in the Admiralty Islands until October, when it boarded ships there for the invasion of Leyte, which it assaulted on 20 October 1944. Chase's 1st Brigade's initial mission was to reconnoiter the hills on the west side of the Tacloban Valley and establish observation posts from which it could command the entrances to the valley. In November, he was ordered to cover the flank of X Corps' advance up the Leyte Valley, and later into the Ormoc Valley. Chase had to move his brigade across mountainous, roadless, uncharted jungle in frequently appalling wet weather. The advance made slow progress against Japanese troops that fought tenaciously all the way.

The 1st Cavalry Division was down to half strength when it was withdrawn from the front line on Leyte for a brief rest in January 1945, but few reinforcements arrived before it was ordered to move to Luzon, where it disembarked over the beaches at San Fabian on 27 January 1945. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur ordered the 1st Cavalry Division's commander, Major General Vern D. Mudge, to conduct a rapid advance on Manila. For this, Mudge formed three flying columns. Initially, Chase's 1st Brigade's mission was to follow one of the columns but on 1 February he was relieved of responsibility for the main body of the 1st Brigade and placed in command of all three flying columns.

On 3 February, Chase's columns pushed into the northern outskirts of Manila and seized a vital bridge over the Tuliahan River, which separated them from the city proper. Chase, controlling his columns by radio, suffered slight burns to his hands when a Japanese truck exploded. A squadron of the 8th Cavalry, guided by two Filipino guerrillas reached the sprawling campus of the University of Santo Tomas which had been turned into an internment camp, liberating some 3,700 internees.

A Japanese raiding party destroyed the bridge over Tuliahan River; Chase's security was not good enough. This prevented the main body of the 1st Cavalry Division from linking up with Chase's force in Manila. Supplies were dispatched through the 37th Infantry Division's zone until engineers could build a new bridge. For his advance on Manila, Chase was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. He was also awarded the Purple Heart for the burns to his hands.

On 7 February 1945, Chase took over command of the 38th Infantry Division, which was then confronted by enemy fortifications at Zig-Zag Pass on the Bataan Peninsula. It took Chase a week of hard fighting to reduce this position. A battalion of the 151st Infantry under Chase's personal command landed at Mariveles on the southern tip of Bataan on 14 February. The 38th Infantry Division participated in the final actions on Corregidor. Units of the 38th Infantry Division assaulted and captured Caballo Island on 27 March, Fort Drum on El Fraile Island on 13 April, and Carabao Island on 16 April. Meanwhile, other elements of the 38th Infantry Division engaged enemy forces in the mountainous Fort Stotsenburg area. In the midst of these operations, Chase was promoted to Major General in March.

In late April 1945, the 38th Infantry Division moved to the area east of Manila where it relieved the 6th Infantry Division. On 1 May, it began a series of probing attacks prior to an attack on 4 May aimed at capturing the Wawa Dam, an important part of Manila's water supply. Chase had to reduce a series of strongly held Japanese positions. By the end of the month, the dam was secure and the Japanese Kobayashi Force was broken.

Chase assumed command of the 1st Cavalry Division on 1 August 1945. At this time, the division was in the Lucena City area but slated for Operation Downfall, in which it would assault Ariake, Kagoshima. The end of the war precluded this. Instead, the 1st Cavalry Division participated in the Occupation of Japan. It embarked from Batangas on 25 August and disembarked in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, becoming the first US division in Tokyo.