Miscellaneous travels on Corregidor

[fots2]

I will admit to having a couple bullets at home but only because I put them in my pocket at the time and forgot they were there.

In my old part of the continent, I remember weather forecasters saying the storms all came from Alaska. ;D

It all depends on what the jet stream is doing at the time I guess. Hopefully you will get a warm blast coming up from the gulf soon. Good luck.

[fots2]

Black Beach

Location: Bottomside south


On the last day of any trip to Corregidor Island I usually take it easy and prepare to head home on the 2:30pm ferry to Manila. To kill some time I headed down to Black Beach for a little walk. The ocean was near low tide that morning and the skies were starting to clear off.

Three days before this trip I had bought a new dinky little pocket camera which I wanted to play with some more. Here are a few shots from that morning.



Looking east towards the Black Beach invasion area of February, 1945. It is early morning so the west side of Malinta Hill is still in the shade.



I have walked to the western end of the beach. Conception Barrio and the Stockade area are up the cliff to my right and Ramsay Ravine is dead ahead.



Turning around and looking east you can see all of Black Beach, the South Dock and Malinta Hill. Hooker Point at the far end of Corregidor is in the distance.



As the tide goes out I can move to where more of Corregidor Island’s tail is visible.



Bottomside south. Time to walk back to the Corregidor Inn and plan the next trip here.

[okla]

Hey Fots...I have to say that you do wonders with your little pocket cameras. Might be more the "operator" than the equipment. Seems as though excellent results are common place regardless of what type photo equipment you use. One more thing....every time I view that south road around Malinta, I always feel that the Japanese would have had one tough time in negotiating the road in attempts to move in on Bottomside. This is, of course, predicated on the eastern entrance of Malinta being sealed/heavily defended,etc. I would assume that the north shore road around Malinta is as difficult, but it would have been under the enemy guns on Bataan. At any rate you would think that any determined defense of the narrow defiles by the American/Filipino defenders would have prolonged the defense of Corregidor for some length of time. To what final result remains a debatable topic of course. As Harry Truman said, "hind sight is 20-20". I have beaten this dead horse enough already so will let it lie for now. The Japs had us boxed in and just when we ran up the white flag was the only question. Thanks again for a "quickie" Fantastic Fots Foto tour.

[fots2]

Hi okla,

That little camera works well but I still have to learn how to use it better. Every camera has its own peculiarities.

The South Shore Road is quite narrow as you can see. There are lots of turns out of sight around the corner which would help a defender. Perhaps a few well placed explosive charges in the rock above the road would close it anyway.

Have a look at this 1945 photo which shows the south road “missing” in a couple places due to rock slides.





Malinta Point on the north side would present a formidable obstacle. Those Bataan guns would have created havoc though.

[okla]

Hey Fots The 1945 pic just reinforces my theory that Gen'l Wainwright just might have gone to see Gen' Homma a bit prematurely, but methinks most folks would agree that not going would have only prolonged or delayed the inevitable conclusion. But what a formidable defensive position the Amer/Fil garrison had. looking down the throat of the Japanese from the top of Malinta and with the Japs short of ammo and vastly outnumbered. Defenders with an "Alamo" mentality would certainly have preferred to prolong the fight. Maybe they should have for honor's sake. Since I wasn't there, it ain't for me to criticize "Skinny" and his decision. He was a hero to all, including myself. It has been said that "never has a combat commander been so close to the actual fighting and had such distorted, erroneous information on the true situation as did Gen'l Johnathan Wainwright that May day in 1942. His ultimate decision did save lives in the long run, especially since there was no "Death March" senario as was the case after Bataan capitulated. Hind sight rears it's ugly head once again. Postscript.... All cameras might have their own little peculiarities, but I still maintain that good shots come from good "operators". May I refer you to your masterpiece shot of the Bataan sunset. Probably the greatest photo since the Iwo Jima flag raising. Just my humble. Cheers.

[fots2]

One thing that I rarely show photos of is all the junk that can be found near or in buildings and tunnels. Most of it is just junk be often interesting items are turned up that tell a little bit of the history from where ever it was found.

This past week Phantom and I explored quite a few locations. Here are some samples from our hikes. I won't show bullets, they can be found anywhere on the island.



The leather boot sole and two buttons are from a Japanese uniform.



Fires near these buildings were hot enough to melt Coke, 7-Up and Saki bottles. They range from near intact to these blobs of melted glass.



Japanese rice bowls



Japanese stripper clip



This was a light bulb I assume.



I have never seen this name on the bottom of a bottle before. A quick search on the internet mentions this company as selling drinking water in the Philippines. Two people here that I asked about it have never heard of the name "ISUAN".



One building near James Ravine had sustained a lot of battle damage. In a corner near the doorway were the remnants of a radio. Here is a mylar capacitor from it.



Batteries found in the same area which may be from the same radio.



We don�t find these often but this is the rear end of a rusted artillery shell sticking out of the ground. After clearing away the leaves I measured almost 17cm across which converts to 6 inches.



Here is a 6-inch shell on display to give you an idea what the above shell would have looked like.



Finally a word of caution. Do not run the hotel shower's water heaters on "EXTREME". They have a tendency to melt.

[okla]

Hey Fots....Good stuff as usual.. What a great way to spend one's time, prowling the bushes of Corregidor with Phantom, looking for relics. The pic of the rifle clip has me puzzled. It's in such a deteriorated condition I can't feature whether it's from an M-1 Carbine or a Springfield .03. Neither one had a clip similar to the one shown, nor did the M-1 rifle sported by many of the 1945 liberators or the 1942 guys belonging to the Philippine Division on Bataan. Maybe I am viewing this relic from the wrong angle, etc. Whatever, this is another excellent mini-Fots Fantastic Foto Tour with able assistance from another Philippine expert, Phantom. I say again, you guys certainly make my days and enable me to stay abreast of doings on Corregidor and Bataan. Thanks again and please keep it up.

[victor]

Thanks for posting those!

I would love to see a new thread solely on relics. I love this stuff. They may be junk to most but I always get past the "junk" and always contemplate the history behind them.

The stripper clip could be Japanese (arisaka) like this clip in these photos:

[okla]

Hey Vic.....Your Japanese clip looks more like the one pictured in Fots' pics than GI rifle clips. I own an M-1 Carbine and am looking at one of the working condition clips as we speak (well, not as we actually speak, I couldn't type this gibberish if I was, but you get my drift) and can't imagine it, in a rusted,etc condition looking like the one initially shown, but what do I know? Anyhow, like you, I love this stuff. Fots (and Phantom) have come thru again, methinks.

[fots2]

Hi Victor and okla,

Thanks for keeping me honest and putting a correct label on that clip. We thought it was something else but it clearly is not. After I cleaned it up, it looks exactly like your clip including both holes.

I’ll change the photo’s label above.

Here is a dumb question. What is a stripper clip?