Walk to the Battle of the Points

[JohnEakin]

Good to know about Abebooks.com, but it still pays to look around. I just checked Ghost of Bataan Speaks and Abebooks lists a number of copies priced from $200 to $250. Amazon has one copy at $150 and a couple of months ago I found it on Amazon for $36 - good condition and autographed. Abebooks lists shipping to the Philippines at $52.50 for one book - I think I'd get a Kindle. <G>

FWIW, Abie Abraham's second book is still available on his website for $22.50. Has anyone read it? Recommendations? Wonder if whoever is running the website would allow Amazon to publish an e copy?

[Deleted]

Thank you much Karl ,

The info is appreciated !
I've passed on your info to my niece who lives in Pasay City. She is presently on her way to Quinauan Bay / Point to do a " Recon " mission for me with her girlfriend. She agreed to go there , and take loads of pictures for me , and inquire about the possibility of me overnighting there.

She has done this for me once before in Minanga , and provided me with some great photos , and a few facebook contacts.
I'm anxiously awaiting some fresh pics and info on the Quinauan Bay / Point area that will certainly help me with my upcoming vacation plans.

[Bob Hudson]

Was in Mariveles this afternoon. No through traffic because of fiesta week. The city was packed. Couldn't get within 2 kilometers of the 00KM park. The ruins of the old Quarantine station are still there but the ground around it is part of a mental facility. Had to pay a guard a couple of hundred pesos to let us through the gate and walk through the ruins. Took lots of photographs.
Mariveles is a thriving community and one enveloped in so much history. If you get this way, my email address is on my profile here. We'll get together.

[chadhill]

Bob, have a blast on your trip to Quinauan//Agloloma Bay. I was there briefly in '86:

corregidor.proboards.com/thread/793/quinauan-point-1986

I'd be curious if the Japanese statue is still there. Hope you can find the main Japanese foxhole position, shown in COL Alexander's sketch. Best, Chad

[Karl Welteke]

Mt. Pucot, Longos Kawayan Point, Lapiay Point (or Lapia Pt.) Trip and Finds 2013-02-25

A friend, Conrad Buehler and I visited these two points and Mt. Pucot on this date. I have been there a few times before. This was the best time because there were considerable grass burns and it was easy to get around and find things and we did. And we went on top of Mt. Pucot and possibly found the defense positions of the Naval Battalion. We are even able to communicate with the owner of Longos Kawayan Point via Victor Verano per Facebook

Longos Kawayan Point has caretakers and a gate. We entered and requested to visit the point. The immediate area around the gate is home for about 70 goats and they keep the vegetation very short. The caretaker had to help us go thru the fence because we were afraid to damage it. Most of the point is burned, free of the grass right now but he had to navigate thru a short section of tall grass.

We went down to the beach between Longos Kawayan and Lapia Point, I think squatters live down there. Then our walk took us back up to the Mt. Mauakis to Mt. Pucot road which also goes around Mt. Pucot. We followed the road to Lapia Point and I descended there. Conrad stayed behind and searched that area and found WWII artifacts. On this day he had given up using his metal detector and spotted the items with his naked eye.

Then we decided to go up to Mt. Pucot and we are relative certain that we found the defense position of the Naval Battallion on top of there. Great views are available from the top of this hill. We done about 10 km and went up hill about 440 meters, that was enough and we went home.

Here are the walk stats:


Longos Kawayan and Lapia Points

Mon, 2013 Feb 25 8:33
Activity Type: Casual Walking
Event Type: Special Event

With Conrad Buehler checked out these points. Burned grass area made the walk easier and we were able to find WWII artifacts.

Summary
Distance: 10.55 km
Time: 5:42:27
Avg Pace: 32:28 min/km
Avg Speed: 1.8 km/h
Elevation Gain: 441 m



Timing
Time: 5:42:27
Moving Time: 3:19:45



Elevation
Elevation Gain: 441 m
Elevation Loss: 441 m
Min Elevation: 11 m
Max Elevation: 161 m

THIS LINK WITH MULTIPLY IMAGE SHARING ACCOUNT IS DEAD FOR EVER. I have been having bad luck in choosing the right image sharing accounts. Multiply just dropped this service even though I had 2 year paid pro account with them.
Other personal activities will prevent me to tackle this problem for the next 4 month and today is 2013-03-24.
Also had problems with the Kodak sharing account in the past and now my Photobucket account is making things difficult also. DON’T RECOMMEND NEITHER ONE TO ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!

175 images of this walk have been uploaded into this account. The images have short titles but can be downloaded at an about 500 KB size:
pisailor.multiply.com/photos/album/164/Mt.-Pucot-Longos-Kawayan-Point-Lapiay-Point-Trip-and-Finds-2013-02-25

One of the best reference reading material is here from. United States Army in World War II, The War in the Pacific, The Fall of the Philippines, Chapter XVII: The Battle of the Points by Louis Morton:
www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-P-PI/USA-P-PI-17.html


Here are some sample Images: (the numbers are only to help me find the image in my upload album)


220 A GE image with our GPS track and marked with the pertaining landmarks. NOTE: I marked the landfill in the wrong place, I tried to edit but failed. The landfill is located just under the word -END- one rigde over to the right.


221 A section from a 1:50000 map showing the Longos Kawayan area.


223 A map from the Fall of the Philippine publication, reminding us of the dates and area.


224 View of Lapia Pt. at right and Longos Kawayan Pt. at left.


225 Looking back at Mt. Mauakis, I would say it consists at least of 4 peaks.


226 The Longos Kawayan care taker who graciously helped us go thru the property and over the fence.


227 The trail thru the property towards the end of the Longos Kawayan Point.


228 Left of the fence, the about 70 goats keep the grass short, the caretaker helped us get thru this fence.


229 Thu the fence the tall grass swallowed us up but after a while we got onto the burned area.


230 The actual Longos Kawayan Point.


231 Lapia Point or Lapiay Point from the end of Longos Kawayan Point.


232 This is how the burned end of Longos Kawayan Point looks now. This is the reason we were able to find WWII battle artifacts here and now. We are looking towards Naiklec Point and Hrnos Point.


233 Looking at Longos Kawayan Point from the Lapia Point


234 looking NW from Lapia Point at Latain Point, also part of Mt. Pucot.


235 We continued to walk around Mt. Pucot to the north side and had this view looking north.


236 In the distance is Corregidor, left is Mt. Mauakis with many peaks. The points left to right are Hornos Point (which could be seen from Corregidor), Naiklec Point and Longos Kawayan Point.


237 Conrad’s find on Longos Kawayan Point, my find was similar but I have not photographed my find. It will be done later.


238 Conrad’s find from Lapia or Lapiay Point. I didn’t find anything there hbut I walked almost all the way down to the waters edge

Chadhill. Before I forget and my Quinawan presentation will be in a few days or so. A resident mentioned that stature as it is gone. Didn’t get a clear answers as to how it is gone. Maybe the next visitor can inquire again.

[chadhill]

Karl, you and Conrad have simply outdone yourselves!! I'm jumping up and down viewing these beautiful photos. Absolutely terrific. In the last pic, looks like a 50 cal on the left and a 45 in the middle. I wonder if the shrapnel you found may have come from a Battery Geary round, or one of the two USMC 81mm mortars firing from the side of Mount Pucot about where you found the holes. LT's Hogaboom and Peschek, dug in with about 40 Marines, were spotting those. Not so sure about the items in the next to last photo.

Sorry to here the statue is gone from Quinauan, it was on the west beach. I look forward to your report from there, too!

[Bob Hudson]

Karl,

In your last photo, the shell on the left is what? Any idea? I found the same shell in Cabcaben last week and am trying to determine what it is.

The middle piece looks like a slug from a 45 and on the right a piece of shrapnel if I am right.

Great photos and narration. Always enjoy your posts.

[cbuehler]

Hi all,
Thanks again to Karl for pioneering this trip.The Lapiay Point/Pucot finds are the .50 BMG bullet, which is an M1 tracer that had not been fired (no rifling marks). It was found along the south west slope of Mt. Pucot above Lapiay point. It was probably ignited by one of the many grass fires that have cleared the area over the years and the base has flared out as a result. The .45 ACP bullet was found a short distance away and again is unfired, the case now gone when separated due to fires.
The most interesting find was the large piece of shell fragment found on the approach to the summit of Mt. Pucot. The size and weight of it indicate that it could only have come from either a 155 or 12 inch mortar projectile. I think it is most likely from one of the 12 inch mortars of Btry. Geary which did fire on Pucot during the battle, taking into account that it was likely even bigger before rust decreased its size somewhat. I have a 155 projectile in my collection and this fragment would approximate the thickness of the wall if little to no reduction in size were made.
The relics found on the top of the ridge on Longos Kawayan are a another .50 BMG M1 ball bullet (standard), the lower half of a US .30 cal case, a mostly intact Japanese 6.5 cal case, a US .30 cal rifle stripper clip and an unidentified cylindrical object.
All of these relics were found on the surface of the recently burned areas which reveal anything that would otherwise be hidden by tall grasses or bush.
The metal detector was mostly useless.
The summit of Pucot is a oblong ridge running roughly northeast/southwest. The south western portion is overgrown with brush and small trees with an abrupt change to an absolutely barren northeastern side covered with rocks and boulders. I have pictures (too large to attach...) of the entrenchments and shell craters on the summit of Pucot. They are located on the extreme western portion inside the overgrown area. There are two depressions which are are more or less rectangular with now varying depth of 2 to 4 feet deep, the largest one approximately 10 feet in length. The must have been considerably deeper considering the fill in over the years. They must have been This would make sense as any observation posts would have to be located here to have maximum visibility of Longos Kawayan and lapiay points below. I was able to see at least 5 visible shell craters now quite shallow, varying from approximately 6 to 7 feet in diameter. There are likely more in the heavy undergrowth. The barren rocky area of the summit to the east, which would preclude entrenchment, show no indication of craters.

CB

[chadhill]

Very good commentary, cbuehler. I hope we hear more from you.

Does the cylindrical tube, seen in the next to last photo, rattle when it is shaken? It looks like a cleaning kit tube for a Springfield, what the rods and brushes were kept in.

I think your hunch that the shrapnel found near the summit of Mount Pucot came from a Geary 12-incher, is right on. While LTs Hogaboom (USMC) and Fuller (USA) were on top of Pucot observing Geary firing on Longoskawayan Point just after midnight on 1/26, the final two of nine rounds fired by Geary somehow hit the slopes of Pucot instead. A frantic call from Commander Bridget stopped further firing.

[cbuehler]

Thanks, the cylindrical tube is not a cleaning kit tube nor even a container. It is too small and the top does not detach. It almost seems to be something from some kind of electrical equipment, possibly searchlight or something?
Another aspect of Mt. Pucot that we have not mentioned...it is a grueling climb to the summit! We approached it from the south Lapiay point side and it is quite steep on all sides, the easiest side being north east which we descended. All of the points are not easy hikes, but Longos Kawayan and Lapiay are the most precipitous.
I recommend anyone who wishes to duplicate our hike to get it a lot of hill practice before attempting, especially when going with Karl! I had prepared for weeks before the trip and was mighty glad I did.

CB