Malinta Hill

[sherwino]

Thanks, fots.

[fots2]

You are welcome sherwino.

Yes okla, no more banzais for that crowd. I wonder how long the POW work crews were kept on Corregidor.

[okla]

Hey Fots....Somewhere on this Forum is a photo taken, if memory serves, early in 1946 of two American women (WACS, Nurses, civilian workers,etc???) posing, grinning like "Chessy" cats with two Japanese POWs, so some prisoners were still laboring in the "Rock" at that date. The two POWs looked rather subdued and somber, but if the truth was known, I betcha they would have drawn and quartered (among other indignities) those two Yank women for humiliating them as they certainly were. I couldn't help but sympathize a wee bit for those two Japanese soldiers and anybody who has read my drivel on this website should know, by now, that I have little, if any, sympathy for our former foes, especially when it comes to their behavior in the PI during the 1942 and 1945 fighting. It just seemed to me that these two chicks were "grandstanding". Now if the two Americans in the pic had been members of the bunch that liberated Corregidor, that's a different matter, entirely. Rub the foe's noses in the dirt. they deserved it. The victors had "paid their dues", but those two American women's actions showed a lack of class. Just my humble. If I am wrong, so be it. Cheers.

[EXO]

Others in the series are at: corregidor.org/heritage_battalion/munson/pow.html

[JohnEakin]

They don't seem to have missed any meals. No obvious signs of injury or disease. Appropriate clothing, hats, boots. Probably living better than they would have in immediate post-war Japan.

[fots2]

Agreed John and they look a hell of a lot better than the US POWs did at the end of the war.

[fots2]

Chad,

A few pages back in this thread we were discussing the exact location of the 1.1 inch Pom Pom on top of Malinta Hill. The screen captures you posted from the 1942 Japanese newsreel gave me an idea as it clearly showed an intact 75mm gun shelter with the Pom Pom in the background.

I have walked through the intact shelter numerous times but do not have a photo of the southern end of it. Does battle damage on this shelter match what can be seen in the newsreel? In an attempt to either shoot us down or provide more ammunition for our conclusion, I added an item to my “To Do” list for the next trip. The trip came earlier this month. Here are the results.

First, here are a few seconds of the Japanese newsreel recorded just after the 1942 surrender. Here you see the gun shelter and the Pom Pom up on the hill behind it.








This fuzzy screen capture shows damage to both top corners of the gun shelter. The left side has rebar sticking out and up. The right side is rounded as some concrete has been blown off.




Due to trees I cannot position myself in the same location as the newsreel was shot but this is close enough to show the south end of the gun shelter. The left side has rebar sticking out, the right side has less damage and it is rounded.




A closer view of the left top corner damage.




Left corner damage seen from on top of the shelter.




Screen capture of the gun shelter with the Pom Pom behind it.

The shelter in the newsreel and the one that remains today seems like a match to me. I think we are correct in that the 1.1 inch Pom Pom was on the little hill along the ridge north of the 75mm gun shelter.

[okla]

Hey Fots....This should make a believer out of any heretic that might remain. As somebody once said, "you do nice work".Cheers.

[fots2]

okla,

I am just one of many here including you. It is well worth the effort when we find wartime evidence agreeing with what we see today. This shelter survived the 1945 battles and all the years since then.

By the way, I forgot to say that I later went up to where the gun would have been. The vegetation is thick and if any evidence remains such as the bolts in a concrete platform, then it is buried now.

[okla]

Hey Fots....Well, I gotta say, if you didn't find it, then it ain't there. Cheers.