Evening star., 1943-06-07
CHAPTER 8.

Der 1O, Manila got It's nrSt closeup
of the Japanese air force.
The planes were almost overhead
when we saw them from our Office
on the third floor of sthe TVT
Building. We looked out the win
dow and there they were, flying high
and straight in, from the north. We
counted them. There were 81 in
three tight US" the whole forma-
tion making one big ~"
The planes went right on past,
out of sight, into the sun. There
were distant, fairly loud, explosions.
I got down from the roof and went
to the rear Of the building. From
a window I saw fires in the direc-
ton of Nichols Field and Fort Nc
Kinley. The smoke was black and
fierce and the flames were high and
it looked as if the gasoline dumps
had been hit.
The planes turned out over the
bay and were lost to view. Fifteen
minutes later from the direction of
Cavite we saw smoke and knew
that the naval base was being at
tackled.
Two tremendous fires were burn
ing in Cavite, punctuated by explo-
sions. But from the distance of 9
miles across the water it was i'm
possible to distinguish individual
buildings or tell whether the naval
base itself or the town had been hit
In the large grounds of an Ameri-
can-owned estate there was a deep
crater 30 feet wide behind the serv-
ants quarters. On the lawn q s.
year-old Filipino girl was lying, her
abdomen ripped open by bomb frag-
ments. Her father was bandaging
a wound in his leg. Those damn
Japs, sir, have killed my baby" he
said. Nobody was crying or show
ing signs of grief.
The homes of Americans on Har-
rison boulevard had also been hit.
At Nichols Field no damage had
been done to our planes or hangers
or barracks. We saw several planes
that had been ruined the night be-
fore by direct hit on a hangar,
but most of them were old Martin
B-l8s, twin -engined bombers which
had been on their last wings even
before the war started.
Neither the Army nor Navy would
give us any details about the bomb
ing of Cavite. except to intimate
that it had been very bad" Rus
sell Brines, who lived on Dewey
boulevard near Nichols Field and
facing the bay, had seen two dog
fights in which Jap planes were shot
down. They belonged to a fighter
escort accompanying the bombers
and they dived on the airfields and
strafed our fighters in an attempt to
pin them to the ground. Despite
those excellent tactics. a few OF our
fighters got into the air and fought
successfully.
That night I learned of the sink
Ing of the British battleships Re-
pulse and Prince of Wales, under
command of Admiral Sir Tom Phil
lips, off Malaya Jap torpedo planes
and dive bombers had gotten them
Gen. Macarthur told me additional
details about the sinking of those
ships several weeks later on Cor
regidor, and as he told it, it seemed
that Phillips had lost his ships in a
magnificent gamble and not through
any blunder Macarthur always re-
ferred to our japanese enemy as
"the Jap"
The morning of December 8,'
Macarthur said, Tom Phillips tele-
phoned me from Singapore. He told
me the Jap was approaching Malaga
in 80 ships. He said he was going out
and get in among them and sink
them. That was his only chance to
save Malaya, since the British didn t
have the forces to stop an invasion
once the Jap landed.
Tom Phillips said he was going
out without an air umbrella. but he
had to take the chance The wealth
er was overcast, and if it would re-
main that way the Jap could not use
his air.
Tom Phillips steamed out OF Sin
gapore and headed north and little
east. He steamed for nearly 40
hours, and the sky remained over
cast. Then the Jap sighted him
through hole in the clouds, and
just two hours before he would have
been in among the Jap fleet the
weather cleared.
He wired for air assistance, but
the Jap dive bombers and torpedo
planes hit him and in a few min
utes his ships were wrecked and
burning.
The first British fighter planes
arrived overhead just as Tom Phil
lips was sliding down his bridge
into the sea"
1t wasn't until four DAYS after
Cavite had been bombed that we
learned how damaging the attack
had been. On Sunday Rear Rd-
miral Rockwell summoned us to
Cavite, where he was stationed as
commander of the 18th United
States Naval District. He wouldn't
let us inside the base to see the
damage, but received us at the en-
trance. inside Of thick, Spanish
built walls. Rockwell was tall, with
stiff white pompadour. His face
was tanned. lined and strained.
The bombing was accurate and
devastating" he said. 1T was per-
fectly planned and executed The
planes divided into four groups and
flew Systematically over our heads
from east, south, west and north.
They hit the fire station and the
power plant, which made it difficult
to fight fires. The f1remen who were
in the streets after the raid were
machine gunned by fighter planes
and every one was killed.
"One bomb hit the dispensary and
killed everybody in it. However, we
are still able to operate.
Il am proud of our American
naval and civilian personnel and of
the Filipinos. They conducted
themselves magnificently, as did our
nurses"
Admiral Rockwell said: 1--WE
found out that if you get down
and keep down. preferably in a