FROM SHANGHAI TO CORREGIDOR: Marines in the Defense of the Philippines

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Introduction

by J. Michael Miller

"The Government of the United States has decided to withdraw the American Marine detachments now maintained ashore in China, at Peiping, Tientsin, and Shanghai. It is reported that the withdrawal will begin shortly."

President Franklin D. Roosevelt Press Conference, 14 November 1941

President Roosevelt's announcement formally ended almost 15 years of duty by the 4th Marine Regiment in Shanghai. Clouds of war were quickly closing in on the China Marines as Japan and the United States edged ever closer to active hostilities. "One could sense the tenseness in the air," Lieutenant Colonel Curtis T. Beecher remembered, "There was a general feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty in the air."

In September 1941, Colonel Samuel L. Howard, USMC, Commanding Officer, 4th Marines, recommended to Admiral Thomas Hart, USN, Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet, that Howard's regiment be evacuated from its longtime duty station in Shanghai. The regiment comprised two small battalions, made up of approximately 800 Marines and attached naval personnel, and was dangerously exposed to Japanese attack should war come.

Hart had anticipated the withdrawal from Shanghai by no longer replacing individual members of the 4th Marines as they left China. Instead, he attached all replacements to the 1st Separate Marine Battalion in the Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Islands. Hart had no official authorization for this plan, and later wrote, "If we couldn't get all the Regiment out of China we could at least stop sending any more Marines there until somebody bawled us out most vociferously. They never did." On 10 November 1941, Colonel Howard received the long-awaited orders to prepare the withdrawal of his regiment.

Thursday, 27 November 1941, dawned grey and gloomy in Shanghai. Sunrise was at 0631, but the rain and low-lying clouds obscured all but a hint of this fact. Adding to the gloom was the scheduled departure this day of the first element of the 4th Marines.

A steady drizzle fell as the first echelon to leave, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Curtis' 2d Battalion, formed ranks outside its Haiphong Street billet and prepared to board the double-decker buses of the China Omnibus Company. At 0900 the Marines loaded the vehicles for their last trip in Shanghai, down Bubbling Well Road, into Nanking Road, and on to the Bund, where they boarded the lighter Merry Moller for the short steam down the Whangpoo, past the mouth of Soochow Creek, to the SS President Madison, bound for — the Marines knew not where.

At the Bund, friends and sweet hearts bid the Marines tearful goodbyes as the Shanghai Refugee Institute's brass band struck up the "Marines' Hymn." Before boarding the lighter, Colonel Curtis was approached suddenly by a Chinese in a long black robe and wearing a little grey felt hat. The native waved his hand, said "Three cheers for Chiang Kaishek! Three cheers for President Roosevelt!" and disappeared into the crowd.

Fully loaded at 1420, the Madison slowly made her way out to the Yangtze and the Yellow Sea beyond, her destination still unknown to the troops she was carrying.

The next day, the 28th, was bright and crisp as the regimental headquarters and Lieutenant Colonel Curtis T. Beecher's 1st Battalion formed up at Ferry and Avenue Roads. At 0900, the regimental commander, Colonel Howard, ordered "Forward march!" and the column stepped off to the sounds of "Glory of the Trumpets," followed by "The Marines' Hymn" and "Semper Fidelis." Led by Colonel Howard and his staff and followed closely behind by the 4th Marines band and colors, the remainder of the 4th Marines moved out through streets lined with crowds of well-wishers waving American flags. On the mezzanine balcony of the Foreign YMCA was a Scot in full kit, kilt and all, playing his pipes in tribute to the departing Marines.

When the column neared Jimmy's Restaurant on Nanking near Szechuan Road, a complete orchestra of Americans dressed in cooks' and waiters' whites formed up behind the last rank of the Marines and joined the parade, playing American swing as they marched.

The scene at the Bund was much the same as the day before but the crowds were greater, with most of Shanghai's diplomatic and consular corps as well as prominent citizens of the International Settlement present to wish the 4th farewell. The same unhappy sweethearts and lovers — White Russians and Chinese — were there. Also present was the international press corps covering the departure of the Americans.

Colonel Howard made a short speech, and at 1400 the final elements of the 4th Marines boarded the tender for the short trip to where the SS President Harrison was waiting to carry the Marines to the Philippines.

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Arrival in the Philippines

Once at sea, orders came from Admiral Hart for the 4th Marines to land at Olongapo Navy Yard. The voyage to the Philippines proved to be uneventful, although both ships traveled under war conditions. The vessels were darkened at night with several of the regiment's machine guns lashed to the railings as antiaircraft defense. Two Navy submarines escorted the ships, and although several Japanese aircraft and ships were sighted, no incidents occurred.

On 30 November the Madison arrived at Subic Bay, followed on 1 December by the Harrison. The regiment hurriedly disembarked with only two lighters of supplies and field equipment taken from each ship. Unloading the 1st Battalion became a mass of confusion as every non-commissioned officer tried to be the first to get his unit's gear on the lighter. Lieutenant Colonel Beecher, commanding 1st Battalion, observed the scene from the railing of the Madison and sent for one of his non-commissioned officers. Beecher told him, "Duncan, go down and straighten that mess out. Get this stuff off and move it." Word of Beecher's displeasure was quickly passed and the unloading progressed smoothly.

The rest of the equipment went to the Manila port facilities and was trucked back to Olongapo. Admiral Hart expressed specific orders for the regiment to get into the field as quickly as possible without all of its heavy equipment. "We all knew," Hart wrote later, "that they had been cooped up in Shanghai through all those years where conditions for any sort of field training were very poor — and we thought that not much time remained."

The Marines found temporary wooden barracks, converted from warehouses, that were nearing completion, but half the regiment was put under canvas on the rifle range and naval station. The regiment was quickly put into field training in the surrounding bush, with the two battalions alternating days and nights in the field.


The 1st Separate Marine Battalion

The 1st Separate Marine Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John P. Adams, was based at the Cavite Navy Yard. These 700 Marines were organized both as a defense and an infantry battalion. On Sangley Point, Company A organized Battery D for antiaircraft defense. Company B operated out of the Cavite Yard, with its internal Battery A also located on Sangley Point. Company C had Batteries B and C which were located in Carridad and Binakayan, respectively. Company D had two batteries, E and F, in the Navy Yard. All of the batteries were armed with 3-inch dual purpose guns, 3-inch antiair craft guns, or .50-caliber machine guns.

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Preparing for War

On 3 December, Colonel Howard reported to Admiral Hart in Manila to discuss the mission of the regiment. The 4th Marines was put under the command of Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, commanding the 16th Naval District, and given the mission of protecting the naval stations on the island of Luzon, primarily Olongapo and the Navy Section Base at Mariveles. The Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet, stressed a more important mission to Howard. That mission was to prepare his men for mobile field operations. Hart also underscored the proximity to war with the Japanese.

Howard returned and informed his staff that Hart felt that war was only "a matter of days if not hours away." Howard emphasized the point by emphatically stating, "We will be at war with the Japanese within a week." After the staff had left, he revealed to Major Reginald H. "Bo" Ridgely the anticipated finality of their mission, saying, "they would never see their families again."
Members of the 4th Marines debark
Members of the 4th Marines debark at the Olongapo Navy Yard. National Archives

On 5 December, Colonel Howard attended a meeting with Admiral Rockwell at the Cavite Navy Yard to discuss the immediate preparations for war. Rockwell ordered him to send one battalion of Marines to Mariveles as a guard for that installation. The following day a reconnaissance was made of the Mariveles area, camp sites were selected, and preparations made to deploy Lieutenant Colonel Beecher's 1st Battalion there by sea on 8 December.

On 7 December, Colonel Howard put into effect a combat training schedule for the regiment. Marine Barracks, Olongapo, was reduced in strength with men transferred to the 4th Marines, but Howard retained the organization to allow for a constant defense of the yard, releasing Lieutenant Colonel Herman R. "Red" Anderson's 2d Battalion for quick movement into the field.

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War

At 0257, 8 December, a message arrived at Asiatic Fleet Headquarters announcing the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Notification of the attack and instructions to all ships and stations began at 0315. Shortly after 0300, Lieutenant Colonel Adams at Cavite received word from Admiral Rockwell that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. He instantly placed the 1st Separate Marine Battalion on Condition One Alert until 30 minutes past daylight. At 0350 a message came into the 4th Marines' communications center in Olongapo from Commander-in-Chief Asiatic Fleet, stating, "Japan started hostilities, govern yourselves accordingly." Colonel Howard was notified without delay and then passed the word on to his officers.

First Lieutenant Austin C. Shofner came through the officer's billet area awakening the men by telling them they were at war. An unidentified Marine shouted, "Why don't you get out of here and let us sleep?" Shofner soon had all the officers on duty. The next duty was to inform the regiment. Major Frank P. Pyzick, officer of the day, rode through the Navy Yard in the side car of a motorcycle, shouting, "War is declared! War is declared!"

The Marine Barracks Olongapo gong sounded through the night. Many Marines had no idea what this alarm was about. Corporal Chester C. Alderman remembered thinking, "What kind of new fangled reveille is this?" until an Olongapo Marine yelled out, "That's General Alarm," and the 4th Marines tumbled from its racks half asleep to stand formation in the dark. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel W. Freeny, executive officer of the 1st Battalion, stood before the assembled Marines still in his night shirt. He announced Pearl Harbor had been bombed and the United States and Japan were at war. For many Marines the news was anticlimactical, as one wag was heard to remark, "They got us up for that?"

All regimental headquarters company personnel were broken out of their bunks at 0400 and assembled outside the barracks. Sergeant Pat Hitchcock remembered, "every 15 minutes a quartermaster came by passing out ammunition . . . they first passed out a 5-round clip.., a little later they gave us enough ammunition to fill our rifle belts. Later still they passed out bandoliers to drape over our shoulders. We looked like Mexican bandits."

The 1st Battalion was awakened at 0300 to be ready for the daylight move to Mariveles at 0730. Power for the battalion's lights was cut with no explanation, and it readied for the move in blackness. All personnel were prepared to move by daylight except Company D, the heavy weapons company, which would join the battalion later. The Marines were leaving the dock at Olongapo on board the USS Vaga when Beecher was formally informed of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The battalion sailed for the section base at Mariveles without air support. Beecher was concerned about a possible Japanese attack, but the 1st Battalion arrived without incident at 1130.

In the following two days, the 4th Marines and 1st Separate Marine Battalion worked on their defensive positions. Howard placed 36 machine guns of Lieutenant Colonel Anderson's 2d Battalion around the Olongapo Navy Yard as antiaircraft defense, prepared beach defense positions at Calapacuan Point, and established a bivouac site two miles outside the Navy Yard. Fire-fighting parties were organized in Cavite and Olongapo and demolition details were formed to destroy the bridges north of Olongapo should the Japanese land there. Other war measures included assigning the regimental band to Company E as a rifle platoon and Captain Lewis H. Pickup was assigned as liaison officer to coordinate with the neighboring 31st Philippine Army Division.

On 8 December, Company D arrived at Mariveles by truck to unite the 1st Battalion. The men prepared positions in the surrounding jungle, but also worked 10 to 12 hours a day unloading the many barges bringing rations, ammunition, and equipment. On 9 December, Howard ordered that the regiment be fed only twice a day, "breakfast before daylight and dinner after dark," to conserve supplies.

On 10 December, a Japanese force was reported approaching along the Bagac Road within 20 miles of the Section Base. Lieutenant Colonel Beecher without delay deployed the 1st Battalion into blocking positions along the highway. Only two Marines were left behind, a cook and the battalion armorer, Sergeant Louis E. Duncan, who guarded the camp with two .50-caliber machine guns. The reports turned out to be false alarms and the battalion returned to camp.

The Marine positions were not immediately attacked as the Japanese, who were indeed attacking the Philippines, were concentrating on airfields and Manila, the capital. However, an average of six air-raid alarms occurred daily. Lieutenant Colonel Beecher at first ordered his men to scatter at the sound of the air-raid siren, but had to rescind the order as no work could be accomplished under the constant sirens. Work continued, siren or no siren. Air-raid shelters were constructed, instructions issued in the event Japanese aircraft should appear, and blackout procedures were strictly followed. The military police company at Cavite took registered and suspected enemy aliens and foreign agents into custody.

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Bombing of Cavite

Three Marine-manned antiaircraft positions were located outside the Cavite Navy Yard: Battery A, across the bay at Canacao Golf Course on the tip of Sangley Point; Battery B at Carridad; and Battery C at Binacayan one mile south. Each held four 3-inch, .50-caliber, dual-purpose guns with a range of about 15,000 feet. Battery D was divided to support each position with five .50-caliber machine guns.

On 10 December, two Japanese combat teams came ashore in northern Luzon, securing airfields for their Army aircraft to support more landings. However, there was no alarm in Cavite. As usual, civilian workers came into the Navy Yard and quickly went to work. The only sign of war was a detachment of Filipino workers digging an air-raid trench in the yard of the Commandancia, Admiral Rockwell's headquarters. The half-completed trench was the only air-raid shelter in the Navy Yard. Only the antiaircraft weapons had been revetted. Four 3-inch antiaircraft guns were mounted at the ammunition depot in the yard, as well as numerous .50-caliber machine guns mounted around the yard.

A little past noon the droning of numerous aircraft engines was heard, followed by an air-raid siren. Marines rushed to the veranda of the Marine Barracks and watched 54 aircraft in three large "V" formations approach. All eyes in the Yard were focused on the aircraft which were widely assumed to be Army Air Corps. The first suspicious sign was a dogfight below the formation. Someone then yelled, "Look at those leaflets come down." Almost in unison, many voices yelled out, "leaflets, hell — they're bombs!" The naval base was rocked by the first bombs striking the ground. Marines, sailors, and civilians crouched under the nearest cover with no formal shelters available.

The first stick of bombs hit the water, as did most of the second, but the rest of the bombs criss-crossed the Navy Yard and small fires began to spread among the wreckage. The Marines of Battery E, on top of the Naval Ammunition Depot, opened fire as bombs hit first on one side of their building and then on the other, splashing mud and water over them. Private First Class Leslie R. Scoggin called out the plotting data for the nearby battery, but found the aircraft were flying above 23,000 feet, far above the range of the battery. Luckily, no bombs actually hit the depot.

The Marine on the rangefinder at Battery C, stationed at Binacayan, reported to First Lieutenant Willard B. Holdredge that the aircraft were above the range of the guns. Holdredge ordered the Marine to take the reading again. When given the same answer, the lieutenant took the reading himself. Holdredge knew then that the Japanese aircraft were flying at 21,000-25,000 feet but his guns had a range of only 15,000 feet. He ordered the battery to fire anyway.

First Lieutenant Carter Simpson at Binacayan later wrote, "We were left with a sense of fatality which was renewed every time our eyes fell on the Yard across the bay . . . A toy pistol would have damaged their planes as much as we did." Battery A on Sangley Point ceased fire after the first wave passed untouched. Battery B on Carridad also tried to hit the Japanese aircraft, but the 280 rounds expended during the raid fell short.

Captain Ted E. Pulos command ed Battery F, which had two .50-caliber machine guns located on the Guadalupe Pier near the Navy Communications building. He ordered his men to open fire on the first wave of planes, but after the initial bombing ordered his men to cease fire as the aircraft were obviously above range. Private First Class Thomas L. Wetherington was killed by bomb fragments, becoming the first Marine to lose his life in defense of the Philippines. Private First Class George Sparks was on guard duty at the Naval District Headquarters when the bombs hit. He was able to take cover in a worn path beside the building as the bombs began to fall. Trees were blown down and one fell over Sparks. Although the path was only a few inches deep, it was enough to save him from serious injury. One other Marine was wounded during the bombing.

Captain John Clark ran to the barracks and ordered the Marines not on duty to draw ammunition and get outside to fire on enemy aircraft which might strafe the Yard. They ran to the quartermaster's office and formed in line to receive ammunition. As bombs fell nearby, the Marines dove for cover, and then returned to the line, repeating the process several times. Bombs struck close to them as Private Jack D. Thompson later remembered, "When you hear one of those bombs coming down, you think it's coming down the back of your neck." The effort proved fruitless as the buildings restricted the fields of fire for small arms.

The Yard continued to burn as the last Japanese aircraft departed. An aid station was set up in the library of the Marine Barracks as the hospital had received a direct hit. Approximately 1,000 civilians were reported killed and more than 500 wounded were treated in the aid station. Marines formed firefighting parties to put out the raging fires. The Filipino fire companies surrounded the ammunition dump and prevented fire from reaching the explosives, but the torpedo warehouse burned and the warheads sporadically exploded, preventing the firefighting parties from putting out the fire.

The fires trapped Captain Pulos' Battery F on the Guadalupe Pier and the exploding torpedo warheads threatened the Marines, sailors, and civilians who had escaped to the dock. Pulos ordered his Marines to build makeshift rafts and successfully evacuated men, weapons, and ammunition.

As night neared, all personnel, except a small group of Marines and Manila firemen, were evacuated out of the Yard and transported by truck to a site on the road leading to Manila. After travelling 15 miles the trucks stopped and the battalion set up camp. The following morning Marine detachments were sent back to guard the abandoned Navy Yard. Field kitchens were established to feed civilians as well as Navy and Marine Corps personnel. Other detachments reinforced the Sangley Point radio station as well as the ammunition depot at Canancao. Marines were also posted at all the gasoline stations on the road to Manila to guard the fuel supplies for military use.

Marines patrolled the emptied Navy Yard, checking for looters and any new fires. At noon an administrative force returned and reopened the battalion offices. A bulldozer dug a trench near the Commandancia and working parties attempted to bury the civilian dead. Dump trucks were filled with bodies which were dumped into the trench as Marines buried more than 250 corpses with shovels. Once the burials in the Yard were finished, the mass grave was covered with dirt.

The Cavite area remained quiet until 1247 on 19 December when nine Japanese bombers returned with Sangley Point as their target. The bombers hit the large radio towers and the fuel depot. Numerous 55-gallon fuel drums were stored on the golf course, in the hospital compound, and on the beach. Fuel drums exploded, forcing the evacuation of the wounded. One Marine remembered "the roar of the fire drowned the sound of the motors (of the bombers) and the sound of the bombs."

Mess Sergeant Milton T. Larios, Corporal Earl C. Dodson, and a Filipino cook named "Pop" were preparing rations for the Marines still in the Cavite Navy Yard when the air-raid siren went off. Larios shouted, "Let's get this meat off the fire," and tried to load the beef into a nearby garbage can when the bombs hit. Corporal Dodson remembered running until hearing the whistle of the bombs coming down and then fell to the ground. Explosions covered him with dirt and debris but he escaped the blast unhurt. He ran back to the mess area where he found Larios dead and "Pop" dying. He carried the bleeding Filipino to a collection point where 15 wounded Americans and Filipinos were lying together.

Admiral Rockwell ordered First Lieutenant James W. Keene to make a fire break in the rows of barrels to save as much fuel as possible. Keene took 12 Marines into the area of the exploding barrels and began work when another "stick" of bombs hit, killing Private First Class George D. Frazier. The bombs started new fires, which forced Keene to pull his men out. Total Marine casualties were five killed, eight wounded.

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Olongapo

On 12 December, Japanese troops made another landing in southeastern Luzon. At 1020, Headquarters, 4th Marines, was notified by rifle range personnel of the approach of enemy aircraft. Air-raid sirens sounded swiftly. Five minutes passed, and with no aircraft sighted, the field music sounded "secure." At once, the roar of Japanese aircraft was heard. Seven Japanese fighters followed a flight of PBYs of Navy Patrol Wing 10 to the base, waited for them to land, and attacked. All of the PBYs were soon in flames and the Japanese then turned to the Olongapo naval station. A single aircraft flew low over the station to test the level of anti-aircraft fire.

Marines opened fire on the Japanese aircraft with automatic rifles, rifles, and light machine guns, but with little effect. Sergeant Pat Hitchcock remembered, "They evidently were not impressed because they were very casual about their strafing runs." The Japanese fighters attacked the base for almost an hour.

Private First Class Thomas S. Allender was stationed on the water tower armed with a .30-caliber machine gun and soon engaged the aircraft as they strafed the Navy Yard. "That god-dam plane was shooting at him. He'd run around to the other side of the tank and the guy would go by," recalled Master Technical Sergeant Ivan L. Buster, "and then the guy would come back and he'd run around to the other side of the tank again." Allender remained on the tower for the entire raid untouched, although the tank itself was riddled with machine gun fire, "with water spraying everywhere." A Marine gunnery sergeant lay in a ditch on his back firing his .45-caliber pistol at the aircraft on their strafing runs. When asked between attacks why he was firing at all, he responded, "This makes me feel better."

On 13 December, 27 bombers appeared over Olongapo at 1155 and bombs began to hit the Navy Yard and the civilians in the town. No installations were hit, although bombs straddled the regimental hospital located at the Riverside Cabaret. Again, no weapons in the Navy Yard could reach the altitude of the enemy aircraft. Corporal Earl W. Hettgar remembered staring up at the Japanese aircraft, which were flying so low the Marines could "look up into the bomb bays" of the aircraft. Many houses in the town were destroyed with 13 civilians killed and 40 wounded.

Private First Class Neil P. Iovino became the first 4th Marines casualty when bomb fragments struck him in the abdomen. The fragments shattered his gun stock first, preventing a more serious injury. Two other Marines were also wounded. That night, the men of the 2d Battalion were amused when they heard Radio Tokyo announce that the 4th Marines had been annihilated.

After the bombing, most of Lieutenant Colonel Anderson's 2d Battalion moved to the hills on the Manila Road five miles outside the Navy Yard. Several times, portions of the 2d Battalion were rushed to the beachfront to repel reported landings near Calapacuan Point and permanent defensive positions were set up along Mauqinaya Beach. Lieutenant Colonel "Red" Anderson calmed his men by walking among them as they dug, saying, "That's okay men, they got nothin' bigger than 8-inch shells to throw at us!"

The battalion also formed blocking positions on the Manila Road at Mount Panaigar in the Zambales Mountains in coordination with the Philippine Army's 31st Division. On 22 December, the Japanese landed their 48th Division north of Olongapo at Lingayen Gulf and the main body of the 2d Battalion returned to protect the Naval Station from any supporting Japanese landing.

The Japanese quickly crushed American and Philippine resistance at Lingayen Gulf, and united with the troops previously landed on northern Luzon. On 24 December, another major force, the 16th Division, landed just 60 miles from Manila at Lamon Bay General Douglas MacArthur, commanding USAFFE (United States Army Forces in the Far East), knew the situation was hopeless. He decided to withdraw all American and Philippine forces to the peninsula of Bataan where a final stand would be made, in conjunction with the fortified islands in Manila Bay.

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Mission

The intended use of Marines in the joint defense plan for the Philippines called for the transfer of the regiment to Army operational control. Admiral Hart believed that the 4th Marines "were the strongest infantry regiment in the Philippines," because of the experience of their veteran officers and noncommissioned officers. In an 8 December formal letter Admiral Hart reminded MacArthur that the 4th Marines regiment was available, but the USAFFE commander requested only a battalion to serve as a guard for USAFFE headquarters. MacArthur further offered to allow the Fleet Commander to retain jurisdiction over the unit.

The Marine Rearguard on Bataan

Three days after the bombardment of Cavite, Lieutenant Colonel William T. Clement, Fleet Marine Officer, U.S. Asiatic Fleet, was summoned to Manila for talks with General Douglas MacArthur and his chief of staff, Major General Richard K. Sutherland. Both Army generals were persistent in their efforts to obtain the release of the Marines in the Philippines from Navy to Army control. MacArthur wanted a battalion of Marines to relieve a battalion of the 31st U.S. Infantry to guard his U.S. Army Forces in the Far Fast (USAFFE) Headquarters and to occupy a section of the Philippine capital.

This matter was successfully resisted until 20 December. The rapid advance of the Japanese southward from Lingayen Gulf led the USAFFE commander to abandon Manila and to declare it an open city. He departed on 24 December, and on the following day located an administrative USAFFE Headquarters in Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor.

However, some Marines were still destined to perform guard duty for the U.S. Army. On 5 January 1942, MacArthur established a forward tactical USAFFE echelon on Bataan, under the command of Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall. It was sited at KM (Kilometer) 187.5, northwest of Mariveles, near a quarry at the junction of West Road and Rock Road. On the following day newly promoted Marine First Lieutenant William F. Hogaboom, commanding antiaircraft Battery A, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines, from Cavite, mounted out an interior guard there.

Lieutenant Hogaboom was relieved of this duty on 16 January, when his battery received new orders to join the Naval Battalion at the Quarantine Station at Mariveles. For the next month or so, Marine Batteries A and C were a part of this battalion engaged in combat with a Japanese landing force which had come ashore on Longoskawayan Point behind the American lines.

On 10 January, General MacArthur made his only visit to the front lines on Bataan. Six days later, First Lieutenant Ralph C. Mann, Jr., Company F; and First Lieutenant Michiel Dobervich, Company E, received verbal orders from Lieutenant Colonel Herman R. Anderson, commanding the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, on Corregidor, to establish a new guard at the forward USAFFE echelon, now called Signal Hill. The detachment consisted of 43 Marines, apparently selected at random from throughout the 4th Marines, together with five Filipinos.

The Marine guard had just completed its security precautions when another Japanese force landed at Aglaloma Point to the north and sent patrols forward toward Pucot Hill. Sniper fire was received from two directions at the headquarters on 24 January Lieutenant Dobervich led a patrol of 11 Marine riflemen and one Browning Automatic rifleman out to Pucot Hill seeking any enemy who may have infiltrated the Naval Battalion's lines. No contacts were made and the patrol returned at dark.

The USAFFE Headquarters moved inland on 27 January, reportedly because of proximity to the offensive being conducted in the vicinity of Pucot Hill and Longoskawayan Point. The new location was KM 167.5, north of the road exiting Mariveles to Bataan's East Road and east of Hospital No. 1. The site was nicknamed "Little Baguio," after the elite summer resort in northern Luzon.

Dobervich described the area as that occupied by USAFFE's Service Command, the headquarters compound being entered through a motor pool north of the highway. An ammunition dump was located to its east side, dangerously near the hospital. Facilities were sparse, one or two corrugated buildings and squad tents clustered beneath a towering canopy of trees, effectively screened from aerial observation. The Marines' tent camp and mess were located north of the headquarters. The whole was situated on a flat arm of an extinct volcano southeast of the Mariveles Mountains.

Marines in the detachment with bolos cut a perimeter path from the jungle around the headquarters at approximately 500 yards from the outermost structure. Barbed wire was implanted on the outside and smooth wire inside the path to guide sentries in the darkness. Rocks in cans mounted on trip wires strung outside the wire were occasionally disturbed by iguanas, wild pigs, and pythons. Marines manned eight outposts in the perimeter. Watches were four hours on, four off.

Several Marines later testified to the tedium of this duty. There were no incursions this far south by infiltrating Japanese. By this time, rations had been cut more than half, and the content of the ration apparently varied with in the command structure. Private First Class James O. Faulkner compared the tantalizing smell of frying bacon in the commanding general's cook tent to the unappetizing and unsalted messkit of boiled rice he was repeatedly issued from one day to the next. Apparently some Marines messed with the Army; others recall having gotten all their meals from the Marine galley. The former were probably one sergeant, one corporal, and two privates first class who were assigned as radio operators at Station WTA, USAFFE Headquarters, from January through mid-March.

Former Private Earl C. Dodson was a driver for Lieutenant Mann and acted as mess sergeant. Several of their trips were to acquire rations from the Navy tunnels at Mariveles. He recalls their vehicle being repeatedly strafed by the Japanese. He said that the lieutenant tried to get transferred to Marine antiaircraft duty, feeling that his talents were being wasted in the guard detachment. Mann worried about his wife, the daughter of an American official in the consul's office in Shanghai, whom he had married there. Mrs. Mann accompanied him to the Philippines in November 1941 and was now a prisoner of the Japanese in Manila.

Lieutenant Dobervich also made trips for supplies, traveling three times to Corregidor, where his friend, First Lieutenant Jack Hawkins, Company H, 2d Battalion, assisted him in acquiring them. However, at the end of February, Dobervich was laid up with malaria for two weeks at Hospital No. 1.

On 22 February, Washington notified General MacArthur that he was relieved as commander in the Philippines and that he was to make his way to Australia. Command of the Philippines devolved onto Major General Jonathan M. Wainwright, of I Corps, and USAFFE was redesignated U.S. Forces in the Philippines (USFIP). When MacArthur departed on 12 March, Wainwright took command of the newly formed Luzon Force at the Little Baguio headquarters. However, when he was promoted to lieutenant general on 20 March, he moved to USFIP Headquarters in Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor. Wainwright selected Major General Edward P. King, Jr., to command Luzon Force Headquarters and its combat forces.

Late in March, MacArthur urged Wainwright by radio to make a major counter-attack northward with both his corps to capture Japanese supplies at Olongapo and Dinalupihan. Before any such plans could be formulated, the enemy struck first with fresh troops. Japanese aircraft became more aggressive, one strike coming straight to Hospital No. 1, plainly marked with a Red Cross, and bombing it without mercy. Manila's Japanese radio announced on 31 March that the raid was "unintentional," but the mistake was repeated in following days.

Luzon Force Headquarters and its Marine Detachment came in for their share of subsequent bombings, and Japanese artillery began to find the range. Lieutenant Dobervich urged his Marines to dig foxholes and trenches and directed that a large shelter be tunneled into a nearby hillside. This was enlarged until the Marines turned miners ran into a huge rock in their path which discouraged further progress.

The Japanese Easter offensive broke through the front lines between the two corps on Good Friday and armed barges struck the rear flanks from Manila Bay. By 8 April, the II Corps eastern front had become chaos and, unknown to Wainwright, General King determined to surrender Bataan's battered remnants. Marines at the Luzon Force state that they were aware of some of the proceedings, that they saw officers in a staff car with a white flag depart the camp and proceed northward through streams of troops retreating southward.

At about 2130, 8 April, a severe earthquake shook the peninsula, and the Marines retreated into their prepared tunnel. An hour later, the first of many explosions occurred, when the Navy blew up the USS Canopus, the Dewey Drydock, and its other installations at Mariveles. Army demolition followed, TNT charges setting off the ammunition dump between headquarters and Hospital No. 1 and engineer and quartermaster stores in the adjacent Service Command. The blasts upset the headquarters building, scattering its furniture. At daylight, it was found that all the overhead tree cover had disappeared. On emerging from their sanctuary, the Marines found the rock blocking their tunnel dislodged and free, and they considered themselves fortunate at not being buried alive.

Dovervich recalls that someone on General King's staff advised the other officers to remove their insignia of rank, or to hide it in their clothing. They were also told to rid themselves of any Japanese souvenirs or currency. One Army officer did not, and Dobervich later witnessed his execution. Some enlisted men say they stacked their arms. Others threw their rifle bolts into the jungle and mangled or completely destroyed the remainder of their small arms. All remaining rations were issued. Some gorged, but others made an attempt to hide and save them for a later time. It seems that no one thought to acquire extra water, for they had no way of knowing what lay ahead. They sat down to await the arrival of the Japanese.

Hart declined to use "his" Marines in such a way. At 1940, 15 December, the USAFFE staff met and proposed to convert the 4th Marines into two regiments, and combine them with two regiments of the Philippine Constabulary. The brigade would be used as a reinforcement unit for USAFFE. The following day, Lieutenant Colonel William T. Clement, Fleet Marine Officer, responded by agreeing to the merger with the Philippine troops, and to provide them with ammunition and supplies. Each Marine battalion would absorb one or two companies of Philippine troops and Marines would command the Philippine regiments, with the division commanded by Colonel Howard.

However, Admiral Hart and Colonel Clement changed the proposal and convinced Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, MacArthur's chief of staff, that the Marines still needed field training after their long stay in Shanghai. Sutherland then decided that the 4th Marines would be used for beach defense on Corregidor. Indeed, on 2 January MacArthur stated to his staff that the "Marines had no tactical training and were not suitable for use as a tactical combat unit."

Admiral Hart informed Howard that the 4th Marines was now under Army tactical command. Howard proceeded with Colonel Clement to USAFFE Headquarters and reported directly to MacArthur for duty MacArthur sent him to General Sutherland who provided him orders to prepare for duty on Corregidor. Howard, realizing the assignment would take the 4th Marines away from the front, asked that his regiment be allowed to guard the western beaches on Bataan. Sutherland replied that he wanted "the 4th Marines to take over the beach defenses [of Corregidor] as soon as possible."

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Concentration at Mariveles

On 20 December, Admiral Rockwell ordered Lieutenant Colonel Adams to move his battalion to the Naval Section Base at Mariveles. The next day, two batteries and two companies of the 1st Separate Marine Battalion were ordered to withdraw promptly from Cavite to Mariveles. Lieutenant Carter B. Simpson remembered, "The Colonel with orders and the transportation arrived within one minute of one another." The 1st Separate Marine Battalion completed its evacuation of the Cavite Sangley Point area on the night of Christmas day with the last detachment finishing the destruction of the Navy Yard.

Private First Class James O. Faulkner drove a truck loaded with two tons of candy destined for the Navy commissary at Mariveles. Faulkner noticed the men from his unit resting along the road and pulled over beside them. He quietly informed them of the contents of his truck and then said loudly "I'm going to get something to eat. I don't want to see you getting on my truck!" The Marines understood his meaning and when Faulkner returned, the truck's load was considerably lighter.

On 24 December Lieutenant Colonel Donald Curtis, the regimental executive officer, was directed to move Lieutenant Colonel "Red" Anderson's 2d Battalion to Mariveles without delay Curtis began work at once. At 1800, 24 December, Captain Benjamin L. McMakin, Company F commander, called his officers and noncommissioned officers together and said simply, "Gentlemen, it is Christmas Eve. We move all night." The 2d Battalion boarded trucks and began the move to Mariveles at 2000 with truck convoys continuing for the following two days and nights to move the regimental ammunition and equipment. As night fell on 26 December all personnel, equipment, and supplies were in place in the jungle near Mariveles.

Admiral Rockwell ordered a detail of Marines under Major Frank P. Pyzick to destroy the Olongapo Navy Yard. At the first blast of explosives, the power plant engineer cut off all power to the Yard and disappeared. All demolition work came to a stop until a Marine working party restored power to detonate the remaining explosive charges. The obsolete cruiser USS Rochester was towed into Subic Bay and sunk by depth charges blowing open her hull. The PBY ramp was destroyed and all aviation fuel and submarine supplies were burned.

"The hard part," remembered Private First Class Wilbur M. Marrs, "was destroying all the footlockers that had the deep carved chests inside filled with ivory jade, silk robes, and other souvenirs" that were carefully brought out of Shanghai. Marrs later wrote, "Buildings and equipment that were not blown up, we poured fuel on, including these footlockers." All structures, except for the main building of the Marine Barracks, were left in flames as the Marine detachment departed the Navy Yard for the last time at 1900, 26 December.

On Christmas Eve, Japanese aircraft struck Mariveles, concentrating on the Free French freighter, S.S. Si Kiang. The ship was interned in Mariveles harbor, and a guard of eight 1st Battalion Marines prevented the crew from moving the vessel. A U.S. Army quartermaster proceeded to un load the ship's cargo of gasoline and flour, both of which were badly needed ashore. This daylight movement attracted the attention of the Japanese who bombed the Si Kiang, sending her to the bottom of Mariveles Bay. The 1st Battalion suffered its first losses of the war: two Marines killed and three wounded. The dead were buried with full military honors, in a somber ceremony presided over by Regimental Chaplain Herbert R. Trump, ChC, USN.


Christmas Day

The celebration of Christmas varied throughout the 4th Marines. Captain John Clark later wrote, this was "probably the worst Christmas I ever spent. No food. Nip airplanes bombing over the bay and flying over our area all day long. No damned fun." Marines of the 1st Battalion enjoyed a turkey dinner at Mariveles. Corporal George Bue and other members of Headquarters Company, 2d Battalion, feasted on peas and oatmeal as their Christmas dinner.

For Private First Class James O. Faulkner, the holiday began by driving a truck in the last convoy out of the Cavite Navy Yard. The vehicles halted near the village of San Roque when the astonished drivers saw Filipinos cooking doughnuts alongside the road. Enterprising villagers salvaged the flour from a ship sunk in Manila Bay and the hungry Marines happily joined in the holiday feast.

Lieutenant Colonel "Red" Anderson was driving toward Mariveles with some of his 2d Battalion headquarters staff, when he noticed a bombed-out Filipino cabaret outside Olongapo. Anderson ordered the vehicle stopped and took his men inside to celebrate the holiday and "have a Christmas drink." The headquarters party found the walls half gone, but the bar still intact and everyone soon had a drink in hand. Anderson then called for the singing of Christmas carols, and the group gathered around First Lieutenant Sidney F. Jenkins as he played the cabaret piano. All joined in the singing as they sipped their drinks. The high point of the party was when Private First Class Joseph E. "Frenchy" Dupont sang "Adeste Fideles," completely in Latin. For a brief moment, the war was forgotten.

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Marine Detachment, Air Warning Service

The 1st Separate Marine Battalion at Cavite provided antiaircraft and ground protection for all naval activities there. It manned three 3-inch, .50- caliber batteries; one 3-inch, .23-caliber battery; and two .50-caliber machine gun batteries. When necessary, enough men could be mustered to provide infantry protection for the Navy Yard, the Naval Air Station and Hospital on Sangley Point and the Naval Air Base at Los Banos.

What is not commonly known, for great secrecy appears to have surrounded the matter, is that the battalion's communications unit had equipment with the capability to intercept aircraft by "radio detection." Its acronym, "radar," would not be freely spoken of in military circles until early in 1943.

Marine Lieutenant Colonel Howard L. Davis, at that time a captain and battalion communications officer, stated in 1956 that three radar sets had been received at Cavite in November 1941. Two were SCR-268s, short-range sets designed to be electronically coupled to Mark IV fire control directors and thence to searchlight batteries and antiaircraft batteries for effectively controlled fire on enemy aircraft. Unfortunately, the battalion had no fire control directors. These sets were subsequently used for training additional personnel at Cavite.

The third set, a long-range mobile SCR-270B, was designed for early air warning, capable of computing distance and azimuth, but not altitude, of aircraft. It had been planned to connect the detachment by a radio network to the Army Air Corps Air Warning Service facility at Nichols Field. Its detachment was made up of a few trained technicians and a majority of security and service personnel. Warrant Officer John T. Brainard, who arrived in Cavite in mid-November 1941, commanded the detachment. Master Technical Sergeant Clarence L. Bjork, an electronics expert, had reported for duty only two months earlier.

Private First Class Irvin C. Scott, Jr., one of six enlisted Marines chosen from the 1st and 2d Defense Battalions in San Diego to attend a formal course in radar at the U.S. Army's Signal Corps School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, in 1940 and 1941, was the detachment's lone trained oscilloscope operator. However, in a short time he had partially trained two other Marines to spell him in coming months in the closed and secluded operator's van.

The unit's comings and goings within a guarded enclosure next to Cavite's quartermaster supply at the Marine Barracks were a mystery to its fellow Marines. On 4 December, Gunner Brainard moved his 36-man detachment and one Navy corpsman into the field, borrowing trucks and tractors from a Philippine Army unit to tow heavy power and scope vans and one antenna trailer to Wawa Beach near Nasugbu in Batangas Province, about 100 miles south of Cavite. Here, the detachment was placed under the direction of then-Colonel Harold H. George, U.S. Army Air Corps, commanding the V Interceptor Command, U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), for training and to augment the aircraft warning network covering Luzon. The unit remained in place following the news that Pearl Harbor had been attacked, technical personnel maintaining a 24-hour watch over Manila Bay and the nearby China Sea. At mid-morning, 10 December 1941, Scott picked up on his screen an elongated blip unlike anything witnessed in recent training. Continual tracking brought about the startled realization that he had spotted a massive airplane formation at approximately 120 miles to the southwest, approaching Manila Bay.

Attempts to raise the Sangley Point towers on the radio were futile. When the duty radioman did succeed in reaching Army Radio on Corregidor, operators there, having never heard of radar, exasperatingly refused to acknowledge the transmission or to pass the sighting on to higher headquarters. Cavite was subsequently bombed into near rubble by succeeding waves of 54 Japanese bombers. Marine antiaircraft fire was for the most part ineffective, for the aircraft were beyond its range. More than 400 Marines, sailors and Filipino workmen were killed or wounded. The effectiveness of Cavite as a provider of support to the U.S. Fleet was brought to an end.

Realizing that the position on Wawa Beach was now insecure, Brainard moved his radar inland several miles, near a sugar cane refinery taking advantage of adjacent natural jungle cover to camouflage his vehicles and equipment. His caution was rewarded, for several nights later some of his security riflemen who kept a vigil on the beach surprised a seaborne Japanese scouting party looking for the radar emplacement there.

This sole Marine long-range radar became even more precious, for on the opening day of the war in the Philippines, an identical Army unit at Iba Field, on the west coast of Luzon, was bombed out of existence. An Army emplacement at Aparri met the same fate, and another north of Legaspi was destroyed to keep it from falling into the hands of Japanese who landed there. Shortly there after, Colonel George sent three surviving soldiers from one of those units to join the Marine detachment.

Meanwhile, few activities continued at Cavite. The Naval Hospital moved to Manila, submarines and supply ships departed, and surviving Marines established bivouacs in the barrio outside the base and at the radio station on Sangley Point. However, these were also destroyed in bombings of 19 and 20 December. The 1st Separate Marine Battalion moved to Mariveles on the tip of Bataan and on to Corregidor on 26 December, where on 1 January 1942 it was redesignated 3d Battalion, 4th Marines.

Finding itself virtually isolated from allied organization, and in danger of being cut off by Japanese forces advancing on Manila from the southeast, the detachment evacuated its lonely site on Colonel George's orders the day before Christmas. Despite having found only balky and antiquated alcohol-burning Filipino trucks, Brainard succeeded in extracting his secret cargo from the jungle in separate convoys past a nearly abandoned Cavite. The unit paused in Manila, now aflame and declared an open city only to collect what extra supplies it could find. Two convoys were reunited in the courtyard haven of a Catholic church on the outskirts of San Fernando on Christmas Eve. Christmas dinner consisted of hardtack, cheese spread, and Ovaltine, the missing trucks containing the regular rations.

On the following day the power and scope vans joined the detachment at Orani, upper Bataan Peninsula, along side Manila Bay Brainard selected a well-camouflaged site in a mango grove at KM (kilometer) 148.5 between Orion and Limay and began operations. In the 31 days since the war began, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress fleet had been partially destroyed, and the number of operational Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters was reduced to twelve. The Japanese had air superiority Allied antiaircraft capability was desultory. The mission of the Marine Air Warning Detachment was changed from defensive to offensive. Allied aircraft sorties were carefully tracked, and any other blip on the radar screen was considered an enemy U.S. pilots were advised and forewarned by radio to elude these enemy aircraft and their antiaircraft positions.

The vagaries of war had orphaned the detachment. Although its personnel had been assigned to Headquarters Company of the 1st Separate Marine Battalion, that organization on Corregidor was now unable to render support. Army and Army Air Corps quartermasters were reluctant to logistically help them, and the Navy refused to supply a "detached" unit.

Warrant Officer Brainard therefore directed select Marines to "reconnoiter," or to scrounge for food, fuel, and other supplies the length of the peninsula. Their ingenuity was a wonder. In fact, chits signed by Brainard were issued to non-technical support troops to cover their far-ranging activities, as well as for several men to accompany Army tankers to the front lines as "observers." However, three men were later court-martialed for plundering a foreign vessel disabled offshore but not completely abandoned. Five men joined Army Captain Arthur "One Man Army" Wermuth's Filipino Scouts for night raids on Japanese positions, but Brainard put a stop to this after one Marine was killed and two wounded. These and other bold forays earned the Marine Air Warning Detachment the sobriquet "The Rogues of Bataan." As a result, the Marine command on Corregidor sent First Lieutenant Lester A. Schade, Company L, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines, to Bataan on 17 January to relieve Brainard in command. Strictness reigned for a few days, until necessity brought back the need to acquire supplies. Brainard stayed on in a technical capacity

By the end of January Japanese advances in the II Army Corps area on the eastern half of Bataan placed the site of the detachment in jeopardy. Shells of 240mm artillery had straddled their position, and spotter aircraft were getting too close for comfort. They prepared to move again.

Newly promoted Brigadier General George and his remaining pilots were flying mostly nocturnal missions with their P-40's from the newly prepared Bataan and Cabcaben Fields just east of the barrio of Cabcaben. Brainard chose an elevated site near the flyers' bivouac, on the northwestern edge of Bataan Field. They began operations there on 3 February continuing the mission of informing American pilots when possible of encroaching enemy aircraft.

In January 1992, Scott, a retired geologist now living in Richmond, Virginia, stated that one night in mid-March 1942 he was experimenting with the possibility of picking up surface traffic on Manila Bay and succeeded in following three American gunboats on patrol out of Corregidor. General George was elated and wanted to know if he could do it again. A few nights later he had the satisfaction of tracking a flotilla of small enemy vessels in the bay. Under cover of darkness and spewing a smokescreen, the Japanese were attempting an amphibious landing behind American lines. Scott detected them well out from the shoreline, and his prompt radio alert enabled pilots, Army artillery in the vicinity and the Navy's gunboats to repulse the enemy. No landing was effected.

A massive Good Friday assault by the Japanese coupled with a general collapse of American and Filipino lines due to high casualties, battle fatigue, epidemic disease, and short rations, resulted in the final evacuation of the Marine radar unit. Orders received on 8 April directed them to get their equipment and troops to the docks at Mariveles for transfer to Corregidor. However, on reaching the cut-off road from the East to West Road and within sight of their destination, several factors brought about their disintegration. First, a tremendous earthquake rocked the entire peninsula, followed by the Navy and Army blowing up ships, ammunition, fuel, and other supplies stored in tunnels and in the open. Japanese bombers contributed to the confusion, bombing and strafing service facilities and hospitals, as well as a mass of equipment and humanity streaming toward the port on all roads and trails.

Finding their path effectively blocked and the last of the major vessels capable of transporting their radar, men, and equipment already departed, Brainard directed that the power, scope, and antenna carriers be properly primed, charges placed, and set afire. Other organizational vehicles were backed over a cliff onto rocks and surf below.

Pandemonium reigned. Lieutenant Schade released the men from the unit, each to seek his own means of escape. Four men had been transferred to Corregidor on 4 April. An additional five, some together and the others singly made their precarious ways to "The Rock," where they joined the 4th Marines. A few, including Scott, could neither escape northward, nor find the means to cross the channel. They were gathered together at the shore by an Air Corps lieutenant who led them to an assembly area, fed them, and promised that a boat was to be sent from Corregidor. After destroying their small arms, they found to their dismay that the lieutenant was acting under orders to surrender them to the enemy. The following morning, the Japanese marched in and prepared them for what was later to be notorious as the "Bataan Death March."

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Corregidor

At 1000, 26 December, the 4th Marines began to move to Corregidor. More than 400 Marines of the 1st Separate Marine Battalion were loaded on board lighters and taken across the channel. They were then transported by narrow gauge railway to Middleside Barracks. The forward echelon of the Headquarters and Service Companies and the 2d Battalion loaded on a minesweeper and lighters just after darkness the following day. Shortly after midnight on 27 December, the 336 Marines and their equipment were completely unloaded on Corregidor.

Two days later at 2010, the 1st Battalion and the remainder of the regiment completed the transfer to Corregidor's North Dock. A 1st Battalion Marine private busily carried a box of .30-caliber ammunition weighing more than 96 pounds to the dock. Lieutenant Colonel Beecher stepped in front of the sweating Marine and took the box out of his hands. He then dropped the ammunition off the dock into the water. The private stared dumbfounded as Beecher informed him, "You're carrying blanks; we are not using them anymore." The 4th took six months of rations for 2,000 men, 10 units of fire for all weapons, a two-year supply of summer clothing, and medicines and equipment for a 100-bed hospital, to Corregidor.

Marines were first quartered in the concrete barracks on Middleside. When they inquired of their Army comrades about protection from bombing, they were assured the barracks were bombproof. Captain John Clark wrote later, "A feeling of safety and security came over us as we reached the Rock. We were told it was impregnable, and that we had nothing to fear from Japanese attack."

At 0800, 29 December, Colonel Howard reported to Major General George F. Moore, commanding the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. He was immediately appointed commanding officer of beach defense, Corregidor. Howard then began a prompt inspection of the current beach defenses.

First Bombing

At 1140 that same day a flight of Japanese aircraft approached Corregidor. Air-raid sirens sounded, but most of the 4th Marines paid little attention to them, believing in the safety of Corregidor's antiaircraft defenses. Lieutenant Sidney Jenkins remembered, "bombs screaming to earth with shattering explosions, the crack of AA guns, the neat 'plop plop' of the AA shells bursting all over the sky . . . there we were, the whole regiment flat on our bellies on the lower deck of Middleside Barracks."
Japanese aircraft prepare to bomb Corregidor
Japanese aircraft prepare to bomb Corregidor. Photo courtesy of Dr. Diosdado M. Yap

Marines in the upper decks of Middleside Barracks sprinted for the lower deck for protection. Most of the bombs that hit the building exploded on the second and third decks, but Private First Class Don Thompson and 20 other Marines on the first deck felt an explosion and a shower of cement dust. He looked up and saw blue sky though a hole in the ceiling of the supposedly bombproof barracks. Bombs continued to fall for the next two hours. Corporal Verle W. Murphy died of multiple wounds to the head and chest while trying to clear the building, and nine Marines were wounded in the attack.

Private First Class Charles R. Greer and Private Alexander Katchuck noticed two wounded men in an abandoned truck. Greer and Katchuck left their shelter and drove the truck to the hospital despite the falling bombs. They were awarded Silver Star Medals, the first Marines to be awarded an Army decoration in World War II, and the first to be mentioned in General MacArthur's dispatches.

Bombs destroyed or damaged the hospital, antiaircraft batteries, Topside and Middleside Barracks, the Navy fuel depot, and the officers club. Smoke cast a black pall over the island as numerous wooden buildings caught fire. Power, water, and communication lines were disrupted. Total casualties on Corregidor mounted to 20 killed and 80 wounded.

After the Japanese bombing ended, the 4th Marines was assembled in front of the barracks to ascertain casualties. As the men stood in formation, someone dragged a sea bag down the stairs of the barracks, which made a noise like falling bombs. Instantly, the men broke and ran "pell mell back into the safe barracks" only to reemerge laughing once the origin of the sound was determined.

Japanese bombers reappeared over Corregidor at 1134, 2 January and bombed the island for more than three hours. Private First Class Verdie G. Andrews was killed by debris from the explosions and six other Marines were wounded. Periodic bombing continued over the next four days resulting in one Marine killed and another wounded. Only two more raids occurred in January allowing the Marines to improve their positions considerably. On 29 January Japanese aircraft dropped only propaganda leaflets which greatly amused the beach defenders.

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Deployment

On 29-30 December the 4th Marines moved from its barracks into field positions. The 1st Battalion took the east sector, from Malinta Hill to Hooker Point on the tail of the island. The 2d Battalion moved into the west sector and the 1st Separate Marine Battalion was assigned the middle sector. On 1 January 1941, this battalion was officially redesignated 3d Battalion, 4th Marines. Forty four Marines of the battalion were detailed for antiaircraft defense for Batteries Wheeler and Cheney. In addition, 46 Marines in two platoons of the 3d Battalion under Second Lieutenant Frederick A. Hagen were deployed with .30- and .50-caliber machine guns to provide antiaircraft fire and beach defense of Fort Hughes. Another 14 Marines of the 3d Battalion were deployed to Fort Drum for the same purpose.

Work began rapidly on construction of beach defenses. Typical was the reaction of Lieutenant Colonel Beecher when he first inspected his defense area. He later wrote, "The task confronting us was appalling. With 350 men there were 3,500 to 4,000 yards of possible landing beach to defend." The Marines began to build barbed wire barriers, tank traps, bunkers, and trench systems. Working parties began at first light in the morning and halted only at noon for a rest period in place of lunch. The work progressed well, slowed only by Japanese shelling, bombing, and darkness.

Tools were carefully guarded, as Lieutenant Jenkins remembered, "We took care of our tools like gems." The Marines ran short of sandbags, so discarded powder cans from the coastal artillery guns were filled with dirt and used in their place. Bottles were filled with gasoline to make "Molotov cocktails," to be dropped over cliffs on the Japanese. Empty gasoline drums were filled with dirt and rock and set up as tank traps on trails leading from the beach. Each position was carefully camouflaged for protection and dummy positions were also constructed to attract enemy fire.

Marines of Company B located Army aircraft bombs, and wooden chutes were constructed to drop the bombs on landing areas. A second line of defense and reserve positions were also built behind the front line beach defenses, with the hope of eventual reinforcement.

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Battle of the Points

After the movement of the 4th Marines to Corregidor in December, there were still Marines on Bataan. Two antiaircraft batteries operated in the Mariveles area and formed part of a naval defense battalion for the southern coast of Bataan. Battery A, commanded by First Lieutenant William F Hogaboom, was stationed at the Mariveles Quarantine Station, protecting an old Dewey Dry Dock. The battery consisted of two officers and 80 men and was armed with nine machine guns for low level antiaircraft defense. One Navy officer and 65 sailors were attached to the battery Battery C, under First Lieutenant Wilfred D. Holdredge was posted in an abandoned rice paddy between the Navy Section Base and the village of Mariveles. The battery was composed of four 3-inch antiair craft guns and had an ensign and 40 sailors attached.

General MacArthur learned of the presence of Marines on Bataan and ordered Battery A to serve as a guard for USAFFE Headquarters. The officer in charge of the Naval Battalion, Commander Frank J. Bridget, then directed Lieutenant Hogaboom to return to duty at Mariveles instead. On 14 January MacArthur wrote directly to Admiral Rockwell requesting the suspension of Bridget's order. Rockwell replied the same day that Battery A had yet to be relieved of its duties at the Mariveles Section Base, and was not yet under Army direction. MacArthur ended the dispute by issuing Field Order Number 6, assigning two officers and 40 enlisted men from Corregidor to serve as guards for USAFFE Headquarters, relieving Battery A.

At 0800, 23 January, the aircraft lookout on Mt. Pucot reported to Commander Bridget that a Japanese seaborne landing had been made on Longoskawayan Point, 2,000 yards west of Mariveles. Bridget ordered Lieutenants Holdredge and Hogaboom to move to the point and confirm the landing. Japanese strength was estimated at only one squad. Unfortunately, Bridget failed to inform the two lieutenants that two Marine patrols would be in the area. Holdredge and Hogaboom had no knowledge of each other's movements.

Platoon Sergeant Robert A. Clement was ordered by Bridget to command a hastily gathered platoon of 36 sailors to support the two Marine lieutenants. Clement asked for another Marine noncommissioned officer, whom he did get, and led his men into the jungle. Sergeant Clement deployed his men in loose formation and moved toward Longoskawayan Point. In a few minutes, he heard a sailor calling, "Hey, Sarge!" "Hey Sarge!" Clement quickly ran over to him. The sailor held up his rifle and asked, "Sarge, how do you get the bullets in this thing." Clement rapidly held school for the sailor and the platoon moved on.

Clement's men soon reached the beach where they came upon the Japanese supply area. More than 150 rifles were neatly stacked as well as Lister bags of fresh water hanging from poles. Two Japanese cooks were the only enemy in sight and these men ran at the approach of the Americans. Clement ordered each of his men to carry off one of the rifles and returned to report his success. Japanese machine guns caught the patrol in an ambush a short distance up the trail, and Clement and a Navy lieutenant were hit in the initial exchange of gunfire.

The firing alerted the two Marine patrols. At the sound of battle both Holdredge and Hogaboom deployed. They met scattered Japanese patrols and drove the Japanese back toward the coast, towards Clement's men. Machine gun fire hit the Marines, killing Private First Class Quentin R. Sitton. Despite the Japanese fire, the two forces joined and together withdrew to a blocking position on the ridge between Mariveles and Longoskawayan Point. Bridget gathered the men available at the Section Base and reinforced the detail of the two Marine lieutenants with 30 sailors. At this point, the Marine commanders believed they had encountered only about a platoon of the enemy.

On 24 January the Marines and sailors again advanced on the point. Strong Japanese resistance was encountered and rifle fire and grenades were exchanged between the two forces. At the first sight of a hand grenade, a Marine shouted, "Grenade!" and dove for cover. The sailors stood looking around, asking, "Where?" The untrained sailors learned quickly how to take cover thereafter. Lieutenant Holdredge came upon a Japanese light artillery position and maneuvered to engage the enemy. He soon realized his men were behind enemy lines and pulled back to the main Marine position. Firing was spasmodic the rest of the day and at dusk the Americans pulled back to their blocking position.

The two lieutenants realized they needed more men to engage the enemy the following day and requested reinforcements from Corregidor. On the morning of 25 January a machine-gun platoon and an 81mm-mortar platoon arrived under the command of First Lieutenant Michael E. Peshek. Marine Gunner Harold D. Ferrell directed two 81mm mortars on the positions the Japanese occupied during the previous day's engagement. By midafternoon the Marines again moved toward the points, Hogaboom to Lapiay Point and Holdredge to Longoskawayan Point. Hogaboom found no enemy, but Holdredge's men were met by an ambush and had heavy losses. Holdredge and 11 enlisted Marines were wounded and Private First Class Warren J. Carver was killed.

The Marines again withdrew to their blocking position and shortly after midnight, 12-inch mortars from Corregidor pounded Longoskawayan Point. On the morning of 26 January, Marine mortars combined with Filipino artillery again hit the Japanese defensive positions. The 60 to 75 Marines and 130 sailors probed the Japanese defenses, but the attack became disorganized. The Japanese counterattacked and again the Americans withdrew. Hogaboom reported that "we could not hope to continue the attack or even hold our ground with the troops at our disposal." Commander Bridget responded by ordering Hogaboom to dig in and prepare for another attack in the morning.

As the tired men returned to their positions they were met by the 1st Battalion, 57th Infantry (Philippine Scouts), who relieved them. The remainder of the Naval Battalion withdrew to Mariveles and three days later the Philippine Scouts had cleaned out the Japanese landing force. The platoon that the Marines initially thought had landed turned out to be a reinforced battalion with attached artillery These Japanese were part of a larger landing force but had become separated during the night of 22-23 January and landed unsupported on Longoskawayan Point.

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Bataan

Battery A moved to Corregidor on 17 February leaving a Marine Air Warning Detachment, the USAFFE Guard, and Battery C as the only Marines remaining on Bataan. Disease became a problem for Battery C, as Lieutenant Simpson recalled, "the heat was terrific, malaria cropped out among the men every day or so, yet we had to stay manned every day all day because of constant enemy air activity" The battery often left one gun unmanned to have full crews on the remaining guns.

The Bombardment Continues

On 6 February, Japanese artillery opened fire on Corregidor and the fortified islands from positions in Cavite Province. The forts were shelled eight more days and bombed twice in February. Occasional shelling and bombing hit the fortified islands until 15 March, when the Japanese began preparations to renew their offensive on Bataan. The bombing and artillery raids now continued unabated until the end of the siege. The Japanese conducted attacks spaced over every 24-hour period after 24 March to prevent any rest by the defenders. Japanese harassing artillery fires, conducted every 25-30 minutes throughout the night, caused the Marines to dub the annoying cannon "Insomnia Charlie." The artillery spotting balloon over Bataan was nicknamed "Peeping Tom."

The events of 30 March typify the constant Japanese bombardment. There were two periods of shelling, beginning at 0950 and 1451, and six bombing raids, beginning at 0040 and spaced throughout the day. One Marine, Private First Class Kenneth R. Paulin of Company M, 3d Battalion, was killed during the day by shellfire from the Cavite shore. The bombing raids finally ended at 2205. The attacks were renewed at 0102 on the same schedule, except 10 bombing raids occurred on 31 March.

At this time, the major problems facing Major General Jonathan Wainwright, USA, commander of U.S. Forces on the Bataan Peninsula, were dwindling food supply and an increased disease rate. By March, the daily ration of food for the men on Bataan was 1,000 calories with food for Corregidor rationed to last until the end of June 1942. On 27 March, Wainwright telegraphed Mac Arthur in Australia to report the June deadline and asked for supplies. He also stated that "with ample food and ammunition we can hold the enemy in his present position, I believe, indefinitely"

On 1 April, General Wainwright recognized that little or no food could arrive through the Japanese blockade and ordered a new reduced ration. The 4th Marines and other defenders of Corregidor now consumed 30.49 ounces of food per day: 8 ounces of meat, 7 ounces of flour, 4 ounces of vegetables, 3 ounces of beans and cereals, 2.5 ounces of rice, 3 ounces of milk, and approximately 3 ounces of miscellaneous food stuffs.

"We were hungry all the time," remembered Private First Class Ben L. Lohman, "We ate mule meat . . . when the mules were killed in the bombing . . . they'd bring the carcasses down and we'd eat 'em." Drinking water was distributed only twice a day in powder cans, but bombing and shelling often interrupted the resupply. The staple food for the 4th Marines was cracked wheat, sometimes made into dumplings, sometimes served with syrup. The continued lack of a proper diet created major problems for the 4th Marines, as men were weakened and lacked reliable night vision. Some Marines lost up to 40 pounds during the bombardment.

On 9 April, Bataan fell to the Japanese after a final offensive broke through the USAFFE defenses trapping more than 75,000 men. Battery C managed to escape at the last minute, but the Marine guards at USAFFE headquarters and the Air Warning Detachment were taken prisoner, and endured the infamous Bataan Death March. The Japanese wasted little time before focusing their attention on Corregidor, intensifying their bombardment of the island the same day Bataan fell.

Although food was in short supply on Corregidor. ammunition was relatively plentiful. As of 7 April, the island had 5,177,900 rounds of armor piercing, clipped, and tracer .30-caliber ammunition and a total of 161,808 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition. Gen Wainwright wrote, "Our flag still flies on this beleaguered fortress." and added in his memoir, "I meant to see it keep flying."

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Reinforcements

As men became available on Corregidor from January until after the fall of Bataan, they were integrated into the 4th Marines to support beach defense. In February, 58 sailors formerly of the USS Canopus were organized as a reserve company Lieutenant Clarence Van Ray with Platoon Sergeant Leslie D. Sawyer and Sergeant Ray K. Cohen trained and equipped the sailors into an efficient fighting force. Ten Marines and 40 more sailors were added to the company after the fall of Bataan.

The largest group of reinforcements arrived after the fall of Bataan. In the days following 9 April, 72 officers and 1,173 enlisted men from more than 50 different organizations were assigned to the 4th Marines, making the Marine regiment one of the most unusual units in Marine Corps history. These reinforcements included members of the Navy, the Army, the Philippine Army and Philippine Scouts. Sailors stranded on land after the loss of their ships found themselves alongside engineers, tankers, and aviators whose units were captured on Bataan. Filipino Scouts were assigned with members of the islands' Constabulary to the 4th Marines. Unfortunately, very few of the reinforcements were trained or equipped for ground combat. By 29 April, the 4th Marines numbered 229 officers and 3,770 men, of whom only about 1,500 were Marines.

With Bataan on the brink of falling, Captain John H. S. Dessez, the commander of the Navy Base at Mariveles requested permission to transfer his 500 sailors to Corregidor. Approval was granted with the condition that these men would be part of the beach defense force. On 10 April, the 4th Battalion was formed under the command of Major Francis H. "Joe" Williams. His command was built with nine Army officers and 16 Navy officers and warrant officers commanding 272 enlisted men. This joint service battalion bivouacked in Government Ravine near Battery Geary and began to train for ground combat.

Four companies were organized in the battalion and lettered Q, R, S, and T. Companies Q and R were commanded by Army officers and S and T by Navy officers. Rifles still packed in cosmoline, a greasy protective coating, were issued to the sailors. This presented interesting cleaning problems to the inexperienced mariners. However, rifles were all that was issued to the battalion in the way of equipment. There were no helmets, cartridge belts, or even first aid kits.

Williams at once began weapons training for his sailors. With no rifle range available, the blue-jackets used floating debris in Manila Bay as targets on which to sight in their rifles. Some of the Navy personnel had not fired a weapon in almost 20 years. Training proceeded with cover and concealment, and small unit tactics. Evening lectures were given by men experienced in combat on Bataan. The accelerated infantry training by the battalion was punctuated by the daily shelling and the fact that each man felt "that this battalion would be used where the going was the roughest . . . . The chips were down and there was no horseplay"

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1st Battalion Defenses

Lieutenant Colonel Beecher now commanded 360 Marines, 500 Filipinos, approximately 100 American sailors, and 100 American soldiers, totaling 1,024 effective fighting men. These troops were armed with the 1903 Springfield rifle, grenades, BARs, four 37mm guns, and eight .30-caliber machine guns. A few 60mm mortars were available, as well as .50-caliber machine guns taken from immobilized ships. They were emplaced to defend the beaches. Additionally the Philippine Scouts had mounted a few 75mm guns. Initially, the 37mm and 75mm guns could not be traversed quickly enough that a fast moving boat could not easily escape their fire.

The Japanese shelling caused serious damage to the beach defenses, and casualties among the officers and men of the battalion, but most of the heavy weapons were still intact. As of 1 May the battalion had lost only four machine guns and eight cases of .30-caliber ammunition. Far more serious was the loss of the water supply and a complete loss of the field communication lines. Caches of rations were buried or received direct hits from lucky shells. Casualties among officers and men were equally serious: Major Harry C. Lang, commanding Company A, was killed; Captain Paul A. Brown of Company B and one of his platoon commanders were wounded; one of Company D's officers was wounded; and three Army officers with the reserve company also were wounded. Army officers replaced the commanders but the men had little confidence in them. This acute loss of experienced leaders would be critical in the coming fighting.

The area held by the 1st Battalion was heavily wooded when first occupied in December and dotted with coastal artillery barracks and other buildings. By early May the area was completely barren of vegetation and scattered with the ruins of shelled buildings. Sergeant Louis E. Duncan later remembered, "there was dust a foot thick," covering the entire area.

On 1 May Beecher had reported to Colonel Howard that the beach defenses on the eastern portion of the island were practically destroyed by the Japanese bombardment and that repair under the continuing fire would be impossible. Beach wire had been repeatedly holed, tank traps filled in, and all the heavy guns of the 1st Battalion were in temporary emplacements as the initial ones had been spotted and destroyed by the enemy. The Japanese fire was so accurate that the men could be fed only at night.

Colonel Howard told this to General Wainwright, who said only that he would never surrender. When Howard told Beecher this, he replied, "I pointed out to Colonel Howard that nothing had been said about surrender; I was merely reporting conditions as they existed in my sector."

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Japanese Preparations

The enemy bombing and shelling continued with unrelenting ferocity. Japanese aircraft flew 614 missions from 28 April until 5 May dropping 1,701 bombs totaling 365.3 tons of explosive. At the same time 9 240mm howitzers, 34 149mm howitzers, and 32 other artillery pieces pounded Corregidor day and night. Most of the Japanese artillery was based on Bataan with one reinforced battalion firing from Cavite Province.

On 2 May, a 240mm shell exploded the magazines of Battery Geary, causing massive casualties to the Army crews manning the guns. A Marine rescue party ran to assist in clearing the casualties from the resulting fires. Major Francis H. Williams and Captain Austin C. Shofner were the first two Marines into the battery and both were seriously burned about the hands, face, and ankles in rescuing survivors from the blaze. Both officers refused to be evacuated.

On 29 April the 61st Infantry Regiment of the 4th Imperial Japanese Army Division was selected to be the first force to be landed on Corregidor. Supporting the infantry were elements of the 23d Independent Engineer Battalion and the 1st Battalion of the 4th Engineer Regiment. Once on shore, elements of the 1st Company, Independent Mortar Battalion, the 51st Mountain Gun Regiment, and the 3d Mortar Battalion would provide gunfire support.

The 61st Infantry and attached units, titled Left Flank Force, was to land on the tail of Corregidor on the evening of 5 May This 2,400-man landing force would seize Kindley Field and then capture Malinta Hill. The following night a second reinforced regiment of the 4th Infantry Division would land on Morrison and Battery Points. The two forces would then join for the capture of Topside.

On the evening of 4 May a Philippine civilian arrived in a small fishing boat on the beach at Corregidor. The civilian carried a message from Philippine intelligence on Bataan, and was promptly carried to Lieutenant Colonel George D. Hamilton, the regimental intelligence officer. Hamilton called for Sergeant Harold S. Dennis of the intelligence section to read the note aloud, as he was having difficulty disciphering the message. Dennis read, "Expect enemy landing on the night of 5/6 May." Hamilton quieted Dennis, saying, "Hush, hush, hush, don't say another word! Do you want to start a panic?" Hamilton took Dennis with the note to Colonel Howard who listened as the note was read aloud a second time. In the morning of 5 May Howard called a meeting of all the regiment's senior officers. Once assembled, Howard told them the contents of the note from Bataan. The Japanese were expected to make their attack that night or the following day.

There followed a discussion of the probabilities of the landing. If the Japanese were expected that night, the beach positions would be 100% manned at nightfall. If the landing took place at dawn, the positions would be 50% manned until dawn so the men could eat and rest for the coming attack. Curtis asked the assembled officers for their opinions, which was followed by a spirited discussion. Curtis then called for a vote, which was unanimous for the men to sleep until one hour before dawn and then fully man the defenses.

Colonel Howard then spoke and asked for the opinion of Sergeant Dennis, the only enlisted man in the room. Dennis had studied Japanese tactics in China and said that enemy landings were invariably made at night, one hour before the full light of the moon. Colonel Howard thanked him for his opinion, but did not change the regiment's orders. The men would be allowed to sleep for a predawn landing.

Major Max W. Schaeffer commanded the regimental reserve, which consisted of two companies lettered O and P, formed mainly from Headquarters and Service Company's personnel. Schaeffer's would be the first unit to move to any Japanese landing on Corregidor. At 1700, 5 May he made his final preparation for the night. Major Schaeffer summoned Sergeant Gerald A. Turner to his headquarters. The sergeant reported by asking "Well, Major, what's the trouble now?" Major Schaeffer replied, "It may be a long, long night for you. The reason I've called you down here is because we need a 2d platoon, and you're it." He made Turner a lieutenant and gave him command of 30-35 Filipino army officer cadets formed into a platoon of three squads. "Don't go out and try to be a hero," cautioned Schaeffer, "I want you to look after these kids and take care of them." Even with the addition of Turner's platoon, the regimental reserve numbered less than 500 men.

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Intelligence

On the evening of 4 May a Philippine civilian arrived in a small fishing boat on the beach at Corregidor. The civilian carried a message from Philippine intelligence on Bataan, and was promptly carried to Lieutenant Colonel George D. Hamilton, the regimental intelligence officer. Hamilton called for Sergeant Harold S. Dennis of the intelligence section to read the note aloud, as he was having difficulty disciphering the message. Dennis read, "Expect enemy landing on the night of 5/6 May." Hamilton quieted Dennis, saying, "Hush, hush, hush, don't say another word! Do you want to start a panic?" Hamilton took Dennis with the note to Colonel Howard who listened as the note was read aloud a second time. In the morning of 5 May Howard called a meeting of all the regiment's senior officers. Once assembled, Howard told them the contents of the note from Bataan. The Japanese were expected to make their attack that night or the following day.

There followed a discussion of the probabilities of the landing. If the Japanese were expected that night, the beach positions would be 100% manned at nightfall. If the landing took place at dawn, the positions would be 50% manned until dawn so the men could eat and rest for the coming attack. Curtis asked the assembled officers for their opinions, which was followed by a spirited discussion. Curtis then called for a vote, which was unanimous for the men to sleep until one hour before dawn and then fully man the defenses.

Colonel Howard then spoke and asked for the opinion of Sergeant Dennis, the only enlisted man in the room. Dennis had studied Japanese tactics in China and said that enemy landings were invariably made at night, one hour before the full light of the moon. Colonel Howard thanked him for his opinion, but did not change the regiment's orders. The men would be allowed to sleep for a predawn landing.

Major Max W. Schaeffer commanded the regimental reserve, which consisted of two companies lettered O and P, formed mainly from Headquarters and Service Company's personnel. Schaeffer's would be the first unit to move to any Japanese landing on Corregidor. At 1700, 5 May he made his final preparation for the night. Major Schaeffer summoned Sergeant Gerald A. Turner to his headquarters. The sergeant reported by asking "Well, Major, what's the trouble now?" Major Schaeffer replied, "It may be a long, long night for you. The reason I've called you down here is because we need a 2d platoon, and you're it." He made Turner a lieutenant and gave him command of 30-35 Filipino army officer cadets formed into a platoon of three squads. "Don't go out and try to be a hero," cautioned Schaeffer, "I want you to look after these kids and take care of them." Even with the addition of Turner's platoon, the regimental reserve numbered less than 500 men

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The Landing
A Japanese artillery piece on Bataan pounds Corregidor, April 1942. Photo courtesy of Dr. Diosdado M. Yap

At nightfall on 5 May Colonel Gempachi Sato assembled his Left Flank Force at Limay on the Bataan Peninsula. The gathered troops "sang softly the high thin haunting melody of 'Prayer in the Dawn,'" and then climbed into 19 landing craft for the assault. The landing craft varied in size, the smallest carrying 30 men and the largest 170. More important, five tanks of the 7th Tank Regiment were also embarked in two landing craft. The landing craft and barges approached Corregidor in a three-line formation with expected landfall at 2300, shortly before the rise of the moon.

At 2240 the artillery shelling concentrated on the north shore beach defenses in the 1st Battalion sector. At 2300, supplies of food and water were just reaching the beach positions when landing boats were reported offshore. A second artillery concentration pounded the beach defenses for 6-7 minutes. The shelling was particularly intense, ending with phosphorous shells. Three to four minutes of silence followed the last shell when word reached Beecher at battalion headquarters that seven Japanese landing craft were nearing the beach. The initial Japanese landing of 790 men of the reinforced 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry was headed for the beaches from Infantry Point to North Point.

Captain Lewis H. Pickup of Company A watched from his command post as the first force of landing craft in echelon headed for his company's positions. Searchlights picked up the landing craft and the 1st Battalion commenced firing. The 37mm guns had no trouble tracking the landing craft, as Sergeant Louis E. Duncan had altered the traversing mechanism so it could move more freely Gunnery Sergeant William A. Dudley held up the trails to his 37mm gun to fire down on the incoming boats.

Private First Class Silas K. Barnes heard the boat motors from his machine gun position on Infantry Point and for a few moments was able to hit the approaching landing craft that were illuminated by the search lights. He effectively enfiladed Cavalry Beach and cut down many of the Japanese soldiers as they came ashore. The Japanese struggled in the layers of oil that covered the beaches from ships sunk earlier in the siege and experienced great difficulty in landing personnel and equipment. Unfortunately Barnes' and one other machine gun position were all that remained of 13 machine guns from Infantry Point to North Point. The rest had been destroyed by the Japanese bombardment.

The 1st Platoon, Company A, commanded by First Lieutenant William F. Harris, defended the beach from Infantry to Cavalry Points, while the 2d Platoon under Master Gunnery Sergeant John Mercurio held the line from Cavalry to North Points. "I've got word that landing boats will attempt a landing," Harris told his men, "They'll be coming in here someplace. Fix Bayonets." He ordered Private First Class James D. Nixon to go to the cliff overlooking the beach, and report on the location of the Japanese. Nixon looked at the beach and saw Japanese troops coming ashore only 30 feet away. The Marines placed a heavy fire on the Japanese as they climbed the steep cliffs and tossed "Molotov Cocktails" down on the landing craft. In the darkness, however, the Japanese succeeded in bypassing many of the Marine positions.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Mercurio's 2d Platoon was spread thin covering the beach area, with many of his positions right on the water. "At high tide," recalled Corporal Edwin R. Franklin, "I could reach out and touch the water." The landing craft were only 100 yards away from the beach when Japanese flares lit up the night. The 2d Platoon began firing, but the Japanese were too close to halt the landing. A landing craft beached in front of Franklin's position and enemy troops began coming ashore. Mercurio, armed with only a pistol, killed a Japanese soldier "so close he could have touched him," as the Japanese overran the beach defenses. The fighting became particularly bloody, "with every man for himself," remembered Franklin. The Japanese 50mm heavy grenade dischargers or "knee mortars" were particularly effective at close range, and the overwhelming numbers of Japanese infantry forced Mercurio's men to pull back from the beach.

Corporal Joseph Q. Johnson, a 31st Infantry soldier attached to the 2d Platoon, remembered, "the gun next to me chattered, and glancing to my right, I saw its targets, small, fleeting, darting in the shadows." Johnson fired two belts of machine gun ammunition and was firing a third one when a grenade landed 20 yards away. A second grenade landed closer, and rifle fire also hit Johnson's position. When a third grenade landed only 10 yards from the gunpit, Johnson ran to the next machine gun position and found the two occupants dead. He kept moving, crawling along the beach with two other survivors of his platoon, crawling along the beach with two other survivors of his platoon, toward Kindley Field.

The survivors of the 2d Platoon found themselves surrounded by the advancing Japanese as they tried to reach safety Corporal Franklin saw a grenade land in the trail in front of him, which exploded and knocked him to the ground with a head wound. Franklin next hazily saw a Japanese soldier charging with fixed bayonet. The Marine said to himself, "I ain't going this f***** way" and jumped up to engage the enemy with his own bayonet. Franklin was stabbed in the chest, but succeeded in killing the Japanese soldier. He ran ahead down the trail past another enemy soldier, who shot Franklin in the leg, but the Marine continued moving until he reached Malinta Tunnel.

Lieutenant Harris was forced to pull his platoon out of the area of Cavalry Point after the Japanese overran Mercurio's platoon. Most of the men fought on their own through the night. Private First Class Nixon moved toward the high ground of Denver Battery, when he encountered a Japanese soldier, "eyeball to eyeball." Both men charged with fixed bayonet, and in the ensuing struggle, Nixon was able to wound the Japanese soldier in the side. He left his enemy in the darkness and moved toward the sound of firing.

After facing 30-45 minutes of defensive firing the landing craft seemed to abandon their attempts to land and retired to the bay. The firing then subsided. Unknown to Captain Pickup, most of the 1st Battalion, 61st Infantry was ashore in 15 minutes and the barges were returning to Limay. The Japanese sent up a flare to signal a successful landing at 2315. In 30 minutes, Colonel Sato had his men off the beach and moving inland.

The 785 men of the reinforced 2d Battalion, 61st Infantry were not so successful. The Japanese planners had not reckoned with the strong current in the channel between Bataan and Corregidor and the battalion landed east of North Point where all defensive positions were still intact. The craft also hit the Corregidor beach 10 minutes after the 1st Battalion, and the Marines were ready and alert for the attack. The Japanese came under heavy fire for the next 35 minutes, losing eight of 10 landing craft on the shore and one more sinking after pulling off the beach.

Private First Class Roy E. Hays manned a .30-caliber machine gun nestled in the cliffs overlooking the beach area at Hooker Point. He could see the barges approach his position, but was ordered to hold fire until the landing craft came closer. Hays decided, "We're not waiting any longer," and opened a devastating fire at point blank range. This was instantly followed by accompanying fires from all the weapons positions along the beach.

The Japanese who did get ashore were crowded in most cases on beaches that were only 30 feet wide backed by 30-foot-high cliffs. Most of the officers were killed early in the landing, and the huddled survivors were hit with hand grenades, and machine gun and rifle fire.

Private First Class David L. Johnson remembered a sailor named Hamilton firing a twin .50-caliber machine gun up and down the beach, "like shooting ducks in a rain barrel. The Japanese would run up and down the beach," remembered Johnson "and each time there would be less men in the charges. Finally they swam into the surf, and hid behind boulders." For the remainder of the night, only small bands of Japanese were able to scale the cliffs and engage the Marines.

Captain Pickup went out to check his platoons, assuming the attack had been repulsed. He then learned that some of the landing craft had made it ashore in the North Point area and Japanese troops were moving inland. At the same time, Beecher sent runners to all of his company commanders alerting them to the landing. As planned, if the enemy penetration was successful, Company A would withdraw and join Company B in a line based on Battery Denver, holding the tail of the island from the Japanese. Before the line could be formed, the Japanese captured Denver at 2350 and were discovered digging in. Colonel Sato had led his 1st Battalion soldiers to Denver Hill almost unnoticed.

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Counterattack

Platoon Sergeant William Haynes led his 3d Platoon, the reserve platoon from Company B, from the south beaches at Monkey Point over to reinforce Company A. Haynes kept his men together in the darkness and reached the beach area. Hearing Japanese voices ashore, the platoon moved and fired trying to make contact with the Japanese, but they were firing only at the voices. After an hour the platoon became scattered in the darkness and each Marine fought the rest of the night on his own.

Captain Pickup had only just returned to his headquarters, when he discovered the enemy on Denver. His first reaction was to pull a platoon off the beach and retake the battery but in discussion with First Lieutenant William Harris, he decided to keep his beach defenses intact and await reinforcements. Marine Gunner Harold M. Ferrell went to 1st Battalion headquarters to alert Captain Noel O. Castle, commanding Company D, to the Japanese landing. He had sent a runner to Denver Battery where he found Japanese in the gun pits. Castle, a distinguished marks man and pistol shot who carried two pearl-handled .45-caliber pistols, assembled the Marines of Headquarters Company and the few Marines available of Company D to drive the Japanese off of Denver Hill.

Castle dispatched Sergeant Matthew Monk with 15 drivers and cooks to occupy an abandoned beach defense position and secure his left flank. "Do the best you can," he ordered Monk, "Keep the Japanese out of the tunnel." Castle also scouted the reserve stations at critical road junctions, and cautioned the men, "Maintain positions." He then gathered his men for the counter attack to Denver Battery, declaring, "Let's go up there and run the bastards off."

Ferrell warned Castle from leading the attack himself, but the captain replied, "I'm going to take these people up there and shoot those people's eyes out" and led his men to the hill. Castle met the Marines falling back from the Japanese advance, and joined in the battle. At 0140, the Japanese attacked the water tower and ran directly into the reinforced platoon led by Castle. The two forces collided in furious combat, practically "face to face," remembered Corporal Joseph J. Kopacz. The Japanese advance was halted but the Marine attack was bloodily repulsed.

Castle left the battle line and ran to an abandoned .30-caliber machine gun, which he put into working order, while "completely covered by enemy fire." Castle opened a devastating fire with the machine gun, forcing the Japanese to cover, which allowed the American advance to continue. The Japanese fell back from the water tanks to the Denver Battery positions, but Castle was hit by Japanese machine gun fire and killed. With their commander down, the attack ground to a halt.

Captain Golland L. Clark of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, then ordered mortar fire placed on the ridge and for 20 minutes Stokes mortars, converted to fire 81mm ammunition, pounded the Japanese positions. However, the Marine with the range card which contained the coordinates which targeted the entire end of the island could not be found throughout the night. The mortar firing soon halted as stray rounds were impacting on Marine positions on the other side of the hill. For the moment only scattered Marines from every company in the 1st Battalion held the Japanese from moving on to Malinta Tunnel.

Gunner Ferrell put together what few men he could find from Company D and formed a line to prevent the Japanese from moving down from the high ground and taking the northern beach defenses from the rear. Marines from Headquarters Platoon, Company A, joined the battle on their own. First Sergeant Noble J. Wells formed 25 to 30 Marines on line to prevent the Japanese from moving along the north road. The Japanese soon attacked, screaming, "Banzai! Banzai!" and reached within 15 to 20 yards of the Marine position before being turned back. The Japanese then tried to infiltrate behind Wells' men. He posted two Marines to guard the communication trench. Corporal Howard A. Jordan heard a noise and shouted, "Who goes there?" A voice responded, "Me Filipino, got hurt foot," and a figure began to run. Both Marines opened fire, and dropped the man who turned out to be a Japanese soldier. Corporal John H. Frazier later remarked, "Didn't have to worry about that foot anymore."

Before midnight, Lieutenant Colonel Beecher committed his battalion reserve, a platoon of 30 Philippine Scouts, but the Japanese were obviously firmly ashore and more reinforcements were needed to drive the enemy back to the beaches. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel V. Freeny organized a platoon of men, gathered from Malinta Tunnel, to reinforce the beleaguered 1st Battalion. One of the U.S. Army enlisted men complained, "I've never fired a rifle before, I'm in the finance department." Freeny replied, "You just go out and draw their fire and the Marines will pick them off." With the 1st Battalion fully committed, Colonel Howard ordered the regimental reserve under Major Max Schaeffer to report to Beecher. The 4th Battalion was alerted to be ready to respond should more men be needed.

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Movement of the Regimental Reserve

At the sound of machine gun fire, Major Schaeffer alerted his two companies which formed the regimental reserve, and sent Sergeant Turner's Filipino cadet platoon in advance to Malinta Tunnel. Shortly before midnight, he moved the rest of his men to the tunnel. The Marines pulled on their bandoliers of ammunition, fastened grenades to their cartridge belts, and as Private First Class Melvin Sheya remembered, said to each other, "Well, here goes nothing." The two companies moved along the South Shore Road under Japanese artillery fire, but lost only a few men before reaching the tunnel.

When Sergeant Turner's platoon reached Malinta Tunnel, he found the passage blocked by hundreds of "tunnel rats," soldiers who had no organization on the island and lived in the safety of the tunnel. These men wouldn't clear the corridor for the regimental reserve to pass into. Turner ordered his men, "Fix bayonets, boys, let's give them a nudge." The main passage of the tunnel was soon cleared.

Lieutenant Colonel Beecher informed Schaeffer of the situation on Denver Hill as the Marines drew more hand grenades and Lewis machine gun magazines from caches planted against an eastern attack. All proceeded according to plan. A few Marines and sailors from the tunnel joined the column as ammunition bearers. At 0100 Major Schaeffer gave his company and platoon commanders orders to counterattack and drive the Japanese off the tail of Corregidor. Company P would advance down the road toward Kindley Field and upon meeting resistance would deploy to the left of the road while Company O would move to the right. Together the companies would sweep to the end of the island. Officers of the 1st Battalion would lead the two companies into position.

At 0200 the two companies of the regimental reserve deployed down the road leading east from Malinta Tunnel. Sergeant Turner's platoon again led the advance from the tunnel, literally running into Captain Golland L. Clark, 1st Battalion adjutant, who was directing reinforcements to the battle area. "Oh, Turner, what's your unit?" Clark asked. "It's my platoon. They sent me out here and I'm supposed to contact you," answered Turner. "I want you to go down this road," Clark ordered, "just keep going as far as you can until you make contact with D Company."

Sergeant Turner's platoon moved less than 200 yards when a green flare went up right above the men. Turner stopped, turned, and called out, "Hit the deck," as Japanese artillery began raking the area. The platoon went to ground and was prevented from going to the Denver Battery fight. Rifle fire also ranged into the position and continued to pin the platoon down.

Major Schaeffer's main force followed behind Turner. Shots were soon exchanged between Marines of the two companies. Cloaked in darkness it was impossible to tell friend from foe. At a fork in the road, Company P turned left and Company O took a right turn. First Lieutenant Hogaboom, commanding Company P, soon ran into scattered Japanese fire and Captain Clark ordered Hogaboom to deploy his men into line formation. Hogaboom soon found that he had only his 2d Platoon. The other two platoons were nowhere to be seen.

Company O, behind Company P, had almost reached the fork in the road when they began to take Japanese rifle and machine gun fire. Sergeant Carl M. Holloway remembered, "we had been so accustomed to . . . heavy artillery fire and bombs for so many months, that the bullets kicking up dust around our feet seemed at times almost like rain drops hitting the dust." Flares then lit up the night sky followed by a thunderous Japanese barrage. The lead platoon was able to take cover in nearby bomb craters but still lost eight men in the first few minutes of the shelling. The rest of the company was caught in the open and cut to pieces. The 3d Platoon was left with only six Marines unhurt while 2d Platoon had only five.

As soon as the barrage lifted, Quartermaster Clerk Frank W. Ferguson advanced his 1st platoon as ordered but came under heavy machine gun fire from Battery Denver hill. Ferguson deployed his platoon to the left of the road and tried to tie in with Company P. He believed that the two platoons behind him would soon be up to anchor his right to the beach and to support his advance. A few isolated Marines did reach him, but only a handful. Ferguson then led his men up the hill into the face of concentrated machine gun fire. The commitment of the regimental reserve was now whittled down to two isolated platoons, each advancing unsupported.

At 0300 Ferguson's platoon came to a halt on the hillside. The steep slopes were covered by interlocking machine gun fire and despite three attempts, only a few yards were gained. The 1st Platoon halted only 30 yards from the Japanese positions and dug in. The battle now raged around the two concrete water tanks on top of the ridge, just ahead of the Denver Battery position. Ferguson's immediate concern was for his flanks and he moved a Lewis gun and an automatic rifle to cover the road to his right. His left still had no connection with Company P, but Quartermaster Sergeant John E. Haskin brought up his five men of 3d Platoon and Ferguson sent them to the left to extend that flank. Captain Chambers ordered the five survivors of the 2d Platoon to Ferguson who also sent them to his left. Soon word reached Chambers that Company P had been joined.

While Ferguson was battling for the hill, Lieutenant Hogaboom as advancing along the coastal road toward the Japanese landing areas. He met a platoon of Marines of Company A under Lieutenant Harris engaged in sweeping out Japanese snipers from a wooded area. Harris agreed to support Hogaboom, extending Hogaboom's left to the beach. Luckily, Hogaboom's 1st Platoon found its way to the front and was placed in reserve. The three platoons advanced, killing a few scattered Japanese soldiers until they hit the Japanese main defense line in the draw extending from Battery Denver to the northern beaches. Hogaboom's men were stalled by the Japanese fire and even the 1st Platoon could deploy no further.

With no reserve and a tenuous right flank, Hogaboom was forced to draw a squad to the right rear. As he was deploying the Marines, Japanese landing barges appeared from the sea bearing for the beaches on Hogaboom's left. The 1st Battalion Marines on North Point opened on the barges spraying them with .50-caliber machine gun fire. "The bullets smacking the armor of the barges sounded like rivet hammers rattling away," remembered Hogaboom. Private First Class Robert P. McKechnie took a Lewis gun to an overlook and personally disabled two of the barges, leaving them drifting aimlessly.

After savaging the attempted landing, the Marines tried to advance to join the members of the 1st Battalion at Cavalry Point, but the Japanese machine gun at the head of the draw proved to be too well protected. The remnants of both companies settled in their positions and then began a duel of American grenades against the ammunition of the deadly accurate Japanese "knee" mortars. Captain Robert Chambers, Jr., met with Hogaboom before dawn to coordinate the battle line of the two companies. Both commanders agreed that without reinforcements, the battle would soon go against the Marines.