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Post by fots2 on Jun 7, 2009 10:10:49 GMT 8
Mr. Phantom,
A MG in that position would have a great view of the eastern slope of the valley between Searchlight and Geary Points.
Going to the C1 Tunnel is an easy walk. Forget about getting there via the ridge where the C1 bunkers are. - get a ride to the Topside Flagpole - walk past the Senior Officer’s Quarters towards Battery Wheeler. - approximately 150 feet before you get to the ‘Y’ intersection for Wheeler or Cheney, take an old road on the left. It just looks like a hiking path today. - follow the road until you see old tires in a depression downhill to your left. This is the C1 Tunnel east entrance. Walking time on the old road is well under 10 minutes.
If we are there together I know a good a good morning itinerary. When walking on the old road to the C1 Tunnel, you also pass Battery Boston (3’ AA gun mount) on the hillside to your right. An underground magazine is also nearby. Finish the morning there if you want.
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Post by okla on Jun 7, 2009 10:37:11 GMT 8
hey phantom....the "food angle" as concerns the good colonel bunker jumped out at me also. methinks, his highness was a firm believer in RHIP (rank has its privileges). colonel bunker has slipped a bit in my former esteem of the man. the ss corregidor incident and just little things in his narrative have given me pause about his makeup (for lack of a better word). beginning to have my "wonders" about captain weymuth also. i am not questioning their military abilities, but maybe their character or maybe it is just me.
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Post by mapmaster on Jun 7, 2009 11:22:04 GMT 8
Hi All There is a small excavated emplacement above the western portal of Bunker's Bunker. It is excavated in such a manner that the opening forms a parapet. There are no real clues to its date of construction nor who built it. However, it was neatly excavated. View of entrance View inside The emplacement is just large enough for two soldiers, a machine gun and ammunition. However, it has only one entrance - that facing a potential enemy. This emplacement was spotted by Karl in January 2009. From memory it was directly above the western portal. For me, it was a fair scramble up the slope and would not be visible from the ridge above. Could there be a second emplacement above the eastern portal? Of interest in Bunker's Diary is mention of locating his 7 place tables - " SETTLED DOWN WITH EDISON AT MY AZATEA TO CALCULATE FIRING DATA. MADE WELCH TRACK DOWN MY BIG 7-PLACE LOGARITHM TABLES. THEY ARE A JOY! THEN THINGS BECAME MUCH EASIER". These tables were used by artillerymen for complex calculations. They were usually available in an abridge format in artillery manuals. However, full sets of tables were printed in book format. The tables have their origins in " Mathmatical Tables, consisting of Logarithmic and other Tables required in various branches of Practical Mathmatics - Andrew Bell, 1844" and were used to undertake of complex mathematical computations. They allow the large numbers to be multiplied and divided. Also, angles and numbers can be multiplied and divided together. To use, i.e. to multiply a distance and angle together, both the distance and angle are tracked along the perimeters of particular table pages. Numbers representing both distance and angle will be found. These two numbers are then added together and the result looked up in tables. Division is performed the same way except that subtraction is used. If there are a string of large numbers to be multiplied, the result is obtained by addition - particularly useful when working out range and bearing for artillery work. This was the only method of undertaking complex calculations in the field at this time. Accuracy was to 7 decimal places. A totally boring subject, but I can understand why Col. Bunker was happy to see his book of "seven place tables" as I was forced to use them in surveying until 1984. Regards mapmaster
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Post by The Phantom on Jun 8, 2009 2:52:01 GMT 8
It never ceases to amaze me all that I haven't yet seen on Corregidor. Yeah fotz, we will have to tackle that area, lots to see and do.
I will walk the island alone, if good companionship is unavailable, and when I do, I walk slowly. At first it was because I couldn't walk very fast in the heat and thick vegetation. ( Always go in the early morning) But that taught me that more is learned if you stop and just look around for a time. Interesting caves, tunnels, building foundations, fox holes, slit trenches, etc. become clearer in the jungle gloom. I might spend 2 hours in one area and not move more than 100 yards.
I have learned from fotz that a good pair of garden clippers can be just as good a tool in the jungles of Corregidor as a Machete. The meanest sticker vines that grab you and cut into you and tear your clothes are best clipped in place, rather than slashed with a machete that brings them down on you.
As to the description of the 7 place logarithm tables, amazing explanation mapmaster, interesting that they were still in use until 1984. After I read it (3 times) I'm afraid I just went.... Huh? Not my strong suit in college.
That appears to be a very well dug emplacement and it doesn't surprise me to hear Karl found it? Will see it next year, wonder if it had railroad ties over the top, will check the area. So well done, looks like it was done in '42.
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Post by The Phantom on Jun 8, 2009 3:50:07 GMT 8
THURSDAY, 26 FEB 1042
"ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY. LEARNED THIS A.M. THAT MY REQUESTED ADDITIONS TO OUR C1 TUNNEL ARE TO BE MADE, WHICH WILL GIVE US FOUR SIZABLE LATERALS: G1, C1, KITCHEN, OPERATIONS, PLUS 2 "DYNAMITE BODEGAS"
"WE CAN NEVER FINISH A MEAL WITHOUT BEING CALLED TO THE PHONE!" "WENT TO MY DUGOUT TO WORK ON SOME FIRING DATA. WHILE THERE AT 10:35 HEARD A PLANE NEARBY. AA GUNS AND MG'S (MACHINE GUNS) OPENED UP AND WE LEARNED LATER THAT IT WAS ONE OF OUR OWN PLANES THAT WE SHOT DOWN."
This is for you mapmaster......
"MAJ. MAYNARD CAME AROUND TO SHOW ME HIS CALCULATIONS ON OUR AZIMUTHS, SHOWING THAT WE SHOULD ADD 0.36 TO OUR GRID AZIMUTHS TO GET TRUE ASTRONOMICAL AZIMUTH, OR IS IT SUBTRACT IT? YES?"
Huh?.........
"BAWLED OUT OUR CREW, WORKING ON THE SMALL TUNNEL, FOR LOUD FILTHY LANGUAGE. IT'S EXCESSIVE USE IS NAUSEATING-EVEN TO A NON-PURITAN".
"GENERAL MOORE CAME FOR A VISIT AND SAID QUEZON AND PARTY HAD LEFT ISLAND BY SUB THE OTHER DAY. ACTION BY MACARTHUR ON MAKING ME A B.G. (BRIGADIER GENERAL?) IS POSTPONED BY MAC FOR POLITICAL REASONS."
Don't remember what Bunker had done, he was always getting passed over for promotion, but he was always bucking for it.
FRIDAY, 27 FEB.
"AFTER BREAKFAST VISITED OUR C1 TUNNEL. THE CREW EXPECTS TO BREAK THROUGH IN 4 MORE BLASTS.
"THIS AFTERNOON 2 P40'S TOOK OFF FROM MARIVELES AND CIRCLED OVERHEAD. IT WAS GRAND TO LEARN THAT WE HAD 2 OF THEM LEFT."
Hang on here okla........
SATURDAY 28 FEB. "PAYDAY!" "UP AT 5:00 AM AND TO C1. MY COFFEE ALL GONE. SO HAD TO USE "soldiers" COFFEE AND IT WAS TERRIBLE." "AFTER BREAKFAST WENT TO G4 AND TALKED TO KOHN ABOUT HIS DESIRES TO BOMBPROOF HIS INSTALLATIONS. EXPLORED HIS TUNNELS AT HANNA, WHERE HE HAS MOVED HIS G4 STATION AND IT IS A LABYRINTH. INSPECTED OUR OWN TUNNEL, IN WHICH THEY EXPECT TO BREAK THROUGH TOMORROW."
Are there still tunnels at Hanna?
"TO R.S.O. FOR SOME COLORED INKS AND THEN TO DUGOUT."
Colored inks? For what?
"WELCH WAITED ALL DAY AT CORRAL WITH COLIN ( BUNKERS DOG) FOR THE VET TO SHOW, BUT HE DIDN'T COME. SUCCEEDED IN PHONING HIM AND MADE A DATE FOR 2:30 THIS P.M.
"I HAVE DRAWN NO PAY FOR JANUARY, NOR WILL I DRAW FOR FEB. ON HAND $115.00 AND P618.00, AFTER PAYING P10 FOR STRIKER AND P12 TO CHONG AS LAVENDERO."
COMMISSARY BILL FOR FEB.= $2.50 CIGARETTES, UNIFORMS $3.34, SOX 27 CENTS. TOTAL OF $6.11= P12.22. PAID IN CASH.
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Post by fots2 on Jun 8, 2009 8:52:46 GMT 8
Phantom,
There are no railroad ties above that little cavern. Mapmaster’s description of it is accurate. Being on the western side of the ridge there are also no roads. It is a bit steep in places but walking is not difficult. We’ll go there again.
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Post by okla on Jun 8, 2009 10:00:40 GMT 8
hey phantom....my heart goes out to colonel bunker having to lower himself to drink "soldiers" coffee. these little snippets from his personal diary increasingly reveal that he seems to be a rather arrogant, unfeeling, old time, line officer. it takes all kinds and i suppose that in the heat of combat he might have been an effective commander, but in everyday relationships with other officers and especially the "enlisted swine" (my words, not his) he would probably have been tough to serve with and especially serve UNDER. just my impression which counts for nuthin".
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Post by batteryboy on Jun 12, 2009 7:31:04 GMT 8
In memory of Col. Paul Bunker. Battery 127 at Fort MacArthur was renamed after him. It was armed with an ex-navy 16-inch gun on a barbette carriage.
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Post by okla on Jun 12, 2009 22:32:54 GMT 8
hey phantom.I have just re-read the diary entry about colonel bunker being passed over for promotion to brig genl. i missed this tidbit on my first scan of his journal. maybe the "pass overs" had something to do with the good colonel's day to day attitude, actions, etc that, i think, are very evident in his own recorded words. i think the s.s. corregidor episode, if true, was enough against him to be court martialed or at least busted back to 2nd lieutenant. as far as him (colonel bunker) thinking his non-promotion was political on macarthur's part, there might be some reason for this belief. douglas macarthur could be very petty at times, i.e., his blocking of genl wainwright being awarded the congressional medal of honor in 1942 (skinny, as you probably know, got it in 1945 or 46, no thanks to mac) when, in my opinion, he deserved it more than genl macarthur. this, again, is all in hindsight. i will quote again what harry truman said. "hindsight is always 20-20". i love this quote and depend on it as though it was a crutch. it fits so many ocassions, doesnt it? ?
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Post by The Phantom on Jun 13, 2009 4:10:27 GMT 8
Nice photo of Bunkers commemorative Battery.
No doubt he was turning over in his grave as they placed a "Navy" 16 inch gun behind his so "Army" persona.
He hated the Navy and never missed a chance to "give 'em hell" for non effort in his diary.
Okla, as I remember he had done something early in his career that hurt him throughout. I'll see if I can find it again.
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