Post by Registrar on Dec 2, 2013 12:33:07 GMT 8
For some time I have been collecting the names of men who were killed in the retaking of Corregidor in 1945. Every time I read a book, or article, or hear someone giving a speech at a service or memorial concerning Corregidor, I seem to hear different numbers. I do not move to correct people concerning their estimations for, after all, my own figures might be wrong. Remarkably, there's many inaccuracies built into the way these numbers are recorded and compiled.
The men of the 503d PRCT compiled a listing which was generally accurate as it had been subject of peer review over a few decades. This listing now stands at 172. (Ref: corregidor.org/taps/control/KIA_by_unit.html )
It may well be that even this number is on the low side, though how much by, or at all, I cannot say. This happens because men who were wounded on Corregidor were marked WIA in the medical records and were then evacuated. Once evacuated, they were no longer carried on the lists of their former unit, and their deaths (if they died of wounds) were not notified to their unit. Of course, their friends and buddies would be immediately interested in what happened to them, but through the time of my involvement with them, many men would comment that they were never told what happened to "so-and-so" once he was evacuated.
As far as I am aware, I am the only one who has isolated which of the men of the 34th Inf were KIA on Corregidor (45). To that, I have added those of the other Rock Force units, such as 603d Tank Co (6), 2nd Engineer Special Boats (2), and the 592d Jasco (1).
There were more casualties off-shore. One wouldn't have thought it, but the USN suffered a number of deaths - USS Fletcher (7), USS La Valette (7), USS Radford (3), USS Hopwell (1), USS Hidatsa (8), YMS-46 (3), LCI (R) (3), and LCT 729 (2). There might well have been more.
The USN Casualties are particularly difficult for me to track down, not being able to get to Washington D.C. The Navy casualties are recorded in the history of each vessel, and thus it becomes necessary to determine which vessels were involved in each operation. This can be found in the records of each Task Force. There's an article explaining this at corregidor.org/USN/htm/usn_kia.html
So, if there is anyone who wants to spend a while down at the Navy Yards searching ship and Task Force files, attempting to track down the names that I haven't got, I'd love to hear from you.
I have not attempted to calculate the Japanese cost in lives of defending Corregidor in 1945. I will leave that to someone else.
Getting to my point:- To date, I believe that the human loss to American families from the death of loved ones for the retaking of Corregidor was 270.