to escape. A few men miraculously survived immolation and escaped the shooting. Sheltered by natives until the Americans landed, they emerged during the battle to tell their horrifying tale, which only hardened American resolve to end Japanese rule over the island. The 186th RCT encountered little opposition until its third day ashore on 3 March when fierce fighting erupted as soldiers entered the hills that lay about north of the harbor. Five days of savage combat eliminated the strongly defended Japanese pockets. In the weeks that followed, Gen. Eichelberger also directed smaller units of the 186th RCT to seize the small islands situated to the northern and southern parts of Palawan. On 9 March, a 186th RCT reconnaissance team landed on Dumaran Island to the northeast of Palawan and found it unoccupied. Then on 9 April a month later, Company F, 186th Infantry, landed on Busuanga Island, killed 10 Japanese, and reported the island secured. Subsequently, the regiment also seized nearby Culion and Coron. To the south, parties from the 2nd Battalion landed on Balabac on 16 April and at Pandanan on 22 April. Both landings were unopposed. Aftermath Casualties on Palawan were unbalanced. U.S. Army forces lost 12 killed and 56 wounded, while Japanese dead numbered almost 900 and another 140 wounded, which were approximately ½ of the Palawan garrison. Mopping up activities on Palawan lasted until late April, when the remaining Japanese simply withdrew farther into the trackless mountain jungles of Palawan—a pattern that repeated during all of the major operations in the southern Philippines—after which many were stalked and killed by U.S. troops and Filipino guerrillas. Meanwhile, airfield construction began almost immediately on Palawan. Although marshy soil conditions slowed the engineers' progress, American fighter planes were using the Puerto Princesa airstrip by late March 1945. Construction of an all-weather runway for heavy bombers came too late to support Eichelberger's next operation, but it subsequently was used to interdict Japanese supply lines in the South China Sea and support the Borneo operations that began in May 1945. See also Palawan massacre Military History of the Philippines during World War II Military history of the United States Military history of Japan History of the Philippines References Triumph in the Philippines by Robert Ross Smith (2005), Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, , pp. 589–591 World War II in the Pacific: An Encyclopedia (Military History of the United States) by