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A.
 On the western side of Malinta Hill, the Gasoline Tunnel has its own entrance

MALINTA GASOLINE STORAGE TUNNELS
 

Text and Photos by John Moffitt

It is interesting what we take for granted. All the times I have walked past those laterals and never realized that one of them was ‘missing’ until our surveys. It is like a haunted house with a secret room. As Martyn "Mapmaster" Keen says, it is not actually missing - you just can't see it's there!   

Curiously, it's a part of Malinta which is closer to its original state than anything the day tourists and the overnighters who take the ‘Malinta laterals night tour’ will ever see. And, being so, it's a dangerous area, and hence a "no-go" area except on official business. 

I'll bring you up to speed.  Not long ago, Mapmaster posted an interesting "snippet" based upon our Mapping Team's measurements of the whole of the Malinta Storage System. Our team (Martyn, Karl, Paul and yours truly) did this to compare what exists today with the original engineer's blueprint of 1934, and to track the collapsed areas within the system.

The team worked its way, measuring as it went, from the west portal to the east portal of the main Malinta tunnel. At the east portal, "surprise surprise" we had a lateral missing. We went back down the main tunnel and confirmed that at least the end of one of the gasoline storage tunnels was not visible from the main tunnel.

So, off we went into the gasoline storage laterals and worked our way down the tunnel parallel to the main Malinta tunnel. All the laterals were located as per the original blueprint. We worked our way, between tanks and concrete wall, along the western most gasoline storage lateral to a dead end at the last tank. So there was nothing missing, just something hidden.

Originally, the main concrete lining, of the Malinta main tunnel end of each gasoline storage lateral, was installed over the ends of the gasoline laterals. Thus the gasoline laterals were separated from the main Malinta tunnel by reinforced concrete. Explosions in 1945 may have shattered some of this concrete and a decision was made to leave all but the western most gasoline lateral uncovered and visible from the main Malinta tunnel.

At the main tunnel end on the western most gasoline lateral, it is possible to see, except for a few holes, the original main tunnel concrete lining still intact. What can also be seen is the new lining of the main tunnel has been installed inside the original lining (or lining remnants). Measurements of the main tunnel width confirm that the floor is approximately 0.4 metres narrower that originally constructed.

As to the name of this portion of the Malinta Storage System, the Office of the Department Engineer, Harbor Defenses of Manila & Subic Bays used the notation Gasoline Storage for each of the subject laterals on their 1934 map of the Malinta Storage System. The gasoline entrance and laterals were complete by then.

Here are a few photos of what the ‘Gasoline Tunnel’ area of the Malinta Tunnel looks like. 

John Moffitt

 

 


B. Looking back out the Gasoline Tunnel entrance


C. The mounts and one tank at the end of a lateral. The size of these tanks is only a little smaller than the lateral in which they were installed. There is a walkway down each side of a tank but it is quite narrow. This one is flattened a roof cave-in above it.


D. This tank has been pushed (from right to left) across the main tunnel by the force of an explosion.


 E: the end of the main tunnel with north and south laterals ahead. Here is another dislodged tank with the end bowed out. Fuel drums are scattered everywhere. This is amazing, note the ceiling which was so hot from the fires that it melted and was dripping.

 

 

F. Imagine the force required to crush/melt these huge tanks like beer cans.
 

G. Another ‘beer can’.

H. Time to get back out of there. Make your way north up one of two accessible laterals to reach the small ventilation tunnel running east-west. In this photo, it starts at the end on the right (this is the north-western corner of Malinta Tunnel).
 

J.

 

I. Walking east along the rough ventilation tunnel, here is what the small doorway into north-west lateral #2 looks like.

 

J. Continuing east, here is the doorway to north-west lateral #3. Note the ventilation tunnel continuing straight ahead. To exit Malinta go straight ahead to the next lateral and turn right. When you reach the main Malinta east-west tunnel, turn right to exit via the west entrance.
 

K. Finally, if you think all of Malinta Tunnel has been cleaned-up and resurfaced over the years, look at this. There are still original wooden beams and metal brackets lying around this north-side lateral. All of Malinta Tunnel must have been a real mess after the war and before clean-up work began.

 

Malinta Gasoline Storage System | Middleside Officer's Qtrs | Btry Denver Tunnel | The Final Line of Defense | Not Finding RJ-43 Btry Chicago
 Malinta's Navy Tunnels (Part 1) (Part 2) | Type 96 AA Gun | A Walk on Tailside | G-1 Command Post

 

GHQ  Historic Corregidor  | Harbor Defense of Manila & Subic Bays  |  Corregidor Under Siege  Retaking Corregidor  |  Rediscovering Corregidor  | Units & Personnel  |  Concrete Battleship Secret Corregidor PX  |  Now Showing |  Archives  |  Bulletin Board | Galleries  |  Mail Call | Links | 503d on the Rock  | 503d Heritage Bn. Rock Force