ordered to take the town of San Fabian, which had two 155-mm coastal artillery guns, and the Japanese drive along the Lingayen coastline was accordingly extended further south than originally planned. The Battle of Rosario To oppose the Japanese advance on Manila, General Wainwright stationed the Philippine 26th Cavalry along the coastal road north of Rosario at the hamlet of Damortis. Receiving reports that the Japanese were advancing on bicycles and by light motor vehicles, Wainwright also dispatched a platoon of five tanks. When the 26th Cavalry encountered forward elements of the Japanese 48th Reconnaissance and 4th Tank Regiments, it fell back to the hamlet of Damoritis, where defensive positions had been established. However, with its command tank destroyed and the remaining four were damaged by Japanese 47-mm anti-tank guns, the outnumbered and outgunned 26th Cavalry withdrew, leaving Damortis under complete control of the Japanese by 1900. Rosario then became the center of American resistance. Earlier in the afternoon, Wainwright had ordered Brig General Clyde A. Selleck to take the Philippine 71st Division to Damortis to hold the junction of the Rosario-Baguio road east of Rosario. However, by the time Selleck arrived at Rosario, he learned that the Japanese were advancing from both Damortis and Agoo. By evening, the survivors of the 26th Cavalry reached Rosario with the Japanese in close pursuit. At 2000, the Japanese tanks penetrated the 26th Cavalry rear guard, causing considerable casualties and it was only by blocking a bridge a few miles west of Rosario by a burning tank that the Americans managed to slow the Japanese attack and prevent a panicked rout. The center of Rosario was the scene of a pitched battle between troops of the Philippine 71st Division and a part of Colonel Yanagi’s 47th Infantry. However, fortunately for the Americans, much of Yanagi’s force had been ordered back for the capture of San Fabian, enabling the Philippine forces to escape. Thus, within one day of landing, the Japanese had secured a large section of the Lingayen Gulf coastline, and advanced north, south and east. To the north, they had joined with Colonel Tanaka’s forces from northern Luzon and to the south had occupied Rosario. The only opposition had come from the Philippine 26th Cavalry, whose poorly equipped troops and outnumbered were unable to slow the Japanese advance. The Japanese advance to the Agno River On the morning of 23 December, the