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We regret to advise that Bob McGetchin is now deceased - Webmaster
Someone mentioned that there was a guy who suggested using ground radar to locate this tunnel. Not me! I'm a poverty patron whose major difficulty is saving his lunch money to get back to the Rock next January. Wouldn't you need exact measurements of the area before you got ground radar working to find air voids? That brings me to another concept. If there's anyone out there who wants to create a 3-D computer map of the Rock from the 1937 Corps of Engineers Map? Is there no one of you who has access to a computer mapping facility? Or detailed aerial photos? WANTED: INFORMATION |
Here's the scoop on how "The
Daniel D. Howell Tunnel" was found. Danny, who is the real expert on
the island, and I had been interested in an air vent for years. Some had claimed it was a
dry well drilling attempt, but we felt that was incorrect because of the constant air flow
up the vent. Danny often asked me to drop my video camera down attached to a rope, but I
refused as I didn't feature losing my Sony. Danny and Pop dropped a line down attached to
a rock and it went down 65 ft. They then went over to the side of the hill and dropped
down approximately the same distance and found the opening.
Bob
McGetchin Don Abbott recalls that he suggested to Danny to plumb the depth to the bottom and then go down on the east end of the ridge and follow the contour around. Certainly a better idea than my 'smoke grenade' idea! I have since explored the tunnel (after being told by Ricardo where it was) and wondered at it's history. It's a significant find, no matter who found it. Success has many fathers (Failure is an orphan.) It's pretty rough and ready inside, unrendered walls and floors, but seems to be that much larger than the usual Japanese rat-hole tunnels would have needed to be. Could it have been dug by prisoners? Bob McGetchin makes the point that it was a complex and deliberate design - 300 ft, with a dogleg, with laterals commencing to be drilled, and with a vent shaft. Does anyone have any facts, or even an alternative theory? |
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Hello Bob,
I was looking at your drawing of the Danny Howell
tunnel and I might know
something about it. Maybe you already know this, but if not
what do you think of this....The Moore Report, Engineer Annex, Part 9, Item
F "Tunnels were started
in the vicinity of practically all mobile batteries
and near RJ43 on
Roger
Davis -o0o- Hi Roger, Thanks for your email comments regarding the Howell Tunnel. Danny Howell and I don't know much about it as there seems to be nothing written to explain its purpose. I've visited the location on several occasions, which always seems to create more questions than gives answers. Its location is quite a way North and below the road level, which makes the location impractical for a supply depot for artillery. Lou Duncan, a USMC armorer, had his shop nearby, but I think it was up closer to the East end of Malinta Tunnel. Whomever dug this tunnel knew what they were doing I feel, as the engineering and excavation show signs of professional workmanship. Perhaps miners from Baguio were involved? It certainly was not dug by the Japs after the fall of the island, in my opinion. I've never read anything labeled the "RJ 43 Tunnel." Where did name this come from? The Howell Tunnel is several hundred yards (West) from RJ 43. (Road Junction 43) I'll do some more research and see if I can scratch up something. Perhaps you can too? I'd like to solve the mystery. I hope to visit the island again in the near future.
Best regards, [ BOB McGETCHIN DIED IN HIS SLEEP ONLY A FEW MONTHS AFTER WRITING THIS.] -o0o- Roger, The Danny Howell Tunnel is not near enough to RJ-43 to be its tunnel. If a RJ-43 tunnel was ever started, it would have been located adjacent to the battery, not way down the hill.
George
Munson -o0o- George, Isn't UNDER near enough? Looking at the lay of the land there now (not a guarantee of what it was then, of course), the area was flat- like at the crest of a hill on most sides - but with a gentle incline towards Malinta in the west. No place really to dig AND GET ABOUT 20 FT OF PROTECTION ABOVE YOUR HEAD except go to the steepest hill and dig. Which is about exactly where the tunnel is.
Regards, -o0o- Paul, The entrance to the tunnel is too far away to be of much value to the battery. Assuming the tunnel does go under RJ-43, then they would have had to build a shaft down to it like at the G-3 Station. Is there any indication that there is, was, or would be such a shaft?
George
Munson -o0o- George, I just can’t see it NOT being RJ43’s tunnel. When you figure where is the best place to put it near the road junction and yet have plenty of rock overhead as a natural protection from incoming artillery, that’s just where it is. Regards, |
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BATTERY MONJA TUNNEL For the full story on how "E" Coy 503rd attacked Btty Monja see Don Abbott's article |
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"This is where the last 20 Japanese holdouts were staying until they figured out the war was over. I corresponded with these survivors and determined this was where they were until they marched on Topside to surrender to a Quartermaster Graves registration unit NCO, Sergeant Mullins. This is why you see evidence of digging and other signs that Monja has had visitors. This has been since Al (McGrew) had been there in the '80's. I am suprised that they had been there that long ago; these explorers are Japanese returning to their hideaway. When we finally got there, somebody had been digging there recently. I am not a tunnel man myself. I intend to keep this tradition intact should I return there. The only unlined tunnel I've ever been in is the huge one with the spring running out of a pipe just north of Btty Sunset off Grubbs Trail. I went in there to confirm the size of it, furthering my scholarly research on the question of how a battalion of Japanese could have been so well hidden when we assaulted the island a long time ago. If you've seen one unlined tunnel, you've seen 'em all. " John Lindgren |
"I
jumped with the first wave. I can tell you about where I landed. On the '36
map, you can find Building 214, about a hundred yards west of Officers Quarters 28D. That
was the spot, I think, but I didn't leave a calling card to mark it. I was one of the
lucky ones and did not get a purple heart on the Island. I was, however, evacuated on 1
March with a case of hepatitis. In the meantime we had one skirmish or another most
every day. Our most difficult time was on 26 February when we attempted to take
Battery Monja on the South Shore Road at Wheeler Point. We killed a lot of Japs and
had a bunch of casualties." Don Abbott |
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Al McGrew went to Monja for the first time in 1981 (and has just completed his 9th), and found evidence in the tunnel that somebody had been about. He recalled that "George Munson was there before I was. A long time ago George, now in Bremerton WA, was interested in Corregidor and he started "The Hobby". An intense study of the defences. I learned of George in 1981 and contacted him. When I prepared to visit the Rock five months later, George sent me maps and directions to many sites that I never heard of. George interviewed many of the officers before they faded away." Al McGrew |
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| THE NAVY INTERCEPT TUNNEL | I heard that it was Don Abbott who located the Intercept Tunnel and to recognize what it was he'd found. To his knowledge, the first person to go down into it (in modern times) was Henry Von Seyfried, of L.A. Don showed him where the side tunnel hit the surface and Henry dug enough so he could go down into it. | ||||
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 |
 To many of us, this is an
"invitation" to discovery. Unfortunately it seems that the Corregidor Foundation
has a policy of filling up entrances with debris, or in this case, garbage. These tunnel
entrances are under the big tree at the rear of the Museum (between Topside and the
Telephone Exchange.) I have no idea where they lead. |
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John Lindgren, on the other hand, did have an idea; "The Tunnel is, IMHO, the Harbor Defense HQ Bombproof. According to Moore's Report Annes VIII of the Wainwright report, it began shortly before December 8. It was used to some extent by HD HQ. The plan completed on 9 October 1941 was signed by the great man himself, General Moore, so it must have been a high priority project. You might expect Moore's engineer to do this chore. There are 15 drawings on file at DWR 115 28C 1. One end was at the switchboard room of Building 147. The switchboard operators had bombproof quarters built in 1932 and the HD HQ was to be built next to it. I think that Danny found the switchboard bombproof in Building 147 several years ago. I think the tunnel at Middleside was part of this plan too. It's the best suggestion for these two holes in the ground that I've got so far. John also reminds us of his general disinterest in exploring tunnels. "I am not a spelunker and I have no idea where the Howell Tunnel is (and if the truth were known have little desire to know)." What with bats, snakes, cave-ins, carbon-monoxide poisoning, risk of tetanus, general dankness and confined spaces, I understand where he's coming from, but I still find the knowing of Corregidor's dark side is a perversely fascinating pastime! Alan Hardey, an experienced Corregidor researcher, writes us as follows:
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SUICIDE CLIFF? NOT AT ALL! As one who unwittingly compounded the error (in my Corregidor Revisited article written in about 1978) I stand corrected. I have gone back to the source of my error - it is a National Media Production Center book published in Manila (1977) called "Bataan and Corregidor - Battleground of the Brave." A close view also shows it contains a photograph of what is clearly Btty Hearn but is labeled "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". This is the very same Btty Reyson which a lot of us (ME AT LEAST!) do not appear to have heard anything very much about. - John's theory about the Black hand of careless scholarship seems to hold good. |
"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. " John Lindgren
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| On or about Feb 20 was with a partial
squad of engineers assigned to an infantry company unit. We were patrolling the beach when
one of the scouts reported enemy activity on the beach below Wheeler point.
The officer in
charge cautioned us not to make noise and to keep out of sight while he and the scouts
moved forward to assess the situation. When the officer returned, he spoke softly,
admonishingly. He stated that a large number of Japanese soldiers had jumped from the cliffs near Wheeler Point in an act of mass suicide. The patrol was motioned to move forward cautiously. I noted that some of the bodies sprawled on the rocks were alive. I examined the general appearance of some of the bodies and noted that some were wearing clean white socks and were not armed, nor were they wearing any ammo belts. They were, for a combat operation, rather clean, almost as if they had participated in a ceremonial activity of washing and preparing to die. I do not for a minute dispute John Lindgren's account of disposing of the bodies because of the impracticability of burying the dead on "Topside." But I do believe that some of the Japanese soldiers jumped to their death from that point. Robert J. Flynn |
