Evening star., 1942-04-11
BY DEAN SCHEDLER,


CORREGIDOR FORTRESS, April
0 Delayed Nurses and soldiers
of Bataan, dazed with shock of bat
tie. sought rest and sleep today
within the walls of Corregidor
Fortress, itself battered by japanese
bombs.
They came last night, brave refu-
gees from the long battle that was
gloriously lost, swimming through
shark-infested waters of the chan
mel between Bataan and this Ma
Mia Bay fortress, or rowing pitt
fully small boats through bombs and
vicious machine-gun blasts from en-
envy planes.
Nurses, fatigued after days and
nights of service in Bataans hos
pitals under constant fire, stumbled
ashore from the boats, so weary that
they could hardly walk. Civilians,
too. any who dared to risk the trip
from stricken Bataan, were among
the arrivals.
Those who swan were picked up
In midchannel by other small craft,
saved from the sharks but still
harassed by the machine gun fire of
diving enemy planes. q
Sleep Dulls Fighters Memories.
I questioned soldiers who had
gone night after night without
sleep and who had eaten but little
during those final days when they
faced overwhelming odds.
They had stood and fought, then
netreated to stand and fight again,
but while they tried to be obliging
and tell of Bataan's last hours, they
wanted only one thing now-sleep.
Gripped by this desire to sleep,
their memory of experiences was
unclear to them. They only knew
that they were hungry, tired, sleepy.
During the night we looked across
the channel toward Bataan and
heard booming explosions and saw
many-colored fires as the defenders,
in their last defiant action, de-
stroyed munition dumps and fuel,
and anything else that might be
valuable to the expressing
enemy.
We on Corregidor had heard over
short-wave radio of the fall Of
Bataan, after the defenders gallant
three-month stand.
Soldiers Weep Unashamed.
The soldiers of Corregidor, them
selves veterans of scores of pound
ing japanese bombing raids, wept
unashamed at the announcer's
words:
"Bataan has fallen"
1t was the short-Wave broadcast
of The Voice of Freedom" a secret
transmitter hidden in the hills of
one of the many islands.
Filipino and American troops
Of this war-ravaged, blood stained
peninsula have laid down their
arms" the announcer said.
The soldiers listened in reverent
silence.
with heads bloody but unbowed,
they have yielded to the superior
force and numbers of the enemy"
the radio continued.
THE world will long remember
the epic struggle the Filipinos and
Americans put up in the jungle
fastness and along the rugged Ba-
taan coast line. They have stood
up without complaint under the
constant and grueling fire of the
enemy for more than three months.
Limit of Human Endurance.
"Besieged on land and blockaded
from the sea, cut off from all
sources of help, these intrepid fight
ers have borne all that human en-
durance could bear"
We remained silent, listening, but
we also could hear the firing which
we now knew was the end of the
valiant fight on Bataan.
But what sustained them through
all these months of incessant battle
was a force more than physical" the
voice said.
1T was the thought OF their ma
tive land and all it holds most dear
to them, the thought of freedom and
dignity, and pride in these most
priceless of all human prerogatives.
The adversary in his pride and
power and triumphs will credit
our troops with nothing less than
the courage and fortitude his own
troops have shown in battle"
While much has been said of these
Filipinos and Americans and their
leaders fighting on Bataan, those
who have seen them in action hope
to be able some day to inform the
world to the fullest of their perform
ance which, with pen dipped in
blood, wrote unequaled pages of
heroic history.