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Post by Bob Hudson on Feb 4, 2013 7:18:04 GMT 8
Interviewed a 93 year old ex-Filipino Guerrilla who lives in Limay. Will finish the interview Wednesday. One item I wish to share here is that he was with a Guerrilla group that had joined U.S. forces in attacking Corregidor by land and sea in 1945.
He was on a barge approaching Corregidor from Cabcaben. He started to tear up when we asked him about Corregidor because the winds were strong that day, the Bay waters that day were choppy and he said he saw so many paratroopers blown out to sea and disappear below the waves, burdened with the heavy load on their backs. All the men on the barge were very emotional at seeing so many fine and brave men dropping to their deaths beyond the dry earth of Corregidor.
Mr.Tomas Atienza was a friend of Col. John Boone and involved in numerous battles with him against the Japs as well as the Huks. This is the real treasure. Hopefully he will provide a piece of the puzzle that will join what others we have to create a better picture of what happened during the dark days on Bataan and Corregidor, Have yet to ask him about his actions on Corregidor once he landed. That comes this Wednesday.
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Post by Bob Hudson on Feb 7, 2013 19:38:41 GMT 8
Fots,
Re-interviewed Tomas Atienza who I spoke with earlier about his experiences during WWII. This time I took a friend who did a better job of translating than my fiancee. Tomas did see paratroopers swept to the bay but he and his group were concerned.
There were seven barges with about 25-30 men on each barge, half of whom where Filipinos. Tomas was on the first barge and the only barge to reach the shore of Corregidor. He stated that the American in charge of the barge attack was a Captain named Russ or Rust. The Japs hit all the other barges with the large loss of life. He wasn't sue what their mission was but since all the other barges were hit they pretty much secured their position but little else. The Japs turned their concern to the paratroopers who were coming in at a very low altitude.
The next day or day after he was assigned to accompany men with flame throwers and shoot anyone that may run out of caves when they tried to burn the Japs out. He stayed on Corregidor until 1946 when he was told to go home. He never received any pay but had food that was dropped by parachute while he was on Corregidor.
Prior to to and for a time after the war began he was with the 803rd Engineers. He never carried a weapon with the 803rd he was working on trail two or the "Secret road" on the Westside of Bataan. After the surrender, he went to Balanga with a group of guerrillas to Barangay Maite for a meeting with other groups and that is where he met John Boone. He was with some 31st infantry men but only recall a Carl W. Roy.
My Filipino friend interviewed him in Tagalog so I only heard some things that were translated for me.
That is all for now.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 14, 2014 17:33:09 GMT 8
Out of pure curiosity, is there a record of how many (if any) paratoopers got blown out to sea? How many total, and how many survived?
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Post by Registrar on Mar 14, 2014 19:22:01 GMT 8
Out of pure curiosity, is there a record of how many (if any) paratoopers got blown out to sea? How many total, and how many survived? I addressed this matter directly on this forum in 2008. AGAIN, then, none of the paratroopers I have spoken with at three reunions seemed to accept that any of their number actually landed directly in the water. The Impson brothers' notwithstanding. The 'chutes they were using were T-5, which did not have a quick release mechanism, and was thus was considered a death trap if one landed, fully laden, directly in deep water. What they said happened was that those who dropped well short soon discovered it was (a) unsafe to go through Japanese territory between themselves and topside or (b) impossible to climb up the cliffs, so they climbed down to the beach where they were either rescued by a raft off a PT boat, or they swum out to the PT boat. Generally, the men I spoke with don't like to call another trooper a liar, but they tended to consider some stories of landing direct in the water as been "too tall". If you measure the actual distance between the landing fields and the water, it is further than generally imagined. Those who fell short of beltline road on Landing Field A were directly in Japanese territory, and thus falling on the cliff was actually a safer landing. Ditto for those who fell too deep into Crockett Ravine.
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