Malinta Hill

[okla]

Hey Chad....Long time, No see. Do you know if the 75 mount on Malinta Hill had a 360 degree traverse? The mount in the Fots photo, obviously is 180 degrees. Probably enplaced in a ravine,etc. since a slope is visible in the rear. Just wondering. As you know, by now, these litttle things things "bug" me.

[chadhill]

Been real busy, okla. I can only guess about the Malinta Hill 75mm, but assume that it had a 180 degree rail, too, that they would be able to uproot and re-anchor so the gun could have 360 degrees of fire. Makes me wonder if the rail was spiked into the ground, or had heavy iron weights attached. In armyjunk's photo there seems to be several "blocks" lining the inside of the rail, and Fots' photo of another gun seems to show blocks on the bottom of the rail. Just my SWAG-

[fots2]

Okla, as far as I know, there were a total of three 75mm gun platforms (later with concrete overhead shelters) on top of Malinta Hill. None of them have any rail visible today. Two shelters are now destroyed although large chunks of them do remain. Concrete pads at these two gun positions are buried and cannot be seen.

The only one that I can give you an answer for would be the most northern gun shelter. This is the one that is still intact. The circular concrete pads for the gun are not centered under the shelter as I would expect if it was designed to allow for a 360 degree traverse. The circles are positioned to the west side of the shelter suggesting to me that this gun was to cover the westerly direction which is Bottomside i.e North Dock and area. The positioning rail would have been to the east side of the shelter. This may have had a 180 degree traverse initially but after the shelters were constructed, the traverse would be somewhat less than that due to the walls restricting some angles.

[fots2]

Hi chadhill,

That is a good combination of photos that you posted. I would say that you are correct in the sloping roof concrete shelter being the one seen in multiple photos. It would be nice to know where the second photo you posted was located. That looks like rough sand on the ground so could have been at several places on Corregidor.

[fots2]

Good Day Chad,

I was able to get up to Malinta Hill and get the measurements that you were interested in. The death of my previous computer has delayed this information getting to you but here it is now. There are other things for you also such as photos and short videos to post in the near future. I will add them here as time permits. In a few days I will be off to Corregidor again to meet up with Karl and Phantom so some things will be posted after that trip.


Measurements:
75mm gun shelter (north end) to the little magazine (main entrance): 14.4m/42ft.
75mm gun shelter (north end) to the little magazine (center of hole at destroyed rear entrance): 21.0m/69ft.
75mm gun shelter (north end) to the center of Searchlight #8 air shaft: 32m/105ft.
75mm gun shelter (north end) to the center of EG-IV-3: 41m/134ft.


One more piece of information for you. I am pretty sure I found the 1.1-inch PomPom gun platform. The yellow arrow in photos you have posted to this thread in the past are correct. It is buried under 2 to 6 inches of dirt. I’ll provide more detail later.

[chadhill]

Thanks, fots! You went way beyond the call of duty with those measurements, and took most of the guess work out for me. Let me see if I can sum up what I think we have now. First, here's the chart of the Old Land Defense Magazine (or "little magazine") that armyjunk posted earlier in this thread. I've labeled the locations of the two entrances you measured, plus the air shaft and SL#8 tunnel. Everyone note that the top of the chart is north, and also that the elevation of the top of the magazine, or "little hill", is shown to be 12 feet higher than the base (400'-388'= 12').




Here is an enlargement of the NE side of the hill from armyjunk's aerial photo. I've added notations for where I'm SWAGGING the magazine entrances should be:




Here's the still photo from the 1942 Japanese newsreel, looking north from the 75mm shelter up the "little hill" to the overturned pom-pom gun. Two more SWAGs are that the main and rear magazine entrances may possibly be seen here. If that is the case, the pom-pom gun would be just north of the Old Land Defense Magazine main entrance. In both photos and on armyjunk's chart, some elevation is apparent, and from a field-of-fire point of view that makes good sense.




A recent photo, courtesy fots2, shows the low main entrance to the magazine:




A final SWAG is that the 25 KW generator and its fuel tank was relocated to the SL#8 tunnel so that the magazine could house the 25,000 rounds the Navy had provided with the gun. That would explain the historical accounts of Lt. Friedline and his crew being burned by the fuel tank in the tunnel when the 240mm round penetrated the air shaft.


(news clip: Dana Ribble)


Good work, fots. I really look forward to your follow-up pics!! You made my day-

[fots2]

Hi Chad,

Great summary there.

The pom-pom gun position is indeed just north of the old Land Defense Magazine main entrance.

The first photo is labeled perfectly. I would only make one slight modification to your second photo. Place the yellow arrow directly below the letter “m” in armyjunk’s watermark. The gun position is almost opposite the big hole/crater where the steps to the rear entrance appear.

Finally, your SWAG about the generator being moved to SL#8 air shaft is probably correct. The Land Defense Magazine does not have an air shaft.

[fots2]

While up on Malinta Hill last month I decided to record a few crude videos with my dinky little pocket camera. Many posts in this thread talk about the northern end of the hill so here are the actual views you would see if you walked along that ridge. The rainy season vegetation has died off now so ground visibility was quite good. Hopefully this will be useful to those who have not been up there (or not lately) and help to better understand the area that is being discussed.

The tour guides at the Corregidor Inn have created a hiking trail up to the top of the hill and it was them who installed ropes along the more dangerous steep sections. Also, you will see that a couple typhoons last year gives the area sort of a ‘damaged‘ look.

The day was overcast and distant scenery was hazy. Factor in wind and an occasional sprinkle and it was not an ideal day. This was probably best for videos with no shadows or highlights though. Ignore the shaky video please, I was trying not to trip over anything.



From the 75mm Gun Shelter to the old Land Defense Magazine



From the 75mm Gun Shelter to the northern tip of the hill



From the northern tip of the hill down to the Searchlight #8 shelter



Pom Pom Gun Mount

[chadhill]

Great job with the videos, fots! I've watched them several times, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them. What a treat!

Now for a question. Here is a still shot taken from your second video at time :10 seconds, as you were leaving the 75mm shelter and approaching the magazine main entrance straight ahead. Just to the right is the ascending trail leading to the top of the "little hill":



Compare it with the still shot taken from the 1942 Japanese newsreel. If you look directly over the wheels of the gun, a distant wall of sandbags can be seen in the sunlight. Would these sandbags be lining a level pathway to the right of the ascending trail shown in your video?



I get the impression that the rear entrance stairs shown in armyjunk's magazine chart must have ascended from inside the magazine to the top of the little hill. Is that correct? Your video indeed shows sunlight inside the mag filtering thru from above, and details the damaged opening on top. But armyjunk's chart does not seem to indicate clearly that the rear entrance opened on the top of the hill. Could it have opened on the side of the little hill instead? Armyjunk's aerial photo seems to show stairs descending from that area to a pathway (the "sandbagged pathway" to the right?). It could be that the stairs ascended from inside, then descended when outside, I guess.

When I first watched the video I thought the damaged opening on top of the hill might have been a small air shaft for the 25 KW generator that may have been hit by ordnance. But then I found that ventilation was supplied by a fan blowing out the main entrance, according to armyjunk's chart. So maybe this is all a mute point, a pointless SWAG...and that you are completely correct.

Again, an absolutely fabulous job, fots. Never mind my cherry-picking from the balcony. I really wish I could be there plunking around with you instead

[fots2]

Hi Chad,

Today, to the right of the ascending trail shown in my video is the cliff (very steep slope) down the east side of Malinta Hill. I wonder if the sandbags were lining the main entranceway to the magazine. That would make the terrain to the right of the sandbags the ascending trail seen in the video. It is a bit difficult to pick out specific things in that screen capture.

Yes the rear entrance stairs ascended from inside the magazine to very near the top of the little hill. The sketch shows the stairs making a turn to the east at the top but all I see there now is a big hole with broken concrete lying around it. From what I see today, I don’t think that there were up and then down sections to the steps.The pathway is almost level with the top of the hill when you are adjacent to the hole. I see what you mean on armyjunk’s aerial photo though.

Hey, you two come back someday and we will give this area a good going over. That would be fun.