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Post by EXO on Mar 4, 2007 15:45:18 GMT 8
Acting on a 'tip' from Roger Davis, I set out to re-locate the long 'lost' 12-inch mortar of Battery Geary. Not that it had been lost, it was just that many of us didn't have THE KNOWLEDGE where it ended up. Curiously, the loss of life the afternoon of 2 May 1942 when Geary exploded had not been severe. Captain Davis had seen several of the Japanese 240mm shells striking the magazine, and realizing that eventually one of the shells would penetrate the concrete, he issued orders for all of the men to evacuate immediately into the bunkers adjacent to the two gun pits. Six were killed and the same number wounded at the Battery, with two killed and 31 injured in the resulting hail of shells and cement blocks up to a mile from the explosion. One of the barrels ended up on the 9-hole golf course - and ultimately on the banks of the Pasig River, on its journey as scrap metal to the Japanese war effort. The damage to Corregidor's defenses was, however, out of all proportion to the light casualties. So as not to provide information which could be to the benefit of scrappers, the location of the mortar shall remain RESTRICTED.
What happened to the Pasig R. mortar is unknown - it was probably thieved by scrappers.
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Post by Redleg on Mar 13, 2007 8:33:21 GMT 8
Too late!! - if you look at the top photograph, you can see that a corner portion of the mortar has already been cut by the scrappers. Bastards!!
Does anyone know whether there is any criminal charge applicable in the Philippines under these circumstances - if the unimaginable were to happen and a scrapper was actually caught in the act? Plunder, looting of historical artifacts, criminal trespass, theft, walking on the cracks in the pavement?
Perhaps one way to prevent further looting of the mortar would be to open a tourist walking trail direct to the mortar, so that it would be constantly under the public eye.
Art
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Post by Deleted on Mar 13, 2007 10:33:25 GMT 8
to answer your question as to whether or not there are any applicable laws against this sort of thing..... someone once posted in a now defunct philippine-based website:
las islas filipinas -- a real banana republic (where the law is merely a suggestion)
sad, but true, i'm afraid to say (sigh)
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Post by EXO on Mar 16, 2007 19:20:30 GMT 8
Well, Dr. Demented, you're certainly 100% right when it comes to stop signs and red lights!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2014 10:12:47 GMT 8
I have never heard of the Pasig River gun story....can anyone elaborate or even confirm that it was from Geary?
I am most curious about this story, because of another story, from a US ex-POW used as labor on Corregidor during the occupation. That when transferring one of Geary's mortar tubes that the derrick on the Mine Wharf "broke", and dropped the gun tube into the water right off the Mine Wharf. It is my understanding that the tube is still there, underwater, but I cannot confirm this (I am not as scuba diver and know nobody who has dived off the Mine Wharf). Similarly, I cannot confirm the veteran's account.
*PS* this story also supports the presence, at Liberation, of RJ-43's gun tube being on the Mine Wharf, together with three Spanish era muzzle-loading cannon (two of which are presently in Manila, located at Fort San Antonio Abad along Roxas Blvd between the Jefferson Center and the Central Bank of the Phils complex, and near the Phil Navy Headquarters and the Manila Yacht Club). Official US Army photos show the gun tubes on the Mine Wharf, and the shrapnel damage to the Spanish guns matches the damage on the guns at Fort San Antonio Abad....the Japanese had taken the gun tubes to the Mine Wharf for loading onto ships, most likely for the steel.
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Post by chadhill on Mar 11, 2014 11:07:08 GMT 8
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2014 15:47:56 GMT 8
Just thinking out loud here....any chance the gun tube did not come from Corregidor?
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Post by Karl Welteke on Oct 21, 2015 19:56:23 GMT 8
BATTERY GEARY URLs For your convenience Battery Geary Practice Fire: at Corregidor Forum corregidor.proboards.com/thread/247/battery-geary-practice-fireBattery Geary: forum from fots2, comprehensive, 6 pages already corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1012/battery-gearyBattery Geary-details: from Corregidor.org corregidor.org/ca/btty_geary/geary.htmAir Raid Shelter Collapse Jan. 06, 1942 Btry. Geary: forum fots2 corregidor.proboards.com/thread/993Photos of the 'missing' mortar of Battery Geary corregidor.proboards.com/thread/117/photos-missing-mortar-battery-gearyBattery Geary: Karl’s Photobucket album, very few pictures so far. s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/Corregidor%20by%20subject/Batteries-Coastal%20Artillery/Battery%20Geary?sort=9&page=1Battery Geary part 1, Air Raid Shelter, Corregidor Field Note, from John Moffitt (fots2) corregidor.org/fieldnotes/htm/fots2-110711-1.htm Battery Geary part 2, Vintage Images, Corregidor Field Note, from John Moffitt (fots2) corregidor.org/fieldnotes/htm/fots2-110711-2.htmBattery Geary part 3, The Battery Today, Corregidor Field Note, from John Moffitt (fots2) corregidor.org/fieldnotes/htm/fots2-110711-3.htm
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Post by roland1369 on Oct 22, 2015 9:16:46 GMT 8
Karl, what I have always found interesting about the Pasig river photo is the smaller gun next to it. The recoil cylinders, barrel, and elevating rack look like the upper portion of the US 3 inch AA gun m 1918. As I have seen a document listing a secondary assignment of one of the Disappearing Batteries as these guns as late as early 1941 there is a good possibility that they were still present in the Phillipines and at least some were captured by the Japanese.
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