This island never ceases to amaze me. Even in locations I thought had given up all their secrets, something new pops up.
Last week, Phantom, a return hiking buddy Jim Moffett (no relation) and I, headed towards Middleside Barracks as a shower approached. I had unfinished business there.
Remember our discussions on the origin of the tunnels under Middleside Barracks. Scrappers, treasure hunters or soldiers quartered there were possibilities. After having a look again I think the answer may be “all of the above”. One low short tunnel does go from one wall over to a toilet pipe (approximately 15 feet long) so that may have been dug by a scrapper or treasure hunter. Another one quite a bit longer is also low, very rough and erratic in shape, no pipes in sight. Perhaps it is also the work of scrappers or treasure hunters years ago. These types of tunnels run directly under the concrete floor.
One straight tunnel is quite different from the rest and from a distance looks like the work of people who knew what they were doing. It has a ceiling 6+ feet high, squared walls and is around two feet or more under the concrete floor. Looking down one of the entrances, you can see laterals on both sides with squared corners. I’ll try to describe what you will see here. I was in for a surprise.
Entrance is via a vertical shaft. A ladder is useful here. Looking along the tunnel you can see a few laterals on both sides ahead of you. The floor is mostly level and there is no concrete lining anywhere. Humidity is 110%. As you approach the first set of laterals you realize that something is “different” here. Both laterals are only 3 feet or so deep but cut like that was the plan. The rear walls are rounded. The next set of laterals was similar and I was a bit baffled as to the purpose of what I was seeing. Moving further the laterals have “trim” cut into the entrances. The last two laterals made me think of tunnels I saw years ago under Alexandria, Egypt which were a couple thousand years old. A second entrance is nearly filled with debris.
What I was looking at here are shelters under the barracks made by soldiers who obviously had lots of time on their hands waiting for their shooting war to start. (assumption there of course).
These tiny laterals may best be described as alcoves or even cocoons. The most finished one has a label above the entrance saying “CPT W White”. A carved entrance about one foot thick surrounds the opening. Inside the entrances, all alcoves are rounded and a couple are almost polished. Interior space is very limited. Sitting on the floor, a man would look like a Buddha statue from Thailand, no one could stand up in them. A lot of work went into carving these shelters. Only two are finished, the rest being in various stages of construction. A couple others have some text above the entrance but it is difficult to read. One says SGT ? Tunnel. The name was a Filipino name but I forgot it and cannot make it out in the photos. Each one seems to be individual with respect to the detailed carving.
It is rare that I can put a name or face to what I see when wandering around Corregidor but two days in a row I see a tombstone with a lady’s name on it and now shelters of W. White and another soldier. So far W. White has not been identified. One thing that we can probably all agree on is that this is an interesting slice of Corregidor history. Photos in this confined space do not do this tunnel justice but here they are anyway.
After descending into the tunnel, this is the view along the main shaft.
Approaching more alcoves.
Alcoves on both sides.
Notice that the inside is larger than the entrance.
The interior wall is quite smooth.
Shallow or eroded letters are difficult to photograph using the camera’s flash face on. To try to see them better I disabled the flash and used my flashlight off to the side to create shadows across the letters. Color balance sucks but you can read it.
This alcove entrance was carved to make it look like a two section pillar. The interior is larger than the entrance and the rounded rear wall is almost polished.
A closer view of the same alcove. Is this Egyptian or what?
This one has the most carved entrance. The name SGT ? Tunnel is barely readable. A little extra trim is above the name.
Close-up of this entrance.
The second entrance is almost sealed now. If you don’t mind the spiders and getting dirty, you could enter this way.
On the way out here is a look at the main entrance. Time to get out of this sauna.