40th Division U.S. Army photo.
80th Anniversary of Liberation 1945 – 2025
JEEP TRAIN IN BAMBAN 1945
On January 23, 1945, the 160th Infantry, 40th Division U.S. Army entered Bamban on the morning and fought a battalion of the Takayama Detachment at the town center and on the northern sector with the aid of the local guerrillas.
It was the Liberation of Bamban and the beginning of the massive deployment of American forces to include the infantry (160th and 108th Infantry), artillery, tanks (from the 734th Tank Bn), tank destroyers (from 640th Tank Destroyer Bn) and the M7 “Priest” howitzer tanks (from the Cannon Company attached to 160th Infantry).
On the east side of the town, elements from a battalion of the 160th Infantry cleared the Bamban Airfield, one of the biggest airfields in the Philippines, with small resistance from the detached Japanese 137th Airfield Battalion.
By the evening, the 160th Infantry settled in the town, surrounding the church premises while the Japanese survivors moved to the high ground to the west, on the intricate and complex tunnels that the Japanese intended to fight the Americans using tunnel defense system on rough terrain.
The following days would become the series of many battles and constituted a campaign for any hill-mass on what to become the Battle of Bamban Hills. The supplies needed to execute 40th Division combat operations in pursuit to the M-1 Operation of the XIV Corps was a gargantuan task and every possible logistics and transport means had to be employed in support of operations.
Train transport, aside from the motor vehicles, thus necessitated to provide the necessary movements of supplies into the battlefields of the Bamban. Locomotives and trains were used for the transport of supplies from the XIV Corps distribution point with the 268th Quartermaster Battalion, in charge of supply operation.
In Bamban, train locomotives operated as early as late January 1945 in carrying out the supplies and logistical needs of the Army.
There was also the improvisation where the Jeep were converted to adapt to rails that were used to haul freight car trains loaded with gasoline and related combat supplies in the Bamban front and in other fronts in combat area. With the use of Jeep Trains line in this photo taken in Bamban, the primary truck transport, the 2½-ton 6×6 truck was used for other purposes by the 3769th Quartermaster Truck Company transported supplies in the combat area of operation of the XIV Corps.
Other photos show the locomotive train used by the 268th QM Battalion in the Bamban, while the supplies were temporarily stocked in the premises of the old train station.
References:
(1) After Action Report XIV Corps M-1 Operation, Headquarters of the XIV Corps, Office of the Commanding General, 1945.
(2) The Fighting Fortieth in War and Peace.
(3) United States Army in WWII – The War in the Pacific, Triumph In the Philippines.
Photos:
(1) Photo of the Jeep Train in Bamban, Photo No. SC 200407-S, NARA.
(2) Photo of locomotive in Bamban, XIV Corps Operations on Luzon, manuscripts, Bamban WWII Museum collection, Bamban, Tarlac.
(3) Bamban train station with the supplies stocked in the premises. 40th Division U.S. Army photo.
2025 Bamban Historical Society
Bamban WWII Museum
Center for Pacific War Studies
Provincial Government of Tarlac –
Tarlac Provincial Tourism Office
