Malinta Hill

[fots2]

Chad, You are probably as close as we are going to get with those elevation figures. Accurate elevation measurements can wait until you and okla arrive to take them. ;D It would be great to wander around with you guys.

All air vents have a similar angle up to the surface.

It is 7:35am here so I will head over to the tunnel now. I will get back to you later.

[armyjunk]

hello Folks, This drawing is dated 1933 and this construction was canceled in 1934. As near as I can tell the plan says East entrance ele. 93.758, West ele. 60.534, the type is very small and very hard to read, does that sound close Fots? It also give Malinta Hill as 401.9. That would have been a lot of steps, but fun to explore.....feel free to correct me on the figures.

[chadhill]

Nice find, armyjunk. I wonder if any of the work was begun before the project was cancelled. The ventilation shaft with a stairway up to the gun and searchlight casemate (elevation 258'?) is interesting. I've had more thoughts since this thread reignited, and clearly remember in the 1980s climbing a short distance, maybe 20 feet, up some sort of passageway and resting on a ledge. There was an opening above to the outside air. I seem to vaguely remember that this was somewhere on the eastern side of the main tunnel complex. I even remember taking a photo of the opening, but have been unable to find it. Will keep looking. Oh well...

Okla, I figured it must have been a case of misreading a number. No need to be embarrassed. I've lately had to start wearing "cheaters" while reading at night when I'm tired. You're still Ol' Eagle Eye, it wasn't that long ago when you ID'd the POW card words that bled thru from the backside. In fact, I think you may be right about the road passing over the east portal. That road was closed when I was there due to landslides. I never walked it and until you mentioned it here, the thought never occurred to me, and I honestly can't remember for sure. But it would explain the "discrepancy" I thought I saw on the 1936 map.




Trying to be sure, I searched again for full photos of the east side of Malinta Hill. While there are plenty available for the west side, the easties seem to be scant and hard to come by. I need to make up a long list of things and head to the NA. About all I can dish up is a pic I took in '86 that shows a very small area from the entrance up to the top of the hill. I see a sort of leveling in some of the vegetation just above the portal that could suggest a road bed, but it's just another SWAG. Somebody tan my hide if I'm wrong. Now I'm embarrassed because I should already know this! Cheers-

[fots2]

For okla and anyone else interested,

I made a rough video as I walked through part of the Malinta Hospital tunnels to give you an idea of what it is like in there. The map shows the route that I recorded.










1942 photo of the hospital in operation.









(armyjunk and Chad, I will reply to you soon)

[okla]

Hey Chad....We may have hit upon the truth. I'll say it again....your SWAGs generally ain't SWA. More like "educated" Gs, that more often than not, have born fruit. It's times like this that I rue the day that my efforts to receive an assignment to Clark Field didn't pan out. Never having the opportunity to actually tramp around Corregidor presents a real challenge to my overworked imagination when delving into these little riddles. The folks living in the PI and you men who have served there at Clark and Subic, have had the privilege of visiting Corregidor in person, have a leg up on this old goat. How I envy you all. Cheers.

[okla]

Hey Fots....Thanks a bunch for posting the Mini Fots Fantastic Tour thru the Hospital Complex...That place has to be one of the creepiest locales on the Planet. The echos of your footfalls certainly add to the spooky aura, especially when there ain't any light at the end of these tunnels. Spooky, you bet.

[chadhill]

Fots, that was spoooooky. I couldn't help but imagine all the suffering and dying that happened there. Are the other three air shafts similar to the NW one? What I climbed up inside of many moons ago seemed to have a round and much wider cross section, was not lined (rough on the knees), and was not as long.

[wwalker]

Great stuff Fots. I really enjoyed the video footage. The tunnels that you captured in the footage may very well be one of the only battlefield hospitals still left in the Pacific War. Its amazing to think about those days during the siege when the brave nurses and medical officers were tending to the casualties in this section of the Malinta Tunnel system.

After the surrender the Japanese soldiers rushed into the tunnels. Eventually they decided to kick out many American and Filipino soldiers that were seriously wounded. If they appeared to be OK to the Japanese they were told to leave and join the rest of the POW's. I would be willing to bet that many of these men never fully recovered from their wounds, and died in the prison camps.

WW

[chadhill]

I meant to ask this earlier but forgot. In the B&W photo which shows the east side of Malinta Hill (Replies # 147 and 152) there is a tall object on the beach just below the south road near San Jose Point. I've checked the 1936 map and don't see it. Does anybody know what it is? Just curious. Thanks-

[oozlefinch]

Chad, sorry I can't help you with your question, but I noticed a point on your map in Reply #142. I hadn't noticed this on a map of the tunnel system before, but yours shows an entrance on the SW side of the hill (across from the Navy Tunnel entrances). I was in it back in '87(?) and it went back 100', or so, and then had a large rock fall from the roof, similar to the one in the Navy Tunnel. I'm testing my memory, and I'll try to go back in my slides to see if I have any decent shots inside, but I seem to remember the tunnel branching and the one with the big rockfall going east/southeast. If so, maybe it was built to connect to the Navy Tunnel?