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Post by fots2 on Jun 3, 2010 21:09:02 GMT 8
Good catch ironman. I did not have a look at the plaque again. Our mystery is still UNSOLVED.
Well, there is one thing we can say with 100% certainty…either (1) the text on the plaque is wrong, (2) the text on Corregidor.org is wrong or (3) the drawing does not apply to Battery Way.
Plaque Info: - says #4 was disabled by a direct hit on its barrel before the 1942 surrender. - says #2 was the last mortar to stop firing in 1942
Corregidor.org Info: - says #4 was the last mortar to stop firing in 1942. - It also says that #4 was earlier disabled so there is definitely an error with this text.
Drawing Info: shows mortar #4 at the upper left corner of the gun pit. It does have a dent in its barrel.
We still need definitive proof, not opinions or hearsay, of which mortar was the last one to cease firing. Has anyone seen such proof?
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Post by okla on Jun 3, 2010 23:18:27 GMT 8
Hey Guys....It would appear that we are permanently stymied unless, as I mentioned in a prior post, that we need some grizzled veteran, if any are still living, to step forward and to swear that he was a young (18 or 19) gunner assigned to Battery Way at the time of the surrender. Fots, as you stated, there are two conflicting views (both supposedly accurate) clouding the truth. This wouldn't be the first plague/monument/etc with erroneous information, nor would the Info on Corregidor.org be the first faulty presentation of "facts". Ex gunner "John Smith" just has to appear to set the record straight. Postscript. I wonder if there might be something in "Wild Bill" Massello's papers/etc that would reveal the true story of the "last fixed gun firing" that day in May 1942.
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Post by armyjunk on Jun 4, 2010 3:12:47 GMT 8
Sorry I should have noted that the drawing IS NOT Battery Way, its a West Coast Battery just to show how the batteries were numbered
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Post by fots2 on Jun 4, 2010 17:08:38 GMT 8
Armyjunk, I still think your drawing is the most accurate of the three options.
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Post by Nowhere Man on Jun 4, 2010 21:23:03 GMT 8
The fat lady hasn't sung. We are closer to the truth but can be trumped by someone who was there.
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Post by fots2 on Jun 4, 2010 23:40:28 GMT 8
I can understand a soldier from Battery E, 60th CA, who formerly manned an AA searchlight and radar battery, not knowing the exact mortar numbering but I would think he would be well aware which was the last one to stop firing.
Hopefully we will find out.
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Post by okla on Jun 5, 2010 2:05:44 GMT 8
Hey Fots....If you, Battery Boy, Ironman, Nowhere and ArmyJunk can't come up with the elusive answer to this quandary, it ain't gonna happen, methinks. All I can do is kibitz, it seems. What I am wondering is this....is the number of individual mortars, as is shown in Armyjunk's diagram, standard CA mortar pit numbering or is it left to the individual batteries to designate numbers to their weapons????If the mortars are numbered in a standard way and Way's layout is identical to the one shown in Armyjunk's chart, we may, just yet, figure it out by some soret of reasoning process (which I don't have the capacity at present, if ever) which I am sure you guys can handle. Cheers.
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Post by steveontherock on Jun 5, 2010 10:58:05 GMT 8
My father, Staff Sergeant Walter Kwiecinski, AKA Finch, was the last sergeant firing the last mortar at Battery Way. He identified it as the one in the front right by noting it in a photo in the Belote book. He also came to Corregidor in 1980 and posed by the gun. He would not have travelled half way around the world to pose by someone else's mortar. This information was also verified when I interviewed the only two living men whom I could find, Ed Friese and Henry Harlan, at the 2006 Phoenix ADBC convention. My father was their serrgeant in E Battery. The two gns on the left show obvious damage from artillery fire from Bataan. The back right gun is missing essential parts. The one onthe frontright is the only one with obvious sabotage, with the mount to the breech block being cut away. Sincerely, Steve Kwiecinski Attachments:
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Post by fots2 on Jun 5, 2010 13:20:30 GMT 8
That information is good enough for me. Get the fat lady away from the buffet….its time to sing.
The exact mortar numbering specific to Battery Way is still unknown but that is not important.
Thanks Steve.
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Post by okla on Jun 5, 2010 23:23:13 GMT 8
Hey Steve...We "geeks" could ask for no better authority as pertains to the "last firing mortar" at Battery Way. Thanks a bunch for setting this matter straight. This information certainly comes straight from the "horses mouth". Thanks again. Postscript....I am well aware that you don't need to be told this, but you can be awfully proud of your father (as I am sure you are). As somebody once said, "they don't make 'em like that anymore". Cheers.
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