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Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2006 8:14:26 GMT 8
This is Randy Anderson, Project Leader for the Hellships Memorial, recently dedicated at Subic Bay. (I also wrote the book, Subic: From Magellan to Pinatubo, back in 1992.)
One of the members of a POW group I belong to is seeking information as follows. Any assistance will be appreciated.
"I am having trouble finding concrete information or references as to where Queens Tunnel was on Corregidor. Can anyone help?
My research involves the USS Canopus, AS-9, at Mariveles Bay, Bataan and when the ship was scuttled, the skipper, Cdr. Earl LeRoy Sackett said in his memoirs that he was assigned to Com 16 at Queens Tunnel. I heard it was also known as Navy Tunnel but there was a Navy Intercept Tunnel that I do not think is the same thing."
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Post by Karl Welteke on Sept 13, 2006 12:23:52 GMT 8
Randy, this is Karl, I am the least qualified to help you out; but here is what I know. On the West by SW flank of Malinta Hill there were four (4) Navy tunnel entrances. I showed you 2 of them about a 1 1/2 year ago. I had learned about these tunnels from the webmaster of "corregidor.org". When he showed me the location of the two remaining acessable entrances, he spoke of the others. He mentioned the name of one of the buried entrances as "Queen". His thought was the tunnels were named by a phonetic alphabet system in use then.
Now that we are talking about a tunnel in connection with the Submarine Tender Canopus in Mariveles and the many Navy Tunnels there, couldn't those tunnels also be named as such, and would it not more likely the ship used those tunnels?
A friend of mine, a member of the Coastal Defense Study Group has sent me some information on the Mariveles Navy tunnels. It was maps and a WWII letter in Picture format. I will try to get it on the web this week. I have tried to find those tunnels but was not successful.
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Post by EXO on Sept 13, 2006 21:07:08 GMT 8
I too have long had difficulty at naming the Navy tunnels I am aware of.
When I first visited Corregidor in the 1970's, I went through into the Navy Ordnance lateral, but was entirely discouraged by stories about bad air and unexploded munitions. I had heard that the explosions there had so fractured that area of Malinta Hill, the tunnels had never been cleared because they were still unstable and were a 'war grave' still. (Though treasure hunters are no respectors of war graves.) There were also tales of the deaths of treasure hunters there, from bad air (carbon monoxide) or from disturbed ordnance.
Hindsight makes me conclude I should have ignored the warnings, because in my absence, I heard that the navy tunnels had suffered major collapses and could no longer be accessed.
The purpose of the USN tunnels were, amongst other things, to store torpedoes for the submarine squadron based there and I felt that this necessitated large tunnels, plenty of storage laterals, and tracks or overhead rails, with no tight turns. And an exit close to the South pier.
In 2000, my interest as to the Navy Tunnels of Malinta Hill was piqued again when the CFI were working on the western end of one of the Navy Tunnel exits on the western side of Malinta Hill. Danny Howell, sole Caucasian resident on the island and curator of the Topside museum to boot, had managed to divert the bulldozer to the task. The top of the tunnel archway could barely be seen above a landslip, and every time there was progress to uncovering the entrance, more broken rock would slip down from above. So much so that I felt a decent sneeze might have started a minor avalanche. The work was halted for safety reasons, and has been allowed to be overtaken by growth since. There was no evidence of rebar in the archway. There was still a considerable amount of unstable hillside above the tunnel, which looked very precarious. Certainly a bulldozer was not the right tool for the job, and a backhoe would have been the tool of choice.
I now believe that entrance was to tunnel TARE.
The Belotes’ had gotten it wrong in naming the four ‘Navy’ tunnels along the western side. The correct names were Queen, Roger, Sugar & Tare. I noticed that they were sequenced Q,R,S, and T, and wondered whether this meant there had been a system of names involved for all the openings on Malinta Hill, or perhaps even the entire island.
Getting an authoritative map of the naval portions of the Malinta Tunnel complex, and thus establishing QUEEN's location beyond doubt, has proved beyond me, so far, though I have seen drawings of what people have been able to reconstruct. Much of what they have drawn may be conjecture, because the ROGER and SUGAR are inaccessible past the first few several yards. Certainly one cannot traverse from them to the Ordnance Lateral, which is where all the Army maps end.
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Post by Karl Welteke on Sept 14, 2006 15:14:39 GMT 8
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Post by A J on Dec 10, 2007 6:50:17 GMT 8
Has someone seen a reference where the tunnel is referred to as the Queen(S) tunnel, I would think the correct phonetic alphabet term would be Queen. Also I have a detailed blueprint of Malinta tunnel dated 1940 and the Army used the terms E,W,S,AND N plus a number and the use to ID the difference tunnels. An example.... coming in the West Entrance the first tunnel on the right is ORD No18 (W-1). This plan also shows a large section of the Southern tunnels as "CAVED IN", remember this is July 1940.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2007 5:02:17 GMT 8
In 2001 my friend Chuck and I, with the aid of a Jackson, talked the guard to giving us a tour of the entire Malinta Tunnel complex, both sides. The Hospital side was completely lite with the flip of one switch and it was a very worthwhile trip. After that was finished, he asked if we had good flashlights and led us into the Navy side tunnels. Not sure where we went in, but we were walking for about a half an hour through coal black tunnels, literally coal black walls, roof and floor. There was much debris on the floor in several sections some which we had to crawl over. Several times I was ready to go back, but when would I get a chance like this again? Haven't since. It was hot as hell in there, without the guard I don't think we could have found our way back out. Did I say it was pitch black?
Think Paul is right about the names for the Navy Tunnel entrances. Of course as well as the Navy and the Army got along on Corregidor, I wouldn't be surprised if the Army didn't have their own names for the tunnels. A Queen Tunnel reference from ........
An unnamed Marine from the 4th Marine Division wrote the following lyrics to the tune of the ' Marines' Hymn,' just before going into battle in Corregidor. The author of "The Corregidor Hymn" was captured by the Japanese in the battle and was never seen again.
"First to jump for holes and tunnels And to keep our skivvies clean, We are proud to claim the title of Corregidor's Marines.
"Our drawers unfurled to every breeze From dawn to setting sun. We have jumped into every hole and ditch And for us the fightin' was fun.
"We have plenty of guns and ammunition But not cigars and cigarettes, At the last we may smoking leaves Wrapped in Nipponese propaganda leaflets.
"When the Army and the Navy Looked out Corregidor's Tunnel Queen, They saw the beaches guarded by more than one Marine!
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