October 22, 1944 - Morning - could see the land, it is the most civilized looking piece of land I have seen in a long time. We have a lot of ships here. The big battleships were shelling the coast when we came in. We were due to land on Red Beach, but it hasn’t been taken yet so we are landing on White Beach which is so crowded we will have to wait until evening to get on. Evening - Beached at Taclobin Airfield Leyte, Philppines Islands. We will not be able to get out of the channel tonight. Retracted from beach and anchored in the bay. There is some big ship just in front of us shelling the beach. It nearly shakes the deck when his guns go off. There is flare dropping everywhere, lighting up the whole place like day. We had a couple of shells go over us. No planes. Tracers are flying everywhere.