The 102nd Infantry Division was a division of the Philippine Army under the United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE).
Organized in early 1942, the division was responsible for the defense of the Cagayan Sector of Mindanao. It fought in the defense of Mindanao against Japanese invasion in early May, and surrendered after the Fall of Corregidor during the Philippines Campaign of 1941–1942.
History
Organization
The 61st and 81st Field Artillery Regiments were relocated by ship to Cagayan from Panay and Negros, respectively, between 2 and 3 January 1942. The movement was part of a large scale relocation of troops from the Visayas to Mindanao in order to strengthen the defenses of the latter. The 61st transferred from the 61st Division and the 81st from the 81st Division. The 61st and 81st Field Artillery were organized and equipped as infantry, due to the lack of artillery. On 12 January, United States Army Infantry Colonel William P. Morse was assigned commander of the Cagayan Sector of the Mindanao Force portion of the Visayan-Mindanao Force, including both regiments. Major General William F. Sharp commanded the Visayan-Mindanao Force. The Cagayan Sector was responsible for the defense of the northern terminus of the Sayre Highway, one of the island's two highways, and its only heavy bomber airfield, Del Monte.
They still had few if any items of heavy equipment, but had manpower and some rifles. Soon after the assignment of sectors to the 61st and 81st Field Artillery, Major Reed Graves' 1st Battalion, 101st Infantry reduced the 81st Field Artillery sector by taking over positions west from Tinao Canyon to the Little Agusan River. Around a week later the battalion was transferred south and replaced by the 3rd Philippine Constabulary Regiment, which took over the area from the Cagayan River to Barrio Gusa. The constabulary unit was in turn relieved by the 103rd Infantry, less 2nd Battalion, around 15 February.
The formation of the 102nd Division from the troops of the Cagayan Sector under the command of Morse was authorized by Douglas MacArthur when he passed through Mindanao during his escape to Australia in mid-March, by USAFFE General Order No. 43 on 15 March. Its 102nd Engineer Battalion was organized from personnel of the Surigao Provisional Battalion, while men from the Agusan Provisional Battalion and 2nd Provisional Battalion (Cotabato) were used to form the Headquarters Company, Service Troops and the 102nd Maintenance and Quartermaster Companies. Due to a shortage of ammunition, the untrained Filipino soldiers of the division were not able to conduct live fire exercises, and had never fired their outmoded Enfield rifles, instead spending hours practicing simulated firing.
In order to defend against an anticipated amphibious landing at Macajalar Bay against the Sayre Highway, Morse positioned the division along its shores between the Tagoloan and Cagayan Rivers. The 81st Field Artillery, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John P. Woodbridge, reinforced by a 65-man detachment composed of ground personnel-turned-infantrymen from the 30th Bombardment Squadron that had been left at Del Monte when their squadron departed for Australia, held a four-mile sector from the Tagaloan to the Sayre Highway. The four miles to the west, extending from the highway to the Cugman River, were held by Colonel Hiram W. Tarkington's 61st Field Artillery, while Major Joseph R. Webb's 103rd Infantry guarded the remainder of the line to the Cagayan.
About 1 May, the division numbered 4,713 men, including nineteen American officers, 67 American enlisted men (65 from the Air Corps detachment and two in the 61st Field Artillery), 268 Filipino officers, and 4,359 Filipino enlisted men. The 103rd Infantry was the strongest with nearly 1,800 personnel, while the 61st and 81st Field Artillery numbered slightly more than 1,000.
