g.             The surrender of Fort Drum.

 

At 1140, 6 May 1942, the Fort Commander of Fort Drum was summoned to the telephone and told by the High Command to demolish the armament on Fort Drum in accordance with pre-arranged plans.  We were told to complete the demolition and surrender by 1200.  This gave us exactly 20 minutes.  Each officer on the Fort, assisted by a few key enlisted men took certain material which had been prepared in advance and proceed to complete the job.  The recoil cylinders of the guns were drained and obstructions placed in their muzzles.  Then the guns were loaded with a round and fired by means of electrical primers with long wires attached, so that they might be fired from the light switches in the center of the ship on the "Typhoon Deck."  All of the guns on the Fort were handled in this manner, except the 3-inch battery and the 6-inch gun in Battery Roberts on the south side.  The 3-inch battery had sustained a hit on the breech from a Japanese bomb some 25 minutes prior to the surrender order.  The breech of the 3-inch gun was thrown over board and all the mechanism and the breech recess were sledged with a heavy sledge-hammer.  The upper 6-inch gun in Battery Roberts had been permanently put out of action by Japanese artillery fire.  All the communications material was smashed and thrown over the side.  The plotting room, with all of its' equipment, was cut into small bits with an axe, all of the records were thrown into the water.  All of the small arms ammunition was carried to the top deck and thrown over the side.  The remaining 14-inch powder cans had their tops taken off and buckets of salt water were poured into the cans with the powder.  The 6-inch powder magazines were flooded with salt water from the sprinkler system, but the result of this was unknown. 

 

American troops were kept on the fortified islands by the Japanese for over one year after the surrender.  From time to time, these troops would be sent to our prison camp when the Japanese had finished with them.  Through these men, it was learned that the Japanese attempted to put back into commission, many of the guns on Corregidor, Fort Hughes and Fort Frank.  However, at no time during that first year, did the Japanese make any move to repair the guns of Fort Drum in any manner.  The exception to this was the 3-inch gun and at one time a Japanese boat came to Fort Drum and the 3-inch gun was dismantled from the deck and taken away. 

 

4.   Effect of enemy fire.

 

a.   Personnel.

 

Fort Drum lost none killed by enemy action and only five were injured.  Of the five injured, only one of them required hospitalization.  Two of those injured were in the Battery Roberts casemate while it was being fired on by the 240-mm howitzers.  A shell exploded against the armor on the outside and fragments came through the openings causing these two casualties.  The other three were injured in one of the turrets by freak hits.  The turret Captain had his periscope hit while he was observing fire and the periscope came loose and crashed into his foot, breaking it at the instep.  The other two men in the turret were injured by enemy by enemy shell fragments which came through the muzzle of the gun, as the breech was opened and fragments came through backwards. 

 

This demonstrated that under heavy fire, fragments will enter any opening in any gun emplacement.  Although the fort took very heavy pounding and the noise was constant and the concussion very heavy, it is to be noted that there were no cases of combat fatigue developed on the Fort.

 

b.   Material.

 

 The first day of enemy action against Fort Drum, no records of hits were kept, but conservative estimates placed the number as approximately 100 by enemy 105 howitzers.  Beginning the second day and continuing through the war, accurate records were kept of all enemy firing.  The number of rounds fired, the number of actual hits on the hull and turrets of the Fort, were recorded.  Near misses were not counted.  The number of actual hits was 593.  Of this number, only 7 were bombs, 5 light bombs from low altitude and 2 bombs from high altitude.  Of the 2 high altitude bombs, one hit the turret face above the guns and was harmless.  The second was an 1,100-pounder and hit where many 240-mm shells had previously landed on top of the Battery Roberts casemate.  Some of the beams of the powder magazine, directly underneath, were broken, but no real serious damage done.  At least one-half of the 586 recorded artillery hits, were 240-mm.  The sides, backs and fronts of the turrets were hit by many projectiles.  Also, several exploded against the Barbette underneath the overhang and at the rear and under the turret.  Three of the hoods protecting the periscopes were hit and the instruments ruined.  These hoods were less than 1 inch thick.