Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-07-16
CHAPTER VIII

"When we went out that night"
said Bulkeley, 1--WE didn't dream we
were to take our final crack at the
Japs off Bataan. I took two boats
Kelly in the "a, riding myself with
Akers in the 35-to see if we couldn't
bag one of the Jap destroyers which
the army could see in Subic Bay
They'd been driven far back, but
from the highest ridge of the Ba-
taan mountains they could still look
down into Subic with their 2O-pow-
er binoculars.
"But the admiral had said we
weren't to 60 into the bay. We
must coax them outside. The Japs
had the bays rim lined with guns,
and it would be suicide. We got
outside of Subic about eleven
O'Clock. All according to plan, Kel-
ly hid his "a boat in a cove just out
side the bay, while I went into the
entrance and raised a little hell
fired my machine guns so they could
see the tracers, hoping a Jap de-
Stroyer would follow me out, where
upon Kelly was to come out of the
cove and lam couple of torpedoes
into their engine room. 1t didn't
work. The Japs had had all they
wanted of us. But just as l was
about to leave, I saw from the en-
trance the outline of big ship
tied to Olongapo dock"
"She was big one," said Akers,
"maybe 10000 tons. A tanker, we
learned the next day. So we turned
back, sneaked toward her-there
was no fire on us yet-and cut loose
two torpedoes. By the time they
exploded, we had cleared the mouth
of the bay. But from the mountains
of Bataan the army watched her
burn all night, and in the morning
there she was, sunk at her dock"
"They were our last torpedoes
fired in defense of Bataan," said
Buckley. "Since December we
had probably sunk a hundred times
our own combined tonnage in enc
my warships. While we'd lost two
of our six boats, neither had been
hit by the enemy-both had gone
aground in the dark.
''On the way back I realized that
we had fired our last torpedoes, ex-
cept those we would need to fill our
tubes for the run to China. And
we had just about enough gas to
get us there, with hardly a barrel
to spare. If we were ever to make
the run, we must make it soon.
And it was getting plain that we
couldn't do much more for Bataan,
which was on its last legs"
II can tell you about the army"
said Cox. 81 used to get bored at
Sisiman Cove and take trips to the
front-sometimes up into the out
posts. There were a lot of men in
uniform on Bataan, but the 'front.'
line fighting soldiers consisted, first,
of about two thousand Americans,
well seasoned and good fighters.
Then, about twelve hundred Filipino
Scouts-equally well trained and
equally good. Lastly, they had in
the fighting line about twenty-seven
thousand Filipino trainees-young
kids who had never worn uniform
until few weeks before the war
started.
"Their officers were equally I'M
trained. Toward the end, it was
grotesque. Tough, experienced
American Regular Army privates
would be giving orders to Filipino
generals.
'Those two thousand Americans
and the twelve hundred Scouts were
the only real fighting men on Ba-
tam, and they were run ragged
every time the Japs punched hole
in the line, these experienced troops
would have to be thrown in to plug
it-everywhere at once.
"Then there was the item of equip
ment-no spare parts. They had a
few tanks left, with their treads
falling off. A missing fan belt would
put an entire tractor out of the war
for want of tread, tank would
be junk by the roadside.
"That's more or less how it looked
to us on March l." said Kelly,
(which is day I'll never forget.
1t started off in curious way-it
seemed that General Macarthur
wanted to take ride on one of our
boats with Bulkeley. We felt hon
ored, but I couldn't just understand
why the General would choose a
time like this for pleasure trip.
Still, orders were orders, and even
the air force got theirs-or rather
what was left of it, which was exact
ly four decrepit P-40's patched to-
gether from the pieces of many 9TH
erS.
''This proud American air force
guaranteed us air superiority over
that area of the bay while the Gen
eral was out on the water. The area
was only four square miles, and the
time only half an hour-about all
the superiority this pathetic air
force was able to guarantee. While
the General was having his ride l
was worried-suppose something had
come up which might upset our dash
to China? could see the men didn't