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Post by fots2 on Sept 26, 2008 22:05:32 GMT 8
Here is a question for everyone. What is the story of these two mortar tubes lying just off the North Dock at Bottomside? Photo #1 was taken in 1953. The second photo shows more junk added but the two mortars are still there. No date is shown. There are only two mortar batteries on Corregidor. Battery Way and Battery Geary Pit 'A' had smaller mortars than those two in the photos. Battery Geary Pit 'B' mortars look nothing like them either. The mortars at Fort Hughes have different shaped tubes than the two shown in the photo so they are not from there. (Photo #3 is a Fort Hughes mortar tube taken by PI Sailor). Are they from Corregidor somewhere or could these have been removed from Fort Frank and on their way to be scrapped? I have never seen any photos of the mortars at Fort Frank so I am not sure what they look like. Where are the two mortar tubes in the photos from and where did they go?
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Post by mgk1951 on Sept 28, 2008 10:15:06 GMT 8
Re: North Dock Mortars Hi Everyone The two barrels in question look to me like muzzle loading cannon. Just visible in both photographs, is the cascabel on the back or breech end of the piece closest to the photographer. Here is a drawing of what I think I can see: I am also wondering why the barrels are rusty and pitted, while the breech end of both barrels appear smooth and perhaps painted. Perhaps they were both buried muzzle down, as bollards, somewhere on Corregidor similar to the Spanish cannon outside Post Headquarters (buried muzzle up). The North Dock pieces may be the same ones in the photograph posted by batteryboy under Mortars in the Wrong Place. So the questions still remain: where did they come from and where did they go? Regards mgk1951
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Post by EXO on Sept 30, 2008 8:26:29 GMT 8
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Post by fots2 on Sept 30, 2008 9:09:48 GMT 8
Thanks for the reply EXO.
After reading mgk1951's answer I was thinking of an old Spanish cannon lying somewhere or on display. Your photo lends some credibility to that idea.
John
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Post by batteryboy on Oct 27, 2008 11:15:42 GMT 8
Guys,
The photo of the "mortar" barrel are actually 8-inch Spanish muzzle loading guns from the old Batteria Puerticillo emplacement
The photo of the gun at topside is a Spanish 6 inch Spanish rifle.
The 12-inch mortar pictured is an M1912 Mortar at Battery Craighill at Caballo Island.
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Post by chadhill on Aug 29, 2010 21:59:24 GMT 8
During a 1987 trip, I found this in the water, a few yards offshore and just east of North Dock. I picked it up (young and stupid days) and brought it to the beach for this photo. Years later, Eric Mailander told me it was a US 81mm mortar round, minus the fins. He said he had found a number of them on Peleliu.
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Post by chadhill on Aug 29, 2010 22:43:47 GMT 8
Some of the North Dock ruins, as seen in 1987.
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Post by okla on Aug 29, 2010 23:44:59 GMT 8
Hey Chad....That projectile is still a nasty looking thing, even in its' corroded condition. The nose fuse is gone, isn't it? ?
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Post by chadhill on Aug 30, 2010 9:46:45 GMT 8
Very good question, okla! I pulled out my copy of "The American Arsenal" to see what it says.
It looks like Eric Mailander was on target--he should be, since he's the world's leading authority on the Peleliu battlefield. The book shows a schematic of the 81mm M56 High-Explosive round, and the M57 Chemical round (for smoke screen). They are very similar to the photo, minus the fins. With a fuse, the round's head would be more pointed. I'll bet that until the round was ready to be fired, it carried a threaded-in "safety cap" where the fuse would be installed. I found some relics on Guam that I think were that. Any armorers out there?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2014 11:40:55 GMT 8
I can partly answer the original question....those are British-made (Armstrong?) muzzle loaders from the Spanish fortifications on Corregidor. There are pre-WW2 photos of a Spanish battery with 3 of them near a coast line (I believe someplace near Rock Point, but I may be mistaken). Liberation photos also show three of these muzzle-loaders (rifled tubes) on the Mine Wharf, probably moved there by the Japanese as they salvaged a lot of the steel during the occupation and sent it to Japan (which is how one of Battery Geary's mortar tubes is in the water off the Mine Wharf, the crane lifting it onto a Japanese ship broke and dropped the mortar tube in the water). This also explains why RJ43's gun tube was also on the Mine Wharf (but not in the location it is in now, that was a post-war/post early 1980s move). The same liberation photo shows a unique pattern of shrapnel damage on the Spanish guns. The exact same damage, and two of the gun tubes, can be found at Fort San Antonio Abad, located on the property of the Central Bank of the Phils, beside the Jefferson Center Extension, on Roxas Blvd. The house I grew up in was just one block north, and as a child me and my brothers would walk to the old Spanish fort and play. I understand now that it is no longer open for wandering visitation but requires permission and a fee to visit...what a shame. Fort San Antonio Abad itself has historical significance. It is the "Malate Battery" that Adm Dewey's ships shelled during the Spanish-American War (after sinking Adm Montojo's fleet at anchor in Cavite). Anyway, the two gun tubes at Fort San Antonio Abad are from Corregidor, without a single doubt. They are also loaded. Look down the muzzle, down the rifled bore, and you can see the tips of the projectiles, with the O-ring used to retrieve (i.e., unload) the guns. From as far back as I can remember (into the early 1970s) until the late 1980s, one gun pointed southeast, exactly at the Central Bank Building. I understand that it was moved 90* on the concrete "mount" so that it (inadvertently) now points at the Philippine Navy Headquarters, and the Manila Yacht Club beyond. I have the photos to prove this, but they are transparencies, just a few among the tens of thousands of slides that were once my Dad's prized collection. Including photos of me and my brothers as little kids playing around Fort San Antonio Abad. There is a thread on this Board that mentions a visit to this Spanish Fort.... corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1050
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