Corregidor map, 6 May 1942

[dmether]

This is a map I came across, there is a date on it of 6 May, I think its showing the defenses on that day.

Attachments:

[fots2]

dmether, that is a very interesting map you posted. It might help answer a few questions I have been wondering about.

[okla]

Hey Dmether....As Fots said, very interesting, indeed. I wonder if it was actually drawn up (or updated) on May 6, 1942 or prepared later, showing the dispositions,etc for that crucial date??? I suppose that this question makes absolutely no difference, but, to me, just knowing when it was actually done is certainly intriguing. My imagination is taking flight again. Cheers. Postscript...Those 21 mines planted at the main Japanese landing site should have caused quite a bit of havoc on the Emperor's lads.

[dmether]

No idea on the details of the map. Whatever is on the map is all the info there is.

[Karl Welteke]

Thanks for the map!
Wow, big explosion at Cavalry Point on the 29th of April 1942, no wonder I cant find stuff there!

[chadhill]

Great find, dmether.



Dmether, is there anything interesting on the back of the map? Can't help but notice some bleed through. Okla, the date of 6 May looks to be written in pencil (added in later?). Is the time above it 0215 or 0315? Not sure of the second digit.

Some of the finely drawn arrows may indicate fields of fire.

Looks like an 8" gun (from the USS Houston?) is just east of RJ43.

On the upper right side of Malinta Tunnel is what looks like "2-81mm". Was this where the marine Stokes mortars, converted to fire 81mm rounds, were positioned? Or, since the quad barrel pom-pom gun on top of Malinta Hill was 28mm, I wonder if it was misidentified, and is shown on the map instead.

The shoreline between Infantry and Calvary Points was held by the marines of 1st Platoon, Company A. The map shows well the crossfire they had across the beach. I wonder how many Japanese landing craft hit the mines? None of the accounts I've read mention that any did.

According to Otis King, the pre-planned initial fall back position was for Company A to join Company B (which was guarding the south shore) and form a line across Tailside from Cavalry Point to Monkey Point (Miller says the line was to be across Battery Denver). However, before that line could be established the Japanese had penetrated to Battery Denver and occupied it about 2345 on 5 May.

Although some ground changed hands several times, the map shows a battle line across the fresh water (short) tank on Water Tank Hill. Not surprisingly, dmether's post war remains recovery map from the Tailside Cemeteries thread shows a large number of US servicemen found in this area:




Where was the Denver Tunnel located? Dmether's 6 May map shows a double dotted line just west of the salt water (tall) tank. Malinta Tunnel and the Navy Intercept Tunnel (faintly seen at the bottom right) are shown with double dotted lines, too.

[dmether]

Good job on blowing the map up. I scanned it at the National Archives last year, I'm heading back next month so will look at it again as see if anything is on the other side of it.

Its 0315.

[fots2]

chadhill, here is the location of Denver Tunnel for you.

[okla]

Hey Chad....The fact that the "May 6" date is apparently penciled in would, indeed, indicate it was done as an after thought. Can't help but wonder just how much time elapsed from the actual drawing of the situation map and the penciling in of the date. The map could have been drawn from memory after the war by a survivor, or in a POW camp in the months that immediately following the battle or even on that actual, fateful day. I imagine that it could also have been a work in progress, stretching over the period of the actual fighting. This is the kind of stuff that does keep the little gray cells working overtime. Whatever, this is really good stuff. I gotta agree with you on a possible "bleed thru" from the reverse side, but some of those marks appear to be stains from rusting paper clips. This map seems to have been appended to a larger document for quite some time. Wouldn't you love to get your hands on that piece of information. Betcha it is a detailed report of the fighting explaining much of what appears on the map itself.

[chadhill]

Yes, there are lots of rusted paperclip marks, Okla. While using a magnifying glass I see some ink scribbling from the other side, in the upper left corner and below the outline of Malinta Tunnel. I'll stick my neck out and take a stab that there may even be a small reverse map of Corregidor bleeding thru from the other side down near Ordnance Point over towards Monkey Point, but that's just a SWAG Thanks, Demether, for checking the other side when you go back, and for clarifying the time to be 0315. As Okla says, it would be very interesting to know the background of this map, if possible.

The different Water Tank Hill/Denver Hill battle accounts of Miller, King, Howell, the Belotes, Hough and Morton sometimes seem confusing and contradictory to me when compared together, but at other times they agree. Indicative of the battle itself, I guess.

At about 0300-0315 the accounts agree that a US counterattack began against the Japanese positions on the hill. The battle line symbol drawn across the fresh water tank probably shows the rough, approximate position the Japanese occupied at that time.

As some of you may know from the Water Tank, Denver Hill thread I have wondered for years which tank USMC Sergeants Sweeney and Haskin lobbed their grenades from; a part of the Corregidor lore, I suppose, that has probably been lost to history. The time when this happened is disagreed on by the historians, too. Miller seems to suggest that it was a little later in the morning, "in the predawn darkness". Howell states that sunrise was at 0532 with twilight beginning about 30 minutes before that.

King, who was manning a machine gun on Battery Point with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines, apparently did not fight at the hill but says in his detailed book that Sweeney and Haskin climbed a water tower with grenades at about 0345. Dmether's map may suggest that this took place at the fresh water tank, but I realize this is very speculative.

The 6 May map also seems to imply that a significant portion of the Japanese assault force came ashore between Infantry and Cavalry Points. This would have been the 790 men of the 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry. Some charts place many of those troops landing between Cavalry and North Points, where they were opposed by the marines of 2nd Platoon, Company A.

Fots, thanks for posting that map of Denver Hill and showing the location of the tunnel and water tanks. It helps clear things up.


Here are a couple of photos, courtesy corregidor.org, that show the area between Infantry and Cavalry Points.

Post war aerial view:


Post battle view, 1942: