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

 



A.
Trench #1 is unique in that it only has one wall facing east (downhill) towards a potential enemy. It is in three inter-connected sections.

THE FINAL LINE OF DEFENSE
 

Text and Photos by John Moffitt

Recently I took the morning boat to Corregidor and by the time I was ready for my first walk it was nearly 11am. Since only a half day remained, I wanted to take some current photos of the Tailside trenches for Okla, who is one of the regulars at our Corregidor Forum.

After walking most of the way around Malinta Hill via the south road, I decided to take a short-cut through the jungle before you reach RJ43 (Road Junction #43). I was walking downhill on the east side of Malinta Hill. (later I was farther south between Malinta Hill and the 92nd Garage area).

It's late April and the weather here is very hot now, but I have never had such good visibility on the ground due to baked dead grass. After only one minute I came across a concrete structure facing north-south. It is 38 meters long in three connected sections. The downhill side has a prominent gravel mound all along it and there is an old road below, perfect view and position. This trench system only has one wall facing east (downhill). There is no rear (uphill) concrete wall.

Since this structure reminded me a one I had not seen for years, I walked a little north to the other one. It is above part of the North Shore Road and is a total of 25 meters long. The shape is irregular and the east end is partially destroyed.

Wandering around this area I saw lots of big craters and also a couple of semi-circular elongated shapes in the ground similar to crude defensive positions.

Continuing on I came to the water tank which is above the power station (pump house). This station is beside the road heading to the Malinta Tunnel East entrance. Since I could see quite well through the undergrowth I walked west along the road even though it was not my intended direction. Beside the trail heading down to the 92nd Garage area is a long third structure. This one is slightly curved but roughly similar to the second one. It is 37 meters long. A small portion of one wall has collapsed.

I was ready to turn around when I noticed an old road going south that you would never see if the undergrowth was green and alive. I walked in here a short distance and guess what, a forth structure. The undergrowth here is thick with those bushes bristling with needles that rip the flesh from your bones.

This one is long, 58 meters and almost a ‘J’ shape with much of it along the top of a ridge. The structure runs north-south and then east. It ends on a ridge which is part of the coastal cliff between 92nd garage area and Malinta Hill south east corner. It took me almost forty-five minutes to cut my way to the end above the cliff…damn bushes!

There are a couple of unusual features here. A rectangular platform could have been a machine gun position and there is an adjacent fourteen meter section with a roof. There are openings in the wall facing north.

I must admit that exploring this area seemed pointless in the past as I did not think anything of interest would be here. Not so. At the time I was guessing these were some of the old 1920s and 30s ‘X-X-X’ positions you see all over the island.

With the assistance of Corregidor.org members, I now know that I was in the area of the FINAL DEFENSE LINE. It consisted of infantry trench structures constructed along a rough north-south line to defend Malinta Tunnel etc from an eastern attack. As it turned out in 1942, it was exactly from that direction that Japanese forces approached.

 In this area the 1941 Emergency Defense map shows nine machine gun and two 37mm gun positions but no actual trench detail. GPS waypoints were sent to Martyn Keene (Mapmaster) and he confirmed that I was indeed at these defensive positions.

 While exploring one of the trenches I noticed a small rectangular concrete structure at the top of a small hill near the road. GPS confirmed this as one of the machine gun positions.

 Mid day lighting was harsh but here are a few dry season photos of what you will stumble across on a walk just east of Malinta Hill.

 History is everywhere on this island.

 

John Moffitt

 

 


B.


C.


D.


 E:

F.

 

     

G.

H.

I. All other trenches are similar with the exception of Trench #4. A section of it has a rectangular area possibly for a larger gun plus an adjacent covered trench. 

J.

 


 

K.

 

L.

M.

 

N. This machine gun position just above the present day road to the Malinta Tunnel east entrance is shown on the 1941 Emergency Defense map.

 

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