Luzon Mindanao Naval operations The Battle of Villa Verde Trail (Filipino: Labanan sa Tugaygayan ng Villa Verde) was a campaign by the United States Army and Filipino guerrillas in the Philippines during World War II in 1945 to force its way across the Caraballo Mountains from the Central Luzon plain to the Cagayan Valley.

Somewhat to the surprise of the Americans, the Japanese had constructed strong defenses along the narrow and winding Villa Verde Trail, 27 miles (43 km) in length.

The plan was for the 25th Infantry Division to fight its way northward along Route 5 (now AH 26) toward the crossroads town of Santa Fe, Nueva Vizcaya.

A second division, the 32nd would attack up the Villa Verde Trail, a difficult, primitive, winding track through the mountains, to Santa Fe.

[2][3][4] The soldiers of the 32nd were assisted by a battalion of Filipinos, the Buena Vista guerrillas, which operated in the rear of the Japanese defenses.

The Japanese here were dug into a mutually-interlocking defense in caves and tunnels and with machine guns and artillery covering every foot of the trail.

[6] The battle for the Villa Verde Trail became a knock-down, drag-out slug fest...the 32d Division's difficult operations in the Salacsac Pass area could hardly avoid taking on a monotonous pattern.

Then there would be company and battalion outflanking maneuvers, some successful, some ending in near disaster, and all, as the result of Japanese defensive dispositions, inevitably winding up as frontal assaults.

[13] The division was 4,000 soldiers under strength and problems with morale and mental and physical exhaustion were noted as early as April.

Six thousand soldiers were evacuated at least temporarily from the battle for illness, disease, and especially "combat fatigue and associated psychoneurotic upsets.