Battle of Corregidor

The Battle of Corregidor (; ), fought on 5–6 May 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.

The fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942 ended all organized opposition by the United States Army Forces in the Far East to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon, in the northern Philippines. The island bastion of Corregidor, with its network of tunnels and formidable array of defensive armaments, along with the fortifications across the entrance to Manila Bay, was the remaining obstacle to the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma. Homma had to take Corregidor because as long as the island remained in American hands, the Japanese would be denied the use of Manila Bay and its harbor. The U.S. Army eventually recaptured the island in 1945.

Background

Gibraltar of the East

thumb|Map of Corregidor Island in 1941

Corregidor, named Fort Mills, was the largest of four fortified islands protecting the mouth of Manila Bay and had been fortified prior to World War I with powerful coastal artillery. Some long and across at its head, the tadpole-shaped island was from Bataan. Its widest and elevated area, known as Topside, held most of the fort's fifty-six coastal defense guns and mortars, and twenty-eight 3-inch antiaircraft guns, besides the three-story "Mile-Long Barracks." Middleside was a small plateau containing battery positions as well as barracks. Bottomside was the lower area, where a dock area and the civilian town of San Jose were located, besides the controlled-mine complex. Americans called it "The Rock", "Fortress Corregidor" or even the "Gibraltar of the East", comparing it to the fortress that guards the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Africa.

The tunnel system under Malinta Hill was the most extensive construction on Corregidor. It contained a main east–west passage long and wide, with 25 lateral passages, each about long, which branched out at regular intervals from each side of the main passage. A separate system of tunnels north of this housed the underground hospital with 12 laterals of its own. The facility could be reached either through the main tunnel or by a separate outside entrance on the north side of Malinta Hill. The Navy tunnel system was located south of the quartermaster area that extended south of Lateral 8. Petrol was stored near the west entrance, while General MacArthur's headquarters was located in Lateral 3, next to General George Moore's headquarters in Lateral 2, and President Quezon's quarters next to the east entrance. Reinforced with concrete walls, floors, and overhead arches, it also had blowers to furnish fresh air and an electric trolley along the east–west passage. Batteries Wheeler and Crockett each had two12-inch Gun M1895s, while Batteries Smith and Hearn had a single gun each. Battery Way had four 12-inch coast defense mortars while Battery Geary had eight. Battery Grubbs had two 10-inch gun M1895s, while Batteries Morrison, Ramsay and James had 6-inch gun M1905s, two, three and four respectively. Batteries Maxwell Keyes, Alonso Cushing and Guy B. Hanna had two 3-inch gun M1903.

On 24 December, Subic Bay was abandoned along with Fort Wint. Curtis T. Beecher's The 1st Battalion held the tail of Corregidor, the 3rd Battalion the middle of the island, and the 2nd Battalion defended the western end, while Schaeffer's 4th Battalion was held in reserve. Of Howard's 3900 men, only 1500 were marines, the remainder was composed of various Army, Navy, Philippine Army and Philippine Scouts.

On 3 February arrived at Corregidor with 3,500 rounds of 3-inch anti-aircraft ammunition. Along with mail and important documents, Trout was loaded with 20 tons of gold and silver previously removed from banks in the Philippines before departing.

On 5 February, the Japanese started firing on Forts Frank and Drum using 105mm and 155mm guns on Cavite. Then on 15 March, the Japanese started firing with their 240mm howitzers.

thumb|left|[[Malinta Tunnel's Lateral 12]]

Japanese bombing and shelling continued with unrelenting ferocity. Japanese aircraft flew 614 missions, dropping 1,701 bombs totaling some 365 tons of explosives. Joining the aerial bombardment were nine howitzers, thirty-four howitzers, and 32 other artillery pieces, which pounded Corregidor day and night.

By 14 April, all of Corregidor's north shore batteries were out of action. On 29 April, two Navy PBYs flew out 50 nurses and headquarters staff. In 1889, Texas A&M administrators had declared that that date – San Jacinto Day in Texas, the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto whereby Texas gained its independence from Mexico – would be a school holiday, and it had evolved into a day for current students and alumni to gather wherever they were. Dooley told a United Press correspondent about the gathering, and the reporter sent an article back to the United States about the 25 Aggies who had "Mustered". Although the Aggies on Corregidor did not physically gather for Muster, stories were widely published celebrating their heroic assembly in an island tunnel including yelling and singing of songs about Texan independence. Only 12 of the 25 would survive the battle and the subsequent POW camps.

On 24 April, Battery Crockett's guns were hit and put out of action. On 1 May, the Japanese bombardment increased, concentrating on landing sites. On 2 May, 3600 240mm shells fell on Batteries Cheney and Geary, and Battery Geary's magazine detonated, putting all eight guns out of action. The bombardment continued over the next three days.

Homma's invasion plan relied on Kenzo Kitano's 4th Division. The 1st and 2nd Battalions of Gempachi Sato's 61st Infantry, under Infantry Group Commander Kureo Taniguchi, would land first on Corregidor's tail with 2000 men, supported with tanks from the 7th Tank Regiment. A second wave would land below Topside the following night with 4000 men led by Taniguchi, composed of the 37th Infantry and a battalion of 8th Infantry, plus tanks from the 7th Tank Regiment.

Fall

thumb|300 px|Japanese landings on Corregidor, 5–6 May 1942

On 5 May Japanese forces led by Maj. Gen. Kureo Taniguchi boarded landing craft and barges and headed for the final assault on Corregidor. Shortly before midnight, intense shelling struck the beaches between North Point and Cavalry Point. The initial landing of 790 Japanese soldiers was quickly bogged down by fierce resistance from the American and Filipino defenders, whose 37 mm artillery exacted a heavy toll on the invasion fleet. It was a bloodbath. Observers at Cabcaben described the scene as "a spectacle that confounded the imagination, surpassing in grim horror anything we had ever seen before."

thumb|left|Japanese artillery in action against Corregidor

The 1st Battalion landed on Corregidor at 11 p.m., while the 2nd Battalion landed almost an hour later. Difficulty in identifying the intended landing points, plus the current, meant the 21st Engineer Regiments barges landed the Japanese men on North Point eastward, further from their intended objective of Malinta Hill. The Japanese suffered high losses—one Japanese officer calling it a "dreadful massacre"—with at least 22 half-sunk landing craft full of Japanese dead; however, enough made it ashore to consolidate a beachhead. By 1:30 a.m. the Denver battery and the forward slope of Water Tank Hill had been captured by Sato's men.

On 23 May, the Japanese prisoners on Corregidor were marched to the South Mine Wharf and boarded onto three ships anchored in San Jose Bay. After landing in Manila, the Filipinos were offloaded onto a dock, while the Americans were paraded down Dewey Boulevard to Old Bilibid Prison, then onward to Cabanatuan Camp No. 3. At the end of July, the Angels of Bataan nurses were sent to the Santo Tomas Internment Camp.

The following year, E. E. McQuillen, Executive Secretary of Texas A&M's alumni association, The Association of Former Students, renamed the school's 21 April event Aggie Muster in response to the Corregidor Muster. It was then that began to evolve into how it is known today, when students and alumni also honor fellow Aggies who have died. Dr. John Ashton of A&M's class of 1906 also wrote a poem in 1943 at McQuillen's request. Entitled "The Heroes' Roll Call", also known as the "Roll Call for the Absent", it also commemorates the 1942 Muster and is designed so that the number of years since 1942 can be inserted.

Notes

References

External links

Corregidor Historical Society website
Animated History of The Battle of Bataan and Corregidor
Chicago's Bataan-Corregidor Memorial Bridge
Proclamation of Bataan-Corregidor Day