Napalm on Corregidor in 1945 fight?

[The Phantom]

I have been thinking about that infection you had on your knee Karl.
I have seen a similar wound on the island on one of the workmen, the guy in charge of keeping Battery Way in good shape.
He had the boils and swelling also. Looked like his foot would fall off. He got better with the right medicine.
I hadn't put 2 and 2 together yet when I remembered another person who had the same wounds from my past.

He worked for me many years ago and he was a Vietnam Veteran.
He was fine one day, and the next he would come in and his whole arm and chest would look like your knee did Karl.
While in the field fighting in Vietnam he had been under some napalm and its effects would keep coming back every 6 months or so.
He died while working for me, he was taking an entire 100 capsule bottle of Tylenol a day for pain, no one knew until a coworker told us.
This was at the time when the Government said there was no adverse affect of Napalm.
He went to the local Veterans Hospital and they said they couldn't do anything for him.

Didn't they drop Napalm on Corregidor in 1945?

Just a coincidence right?

[fots2]

July and August 1944

"The battle of Tinian (Northern Mariana Islands) saw the first use of napalm in the Pacific. Of the 120 jettisonable tanks dropped during the operation, 25 contained the napalm mixture, and the remainder an oil-gasoline mixture. Of the entire number only 14 were duds, and eight of these were set afire by subsequent strafing runs. Carried by P-47 Thunderbolts, the "fire bombs", also known as napalm bombs burned away foliage concealing enemy installations".


I have no idea if napalm was used on Corregidor but it was being used elsewhere in the Pacific at that time. You guys might know for sure.

[buster]

Gees guys, what makes you think it wasn't used?

It was widely used.

On the ground, it was used by the demolition sections - a "bomb" consisted of a five gallon watercan filled with gasoline and napalm with six to eight WP grenades and two blocks of TNT taped to the sides of each can.

In the air, E. G. Anderson, of the 34th Infantry Regiment, mentions in particular "one little nineteen year old pilot would come in and drop napalm bombs in front of the tunnel door. He'd come in so low, doing a couple of victory rolls on the way out.." (corregidor.org/rock_force/taromen/anderson.html)

It was dropped not just by P-47's, but by transport aircraft. The latter used it in 50 gallon drums - so the occasional rusty drum you see around Corregidor may have gotten there "par avion".

Col. Jones mentions it at Page 4 of his Commander's Report at: corregidor.org/Bless%20'em%20All/Reports/Corregidor/Commanding%20Officer's%20Historical%20Report_01.html

Have a look at the Easy Co's Journal entry of 19 February 1945:
corregidor.org/Bless%20'em%20All/2d%20Bn%20HQ%20Co%20Journal/2d%20Bn%20E%20Co%20503%20PRCT%20Journal%2001.html

Even Weldon Hester ( "Red Cross") mentions it, in the context of the pre-drop bombardment:
corregidor.org/503_red_cross/hester.htm

[batteryboy]

P-38s also dropped them and so did P-51s and to some extend even C-47 as Buster mentioned.

Below is a pic of USAF men adding a thickening agent on a napalm mix in the Philippines


An old drop tank with a bomb fin attached used for bigger napalm raids. Photo also taken in the Philippines in 1945.


FWIW,

[The Phantom]

EXO, didn't you mention once it was dropped on James Ravine to get the Japanese in the tunnel there?

Great info and pictures.
I haven't seen any of THOSE bombs laying around that we could be getting into.
Is there a chance that some bombs or containers like that could be buried and leaking slowly still?
Or that some of the stuff was dumped in some tunnels to get rid of it?

I'm thinking of all those burned drums and melted ceiling in the Middleside tunnel.