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bikbok38
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Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Thread Started on Jun 5, 2009, 5:22pm »
What are the decisive battles or actions in Corregidor during the retaking? I understand that the Japanese stationed there outnumbered the airborne troops.

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buster
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #1 on Jun 5, 2009, 9:45pm »
You will find most of the info within the site called Bless 'em All, which follows the 503d generally on a daily basis, arranged in week-at-a-glance servings.

When we get to Corregidor, there's so much material coming at you, we've added a special series which allows you to focus on the fighting almost on an hour to hour, minute to minute basis. It will also provide you with links to more detailed articles.

The layout is best found by visiting the 1945 calendar at:

http://corregidor.org/Bless%20'em%20All/Calendar/Year/19450000.html


and hitting 15 Feb.

The detailed DAILY REPORT SUMMARIES start at



The major actions to look for are:

(a) the attacks against "D" Co and "F" Co on the night 18/19 Feb, which are written up in individual recollections by the troopers themselves, variously as The Night of a Thousand Hours, The Best Warrior I Ever Knew, Night at Way Hill, and elsewhere;

(b) the series of attacks against Battery Monja, which was never taken;

(c) the series of attempts at taking James Ravine;

d) the ambush of F Co in Grubbs Ravine on 22 Feb;

(e) the sweep around Malinta Hill on 24 Feb;

(f) The Day of Tears - the explosion at Monkey Point 26 Feb.

You may catch in it the reasons why a smaller number of combatants, applying surprise and concentration of force, were able to take on a numerically superior Japanese force. However, that is a gross simplification of the factors operating, so there is also a section of academic papers in which several army officers attempt to examine the issues in detail. They are at:-

http://corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/admin/caution.htm



[image]


Unfortunately, we lack asimilar analysis of all that occurred on Malinta Hill with the men of 3/34th, but at http://corregidor.org/rock_force/rf_contents.html you can find several articles written from their perspective, including by their CO, a Battaion Commander, and some EM's.

There's an entire book there, several actually, and like Corregidor, the deeper you dig, the more interesting things shall become.

Welcome to the obsession.



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batteryboy
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #2 on Jun 5, 2009, 11:35pm »
Hi Bikbok38,

Welcome to the obsesison as Buster would say. You will find everything there on the links provided. My only consolation is living near ExO's place and I can ask him questions on the retaking until his ears bleed. Feel free to post your views and comments and should you have clarifications, for sure you will get an answer.

Cheers,
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #3 on Aug 28, 2009, 5:05pm »
Landing on San Jose Beach - 1945


A friend has just emailed the photographs below. These appear to have been taken on the morning of February 16, 1945. They show the landing of the 34th Infantry and support troops on San Jose Beach.

[image]

[image]

[image]

Cheers

willum
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fots2
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #4 on Aug 28, 2009, 9:54pm »
Wow, if photos can ever capture a specific moment of Corregidor history, these are it.

- Landing craft are speeding back out to sea.

- Tanks and trucks are on the south beach (Black Beach) along with many soldiers who just disembarked.

- Soldiers walking on the North Shore Road heading towards Malinta Point.

- Soldiers are starting to climb up the north west side of Malinta Hill.

- Since the Japanese never expected a parachute drop, I would have expected they would have constructed extensive beach defenses. Other than mines we know about, I don’t see anything.

- Lorcha Dock survived the war mostly intact but lost a later battle with the PI Navy.

- Trolley line power poles still seen in the photo also lost their own battle with the scrappers.

- The South Shore Road still looks in fairly good shape. In a few days it will be impassable in two or three locations.

- North and South Docks look in worse shape than I expected.

- The trolley bridge going to the Malinta Tunnel West entrance is still intact.

- Considering what the south west section of Malinta Hill looks like today, I am amazed at all of the rubble down that slope.

- A big dark structure in the Stockade area may be the walls of the old Spanish fort.

- I see a road near James Ravine going to the east and west Mine Control buildings that is not on any map I have.

Great photos here. Thank-you for posting them. It is gratifying to see someone willing to share information for all to see instead of just dying with his precious treasure.
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The Phantom
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #5 on Aug 29, 2009, 5:17am »
In picture #2, is there a road going up Malinta's east face from the South Shore road?

It looks like it pretty much goes all the way to the top above the Navy Tunnels..........and then into the ravine in the middle of the hillside, and disappears in the trees.
It's not in the 3rd picture but the hillside is not fully shown.

Great pictures. Thanks..........

Good comments Fots.

I still see the rock above the surface near Engineers Dock, gone now. Taken out as an impediment to navigation postwar?

I see lots more to explore.............
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #6 on Oct 11, 2009, 11:01am »
Hi

Willum and I have managed to enhance a portion of one of the photographs Willum originally posted. The new image (below) shows a portion of the landing on San Jose Beach on the morning of 16th February 1945.

[image]


Visible in the image are infantry sheltering from hostile fire against the walls of the Cable Tank 5&6 and near the walls of the Loading Room No. 5.

Also visible in the image are a number of vehicles supporting the infantry. These include Tank Medium M4; Truck 1/4 Ton "Jeep", some with tailer, one towing a gun; Carriage, Motor, 105mm Howitzer M7; and Truck, Cargo, 2 1/2 Ton 6x6.

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mapmaster
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The Phantom
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #7 on Oct 11, 2009, 9:06pm »
Bottomside looks like a lunar landscape up close in this photo.
Amazing work you guys.
So much is visible, it's like being there in 1945.

There are locations pictures like cable tanks 5 and 6 that are no longer visible today.
The roads through Barrio San Jose are also partially visible in your closeup but gone today. Huge bomb craters......
Everything bulldozed flat now.

They are locations visible today that appear buried in this photo. Possibly unearthed through erosion over the years.

There is a section of the old rail line set in concrete near the present day South Dock cafe. It lines up with the old South dock.
It was circular holes on a concrete platform set higher than the tracks that probably held vertical tanks of some type.

In front of, and to the left of this track area, when facing the sea, is a small concrete topped enclosure which I believe has been identified on this site previously as a cable hut.
It is nearly completely filled with debris but the steps going down into it are visible. Walking by, it appears to have been a flagpole, or some other type of pole location as a cutoff metal pipe comes out of the top in the middle.
I got curious one time on seeing space under the edge of the concrete. I stopped and got on my hands and knees a few years ago and saw it's true identity.
I still want to excavate it, as I said before, it's a time capsule from 1945, as it's not visible in the photo above at all.

Every time it rains, or the wind blows, more of old Corregidor comes to the surface.

On my first trip to Corregidor in 1979, our hovercraft was damaged due to high seas so I was able to walk the South beach area alone. ( I was warned to stay out of the trees, and only walk on the beach back then do to unexploded ordnance all over the island.)
On South (Black beach) pictured I found numerous items from the war.
The biggest was a Japanese officers pistol, which the Japanese tourists wanted me to give to the former Japanese officer who was on the tour with me, I said NO, and gave it, and other items found, to the Nimitz Museum in Fredricksburg, Texas.
Back then I just brought it home in my carry on luggage, was that a different time!

At that time, and to this day, I still find the ammo clips from the Gerrard rifle in the surf on the beach pictured, and all over the island. They are green in color no matter where I find them, made of copper, bronze, brass?

Pictures like this in mind, make walking Corregidor a totally different experience.
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #8 on Oct 12, 2009, 7:26pm »
Hi phantom

The concrete structure with the short section of railway track intact is what remains of the Loading Room. This is where submarine mines were filled and armed. They arrived via rail car for the loading operations and would have then been railed onto the South Mine Wharf and into the Mine Planter.

[image]

Loading Room No. 3

Cable Tanks 5 & 6 were the stores for submarine mine "conductor cable, travelling cranes, triplex blocks and apparatus pertaining to water supply" - The Service of Coast Artillery, 1910. The latter item appears odd when one considers the bulk of the items in the Cable Tanks.

The 1936 map of Corregidor has the Cable Tank stores marked as Torpedo Cable Tanks. There was a similar set up of mine handling structures near the North Mine Wharf.

The Cable Hut you mentioned would be an interesting structure to excavate. There could be a possibility that it actually remains unexcavated from 1945.

[image]

Cable Hut No. 1

The way that Corregidor has been preserved in really interesting and important. The whole of the island could be described as a time capsule as there is still a lot of the original infrastructure remaining intact.

Regards

mapmaster
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The Phantom
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #9 on Oct 12, 2009, 8:15pm »
Thanks for the excellent follow up Mapmaster.
"A picture is worth a thousand words", comes to mind...............

Maybe we can talk the folks in charge into cleaning it out as a guard station hideaway. There is a guard that is stationed 24/7 at South Dock.

Just think, out of the sun, out of sight, cooler in the shade and and in a subterranean concrete abode...........

I still will volunteer my services to help excavate this location, unexploded bombs and all?

Will visit with Col. Matibag at his Luneta Park office this trip to see if he is interested in the project.
Any other takers on this endeavor?
Shovels and toothbrushes at the ready, camera in hand for sure..........
Maybe a metal detector or two..........
Plenty of cold San Miguel steps away for meriendas.........
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Re: Battles during the retaking of Corregidor
« Reply #10 on Oct 14, 2009, 7:28pm »
Hi phantom

I suppose I should volunteer to help with the clean out of the Cable Hut, but I would prefer to carry the drinks tray (12th man). So we will only need another 10 helpers.

A little research on the photograph of San Jose Beach (Black Beach) landing (above):

  • The landing took place at approximately 1030 hours. The shadows are in the correct direction for taking of the photograph to be within a short period after 1030 hours
  • The M4 Medium Tanks were part of a detachment from the 1st Platoon, 603d Tank Company. One tank hit a mine soon after landing
  • The Jeep with the gun is from the 3d Platoon, Anti-tank Company, 34th Infantry Regiment. One of the platoons jeeps also hit a mine
  • The M7 Gun Motor Carriage are from the 3d Platoon, Cannon Company, 34th Infantry Regiment
I think I have that correct.

By the evening of the first day, the 34th Regiment had 1109 infantry, 2 tanks, 3 dozers, 5 ambulances, 11 trucks and 3 water tankers ashore.

Regards

mapmaster
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