|
Post by okla on Jul 29, 2011 22:11:08 GMT 8
Hey Fots....I choose to get off the bus and follow "our leader". I am having all kinds of computer problems as you are aware, but I have seen enough of this last segment about Battery Geary to know that this is another excellent presentation. You keep outdoing yourself. As I have oft stated previously, "you ought to bottle and sell this stuff". I want to make one comment before my "gadget" fails me again. I cannot help but be struck by the lack of foliage that 1930s Corregidor had as compared to the "New Guinea" image that the Island now projects. The seeding and reseeding process really has taken root. I actually like it as compared to that postwar "moon scape".I noted this "manicured" feature, once again, in the photo of Geary and environs during peacetime gunnery practice shown in your presentation. Everything is always clipped/pruned/mowed/etc and in class A shape in these prewar pics. A far cry from the jungle environment now in place. Hopefully I can continue to view this latest Fantastic Fots Foto Tour without further "grimlin" activity. Postscript....I thought you were off to Vancouver Island.
|
|
|
Post by JohnEakin on Jul 29, 2011 23:01:52 GMT 8
Amazing place. Thanks for the tour, fots2. I feel like I've been there - only without the sweat and hard work that you obviously did.
I checked the NARA POW database and there was a GALOS, W.E. who was a civilian employee of the Adjutant General's Corps. He was imprisoned in an unstated Manila area camp and was liberated after the war.
|
|
|
Post by The Phantom on Jul 30, 2011 2:48:27 GMT 8
Like being there Fots............... But not as HOT................
|
|
|
Post by okla on Jul 30, 2011 8:33:50 GMT 8
Hey Fots....I have been able to get about two thirds of the way thru this excellent material. This computer is running me nuts, but I am making progress. I keep going back to the "little two feet by two feet hole" that allowed those trapped gunners to escape a lingering death. Very haunting sight, methinks. That small opening was the difference between "life and death" for those soldiers. I wonder if it allowed them to survive just to perish in one of those stinkin' pig pens that the enemy called prison camps or maybe they passed to their reward on the Hell Ships. It would be great if some or all made it back to San Francisco in 1945. Those guys had faces and names. It would be nice to know who they were. As for Galos Roger (or perhaps it was actually Roger Galos), I wonder if he meant to scratch the date, May 2, 1942, since that was the "big explosion date" and the digit "1" was supposed to be a comma. Just my uneducated guess. Finally, I betcha ole' Battery Boy already has the answer to the Mortar Zone riddle. Those once neatly stenciled numbers and labels are probably listed in artillery manuals that we know adorn his abode. Hopefully he will come forth with the answer. Little things like this "Zone" thing tend to gnaw at my "innards" big time. I say again, this is superior stuff. Cheers.
|
|
|
Post by darthdract on Jul 30, 2011 17:28:03 GMT 8
Hi Sir Fots do you have Wider Photo Angle of the Loaded mortar where is that Mortar Located in the Geary Ruins?
|
|
|
Post by okla on Jul 30, 2011 21:29:47 GMT 8
Hey Fots....I have finally been able to "wade" thru the remaining photographs and it was well worth the effort. The force expended by that massive explosion is incomprehensible to me. The chunk of masonry that flew Al McGrew's direction would have made mush of his whole machine gun detachment, methinks, had they been in harms way. After perusing the "etchings" of Galos, Roger or maybe Roger Galos, I am more convinced in my own mind that the mark following May 2 is, indeed, his effort to make a "comma" thus making the date on the wall May 2, 1942 rather than May 21, 1942. As I said, just my uneducated guess, but May 2 was the date of that momentous event. Thanks again for this most excellent material. It's about time that ole' Battery Geary got her due recognition. Lordy, no other Battery on the "Rock" took a pounding as did Geary. Cheers. Postscript...My computer problems continue.
|
|
|
Post by fots2 on Jul 30, 2011 21:32:28 GMT 8
johneakin,
Thanks for having a look for Roger Galos. Unfortunately no ‘Roger’ but it is worth the effort. At least we know he was not a POW. My wife tells me Galos is a Filipino name also.
I did some searches when I found this a few years ago. I did not find a match so that is why I posted the name in the report.
|
|
|
Post by fots2 on Jul 30, 2011 21:37:33 GMT 8
Okla,
Computer problems are a pain in the butt. I hope that gets sorted out for you soon.
I expect his name was Roger Galos. I just wrote it down reversed since that is how he scratched it into the concrete wall.
When I was standing there I also wondered about that ‘1’. Good point. There are no other scratches nearby so it is there on purpose. I was thinking, if it is a comma then Roger Galos was probably a military man (being there on explosion day). Was he a member of Battery Geary, a member of a nearby battery who rushed here to help or one of the medical personnel who also came to help that day. We cannot find any soldiers with that exact name so it seems less likely to be May 2nd. You may be correct though, I really do not know.
As I stare at the scratch, it is the same length as the ‘1’ beside it so I am leaning towards it being the date 21st. Hundreds of civilians escaped to Corregidor when Bataan fell. I wonder if he was one of them and was not recorded as a POW somehow. Maybe this little mystery will get solved someday.
BB probably knows what a ‘Zone’ is.
It is a few more days until vacation time.
|
|
|
Post by fots2 on Jul 30, 2011 21:38:50 GMT 8
Darthdract, As you come into the battery via the road, it is the mortar sitting in the far right hand corner.
|
|
|
Post by wwalker on Jul 31, 2011 7:39:13 GMT 8
Wow!! These are the most in depth photos that I've ever seen of Battery Geary today. Great stuff fots2! As to the Roger Galos that inscribed his name in the magazine, I don't know who he was. There were no men by that name on the Battery H 59th CAC roster of April 30, 1942 that I have. From what I understand, most of the deaths that occurred on May 02, 1942 were the men that were taking cover in the chamber nearest the explosion in magazine 1. I spoke with one of the men that was trapped in the chamber of this magazine several years ago. After the explosion it was him and 3 other guys trapped. His name is Robert Erdwin and the other man he remembered that was with him was one of the sergeants of Battery Geary, Leslie Blanford. Sgt. Blanford was a WWI veteran that was also a POW of the Turks during that war. Of the four men that were trapped, one died from wounds a few days after being rescued. Sgt. Blanford later was killed on the POW transport ship (aka hellship) called the Arisan Maru.
Thanks again fots2.
Will
|
|