22-08-30 to 09-02 HR Corregidor Visit with 4 Friends
Sept 4, 2022 18:28:48 GMT 8
EXO, chadhill, and 1 more like this
Post by Karl Welteke on Sept 4, 2022 18:28:48 GMT 8
We were Paul Whitman, Gerald Randy Anderson Sr., Kevin Hamdorf, Kevin Strahm and Karl-Wilhelm Welteke. We came from two different locations, Olongapo and Angeles City and arrived at Villa Carmen in Mountain View Village, Mariveles, and Bataan at about 10 am. The party from Angeles was late. We had this visit planned for some time. Because we will stay 3 nights overnight we had to arrange it thru the Corregidor Foundation Inc. (CFI) and reserved a boat from Villa Carmen in advance. Corregidor can be visited without prior permission from CFI if you use the Coast Guard approved boat entities such as Villa Carmen in Mt. View or boats from the Cabcaben Boat COOP. Another important point, the limit of 5 people in the boat because of the virus from Red China (distance between people) has been lifted and I understand, the size of boats available can carry now 8 people.
This is the description for the first 6 images in this album about Death March Marker #15:
Because the fellows from Angeles were late, my partner Kevin Hamdorf and I decided to have a look at Death March Marker #15, it is close by to Villa Carmen. We found that a new one had been established. And the old was lying in the dust and was broken up. I contacted the vice President of FAME (Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Incorporated). He said: “About 2 years ago someone was trying to steal the old #15 so I had it removed and new Concrete one built. The old #15 will be erected in the new expanded museum on Mt. Samat when it's completed”.
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This is the description of the next 3 images.
These 3 images show the Panguliisanin River and Bridge; it divides the Cabcaben and Mountain View communities and it is located between the Villa Carmen and Death March Marker #15. My friend Kevin who is the person in these pictures at Villa Carmen believes that Hospital #2 was located right along this river, just upriver from the bridge in the picture.
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This is the description of the next 5 pictures.
These 5 images include two Google Earth maps to show the location of Villa Carmen, whose boats I like to use to go to Corregidor. We parked behind the entrance gate in the 4th picture. These maps also show you where the old and new Death March Marker #15 are/were located. The last picture shows the daughter of Mrs Imelda, who schedules the Villa Carmen boats going to Corregidor. The daughter was running an errant for us.
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This is my dairy entry for the first day and this first group of pictures. I will add some picture every so often until they are all posted.
Corregidor visit 30th Aug-2nd Sep. 2022 with 5 people
First Day, Tuesday, the 30th Aug. 2022.
We were Paul Whitman, Gerald Randy Anderson Sr., Kevin Hamdorf, Kevin Strahm and Karl-Wilhelm Welteke. We came from two different locations, Olongapo and Angeles City and arrived at Villa Carmen in Mountain View Village, Mariveles, and Bataan at about 10 am. The party from Angeles was late. We had this visit planned for some time. Because we will stay 3 nights overnight we had to arrange it thru the Corregidor Foundation Inc. (CFI) and reserved a boat from Villa Carmen in advance. Corregidor can be visited without prior permission from CFI if you use the Coast Guard approved boat entities such as Villa Carmen in Mt. View or boats from the Cabcaben Boat COOP. Another important point, the limit of 5 people in the boat because of the virus from Red China (distance between people) has been lifted and I understand, the size of boats available can carry now 8 people.
Because the fellows from Angeles were late, my partner Kevin Hamdorf and I decided to have a look at Death March Marker #15, it is close by to Villa Carmen. We found that a new one had been established. And the old was lying in the dust and was broken up. I contacted the vice President of FAME (Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Incorporated). He said: “About 2 years ago someone was trying to steal the old #15 so I had it removed and new Concrete one built. The old #15 will be erected in the new expanded museum on Mt. Samat when it's completed.
The waters of the North Channel were smooth and we landed at the North Dock area. Our vaccine cards and our temperatures were checked, we passed. We walked to the MacArthur Café and got our rooms assigned. MacArthur provided a snack per our prior request; we made plans to visit Bottomside venues on Corregidor, the former Fort Mills, so we did have to look for transportation. We readied for our walk.
Walked passed the 12 Inch barrel from Battery Cheney and then passed the chapel. Between the 12Inch barrel and the chapel seemed to be a water leak and a large area was wet. I took a video of the water spurting up and raised the camera to the chapel for orientation. The door to the Chapel is blocked. The chapel looks in need for an upkeep, some of the windows are removed, I suspect there were about to fall off.
The area in front of the Navy tunnel and the old quarry site has been cleared of all the concrete broken blocks from previous road work that were dumped there. So, it was easier to approach the Navy Tunnel. By the way the track around the south side of the Malinta Hill is grown over and it is even hard to get to the first gun position. We found the entrance to the concrete lined Navy Tunnel without much problem and my 4 partners entered it. Nothing has changed there. I searched for the 2nd Navy tunnel entrance, which is only about 40 or 50 feet north of the concrete lined tunnel entrance. But the 2nd entrance cannot be entered anymore less some serious digging has to be done first. In the area is a small fenced solar place, I suspect for the measuring devices at the end of the South Dock, and it could use some attention to cut the weeds. My 4 friends took note of a Japanese graffiti, displaying a fish, they assumes it was perhaps from a Japanese Navy fishing unit.
Our next stop was the Malinta Hill Tunnel fuel entrance, it is amazing to see those big, huge fuel tanks crushed kike a beer can from the time of the 1945 recapture of Corregidor by MacArthur’s Forces. The deck was wet in the long entrance tunnel way. The water was coming from a drain hole in the wall.
Then we walked to the South Dock. As has reported in the past the Philippine Military has a Marine and a Navy detachment on Corregidor for security. The Nay detachment was in an old Navy or Coast Guard Building which in later years serves as a restaurant. The Navy detachment has been moved to the yellow house on the west end of the Bottomside beach. The old navy building is torn down and a new structure is being built. CFI personnel told us it will be a new restaurant type structure. The workers there found several pieces of ammunition, in the more than 100 mm size. The Marine detachment is still in the South Dock reception area.
Our next destination was the area of the War Memorial Zone Gate in order to walk down the concrete steps to the Engineering Ravine. We walked along the road from the Gen. Wainwright and Nurses Memorial to the Memorial Zone Gate. The section of road has received a low embankment wall, the whole length of the road and the job is finished, In the process of building the low embankment wall the worker found numerous metal artifacts, metal pieces; one item was a sewing machine.
We descended down to the Eng. Ravine via the concrete steps near the Memorial Zone Gate. Our walk took us passed the Instrument Storehouse Casemate, the Torpedo (Mine?) Cable Tanks. At the CFI Garage we noticed the 4 trolleys that are left on Corregidor and made contact with Jose Dagohoy. He turned out to be our contact to CFI on Corregidor because from Jose we learned that Mr. Fidel Dellosa, the CFI Resident Officer suddenly had to depart on a detail.
We learned that Mr. Jose Dagohoy is working on a project to supply power to the Malinta Hill Tunnel with solar and would like to use old car batteries to store the electricity.
In the Eng. Ravine we had a look at the Fort Mills ice plant and the large bomb hit in the Fort Mills Cold Storage Plant. The growth inside the diesel Power plant is getting thicker; the two fuel tanks are invisible to vegetation growth. The bio power plant is resting in piece and we walked all the way to the water hole, workers were taking their bath there. One important new development, a fairly large general purpose building is going up with concrete pilings, poured and hallow-blocks. Apparently all the concrete road work is done the concrete mixing plant was not operating at that time but is still there to spring into action if needed.
The Fort Mills North Road from the Eng. Ravine to Battery James is walkable and we headed to the only Japanese Gun still in its firing position. We went via the Pistol Range and the 1918 (WW One) defense position VII-F-2.
We called it a day, returned to the Café, cleaned up, had our meal and had a nice social evening meal. And we made plans for tomorrow.
This is the description for the first 6 images in this album about Death March Marker #15:
Because the fellows from Angeles were late, my partner Kevin Hamdorf and I decided to have a look at Death March Marker #15, it is close by to Villa Carmen. We found that a new one had been established. And the old was lying in the dust and was broken up. I contacted the vice President of FAME (Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Incorporated). He said: “About 2 years ago someone was trying to steal the old #15 so I had it removed and new Concrete one built. The old #15 will be erected in the new expanded museum on Mt. Samat when it's completed”.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the description of the next 3 images.
These 3 images show the Panguliisanin River and Bridge; it divides the Cabcaben and Mountain View communities and it is located between the Villa Carmen and Death March Marker #15. My friend Kevin who is the person in these pictures at Villa Carmen believes that Hospital #2 was located right along this river, just upriver from the bridge in the picture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the description of the next 5 pictures.
These 5 images include two Google Earth maps to show the location of Villa Carmen, whose boats I like to use to go to Corregidor. We parked behind the entrance gate in the 4th picture. These maps also show you where the old and new Death March Marker #15 are/were located. The last picture shows the daughter of Mrs Imelda, who schedules the Villa Carmen boats going to Corregidor. The daughter was running an errant for us.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is my dairy entry for the first day and this first group of pictures. I will add some picture every so often until they are all posted.
Corregidor visit 30th Aug-2nd Sep. 2022 with 5 people
First Day, Tuesday, the 30th Aug. 2022.
We were Paul Whitman, Gerald Randy Anderson Sr., Kevin Hamdorf, Kevin Strahm and Karl-Wilhelm Welteke. We came from two different locations, Olongapo and Angeles City and arrived at Villa Carmen in Mountain View Village, Mariveles, and Bataan at about 10 am. The party from Angeles was late. We had this visit planned for some time. Because we will stay 3 nights overnight we had to arrange it thru the Corregidor Foundation Inc. (CFI) and reserved a boat from Villa Carmen in advance. Corregidor can be visited without prior permission from CFI if you use the Coast Guard approved boat entities such as Villa Carmen in Mt. View or boats from the Cabcaben Boat COOP. Another important point, the limit of 5 people in the boat because of the virus from Red China (distance between people) has been lifted and I understand, the size of boats available can carry now 8 people.
Because the fellows from Angeles were late, my partner Kevin Hamdorf and I decided to have a look at Death March Marker #15, it is close by to Villa Carmen. We found that a new one had been established. And the old was lying in the dust and was broken up. I contacted the vice President of FAME (Filipino-American Memorial Endowment Incorporated). He said: “About 2 years ago someone was trying to steal the old #15 so I had it removed and new Concrete one built. The old #15 will be erected in the new expanded museum on Mt. Samat when it's completed.
The waters of the North Channel were smooth and we landed at the North Dock area. Our vaccine cards and our temperatures were checked, we passed. We walked to the MacArthur Café and got our rooms assigned. MacArthur provided a snack per our prior request; we made plans to visit Bottomside venues on Corregidor, the former Fort Mills, so we did have to look for transportation. We readied for our walk.
Walked passed the 12 Inch barrel from Battery Cheney and then passed the chapel. Between the 12Inch barrel and the chapel seemed to be a water leak and a large area was wet. I took a video of the water spurting up and raised the camera to the chapel for orientation. The door to the Chapel is blocked. The chapel looks in need for an upkeep, some of the windows are removed, I suspect there were about to fall off.
The area in front of the Navy tunnel and the old quarry site has been cleared of all the concrete broken blocks from previous road work that were dumped there. So, it was easier to approach the Navy Tunnel. By the way the track around the south side of the Malinta Hill is grown over and it is even hard to get to the first gun position. We found the entrance to the concrete lined Navy Tunnel without much problem and my 4 partners entered it. Nothing has changed there. I searched for the 2nd Navy tunnel entrance, which is only about 40 or 50 feet north of the concrete lined tunnel entrance. But the 2nd entrance cannot be entered anymore less some serious digging has to be done first. In the area is a small fenced solar place, I suspect for the measuring devices at the end of the South Dock, and it could use some attention to cut the weeds. My 4 friends took note of a Japanese graffiti, displaying a fish, they assumes it was perhaps from a Japanese Navy fishing unit.
Our next stop was the Malinta Hill Tunnel fuel entrance, it is amazing to see those big, huge fuel tanks crushed kike a beer can from the time of the 1945 recapture of Corregidor by MacArthur’s Forces. The deck was wet in the long entrance tunnel way. The water was coming from a drain hole in the wall.
Then we walked to the South Dock. As has reported in the past the Philippine Military has a Marine and a Navy detachment on Corregidor for security. The Nay detachment was in an old Navy or Coast Guard Building which in later years serves as a restaurant. The Navy detachment has been moved to the yellow house on the west end of the Bottomside beach. The old navy building is torn down and a new structure is being built. CFI personnel told us it will be a new restaurant type structure. The workers there found several pieces of ammunition, in the more than 100 mm size. The Marine detachment is still in the South Dock reception area.
Our next destination was the area of the War Memorial Zone Gate in order to walk down the concrete steps to the Engineering Ravine. We walked along the road from the Gen. Wainwright and Nurses Memorial to the Memorial Zone Gate. The section of road has received a low embankment wall, the whole length of the road and the job is finished, In the process of building the low embankment wall the worker found numerous metal artifacts, metal pieces; one item was a sewing machine.
We descended down to the Eng. Ravine via the concrete steps near the Memorial Zone Gate. Our walk took us passed the Instrument Storehouse Casemate, the Torpedo (Mine?) Cable Tanks. At the CFI Garage we noticed the 4 trolleys that are left on Corregidor and made contact with Jose Dagohoy. He turned out to be our contact to CFI on Corregidor because from Jose we learned that Mr. Fidel Dellosa, the CFI Resident Officer suddenly had to depart on a detail.
We learned that Mr. Jose Dagohoy is working on a project to supply power to the Malinta Hill Tunnel with solar and would like to use old car batteries to store the electricity.
In the Eng. Ravine we had a look at the Fort Mills ice plant and the large bomb hit in the Fort Mills Cold Storage Plant. The growth inside the diesel Power plant is getting thicker; the two fuel tanks are invisible to vegetation growth. The bio power plant is resting in piece and we walked all the way to the water hole, workers were taking their bath there. One important new development, a fairly large general purpose building is going up with concrete pilings, poured and hallow-blocks. Apparently all the concrete road work is done the concrete mixing plant was not operating at that time but is still there to spring into action if needed.
The Fort Mills North Road from the Eng. Ravine to Battery James is walkable and we headed to the only Japanese Gun still in its firing position. We went via the Pistol Range and the 1918 (WW One) defense position VII-F-2.
We called it a day, returned to the Café, cleaned up, had our meal and had a nice social evening meal. And we made plans for tomorrow.