Japanese artillery not caught in the initial rain of shells hustled forward and rolled into action. Drivers angled off roads, bounced over small earthen dikes and swung onto hard, flat rice paddies. Gunners unhitched their cannons, observers climbed trees, and crewmen laid their guns. Looking southwest, the Japanese saw the slight rise marking American positions. Japanese 75mm and 150mm shells, the gunners’ fire corrected by aerial spotters who dropped as low as 2,000 feet in their search for targets, fell near the defending artillery. Japanese pilots peered from their circling aircraft and easily pinpointed Selleck’s artillery and infantry works.

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American anti-aircraft guns, which had earlier covered this area, had moved farther south, and enemy aircraft were not bothered by groundfire. Little escaped the aerial observers’ attention, and Japanese artillery grew more and more accurate. Because the Japanese Model-4 150mm howitzers, which fired 10,500 yards, outranged the Filipinos’ 75s, they were untouched by Filipino counterbattery fire. The II Corps’ failure to place any 155s near Layac for counterbattery action proved to be the most significant mistake made by American artillery in the entire Philippine campaign.

Shells hit Selleck’s command post, wounded some men, caused others to run into the hills, scared away an American crew operating a radio truck, destroyed several vehicles and badly disrupted communications. Filipino artillery was severely shelled and took several direct hits. Every gun in the 71st Artillery had been hit at least once by midafternoon, and four were damaged beyond repair and abandoned. Changes in gun positions made little difference because of Japanese aerial observation. No sooner were the guns in a new location than they once again came under fire. Concealment was scarce and cover nonexistent, and the old artillery maxim ‘A battery seen is a battery lost’ held true. The Filipinos from the 1st Battalion, 71st Artillery, abandoned their guns under galling fire but carried away the firing pins and keys to the prime movers. The guns were later rescued and pulled to safety.

Equally relentlessly, the Japanese concentrated their fire on the Scout 23rd Artillery. These guns were in defilade behind a hill, but Japanese planes spotted them. When the first shells exploded nearby, Lieutenant Miller, having come on active duty only seven days earlier, was shocked. ‘Those sons of bitches are trying to kill us!’ he exclaimed. One shell burst directly on a Scout emplacement, put the gun out of action and severely wounded four gunners. The Scout soldiers knew their jobs, were intensely loyal and obeyed orders from their American officers without question. Despite the severe losses and the alarming sight of a lone American infantryman in full flight, the Scouts steadfastly serviced their guns.

Miller remembered the American deserter ‘falling flat on the ground and crying out ‘the Japs are coming.’ He was in a pure funk. We barely had time to look at him but told him to get out of our way, and he ran off to the rear.’ Nearby, American medics treated the wounded Scout artillerymen and watched enemy fire fall around the Scouts. ‘They were exchanging shell for shell with the Japanese,’ remembered John G. Lally, then an 18-year-old Kansan medic. ‘It was the bravest thing I ever saw.’

Bamboo thickets that surrounded the cannons of the 23rd Artillery caught fire and threatened the guns more than the enemy shelling did. Poor planning now ensured the destruction of B Battery’s guns. The prime movers had been collected the evening before at battalion headquarters, where it was thought they would be safe. Because telephone lines were now cut, B Battery could not tell battalion headquarters to send the vehicles forward, and as the fire approached the guns, there was no way to move the pieces out of danger. When the fire leaped into the pits with the gunners, the men jumped out and the guns were lost.

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