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Post by The Phantom on Jul 26, 2011 5:05:54 GMT 8
Looking for the remains of building #103 in the Feb. 16th 1945 photo shows a parachute in a shell hole across from the Plotting room, a little to the southwest. There is a large tree in the vicinity. The large bomb crater in Fots drawing above is present to the east also. ......................................................................... There appears to have been a road cut along the hillside where #103 had been, or was it drainage from Battery Geary? It's worth a look see, does it go down into the ravine for a reason? .................................................... What are the lined quadrants for that are painted on the cement in Battery Geary. they are visible in the prewar photos throughout the Battery. In one shot the shell trolley is lined up on the #1 lines. # 2 and so on go around the Guns. .........................................................
In the later photos were the trees immediately above the mortar pits cut and burned off to prevent splintering and fires in the pits under shelling?
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Post by fots2 on Jul 26, 2011 9:15:58 GMT 8
Good comments Phantom.
Will, you certainly can walk around the island on your own if you choose to do that. You will have paid for the tour but it is up to you if you take it. I might make one suggestion to you. Since it is your first time on the island, the tour is good for you to get your bearings for your later treks in addition to what Phantom says. Studying old maps helps but in a few areas, today’s road is a combination of former trolley line and road. It’s no big deal though, your choice.
For a guy like you, overnight on the island is the only way to go. Hopefully your time there will not be limited and you can spend a few days exploring. The Corregidor Inn will even give you a morning ride to any location you want to start from. You are onsite fresh and ready for a day’s hike. Like you, I prefer hiking on foot. I have the freedom to go anywhere I want at my own pace. Vehicles cannot take shortcuts or see the majority of Corregidor’s sights which are away from the tour route.
If there is anything specific you need to know then send any of us a message. A few of us go to Corregidor often so someone may even be able to meet you for a day or so. We are happy to show fellow addicts around if they want. At least for your first trip, many people find this helpful for finding things off the beaten path without wasting valuable vacation time.
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Post by fots2 on Jul 26, 2011 10:43:40 GMT 8
Hi Phantom,
There does not seem to be a road down there, just a ravine. The perspective at which the photo was taken does not show much of a slope but you certainly notice it when waling SE. A stream flows down toward the cliff just above the sharp turn in the road that you see when walking to the Wall of Caves. Remember the washed out bridge? This is the same stream.
I cannot tell you what the painted lines were for. Could it have had something to do with seeing better during night firing under subdued lighting conditions?
There is an account of trees being cut around batteries that were allowed to grow during pre-war years. Your reasons are probably correct.
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Post by okla on Jul 26, 2011 22:39:30 GMT 8
Hey Guys....Speaking of staying overnight on "The Rock"....To your knowledge has anyone of you PI residing "geeks" ever spent a night in Malinta Tunnel. If you have, I understand that you might be reluctant to make such a confession since it might lead to being permanently banned from the island (if you did it without permission). A larger consequence might be being confined to some sort of local mental institution for even considering such an endeavor. I must confess that I would do it in a minute. Call me a complete, raving Corregidor "Geek". It is a title that I flaunt to the world. Cheers. Postscript....If the truth be known, I betcha everyone of you guys are guilty, but I understand your silence.
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Post by fots2 on Jul 27, 2011 8:57:56 GMT 8
I do not know how many times I have been in Malinta Tunnel but I have no desire to spend the night in there. Once you get away from the main entrances it is pitch black anyway.
Two years ago while collecting information for maps, I spent eleven hours in the tunnels over a two day period, most of it alone. If there ever was a place on earth where you would be likely to meet ghosts then this is it. Not even one chose to say hello.
There is something really fascinating about that tunnel complex though. I will be back for sure.
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Post by okla on Jul 27, 2011 9:54:02 GMT 8
Hey Fots...I wouldn't have been surprised, in the least, if you had confessed to having spent a full night in the most crumbling of the Navy Tunnels. I think that would be right down your alley. Seriously, I think it would be an "experience" to "do" one full night in one of those laterials. I ain't talking about the main thru Tunnel. I am referring to one of the laterals, maybe MacArthur's HQ lateral, or the Hospital complex. Now, I damned sure want a lantern or some such illumination device. Also, I would pack my 1911 .45. It would, as you said, be reeking with ghosts. Quite an experience, methinks. I would do it in a heart beat.
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Post by fots2 on Jul 27, 2011 13:28:56 GMT 8
Hi there okla. I have a feeling that you would really enjoy a night in one of those old damaged laterals. As for ghosts, add a couple bottles of Red Horse to your list of supplies and you will soon see a whole battalion marching by. Watch where you sit, there are still a few bones in there...
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Post by EXO on Jul 27, 2011 21:52:07 GMT 8
If there ever was a place on earth where you would be likely to meet ghosts then this is it. Not even one chose to say hello. Fots is right. There's not much to "ghost stories" when the point of the story is that there is no ghost making a special appearance, which is why I will now inflict a similar one upon you. In 1978 I was staying a few days/nights in the youth hostel on Corregidor when the island was hit by a heavy and violent storm in the evening. I was the only guest on the island at the time. The wind was screaming, and the lightning was almost constantly lighting up the skies and the thunder was happening at almost the same time. It was literally the infamous "dark and stormy night" described by Edward Bulwer-Lytton's awful " Paul Clifford." Having spent the day in tunnels and batteries, and being aware of the thousands of men who came to violent ends upon the island, it occurred to me that in the event that no ghost might appear to me that night, then there were no such things as ghosts. Since that night, I have never had a solitary worry about the blackest of tunnel darkness or ghostly visitations on Corregidor, though I do retain a healthy fear of the spiders and snakes.
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Post by okla on Jul 28, 2011 3:39:26 GMT 8
Hey EXO....I am most confident that with my too vivid imagination that I might pick up the "dah/dits" of Corporal Irving Strobing sending out the last message from Corregidor or maybe, even, the sounds of the "jazz/jam sessions", high stakes poker games, and maybe the sounds of the wild love making that the Beloit Brothers (I think it was mentioned in that particular book)coming from those long abandoned passageways and laterals. One of the Park Rangers at the Little Big Horn Battlefield once told me that Ghosts, literally walk at "mid day" at the site of Custer's Last Stand". I'm thinking that they surely must walk at midnight in Malinta. Cheers. Postscript....Being the only guest on "The Rock" during that wild, stormy night, would be creepy enough in itself. Was there any self reflection done that long ago evening?
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Post by EXO on Jul 28, 2011 9:21:29 GMT 8
Okla, this was my first extended visit to Corregidor, which was, in those days, still a rough and ready place where large shells could be found laying in shallow ravines where the years had washed them, and there were all sorts of munitions which could be had for the picking up. I was thinking not of the death and destruction that had created the landscape, but of the next day and all the wonders it would bring.
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