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Post by The Phantom on Aug 20, 2011 2:11:54 GMT 8
This probably doesn't belong under Sternberg Hospital, the following quote gives some answers as to how Manila was repaired after the devastation of it's recapture.
A quote from the book;
" MANILA HOTEL" BY BETH DAY ROMULO
"When the government took back the Manila Hotel after the surrender of the Japanese in 1945, Col. Manuel Nieto, the former personal aide to President Quezon, was appointed General manager to oversee the initial restoration and reopening of the damaged building. A new Board was named and for the first time in it's history, the Hotel had an all Filipino board and manager.
When the damages to the building had been assessed, the Hotel Corporation put in a claim with The Philippines War Damages Commission headed by Frank A. Waring, for P3 million ( about $1 1/2 million at that time) for repairs.
The Commission awarded the Hotel P1 million.
The actual repair work, which was carried on over the next 2 years, exceeded P10 million. While the building was under repair, 3 wooden annexes were constructed on the Hotel grounds to house the Commission personnel."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2011 5:57:38 GMT 8
Are there any records describing hospital staff fought the enemy during the battles of Bataan and Corregidor?
If a person has knowledge, or avenue to location, please advise.
Robert
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Post by batteryboy on Oct 4, 2011 15:51:50 GMT 8
Let me check but I doubt if any of the hospital personnel fought the enemy "directly" in both Bataan and Corregidor. What I know is that the hospital operations in both Bataan and Corregidor became "understaffed" as casualties mounted.
But again, let me check my USAFFEE medical reports.
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Post by dmether on Oct 4, 2011 21:27:15 GMT 8
I have a copy of a report by Col. James W. Duckworth, he states that on 31 December at 23:15 Sternberg Hospital evacuated the remaining 31 men in a in a 23 vehicle convoy to Bataan. At 03:45 they arrived in Limay.
He says the hospital surrendered to MGen Matsuii on 9 April 42.
Doesn't sound like anyone did any fighting.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2011 4:47:14 GMT 8
Appreciate the responses...
Robert
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Post by The Phantom on Oct 14, 2011 4:39:16 GMT 8
Some passages concerning Sternberg Hospital.
From "Corregidor" by Eric Morris
Oct.19th 1941
"The tanks thundered on by Sternberg General Hospital, where the Army nurses had taken time off from their Ward duties to watch the spectacle. The rubber shod tracks whined past the National monument and over the Jones Bridge."
Dec. 8th 1941
The Sternberg
"The Sternberg was the General Hospital for the Army Philippine Department. Situated in it's own beautiful walled garden just a short distance from the battlements of Intramuros, the hospital was a couple of blocks from Jones Bridge, in the better part of town.
Madeline Ullom , a nurse there since she had first joined the Army in 1940, had just been to Mass. It was after mass that the priest had told his tiny congregation about Pearl Harbor. A hurried breakfast and a quick scan of the newspaper marked the last peace and quiet the nurses would have for some considerable time to come.
The Sternberg, under normal conditions, was a 250 bed hospital, but since the onset of the military alert they had prepared for war. New wards had been opened up and medical teams organized, ready to take to the field at the first alarm. That first morning of war the hospital became a hive of activity. All of the patients who could be discharged were quickly released, and their beds made ready for casualties.
The staff had just finished lunch when word filtered down of the attack on Clark. Immediately the first medical team, in a commandeered van that now served as an ambulance left the hospital. A Filipino orderly risked life and limb by standing on the running board, holding on with one hand, while with the other he furiously rang the hand bell that doubled as the ambulance siren.
The first hospital train arrived out of Clark in the late afternoon. A fleet of ambulances and flat bed trucks ferried the wounded from the rail terminal, ( Totoban?) across the Pasig to the hospital. Within an hour 2 more trains arrived, the Hospital was overwhelmed.
Many men lay on their stretchers in the courtyard. until the hard pressed surgical team could get to them.
Civilians helpers did what they could but for many it was a long and agonizing wait, their suffering aggravated by the makeshift bandages hastily applied in the causality clearing stations at Clark. There were no field dressings available, and many men had gaping wounds caused by the wonders of war technology.
These far outstripped the well-intentioned but amateurish ministrations of freighted friends on the devastated base, whereas the WW I field dressings on hand in Manila, though competently applied, proved totally inadequate for the job on hand--mostly because they were old and flimsy, but also because they were shell dressings, therefore not large enough for the larger wounds caused by incendiary bombs and bullets."
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Post by okla on Oct 14, 2011 4:53:43 GMT 8
Hey Phantom....Another example of how we were, in reality, not prepared for war (THIS war, at least). A rude awakening to the fact that this was 1941, not 1918. This is an excellent book, methinks. I have read it a couple of time. Cheers.
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Post by The Phantom on Oct 14, 2011 4:56:27 GMT 8
Thurs. Dec. 11 1941
"At Sternberg Hospital the staff were beginning to cope with war. At first they had worked around the clock to clear the backlog of wounded from Clark.
They had barely recovered, when they were swamped by the casualties from Cavite and Nichols. The nurses worked until they could no longer stand. They grabbed what sleep they could. For Madeline this meant finding a vacant operating table or convenient corner.
It took them all a little time to realize this was a not a very efficient use of resources, no matter what the urgency. So the doctors insisted on an orderly rotation and shift system and the nurses worked in 8 hour cycles, but even this proved a punishing pace.
However, as long as there was still plenty of good nourishing food, it could be sustained."
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Post by The Phantom on Oct 14, 2011 5:00:38 GMT 8
You're right Okla, "Corregidor" by Eric Morris grabs you and won't let go.
I've read on the plane to Manila several times to get into the right frame of mind.
A Japanese passenger on a flight I took once wanted the book as he saw the Japanese inside the front cover. Told me it would sell well if translated into Japanese and marketed there. Yeah, I'm still working on that for him....................
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Post by The Phantom on Oct 14, 2011 5:17:28 GMT 8
Last passage from "Corregidor" by Eric Morris about Sternberg.
Weds. Dec. 31st 1941
"Sternberg Army Hospital Manila"
" Rudy and Madeline had been left behind in Manila as part of a small Medical team who administered to the terminal cases in the Hospital.
A couple of days after Christmas a hospital ship had sailed, and for a brief moment hopes flared that they would be among the 10 nurses selected to sail. They weren't, and each was resigned to the arrival of the Japanese.
The nurses were reprieved.
The very few men left in the hospital were quietly moved out to another civilian hospital, and the nurses were told to pack and be ready to leave.
They traveled to the wharf in a covered truck and boarded the steamer Mactan.
The little ship had a difficult trip across to Corregidor. The Japanese bombed and strafed, but eventually she arrived with little more than her dignity ruffled and a few more scars to add to her battle wounds.
The half dozen nurses and doctor landed on Corregidor just as the island prepared for it's daily air-raid.
The party scrambled quickly along the pitted jetty of North Dock, for the nearest cover.
A truck full of soldiers came by. As it slowed, willing arms reached down and swung the nurses into the back.
The last of the nurses had arrived on the Rock."
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