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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2010 1:55:44 GMT 8
Hello to all -- and welcome to bluestemwine, my dear old correspondent. My Dad'd papers show that was very proud of all yours did at CBtry. I will go thru all of my papers to find the sketches of the gun positions and what materiel was up there. They had 4 AA guns and Machine gus (5). They eventually had splinterproofing and vines of bougainvillea vines for camouflage, according to Capt Paul Cornwall, who, was with Chicago prior to being sent Denver btry. Karool Ames
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Post by fots2 on Aug 25, 2010 21:55:50 GMT 8
Hi bluestemwine,
That was an amazing war history that your father experienced. Feel free to add any Battery Chicago information or anything else you would like.
Welcome to the forum.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2010 1:22:00 GMT 8
Buster, Batteryboy, Mapmaster, okla,bluestemwine,et al,
Fots 2 will have lots of recent shots of Morrison Hill and Chicago sites. soon. And shots I took in 1985, as well as sketches by a "C" Btry Sgt. of the Chicago emplacements, before and after bombardment.
Life Magazine and Claire Booth Luce were on Morrison Hill. in Dec.'41.I believe these are all of Chicago, not Cheney. Looking through the "haze", it looks like the coast of Bataan in outline, as will be shown later in Howell's sketches. I may be able to confirm this in Sept. with a source from LIFE.
Also, the holes shown were from the oil drums that were filled with gravel for protection. I just told fots2 that my pictures from'85 that he will get soon have the barrels in place. He was at the site the last few days this week. They must have been scrapped. Because the site is really somewhat remote and we had to hack thru the brush from Btry Morrison to get there, in the dry season, off the beaten track, as I remember. Because it was so hidden,the scrapping was probably really easy to do. Karol Ames
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Post by oozlefinch on Jun 16, 2012 12:29:02 GMT 8
As I am a recent visitor to this blog, it's taking me a while to get through all of the different topic pieces. As to the purported battery Chicago picture with the guns firing, I wonder if the picture might have been taken from a machine gun tower, before they were taken down? Just a thought.
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Post by oozlefinch on Jun 16, 2012 12:42:01 GMT 8
In reading the unit history for B, C and M (at Kindley Field) 60th, they all refer to having excavated personnel tunnels for shelter during the bombing/shelling. Has anyone in their excursions found any of these tunnels at these sites?
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Post by fots2 on Jun 16, 2012 20:15:06 GMT 8
Hello oozlefinch,
The 1936 map and a detailed sketch of the wartime battery do not show any machinegun towers on Morrison Hill where Battery Chicago was located. Have you found any information which says they may have existed there? Anything is possible.
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Post by fots2 on Jun 16, 2012 20:20:05 GMT 8
You have stumbled onto a couple mysteries of mine. A sketch of Battery B (Boston) shows three tunnels were dug along the road east of the battery. Today this road is still there but just a path now. I have zig zagged all along that little hillside and found absolutely nothing. (Very small search area). That is unusual because even if a tunnel is closed, evidence of it usually still exists such as broken chunks of concrete, rubble from digging lying around, or a concave in the hillside etc. There is no doubt that a post war bulldozer was working on this hill above these tunnels as there is a photo of it. It could have covered or destroyed these tunnels but even that idea does not make sense to me. The hillside is not high and the road along the base of the hill is not covered with soil or rocks. GPS confirms that the road is exactly where it was pre-war. In short, I have found no evidence of these tunnels and it baffles me as to why. Battery C (Chicago) constructed a tunnel starting in early 1942. This tunnel still exists although today it is collapsed 10 feet inside the entrance. The unit history of Battery M (Mobile) is quite interesting in its description of the two entrance tunnel they constructed. It is described as being a maximum of 30 feet underground and passing completely through the hill. At the west end of Kindley Field where some of Battery M’s 50 cal AA guns were located, only the nearby eastern end of Denver Hill fits this description. The unit history text confirms this location when they describe feeling a large dynamite cache explosion two hundred yards away. We know where this explosion was. On two occasions I have wandered around here looking for this tunnel and found no sign of either entrance. Vegetation is thick at times and it is easy to miss things but nothing was obvious. D**n the cobras, I will try again someday. Battery D (Denver) is very close by and has an interesting tunnel. Photos of it are in this trip report: corregidor.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=threads&action=display&thread=410
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Post by oozlefinch on Jun 19, 2012 4:37:30 GMT 8
Fots,
My addled memory remembers seeing a reference somewhere to machine gun towers on Morrison Hill. They were removed early on because they provided an excellent aiming point for artillery. I don't recall just where I saw it, but I'll look and see what I can come up with.
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Post by oozlefinch on Jun 19, 2012 4:42:03 GMT 8
Fots,.
Thanx for the info on the tunnels. If I ever get to the Rock again I'll have to spend some more time on Morrison Hill.
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Post by fots2 on Jun 19, 2012 8:14:01 GMT 8
oozlefinch,
The whole area around Morrison Hill is an interesting place to explore. A row of magazines is along a trolley line to the south. A huge underground gasoline storage 'bunker' is located near that. At the south end of Morrison Hill is the underground West Defense Officer's Station. Battery Chicago area has lots to see.
Months ago the Inn staff cleared an old walking path from Battery Morrison down the ridge to Battery James. It passes the East/West Mine Control Station which is a seldom visited structure. There is also a tunnel behind it. A few other things are lying around also.
If you have not been to Corregidor in many years, you will notice that trees and vegetation have retaken the island to the point that you can barely walk in places. Should you consider a return trip someday, let me know the specific areas you are interested in and I may be able to help you with the current status of the sites.
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