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Post by T2 on Jul 29, 2018 17:20:47 GMT 8
Here is some excellent detail of the area in discussion.
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Post by T2 on Aug 6, 2018 7:16:16 GMT 8
May 6th 1942...Corregidor has fallen. Many of these incredibly brave men were corralled here in the NE corner of the Middleside Parade grounds, one of which is Al McGrew.
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Post by T2 on Aug 6, 2018 7:22:48 GMT 8
Approximately in the center of this photo was Al's machine gun nest...
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Post by T2 on Aug 6, 2018 7:46:02 GMT 8
The men were marched from the parade grounds down this road to Bottomside thru Malinta Tunnel and ultimately 92nd garage, their first POW camp. As they made the first left turn Al glanced at the MG nest with the thought that it never fired a shot!
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Post by Karl Welteke on Aug 6, 2018 14:14:29 GMT 8
Hello T2 Zc416. This is perhaps Al McGrew’s MG Position at Middleside Fort Mills during the Siege on Corregidor Island. Was Al’s MG position here, did I interpreted your input correctly? So Al was guarding the rear, the inland side, of his battery? Did you check out his position and was there anything left? ------------ Yes, this was his second MG position. We were sitting there, not far off the road, waiting for a passing vehicle to take us back down to bottom side, when he told me of it. He said that he had expected to die there, because everyone believed that Corregidor was going to be defended, just like the Alamo. Everyone was dumbfounded when they were ordered back to their positions at the battery, finding that they had been surrendered without having fired a shot. He was so disgusted with the army he threw his dog tags away. Many people tended to think of Al as a serious, almost crabby guy, but he had a really good sense of humor, and was an absolute pleasure to be with. It goes without saying that I miss him. Bless em All! Exo.
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Post by T2 on Aug 6, 2018 18:08:18 GMT 8
That is correct Karl. Al was ordered to build a MG nest to engage any Japanese soldiers coming up the road from Bottomside and Ramsay Ravine. I have not checked any of the area but will on my visit this year. In my photo, possibly the rise in landscape may be something to look at. Battery Ramsay was annihilated with a direct hit so I would imagine the machine gun position was an easy target to wipe clean after that. I am quite sure the position was confirmed by Al McGrew on a visit with Paul. You have me quite interested now!
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Post by fots2 on Aug 6, 2018 18:31:44 GMT 8
Hello T2 and Karl, I have been told that Al McGrew’s machine gun position at Battery Hartford was in front of Battery Ramsay Gun #1. He was not far from the large chunk of concrete that crashed nearby when Battery Geary exploded. Note the sketch below. I vaguely remember that this sketch shows Al’s machine gun position. (labeled “My Gun”). EXO, can you please confirm the origin of this sketch? It would be interesting to know for sure. J ---------------- T2, I do not know (cannot recall) if Al drew the diagram himself, but he did supply a copy of the drawing to me. It might have been done by one of his friends, McGetchin, who was an early student of Corregidor and who had been with Al on one or more of Al's earlier trips. McGetchin died relatively young. My recollection is that there was another diagram drawn, of the then unnamed tunnel under RJ43. I recall McGetchin was pushing for that tunnel to be named after Danny Howell, who had found it. In 1945, a bomb hit the Ramsay magazine and buried the place where Al's pit had been under several feet of dirt and debris, and he would joke that his dogtags were still there, if only I would dig them up for him. - exo
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Post by T2 on Aug 7, 2018 1:27:06 GMT 8
...JUST FASCINATING...
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Post by oozlefinch on Aug 7, 2018 14:02:27 GMT 8
During neither our '87 or '89 trip did Al mention a MG position as suggested above. He did, however, point out a MG position located on the uphill side of the road down from Geary, maybe 50-100 yards above the Middleside parade ground. It was still visible in '06.
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Post by T2 on Aug 9, 2018 6:36:06 GMT 8
I would like to take a step back to my post on page 6 in this thread and inject a new opinion or SWAG if you will. My friend Anthony Garcia is quite the history buff here in Bermuda. His specialty, I would say, is the ships of the 1800’s early 1900’s but has expertise in buildings, bridges, events, graveyards, artifacts and of course the entire Royal Naval Dockyard Bermuda in which I am very fortunate to live in and see everyday. I showed Anthony the cannon at Bottomside for his opinion and to share with all of you.........Yes! For some reason that cannon is fascinating to me. So here are my points that form my SWAG. 1) As mentioned before – she’s an old girl. 1899 to 1940s is old in terms of an iron gun on an island. She would have been rusted by then and probably unstable to use. 2) such a huge gun is clearly from a battery at the top of the hill as you mentioned. 3) if the gun was to be scrapped, the Americans would have simply cut her up on the spot by the battery. By the 1940s, they had mobile cutting torches. 4) The only thing that the Americans could have done to reuse her would have been to sandblast her. So if you can prove that there was a sandblasting facility in that warehouse then your SWAG is correct. 5) however the breach is missing. The missing breach typically means that she was cut off or removed to dismantle the gun. Therefore my swag is as follows: the Japanese stripped every piece of iron off the island to most likely send it back to the foundries in Japan for metal for the war effort. Rails were gone and most likely the guns too. My thought is that at some point in the 1930s the Americans dumped this old gun at the top of the hill. Cut her breach off and left her to rot, simply threw her off the side of the battery and replaced her with a new were gun. When the Japanese took over they scrapped all the metal they could find. They most likely found this old gun much later and got her to the docks to send home. However something caused them to abandon this plan and leave her on the spot. Maybe once they got the gun down, it was too heavy to move. But even then they could have cut her up on the spot. I’m really baffled by this gun. Also why did the Japanese decimate the island why not just over run it, and then use the island for their war effort? Why demolish it?
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