Ch 8 - Fall of Bataan

CHAPTER 9

FALL OF BATAAN!

On the 8th of April, the front lines of Bataan broke. Some of the big guns at Topside were firing, and Ft. Drum cut loose with its 14” rifles, right over our heads. The big shells from Drum ripped the air, sounding like giant freight trains. Captain Starr noted that it helped to have faith in Drum’s fire control! Men and equipment of some of the American units were brought back to the Rock during the night of April 8th, including the 2nd Battalion of the 60th CA (AA). Heavy explosions could be heard throughout the night as supplies and ships near Mariveles were blown up.

The surrender of Bataan opened the floodgates. The Japs quickly moved their artillery into place and opened fire. Any gun battery on the Rock that offered counter-fire was immediately set upon by the Jap 105mm, 150mm and the devastating 240mm artillery pieces, and quickly put out of action. There was little doubt that the Japs possessed the coordinates of all gun batteries located on Corregidor. The incredible barrage grew in intensity until the roar of exploding shells drowned out everything. It was difficult to even think!

The bombing also increased, and since the location of all AA batteries were well known by the enemy, as soon as the 3” guns were elevated to fire, the Jap artillery would immediately shell our position. The exploding shells destroyed all camouflage and cleared the area of any cover. There was little the men could do but “stay under cover” if any remained. I had equipped the pit with a No.10 can to serve as a “back-up” latrine. Long periods of bombing and shelling prevented us leaving the pit, even for the purpose of relieving ourselves! The majority of the bombing was carried out by the new “Betty” type aircraft, and their altitude exceeded the range of our guns. Only the two batteries equipped with mechanical fuzes were able to reach the bombers, and Chicago had been devastated by artillery fire from Bataan, and was practically out of action. Every night, all battery personnel would work madly to rebuild the sandbags around the guns and the director and height finder. It was now useless to erect more camouflage over the equipment, and we had few materials left to do an effective job. All foliage had been stripped by the shells and the area around Battery Ramsey resembled the surface of the moon!

Very early one morning the flash phones reported aircraft engines southeast of our position. I picked up the sound of what appeared to be only one plane. The clouds were low and I could see nothing. The plane seemed to be near Fort Drum, and was heading west. The drone of the engines continued and now seemed to be coming closer, but once again turned west, then faded to the south.

“Must be a patrol plane,” I said to no one in particular and turned to leave my pit area, but now once again the aircraft was coming closer. Krueger approached from gun pit of No.1 Ramsey.

“You hear that airplane?” he said, and I nodded. I explained that the Jap had been cruising around Drum and Frank for some time.

“It’s getting closer!” Bill said. Now the plane was very close, and also very low! I climbed down into the machine gun pit and loaded a round into the firing chamber. The plane was surely coming right at us, and fast!

“There he is!” Bill Krueger shouted, pointing. Now I could see him and he was low and coming right at us! The plane was a twin engined aircraft. It was unlike any Jap plane that I had ever seen and I opened up, guiding the tracers up and letting him fly right into them! Now everyone was firing. Tracers were converging on the airplane from gunboats in the bay, from “D” Battery, from Topside, Bottomside and everywhere! The pilot banked to the west and the streams of tracers followed! He never had a chance.

Later in the day, word was passed that the plane was a twin engined attack aircraft, and was thought to be on a sight seeing mission. With the poor visibility, the pilot apparently became lost and blundered into Corregidor. The Rock was a poor place for a low flying aircraft to fly over as that one did! It was conjectured that the plane might have been carrying a VIP passenger, and if so, that was one less VIP!

The above incident possibly brought on the intense bombing attack that occurred later that morning. At 10:00 am we were subjected to several flights of nine planes each, one behind the other, flying from the sun and unloading their bombs! I would swear that they were attacking the AA Batteries only! One stick of bombs came right up south of the road from Bottomside, and just on the other side of the small ridge on the north side of Battery Ramsey. Forty yards left of their path and they would have wiped us out! Another stick of bombs landed in Ramsey Ravine just to the east of us. When we eased our heads up to see if we had been hit, we could see a pall of dust and smoke rising from the vicinity of Denver on Water Tank Hill.

We now realized it was just a matter of time. I spent most of the time in my machine gun pit. I was convinced that it was the safest place to be. There was nowhere to take cover except the shell rooms of Battery Ramsey, and the one experience in the shell room was quite enough for me! I felt my small pit was least likely to be hit by the shell fire. Our hope was that the Jap bombs would miss the Ramsey powder rooms! I think we all realized the disadvantage of our proximity to Ramsey, but it was a bit late for this fear to surface!

After leaving the magazine on that one occasion, Larson and I diplomatically ‘mentioned’ to the Captain that we would feel much ‘safer’ in the machine gun pit than huddling in the magazine, where every bomb seemed to be coming right through the door. Captain Starr’s answer- “Uh- I’m not sure who ordered us in there, but I think I’ll go against orders the next time and retreat to the director pit!”

His laughter told us that he also, was very uncomfortable in the magazine!

Late in April, the combination of bombs and shells had finally put our battery out of action. Many of the cables were torn from the ground. The Captain ordered the gun crews back into Battery Ramsey while the repair crews worked on the cables and other men shored up the sandbagged walls of the 3” gun positions. Someone yelled that more bombers were overhead! “Take cover!” I was already in my pit with Krueger and Larson when the bombs hit our position! I thought we were all goners! The explosions shook the ground, dust and rocks sprayed us like buckshot! One bomb fell into the height finder pit near Sgt. Jackson, but did not explode! The bomb casing had cracked open and yellow powder had spilled from inside the bomb and was all over the ground, some had sprayed onto Sgt. Jackson and the other men huddled inside the circular pit.

The sergeant and his crew slowly appeared above the sandbags, brushing the yellow stuff off their clothes. More damage to repair! We saw no more bombers at the moment, and everyone scurried to again repair the sandbag walls of the gun positions and the fire control instruments. At this time the Jap artillery opened fire on our position! Everyone dived for cover! Numerous shells began striking the area. I, and my two friends huddled down in the machine gun pit, expecting one of the shells to come into the pit with us! The shelling continued for some time, and we did not dare stick our heads above the top of the pit for fear of catching shrapnel. Bill Krueger pointed out that some of the Jap shells were sailing through the air end over end, and perhaps the rifling was worn in some of the artillery pieces and failing to put any spin on the projectiles. The eerie sounds from such projectiles were enough to curl your hair! My chief concern was that a shell would strike the tree located just to the west side of Ramsey’s No.1 gun, and quite near to my pit. I had always feared that a shell, or bomb might detonate in the tree and the shrapnel would blow downward into my pit. So far, so good!

The barrage faded away and although explosions could be heard in the distance, we had survived another bombardment. Shouting could be heard nearby and we soon learned that the battery had been hurt. A shell had hit No.1 gun! Sgt. Jim Bible was badly wounded, his legs mangled, one completely gone. Other members of the gun crew were also wounded by shell fragments. Bible was taken to the hospital in Malinta where he would later die. It was a disaster!

The shelling continued off and on. We could only keep our heads down and take it. The battery was out of action most of the time because the cables were torn from the ground and severed by the exploding shells. The Captain ordered the height finder and the director moved to positions over where the horse corrals had been located. Although this made longer runs for the cables, he felt the two fire control instruments might survive longer.

We found that any activity in our battery area would draw fire from the Jap artillery in Bataan. Also, the air activity increased, and it became very hazardous to move about in the area. All of the Jap ordinance seemed to be seeking out the AA batteries. The Captain reasoned that if the AA was eliminated, the bombers could fly lower, and this would result in more accurate bombing. Word passed that the Japs had put a blimp up on a cable over Bataan for artillery spotting. No wonder we couldn’t move without drawing Japanese artillery!

Light and heavy bombers continually plagued the numerous Navy ships anchored in the bay between Corregidor and Fort Hughes. Most of the ships were either sunk or heavily damaged. Captain Starr called me over and told me that he had a job for me. He wanted me to set up a 30 cal. machine gun out where the road from Bottomside intersected the road that bordered the east side of the Middleside Parade Ground. He wanted the machine gun located on the Ramsey side of the road, and set up so it could sweep the road coming up from Bottomside, and the hill on the other side. Captain Starr guessed some of the Japs might infiltrate and move in behind our battery position. I drafted some help to fill sand bags for the gun position and the pit rapidly took shape. My efforts were constantly interrupted by artillery fire and bombers, and much of the time I was in the open without cover.

I had to find an infantry type tripod, and this turned out to be no problem. The First Sergeant informed me to look in the supply room. He was right!

The supply room did indeed have an infantry tripod, and shortly I was lugging the tripod out to my new pit. Why there was one in the supply room I will never know, but it was there. Setting up the gun was quite easy. One more problem arose, I needed a water can and hoses to complete the gun position. (The 30 cal Browning was water cooled.) I was told by the 1st Sgt. that one of the AA mounted 30’s had been hit by shrapnel and the water jacket was holed. The circulating water can might be ok he said. It was ok, and I grabbed it and its hoses and hustled them out to the new gun pit. I had to pour some precious water into the can, and bring a box of 30 cal ammo to the pit. I decided to bring a couple of boxes of ammo, I might have to man this gun myself!

Catastrophe struck on May 2, 1942! Some heavy shells began to fall somewhere above us, probably Topside. I had decided to open a can of hash, and as I sat down on the sand bags at the edge of my pit preparing to eat, an incredible explosion shook the island. At first I thought it was another earthquake, but one of the men standing nearby yelled out, “look up there!” Up the hill above us to the west, a huge pall of smoke and dust rose high in the air. It was later that we learned Battery Geary had blown up! We heard that Geary had been under fire, off and on, for some time. 240mm shells had been striking the mortar battery when one penetrated the powder magazine between Pit A and Pit B. There was no information on casualties, nor damage. Later we were to learn only a few men had been killed or injured, but Battery Geary had been completely destroyed! Some months later I was given a first-hand account of the terrible explosion from my friend Bill McCann, who was an enlisted man in Battery Geary. He told me one of the officers saw several of the shells had struck the magazine, located between the two mortar pits and realized that eventually one of the shells would penetrate the concrete. He immediately issued orders for all of the men to get into the bunkers adjacent to the two gun pits. One of the bunkers was to the west of Pit A, and the other on the south side of Pit B towards Battery Crockett. Bill thought that only seven or eight men had been killed, which was remarkable! He said the big 13 ton mortars were torn from their mountings and scattered around the area. One of the huge artillery pieces was blown across the road onto the golf course! Large castings weighing tons were blown to the top of the parapet!

One huge piece of the Geary parapet was blown down to our Battery area! I did not see it flying through the air, but I certainly felt the impact when it struck the ground! The great block hit just beside the road about thirty yards below my gun position. A man named Floyd Goode was struck by flying concrete and his legs were mangled. He died on the way to the Malinta Tunnel Hospital.

I paced off the distance between my pit in front of Ramsay and where Goode was hit. It was 30 yards.

Word passed that three men had disappeared! It hardly seemed possible that these men, particularly Sergeant Dennis, could just disappear from the area! Together with Sgt. Dennis, also gone were Pfc. Locke, and Pvt. Donald Odenga. Apparently the three had left the battery during the night. Dennis was our Supply Sergeant, a wheeler-dealer from Boston. Odenga a slow talking, hulking man generally regarded as an eight ball by most. Locke was a strange one, not the type that most would befriend. Much later, I learned that the three had decided to escape from the island. They were probably led by Dennis, and they slipped down to the beach and took a small rowboat and rowed out to a 35 foot, three masted sailboat bearing a black jib sail. They lay quiet the remainder of the night, and all day May 3, 1942.

The night of May 3, at 11:00 PM, Dennis took the helm and Locke cut the anchor ropes. Apparently Dennis fancied himself a sailor. He ordered the other men to hoist the jib sail and away they went! Dennis found that tacking out into the South Channel was more difficult than he guessed, and trying to steer the boat west into the China Sea was beyond his scope. He began swearing, and quickly became irrational. The sound of his voice, and his stomping on the bottom of the boat reached the ears of some men stationed on the beach at Ft. Hughes! 2nd Lt. Clifton H. Chamberlain, 59th C.A. Ft. Hughes tells of hearing loud noises from a boat moving out into the channel the night of May 3rd, and he reported challenging the occupants to identify themselves several times before ordering his men to open fire with their 50 cal. machine gun from their beach defense position on Fort Hughes.

The full story was revealed when Locke appeared at Cabanatuan Camp #1 on March 3, 1943. He entered the camp listing himself as a Staff Sergeant. He said this was the grade he carried in the guerrillas. Upon learning this, Captain Starr, our Battery Commander, straightened this out with camp headquarters. Captain Starr informed me during our meeting in 1988, that Locke was in deplorable condition when he arrived at Cabanatuan. The Captain also related the fate of Sergeant Dennis and Pvt. Odenga according to Locke’s report. Locke told the Captain that Dennis was riddled by a burst of 50 cal. bullets as he stood up in the boat, and Odenga jumped from the boat when the firing started and apparently drowned. Captain Starr was ordered by Colonel Barr to continue his desertion report concerning the three men.

The island was under intense bombardment almost continually. Great clouds of smoke and dust covered Corregidor. It seemed that dirt and grit were always in my mouth. It was almost impossible to move from one position to another in the battery area. Sudden barrages would strike our area, then they would cease just as suddenly. Japanese planes were overhead continuously, heavy bombers shuttled back and forth from Manila and Clark Field, and fighters and dive bombers continually harassed anything in the open, plus attacking and strafing the gun batteries. Our Lt. Haven was wounded during these intense shellings and bombings just before the surrender. He was attempting to extinguish a fire in Ramsey’s No.3 gun pit. One 240mm shell had struck the pit and caused a fire. I walked down to the pit later to see a 240mm shell lodged into the side of the powder magazine between Ramsey’s No.2 and No.3 gun! The shell was just sticking into the concrete wall about four feet above the deck! It was still there when we left the battery to go to Middleside Tunnel!

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The following paragraphs are taken from Capt. Warren Starr’s diary. I, and all of the battery personnel had nothing but profound respect for this man, our Commanding Officer.

Morning -Corregidor-5:30am- May 6, 1942

On this morning, I had been on active duty with the military one year to the day. This was the morning of the surrender of Corregidor, although I did not know this yet. That morning, I did not expect to see home and loved ones again. I was alone on the parapet of Ramsey, making my own peace with myself and my maker, and saying goodbye to loved ones at home.

Immediately below, scattered through the low brush, lay the AA guns, with crews sleeping on the gun platforms, fully clothed, blankets wrapped loosely around them to keep out the tropical dampness of night. At each position a soldier kept lonely watch. At the Battery Commander’s station, the Lieutenant was on duty, as were two men at the controls of the M-4 Director.

The still tropical morning was broken by intermittent bursts of light cannon from the Bataan shoreline. At the extremity of Monkey Point, sporadic rattling of machine gun and rifle fire brought back grim reality that the Japanese were on Corregidor coming in droves from hundreds of small landing barges echeloned back into dark Manila Bay. They had built up their landing force at Cabcaben, across the North Channel.

It had been five months of siege on the “Rock”. Bataan had fallen a month ago. Food supplies were short and ammunition low. At 4000 yards point blank range on Bataan, the Japanese had located hundreds of field cannon. Corregidor for days had been subjected to withering artillery barrages and heavy bombing. Now, there was little doubt that the enemy had sufficient men and equipment to overwhelm the smaller, underfed, worn out defenders.

It was goodbye to family, friends and to the wonderful life and associations in the United States. It was goodbye to what we were out here defending. There was no thought of surrender. Indications were that Corregidor would be a second Alamo. The relief so long awaited was not possible. Yet every day the “Rock” was held meant diversion of enemy effort away from the drive against Australia. It was imperative that Allied forces beat the Japanese to the Indies and Australia.

The enemy was now on Corregidor. Tomorrow would probably see them advance toward Malinta Hill, Bottomside, and finally upward to Topside and complete domination of the stronghold. This AA battery was to function combating aircraft so long as possible. The barricades around the gun pits had been removed to allow firing at landing barges, should that be possible. In case of complete destruction of AA equipment, the battery would go down to the beaches in support of the Marines. The island might go down, but victory would not come cheaply. They would gain the “Rock” after annihilation of all Americans on it. It had been a test of endurance of the fighting troops, on limited rations, on 24 hour alert, and with no maneuverability to lessen the strain. Each position had been maintained in place since the start.

We had been bombed constantly and shelled by artillery for a month since Bataan fell. The last four days they had fired approximately 127,000 rounds of artillery ammunition at Corregidor. The island is three and a half square miles in area. There were between 8,000 and 10,000 bombs and 300,000 rounds of artillery shells fired on it by the Japanese during the five month siege. There were 15,000 people on the “Rock”. There is not now a building or tree left standing intact. Everyone was in a tunnel except the AA artillery and the Marines on beach defense. It had been a horrible hell. Our gun position had been bombed, dive bombed and shelled for days. Our kitchen was completely destroyed, and our food stores also destroyed by artillery fire. We had no protection except fox holes in the ground and our chance at dodging flying objects. We had eaten mule meat, carabao, and red Saigon rice in small quantities.

There were seven large bomb craters within our battery position. All camouflage was removed. Artillery barrages from Bataan had laid the position bare of any protective cover. I had lost three men killed in action, one of them we amputated both legs in a gun pit, while the enemy was shelling the position. He died from shock, and loss of blood in the hospital. A shell burst and shrapnel shattered both legs. The same shell amputated four toes from another man. A second man was killed when a chunk of concrete flying downhill from the explosion of Battery Geary lit on top of him. A third man was in a machine gun pit firing at a dive bomber, when the dive bomber put his bomb right in the pit with the machine gunner and blew him to eternity. Our battery had been out of action on and off for days from shells destroying communication and power transmission lines. The battery was out of action three times during the morning due to cable destruction by artillery shells. Because of this and the high altitude of the planes, about 25 rounds of ammunition were all that were fired the last day by Battery Hartford.

I had issued one day’s issue of “C” rations, and planned to use these until other arrangements for a field kitchen were made. Our orders at present were to go down fighting. We would fire at the planes as long as possible, then fire at the landing barges. If we were out of action as artillery, we would go down to the beach defense as infantrymen, reporting to the Major of the U.S. Marine Corps. Plans for our participation in the beach defense of the south shore line, Ramsey Ravine and Governor’s Ravine areas had been discussed beforehand with the Marine Corps.

I had inquired of the 1st Sergeant, “Sergeant, how do you think the men will conduct themselves as infantrymen, if we go the beach defense with the Marines?”

His answer was immediate, “Captain, these men will follow you anywhere, anytime.”

Well this could have been both a compliment and a directive as to where my place should be, or either of them. Knowing the sergeant, I believe that it was a compliment, but I was always conscious of the fact that I must be the leader. I expected at this time to die for my country on Corregidor. It had truly been a hell there. Five months of fighting and no chance to rest, relax or go anywhere. Rations had been reduced, we had been on two meals a day for months. Rice formed a greater part of our diet. A Lieutenant was wounded the night before and was in the hospital.

At 11:20 am orders were received from Battalion Headquarters to destroy all equipment, that the fortified islands were being surrendered at 12:00 noon and to wait for further instructions at the battery position. All speed was made to destroy everything possible. The M-4 Director and guns were destroyed with dynamite. The Height finder was destroyed with axes, along with the small arms and small arms ammunition. Battery records, property and fund books were destroyed. The 3” AA high explosive ammunition was not destroyed as there was no time to do it with axes, and we had about 1000 rounds on hand and it could not be blown without also blowing the magazines of Battery Ramsey. To explode Ramsey would have created an explosion too great and too much danger to personnel in the vicinity. The enemy continued to shell and bomb Corregidor beyond the surrender time. One seaplane constantly dive bombed our position. There was not sufficient protection against such action for the unarmed men of the battery. We had received no orders since the Battalion Switchboard stopped operating.

We waited and received no further orders. Our battery position was completely destroyed, the kitchen blown to pieces, shacks and tents all destroyed. The men had been sleeping for days on the ground, and on and around their foxholes. We finally had no chow at all except for “C” rations. My bunk was destroyed three times during the war, and at the last I was sleeping on a bale of straw, hijacked from the mule corral. The Japanese kept bombing our position and we had no protection, or arms to fight with.

About 3:00 pm I ordered small groups of the men to seek cover in the nearby small tunnels that offered any protection. A runner was sent to Middleside Engineers Tunnel to find if room remained for battery personnel there. The runner came back and stated that there was no room available. At 5:00 pm I ordered the battery to go to Middleside Tunnel for protection. After all the men had left, the 1st Sgt. and the two Lieutenants and I started for Middleside Tunnel. We had to run for it! Three flights of heavy bombers came over and unloaded their bombs. One line of bombs trailed us and went on up over the ridge in which the Tunnel was built. We finally got inside the tunnel.

CHAPTER 10

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