Quinauan Point, 1986

[chadhill]

In June 1986, while based at NAS Cubi Point, a fellow squadron mate and I sailed out of Subic Bay at sunrise one morning in a zodiac. The zodiac was a small rubber raft with an outboard motor on the back, and it could only make a few knots. Our destination: Quinauan Point, more than twenty miles down the western coastline of Bataan.

Bataan was a home then to the NPA, the New People's Army, and the communist group was not on the friendliest of terms with US military personnel. Our commanding officer probably wouldn't have allowed us to make the trip, so we didn't ask. Our nervous wives agreed on the condition that we return by sundown, or they would notify the Squadron Duty Officer that we were overdue, who would then notify the CO. A real career-ender, if you can guess. But we accepted the terms.

The trip to Quinauan took five hours, longer than we had figured. In fact, on the return leg we were so low on gasoline that we had to refuel in Bagac. The endless Bataan coastline was so irregular that I doubt I could have found Quinauan in those pre-GPS days had I not previously flown over it and photographed landmarks. It was very easy to see how the Japanese in 1942 could have become so disoriented, and lost, along the coast at night.

The trip to Quinauan had unfortunately taken so long that we agreed we could stay no longer than one hour, in order to meet our return deadline. We anchored the zodiac at the prominent NW point on Quinauan. My friend Keith dove underwater to look for fish and shells, while I hurried south down the beach to try and find a way to climb up the cliffs to the top.

A few hundred yards down the beach I came across a statue that resembled a solemn, meditating Japanese angel. I thought of the Japanese soldiers that had jumped off the cliffs 50-75 above my head, and of the scores of bodies found on this beach. As I continued on, I kept looking up the cliffs, searching for the caves that the Japanese had made their last stands in. But the angle was so steep and there was so much growth I couldn't see any.

About halfway down the western side of the point I found a way to climb the cliffs to the top. On top, there was none of the jungle that the wartime accounts spoke of, only a few trees, bushes and tall grass. Fortunately, I was there at the end of the dry season or the grass might have been over my head.

Regrettably, I only had about 15-20 minutes left to spend probing around on top of Quinauan Point. I walked inland about 100 yards or so, and then turned to head back up to the prominent NW point where Keith and the zodiac were. Along the way I found a few crude, rusted metal bar objects that I did not recognize. I did not see any foxholes, but there were a couple of washed out places that might possibly have been the 40 foot trenches some accounts mention. Too bad there was not time to walk further inland.

As we sailed away, I noticed a strange looking area in the cliffs on the western side of Quinauan Point. It is hard to describe, but the area looked like it may have been a collapsed, concreted-over or plastered-over cave opening.

Here are some prints I have lifted from the VHS camcorder I carried that day. Sorry about the quality, but I thought it might be worth sharing here.

P.S.--Yep, we made it back by sundown...

[chadhill]

First, here's an aerial shot of Quinauan from 1986. At the far left is the NW tip.



The great Zodiac.



Approaching the prominent NW point on Quinauan.



The Zodiac at anchor.



Heading down the beach, to the south.



Approaching the statue.





Looking back up the beach to the north.

[chadhill]

Some of the cliffs at Quinauan, about 50-75 feet high.



Climbing up the cliffs to the top.





On top of Quinauan Point.

[chadhill]

Ruins of possible Japanese position on top of Quinauan Point, 1986.

[fots2]

Now that is my kind of trip. I am glad that you guys made it back ok. That is a heck of a long way in a zodiac. Good thing no storms popped up.

[okla]

Hey Chad....Man o man how I envy you folks who were able to do an extended hitch in the PI and not spend ALL off duty time in the Officer's/ NCO clubs, dance halls, carbarets, houses of ill repute,etc, but prowl the old battlefields. And there are the good people like Fots,Karl, ExO, Battery Boy and other locals, who actually reside there and are able to make multiple trips to "the Rock", and at their leisure can crawl thru the bushes and tunnels to their heart's content. Now that's what I call livin'. Thanks for posting some more of your always good stuff. Cheers.

[chadhill]

On this 1986 photo of Quinauan Point I have drawn the approximate positions of the trails on the point depicted by Captain Paul Ashton's 1942 map of the Bataan Penninsula. The Point only had one trail that was designated numerically: "31". At the bottom of the 1942 map it says "All roads shown west of the West Coast Road are 4 x 4 motor trails only".

Other publications show slightly different locations for the trails. Remember that in 1942 Quinauan Point was overgrown with jungle, which was destroyed by the battle.





This sketch of the foxhole position occupied across Quinauan Point by the 600 Japanese of the 2nd Battalion, 20th Infantry was drawn by Colonel Irvin Alexander, a US advisor to 1st Philippine Constabulary, 3rd Battalion.



According to Morton in "Fall of the Philippines" (p. 304) the Japanese had dug in and constructed defensive positions "near the base of the point". When the Constabulary attacked on 23 January 42 "they ran into strong opposition and were halted about 600 yards from the tip of the 1000 yard long penninsula".

LTCOL Pena, in "Bataan's Own" (P. 116) states "The Japanese constructed their foxholes and trenches fashioned like a chessboard. They were a series of parallel and perpendicular trenches and foxholes, deeply dug, which were mutually protecting. To annihilate the Japanese it was necessary to ferret them out from every hole and trench".

On 24 JAN Alexander was wounded and evacuated to Hospital # 2. Shortly after the battle for Quinauan was over he returned to the site. Because all the jungle had been destroyed, he had difficulty finding the spot where he had been wounded. During his search he found the foxhole position and drew the sketch.


Here is a chart of the approximate Japanese MLR from 29 JAN - 4 FEB.



During the 4 FEB assault the Japanese were finally pushed back to within 50 yards of the cliffs at the end of the point. According to Whitman in "Bataan: Our Last Ditch" (p. 288) even here "The ground was pitted with foxholes, scarred with forty foot long trenches". He further notes (P. 292) that "In a ravine, Americans found the remains of a command post with Japanese still seated as if going about their work, except they were all dead". This may be the same ravine, on the NW tip in the 1986 photo, that I made my way down thru from the top...

Has anyone found any remains of this extensive Japanese foxhole position? I'm sure it would be well washed from the weather by now, but possibly still recognizable. Artifacts?

If only I had had another hour or two in '86...

[victor]

I'm sure there are a lot of buried artifacts. Batteryboy mentioned they found artifacts back in 1987.

If I recall, in one of Karl's hikes through one of the points where a new residential resort is being built (not where battle occured), a security guard had shown him a crusty .45 1911 dug up during construction.

[okla]

Hey Chad...First a question . In the first photo, that beach looks almost (if not) "man made". Straight as a string where the gravel/etc meets the water. Maybe it's just the angle that the pic was shot from. Just curious, as you know I am. Now on to the actual fighting...I am most confident that you have read/heard about the Naval Battalion in the fighting further south on "Point L- (I will not even attempt to spell it at this time as my atlas is in the bookcase in another part of my house) just west of Mariveles. Apparently these "troops" had taken their "whites" and attempted to dye them a more Army/Marine looking "brown etc". by placing them in vats of coffee. The result was a horrendous looking mustard,etc color. When this group came pounding thru the underbrush/jungle growth, laughing, talking, smoking cigarettes, with no apparent "point men" our front, displaying no fear or caution, sporting these gaudy colored uniforms the Japs surmised that they must be facing some elite, "shock troop" type unit, coming to throw them back into the South China Sea. When I read this account, I confess that I did find it almost laughable, but all that ceased when the shooting, hand grenade tossing, and dying started. As I previously said, I am certain you are aware of this story, but I thought I would throw it out there anyhow, It might be of interest to some readers who aren't "into" the era as are we "geeks". Cheers. Postscript...You and your compadre may be the only Americans who have ever journeyed by water down the west coast of Bataan and "invaded" the Quinauan Point area from the sea as did the Emperor's men. On the other hand, you guys may have a started a trend. ;D
"

[chadhill]

Batteryboy, I would be most interested in hearing of your trip to Quinauan in 1987, and what you found there.

This is my interpretation of the foxhole position. Does anyone have actual maps or sketches that depict them?




From Irwin's book, "Surviving Bataan and Beyond":

"The area all around the Nip position had received such a terrific bombardment that I had some difficulty finding where I had been wounded as all of the trees and jungle growth had been blown away. Going back up the road and pacing the distance, I picked a spot in the cleared area which I had thought was very near where I had been when I was wounded a little more than two weeks before.

"Twenty-five yards farther into the shell craters, I found the front of the Nip position. Walking all over the foxhole position, I found it was about 250 yards wide. On each end were sizable flanking positions of foxholes. After looking at that position, I saw why our attacks had failed, and why artillery had been necessary, because any infantry advance overrunning the first line of foxholes could be mowed down easily by fire from foxholes farther in the rear.

"There were a few Nip bodies, many detached limbs and many impediments in and among the foxholes. Walking down the road, I almost stepped on two closely cropped brown heads which were lying in the road with no bodies in sight. I could not tell whether the heads had been severed by Samurai swords or had been blown off by shells.

"Along the beach near the end of the point where the Nips had made their last stand were several hundred bodies swollen so that they looked like overinflated rubber figures. The peculiar sickening smell of decaying human flesh kept me well away."


Okla, I see what you mean by the beach having a straight appearance from the air. The VHS footage taken on the beach seems to indicate to me that it's natural. What a hawkeye you are, though! And the Naval Battalion troops at Longoskawayan Point must have had fits dying their whites...