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U.S. Navy. Via Wikipedia Commons |
Corregidor (120.589E
14.390N) was one of the most strategically important fortresses in
the Southwest Pacific, commanding the entrance to Manila Bay. The island is
tadpole-shaped, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) long and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) across
its head. The isthmus where the head joins the tail was known as
Bottomside and is shown in the modern photograph above. East of
Bottomside was Malinta Hill, which contained the headquarters of the
island in a tunnel dug deep into the hillside. The east side of the
head (Middleside) had the officers' living areas while the west side
(Topside), which rose to 500' (150 meters) above sea level, had the
barracks and parade grounds. The island is covered with trees and scrub
but had a good road network and a 2400' (730m) airstrip, Kindley Field, on the east end of the
tail.
Corregidor was deeply dug in with powerful coastal
artillery, consisting of 23
batteries of 56 guns ranging from 3" (76mm) to 12" (305mm) caliber.
Fort Hughes, built on nearby Caballo Island, consisted of three hills reaching
to 380' (116 meters) and had eleven batteries of seventeen up to 14"
(356mm) in caliber.
U.S. Army. Via ibiblio.org
Fort Drum,
built on a tiny islet just over four miles (7 km) south-southeast of
Corregidor, had been built up into a concrete
behemoth whose battery consisted of two twin 14”
gun turrets and four 6" (76mm) guns.
Fort Frank, on Carabao Island 7.5 miles (12 km) south of Corregidor and
just 1500' (460 meters) from the south shore of Manila Bay, had 19 guns
of up to 14" (356mm) caliber. These defenses were manned by 5700 U.S.
and Philippine Scouts troops of 59,
60,
91,
and 92
Coast Artillery
Regiments.
These impressive coastal batteries made the harbor all but impenetrable to a conventional attack from the sea. As long as they held out, even if Manila fell, the harbor would be useless to the Japanese. However, the largest antiaircraft guns were just 3" (76mm) in caliber and would prove unable to reach high-flying Japanese bombers. Corregidor was also vulnerable to artillery barrage from the tip of the nearby Bataan Peninsula, which was just two miles (3 km) to the north, so that it could not hold out long if Bataan fell.
During the first Philippine Campaign, the American forces were forced to retreat into the Bataan Peninsula to make a last-ditch stand against the Japanese. MacArthur established his headquarters at Corregidor and placed Wainright in command on Bataan. Corregidor was defended by 4 Marine Regiment, which had been evacuated to the Philippines from China shortly before hostilities broke out. When MacArthur was ordered to escape to Australia, on 11 March 1942, Wainright shifts his headquarters to Corregidor, leaving King in immediate command on Bataan.
King's line collapsed on 6 April 1942 and he felt compelled to
surrender his forces two days
later. The Japanese immediately began
moving heavy artillery to the southern tip of Bataan Peninsula, and
began systematically reducing the gun emplacements on Corregidor. The
first Japanese battalion, from 61 Regiment, landed
on 5 May on the tail of the island near the airstrip and encountered
fierce
resistance from the Marines.
However, the Japanese managed to bring
a second battalion and several
light tanks ashore, and the
Marines had no antitank weapons
to speak of. Wainright surrendered the
next day, as the Japanese brought in a third battalion and were closing
in on Malinta Tunnel with its
underground hospitals. Total
American casualties were around
800 killed and another 1000 wounded. Japanese casualties were very
heavy but the exact number is uncertain. They have been claimed to have
been as high as 900 dead and 3000 wounded, which would be the better
part of the three attacking battalions.
By February 1945 the Japanese garrison on Corregidor numbered 6,000
men under Colonel Itagaki Akira, and these had constructed additional field works. However,
MacArthur's intelligence estimated the Corregidor garrison at just 850
and the Bataan garrison at 6000, and MacArthur assigned 151 Regimental Combat Team (Chase) to take Mariveles on 15 March 1945. The landing force would embark at Subic Bay and was commanded by Admiral Struble. Corregidor itself would be assaulted on 15 February by an amphibious
force drawn from 34 Regiment and an air drop by
503
Parachute
Regiment. Minesweepers would commence sweeping on 13 February and be followed by a bombardment force under Admiral Berkey.
Besides greatly underestimating the Corregidor garrison, MacArthur's intelligence had badly overestimated the Japanese force on Bataan, which numbered only 1400, of which very few were anywhere near Mariveles. Berkey was "extremely perturbed" (Morison 1959) by the lack of any Japanese reaction to the minesweeper force, which he hoped would reveal their gun positions. Berkey began his bombardment at 0943 on 14 February and the Japanese finally responded by firing on the minesweepers from Corregidor and Caballo. Fire was intense until 1018, when the sweepers completed sweeping 76 mines and withdrew without loss.
The destroyer force off Mariveles had a rougher time. Fletcher took a 6" (155mm) shell hit that started a brief fire, YMS-48 was set afire, and Hopewell
took four hits that inflicted 19 casualties and forced the destroyer to
withdraw to Manus. The minesweepers moved into the harbor, but LaVallette and Radford both were mined and forced to withdraw.
The destroyers were in waters that had already been swept twice,
suggesting the Japanese had used more sophisticated mines than their
usual moored contact mines. The landing force arrived at 1000 on 15 February and encountered negligible opposition ashore, but LSM-169 hit yet another mine. Early the next morning, about twenty suicide boats penetrated Mariveles harbor, sank LCS-7 and LCS-49, and disabled LCS-27.
The best ground for the airborne assault on Corregidor was Kindley
Field, but this would require the troops to fight uphill against strong
fortifications, and the decision was made to risk dropping the force on
the small parade ground and golf course on Topside. The preliminary
bombardment at 0630, which was carried out by a force of 14 destroyers and 8 cruisers, was followed by an air strike at 0800 by 36 B-24s and 31 A-20s.
Although the preliminary bombardment inflicted relatively light
casualties on the deeply-entrenched Japanese, it stripped much of the
island of its covering vegetation, and it also triggered landslides
that sealed some 2000 of the defenders inside Malinta Tunnel.
The
first echelon of paratroops, from 3 Battalion, 503 Parachute Regiment,
began jumping at 0830. Most hit the landing zones, but a few
had to be rescued from the harbor by PT boats, and one group of 25 paratroops serendipitously came down on top of Itagaki's position, surprising
and killing him. This destroyed the cohesion of the Japanese defenders
almost from the start of the battle. The paratroops had suffered as
well, with 25% casualties from landing mishaps or Japanese fire.
However, they quickly secured positions overlooking the planned
amphibious landing beaches at Bottomside. At 1030 the assault battalion
from
34 Regiment came ashore in five waves south of Malinta Hill, of which
only the fifth took any significant fire. A second wave of
paratroopers dropped at 1230, landing precisely on target. However,
casualties were so high from Japanese fire at the descending paratroops
that a third wave scheduled to jump the next day was brought in by landing craft instead.
Reducing the dug-in Japanese took ten days, with the Americans
slowly rolling forward during the day and the Japanese staging bloody
but futile banzai charges after dark. Virtually
the entire Japanese garrison was killed. The Japanese trapped in
Malinta Tunnel attempted to blast their way out with high explosives
on the night of 20 February, but the explosion set off a large magazine
whose explosion annihilated most of the Japanese and buried six
American paratroops in landslides outside the tunnel.On 24 February the Americans began clearing the tail of Corregidor, advancing behind two tanks brought in with the amphibious landings.
A second massive explosion rocked the island on 26 February, when
Japanese holding out in the Radio Tunnel (constructed in 1939 to
shelter Corregidor's signals intelligence unit) set off their own
magazine. The explosion flipped one of the Sherman tanks clear over,
killed 52 Americans and wounded another 144, and killed the 150
Japanese in the tunnel. The next day the last organized resistance on
the island collapsed.
Total American casualties were 455 dead and 550 wounded, which was nearly a third of the attacking force. Over 4200 Japanese dead were counted, with just 20 surrendering, and an estimated 200 were killed while trying to swim away and 500 were buried alive in the Malinta explosion. MacArthur personally attended the flag raising on Corregidor on 2 March.
The other Japanese units defending Manila Bay were mopped up beginning with Ternate on the mainland south on 2 March 1945 and Fort Hughes on 27 March. Fort Hughes was assaulted by a battalion combat team from 151 Regiment which overran the island the first day, but then spent four days trying to dig out the Japanesein their tunnels for the next four days. Engineers then tried pouring diesel oil into the tunnels and igniting it, but this also failed until Navy forces supplied a pipeline, pump, and two oil barges to allow 2500 gallons (9500 liters) of oil to be pumped into the tunnels and ignited with white phosphorus. This treatment was repeated over the next two days, and the last Japanese survivor was killed by a patrol entering a tunnel on 13 April.
Fort Drum was given the same treatment. The troops landed away from
the entrance, which was a deadly fire zone, and pumped 3000 gallons
(11,000 liters) of oil into the fortress from its roof. This was
followed by a 600-pound (270-kg) explosive charge on a delayed timer.
The troops withdrew and the charge went off, setting off secondary
explosions that continued for days and completely wrecked the fortress.
Fort Frank was assaulted on 16 April and found to have already been
evacuated.
References
CorregidorIsland.com (accessed 2008-2-14)
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