Walk to the Battle of the Points

[chadhill]

You're both welcome.

Okla- yes, there's info in those pages I've not seen anywhere else

[sherwino]

Excellent stuff, Chad. I have my imagination running again as to what had happened on the hills at the back of my house. Thanks.

[Karl Welteke]

With friends we visited Longos Kawayan Point on the 9th July 2013. Vic Verano had returned to the Philippines and we teamed up, he brought a childhood school friend, now a doctor and a web friend from this bulletin board (Sherwino) made up the 4th team member.
Vic, his friend and I actually visited many other places and instead of starting a new thread I rather work in our experiences and stories of our visit into existing threads.
But I only made one (1) album about the whole visit with 100 pictures and the pictures of our Longos Kawayan Point are almost at the end of this album. The pictures are uploaded at high resolution but I don’t know whether you could download them at high resolutions if you wanted to:
s74.photobucket.com/user/PI-Sailor/library/X%20for%20HR%20Albums/Bataan%20HR%20images/Bataan%20w%20Victor%202013-07-08?sort=9&page=1

Here are some sample images of this visit to Longos Kawayan Point.



Z70. We parked just passed the Mariveles landfill, walked along the Mt. Mawakis to Mt. Pucot Dirt Road and entered a trail to the Naiklec Point Ridge. We just wanted to get a view of the Hornos Point and the bay/cove between the two points.



Z71. While on the trail to the Naiklec Point trail we took a group picture, from left to right-Vic, his Dr. friend and Sherwino.



Z72. We continued on the Mt. Mawakis to Mt. Pucot and then entered the Longos Kawayan Point Ridge. It is private property now and Vic had tried to communicate with the owner. The maintenance family on the property was most accommodating and assisted us to enter.
The 1st section of the ridge is grazed by sheep and is bare, almost no grass; the last half has recently burned and was easy to walk on. Early this year Conrad Buehler and I had a hell of a darn time to get thru the Elephant grass then.



Z73. The actual GPS track of our walk onto the Longos Kawayan Point, I had a Garmin GPS devise.



Z74. A section of a 1:50000 topographic map covering Mariveles and Longos Kawayan Point which refreshes our memory about the points, bays and mountain names.



Z75. We are descending the south slopes of Longos Kawayan Point Ridge and there is no grass, the sheep got it all.



Z76. This is Mawakis Cove (local people say) or Mavakis Bay according to my map.



Z77. We are looking from Longos Kawayan Point Ridge, across Mawakis Cove and look over the Naiklec Point Ridge towards the Hornos Point Ridge. We even can see La Monja Island in the distance.



Z78. Looking down to the end of the Longos Kawayan Point Ridge from under our resting tree. Vic and Sherwino are busy searching in the distance.



Z79. Victor Verano down at the very end of Longos Kawayan Point.



Z80. The cliff of Longos Kawayan Point at its west end.



Z81. A good find where I indicated it on the last picture and there was more!



Z82. We all found artifacts but here are mine which were found mostly at the end of Longos Kawayan Point.




Z83. We are resting and eating snacks under the tree and contemplating what happened here on this ridge in 1942.
We got a good feel of the geography here where the US Naval rear forces held a Japanese invasion in check in 1942. Then the 57th Inf. Philippine Scouts cleared the whole ridge of the Japanese. Corregidor (Ft. Mills) helped with the big guns and the USS Canopus sailors built some mini battle ships (ship’s boats with weapons and jury-rigged armor plates) to cover the operation from the sea.



Z84. We are heading back and gave up ideas to do more. We were pooped. It was hot, it was a scorcher not like early this year with Conrad Buehler. But on the return march we found more artifacts.



Z85. We are climbing back up and we are already in the sheep grazing area and there is no grass left or so it seems.



Z86 These are the artifacts I found on the way back, the others found more.

[cbuehler]

Fantastic guys! Wish I were there again to share in the experience. Again, these relics are informative with regard to the Battle practices of both sides. I can see only one case in that lot that appears to be Japanese!
As I made mention of before on the relics we found in the Upper Pocket, US ammuntion, both spent and unfired, is immensely more prevalent on the fields of Bataan. It illustrates the effort put into eliminating the Japanese here by USAFFE in the amount of ammuntion expended to achieve this, BUT it also indicates the waste and likely poor fire control of much the USAFFE compared to the Japanese who were very disciplined in Infantry fire control. This was due both in part to training and supplies ( in the case of Longoskawayan, no re-supply for the Japanese 20th Inf. ).


CB

[sherwino]

Some more of the artifacts:

A horseshoe or a part of a boot sole. It has some spikes on it.

LONG01 by sherwino, on Flickr

Buried pottery.

LONG02 by sherwino, on Flickr

Grommets

LONG03 by sherwino, on Flickr

Vic tries the metal detector. Looking NE.

LONG04 by sherwino, on Flickr

The American assault boats could have positioned themselves behind this islet.

LONG05 by sherwino, on Flickr

We also found very little casings about half an inch long and a few millimeters in diameter. Don't know what are they for, could be for incendiary. I find them too little for bullets. I forgot to took pictures but Vic has them and some chunks of shrapnel.

[cbuehler]

Kumusta ka Sherwino,
That is a heel iron from a Japanese infantry combat shoe! A rare item to find that was actually worn by a soldier from the 20th Infantry at the battle, but likely did not survive. One should be aware that these kind of items often accompany human remains or are near to them. Or perhaps he removed them to jump over the cliff to try to escape by water? How close was this heel iron to the edge?

CB

[The Phantom]

Very hard to believe that the impenetrable jungle of 1942, has been taken down to bare rock in some places, like where the sheep had grazed.
There appears to be an already existing trail though the sheep area, maybe one of the trails though the jungle where the troops passed to battles in the Battle of the Points.

Is this the area Col. Bunker shelled in 1942 in support of the troops trying to drive the Japanese off the Points?
Any craters from his big Batteries evident?

Any truth to the tale that the points are actually lava fingers from an ancient eruption of Mt Mariveles?

I would like to do that walk sometime Karl.

Are the munitions American or Japanese?

[chadhill]

Japanese Army, 1941. Horse-skin.

[Karl Welteke]

Hello Tom
Sure, re the visit, stop by in Olongapo. The ammo question has been answered by Conrad, thanks. Re the growth, save your money get only sheep or goats and no more grass cutting, got to have fences and dogs though. Most likely this peninsular to Cochinos Point is part of Mt. Mariveles but it must have happened a long time ago.
I did not see anything that may have been an impact of a 12 inch shell on the Longos Kawayan Point ridge line but then I’m not an expert.
Great find and pictures, Sherwino, thanks.
By the way I didn’t have any internet the last three days, a technical problem up the line by my PLDT provider.

[sherwino]

Mabuti naman, Conrad. The heel iron was within 5 meters from the cliff. I also have read somewhere that there was a grave for the japs who died on Longos Kawayan. I'm still thinking where could it be.

The Phantom...I think Bataan was formed by two large volcanoes, Natib and Mariveles. However the edge on Longos Kawayan(Pic LONG05) doesn't seem to be solid dark to be a lava finger or its color and texture have changed thru the course of time. I'm no geologist.

Give me a heads up, Karl. Maybe I can join you, guys.