Sometime during the second semester of the 1971-72 school year, the National Honor Society took a day trip to Corregidor Island, a World War II battlefield. We drove to near the tip of Bataan peninsula following the route of the Bataan Death March from San Fernando south. From there we took banca boats out to the island for the tour.
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| Rice fields and mountains of Bataan |
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Our destination: Corregidor as seen from Bataan
The pointy hill in the middle is Malinta Hill, to the right is Topsides |
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Banca boat
Kim (or Tim) Hammon and George Macawile |
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Pam Montgomery
Surprisingly enough we did have life preservers |
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Not exactly DOT standards
but off we go |
h On 11 March 1942, during World War II, General Douglas MacArthur and members of his family and staff left the Philippine island of Corregidor and his forces, which were surrounded by the Japanese. They traveled in PT boats through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships and reached Mindanao two days later. From there, MacArthur and his party flew to Australia in a pair of Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, ultimately arriving in Melbourne by train on 21 March. In Australia, he made his famous speech in which he declared, "I came through and I shall return".
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| We land at North Dock were General MacArthur departed Corregidor for trip to Australia |
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One of the PT boats that took MacArthur and his staff from
Corregidor to Mindanao on his way to Australia |
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The tunnel was still unstable with wooden shoring so we could not go in.
You can see the lateral tunnel entrances in this picture |
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| Hospital during the war |
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Next stop, Middleside "Mile Long" Barracks
Mike took this picture |
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| And I took this picture of Mike taking the previous picture :-) |
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| Ft Mills, as Corregidor installation was called, had a large hospital before it was bombed out by the Japanese |
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Although the Japanese repaired some of the American guns, this AAA
gun is the only Japanese weapon still on the island. |
Battery Way was built before World Ward I and was considered obsolete, and had actually been deactivated before the start of World War II. But these 12", high arcing fire mortars could hit Japanese positions behind hills and in ravines that the flat trajectory rifles like Battery Hearn could not get to. An artillery company that escaped the fall of Bataan was able to get three of these guns back into operation two weeks before the invasion of Corregidor by the Japanese. One by one the Japanese were able to take the guns out with artillery fire and bombs. At the end, the last gun was fired for 12 hours straight during the Japanese invasion until it got so hot the breech fused shut. It was the last of the fixed gun batteries on Corregidor to fire before the fall of the island.
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Battery Way
Sue Hayes, Mike Turek |
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| Mike Allen and Tracy Metcalf on the left |
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| Topside: MacArthur HQ before he was forced to move to Malinta Tunnel |
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| Offiers Club |
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| Topside barracks |
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| Post Theater |
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| Topside before the war |
Behind the theater is the Pacific War Memorial with its eternal flame sculpture.
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| May be Sallie Short on the right |
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| Pacific War Memorial |
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Michelle Henry, Debi Timmerberg, Cindy Scriffin, Pam Montgomery, Roger Davis ?
at the War Memorial |
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Water tanks, Malinta Hill left of center, and the "tail" of the island
Water shortage after the fall of Bataan was an issue.
On the night of May 5-6, 1942 the Japanese successfully landed on the "tail." After fierce fighting,
the US forces surrenders at 1330 on May 6, five months after Pearl Harbor. |
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12" Rifle
Battery Hearn |
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The circular concrete pad around this gun looked like a bullseye to the Japanese bomber pilots.
The flat trajectory of this gun designed to sink ships made it inefective against Japanese
positions behind hills and in revines on Bataan. |
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Disappearing 12" guns of Battery Crockett
Guns would be loaded behind a concrete parapet. They would pop-up to fire.
These could only fire out to sea. |
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| Disappearing gun in firing position |
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Magazine for Battery Crockett
This was the last stop on the tour |
We had a little time to wander around back at bottomside before getting back on the boats for Bataan then back home.
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| South Pier and Caballo Island |
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| Debi Timmerberg and Cindy Scriffin on the bus |
Places where extraordinary acts bravery, courage, and sacrifice took place carry a special spirit to me. I have felt it at Gettysburg, flying over the dozens abandoned 8th Air Force bomber airfields in East Anglia, England, the USS Arizona Memorial, in addition to the cemeteries at Arlington, the Punchbowl in Hawaii, and the Manila American Cemetery. I felt that same spirit at Corregidor as I thought of the men and women who stood to the end against the enemy in a hopeless battle. But even in defeat, Japanese radio signals intercepted at Corregidor before its fall would contribute to the decisive Japanese defeat at the Battle of Midway only one month later. Corregidor would be the last of the string of victories that started at Pearl Harbor that was enjoyed by the Japanese before the tide of the war started to turn against them.
In February, 1945, after weeks of bombardment from the air and from Naval gunfire, Corregidor was retaken from the Japanese in a brilliant combined airborne and amphibious assault. It was declared secure on 26 February.
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"I see that the old flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak
and let no enemy ever again haul it down"
-General Douglas MacArhtur |
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| Topsides from the light house with Bataan in the background |
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