Evening star., 1942-04-12
BY MAI. GEORGE FIELDING
ELIOT,

After three months of heroic re-
sistance Bataan has fallen-fallen
not to Japanese valor or address at
arms, but to overwhelming numbers
and to hunger and exhaustion.
On that embattled peninsula, far
away across the Pacific, handful
of American soldiers, sailors and
marines and their Filipino COM
rades have written one of the most
glorious pages in American military
history Never while the flag flies
and the Republic endures will the
defense of Bataan be forgotten.
The immediate military effect on
the campaign in the Southwestern
Pacific will be the release Of GER
tain number of Japanese troops and
airplanes for use elsewhere. perhaps
toward Australia. perhaps in Burma.
However, not all of Gen. Yama-
shita's forces can be so released,
for Corregidor and the island forts
still hold out. The guns of these
positions continue to deny the Japa-
neSe the use of Manila Bay, the
principal strategic prize of the
Philippines.
How long Corregidor can continue
to Withstand the tremendous ham,
mering 1t is certain to receive can
not be predicted. Its chief immedi-
ate danger seems likely to be from
intensive air bombardment, since
1t is by no means an easy task to
bring heavy artillery into positions
on the rugged shoreline of Bataan
from which to lombard the fortress.
Food, Arms Are Chief Problem.
American officers have expert
mented for many years with this
problem, and the success which the
heavy guns of the fortress have
already had in dealing with at
tempted japanese bombardments
from the south shore indicate that
every possible battery position is
we'll known to our staff and can
be brought quickly under effective
fire. AS long as food and ammuni-
tion remain, Corregidor seems likely
to put up a stout resistance.
At any rate, as one general officer
remarked to the writer yesterday,
"the Japanese will not get it for
nothing"
This epitomizes the military
value, on the hard cold scale Of
calculated results, of the sort of
last ditch. seemingly hopeless fight
ing which the American garrison
at Bataan has been doing. The
resources of Japan are compare
lively limited and time is on our
side.
Every Japanese soldier killed
while attacking an isolated outpost
like Bataan, every ounce Of ma
terial that is expended, every day
that any japanese fighting power
is held up in such fight, is that
much gained for our cause.
Warning for Japs Seen.
But it is perhaps in another field
that the real effect of the defense
of Bataan will be most powerfully
felt. The Japanese, appraising the
results Of their efforts, must realize
that If 5000 Americans and $4,000
Filipinos the greater part of the
latter almost unframed, can hold
up six times their number of Japa-
nese troops, with complete air su-
periority. for 80 days, then Japan's
prospects are not very bright when
the day comes that Americans shall
face them in far greater numbers
and with better equipment by land,
sea and air.
II Bataan was a bright page In
our military history, it was a dark
one in Japan's. 1t marked the be-
ginning Of an inevitable end to q
mad and hopeless adventure in
conquest.
That this Is already realized by
the war lords of Japan is clearly
indicated by the character of their
radio propaganda which has been
pouring out of Toxic for the last
three days. There is a distinct note
of panic in these utterances.
Incredible though it may seem.