Not Reyson - but
Smith No. 1
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Two of the
many curious tales of
Corregidor are those of Battery Reyson and Suicide
Cliff.
I first heard of Battery Reyson in a
book called "Bataan and Corregidor - Battleground of the Brave" which was
published in Manila in September 1977 by the National Media Production Center. I bought it in 1978, whilst I was living in San Pedro for
six months, so that I could get more familiar with The Rock when I visited
it again. At page 77, they published a photograph of a big gun in shadow,
facing out to a spectacularly beautiful sunset. It was entitled "A
155-mm gun at Battery Reyson, on the northwest coast of Corregidor, looks
out to "Suicide Cliff" where scores of Japanese soldiers jumped off rather
than surrender in February 1945."
There was even a photograph of
a small pile of flat rocks, containing three wooden markers with Japanese
writing on them. The comment stated "At Suicide Cliff, Japanese visitors
have set up a small and informal Buddhist shrine to their war dead. Among
offerings are rice grains, placed with a paper memorial on a large, flat
rock."
But
when I went to the island
for a few days and walked the main batteries, it slipped my mind. In
1978, the island was a lot rougher to traverse than it was now.
There was a youth hostel over near where the church now is,
and I stayed there, all alone. It rained most of the time, being monsoon
season. I walked the main batteries, and the length of the island.
I concentrated my fossicking in the area of the Enlisted Man's beach,
where there was a large debris field in a creek-bed flowing down from
Malinta Hill. The road had not been rebuilt in that area, and the
only practical way through to the area was via the hospital lateral. In
the debris field were all sorts of ordinance, dozens of big shells,
hundreds of small rounds, numerous 20mm projectiles, and the like. I
amassed a huge collection, I don't know why. I only brought one 20mm
projectile home in my luggage, and gave the rest to one of the employees
on the island who'd kindly shown me the mysteries of the Golden Staircase.
I also found a milk cruet with US Army Hospital Corps on it, which I
treasure still.
I asked those on the island about Reyson.
Have you ever noticed how many Filipinos don't indicate direction with
their hands, but with a "pout" ? Well, I was told with a
pouting of the lips in the general direction of Topside, "over there".
As I was on North Dock at the time, this was tantamount to being told that
it was in the general direction of "up". "What about Suicide Cliff?"
I asked. "Same," was the answer, this time with another pout in the
direction of Topside. (There's also another quaint Filipino
habit, which is that when a person asks for directions, point them in the
direction of somewhere, even if you don't have the faintest idea
where. )
So,
when it came to putting what little information I had on my new website, I
at least knew there was a Battery Reyson and a Suicide Cliff. So I
included Reyson in the lists of soon to be 'Battery pages', with a
request that anyone with information on it to tell me about it.
That's why I'm glad we have
contributors like John Lindgren, formerly of "D" Co., 503d PRCT, who set me straight
about Suicide Cliff.
"I have a brochure Corregidor...Isle of Eternal Memory produced in
1985 by the Philippine Tourist Authority. Amongst other things, it
contains a map of Corregidor showing, of all places Suicide Cliff.
On my latest visit to Suicide Cliff I discovered it to be
used as a dumping ground for the new Corregidor Inn. I'm not sure of the
name of the hotel since I've never stayed there. I prefer to stay with a
Filipino family. But back to my point - On the morning of February
19, 1945 the D Company soldiers who survived the night at Wheeler Point
removed nearly 300 bodies of Japanese soldiers they had killed during
the terrible night battle. There was no way the company, probably then
less than 70 able bodied men, could have shoveled in the hard ground to
bury the corpses. Instead they simply carried the dead Japanese marines
and dropped them over the cliff 10 metres south of Wheeler Point.
I can see how there had come to be some explanation for the remains
found on the sheer cliff but the reasoning is dead wrong. The name
appears to have been attributable to the black hand of history, less
than careful scholarship. "
Now, one can hardly get
any more authoritative an answer than John's. He was there. (He was
wounded that prior night).
Vale Suicide Cliff. But should there be a re-naming of the cliff? I'm
told that "D" Company refer to it as "Banzai Cliff."
With this information, I
went back to my 'source.' It's 1999 now, and I know a slight bit more
about the island than I did in 1978. And what do you know, a close view of
the Battery Reyson photograph shows Btty Hearn.
So, is there a Battery Reyson?
No, there is no Battery Reyson. End of story.
It's no mystery why the name
"Suicide Cliff" continues to exist, however. Don Abbott,
also a 503d PRCT veteran who has visited Corregidor many times, mentioned that when he
tried to set the CFI guides right, he was told that the place was a good
"tip earner" from teary Japanese tourists.
|
Tony
Feredo |
"It's quite sad for me to see, hear and
feel how some Filipinos look at the last great war. They will say: "Forget about Bataan and
Corregidor, since we lost them anyway." Maybe they just don't know the
real value and the strategic importance of what these two places did to
turn the tide in favor of the allies in the Pacific. Of course
if you enlighten them, they will keep their mouths shut.
I have read quite a few
accounts on the battle and I always have mixed feelings about every book
that I read. For example, Aluit's book on the Battle of Manila is OK and it was based mostly
on personal accounts by survivors. For one, I already have a doubt
about Aluit since he wrote one of the books on sale at Corregidor (the
orange cover) and in one of his drawings there is a battery there called
Battery Reyson that allegedly had 2-155mm guns that fired back to Bataan.
I don't know where he got the name
Reyson since the one of the first 155mm Batteries that fired back to
Bataan, a few days after the fall, was Battery Kysor (2-155mm on a Panama
Mount.) There was even a report which stated Kysor had a third gun on
limber). So there is no such thing as a Battery Reyson. There were, for a
fact, Battery Martin and Battery Concepcion (near Barrio Concepcion)
but they were just mounts and no guns were emplaced there during the
siege. Not many know about these batteries.
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