The Ely miner., 1943-05-27
CHAPTER VIII

were 10 TAKE OuI Illd1 CIdCh dI IllC
Japs off Bataan. I took two boats
Kelly in the "a, riding myself with
Akers in the 35-to see If we couldn't 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 20-pow-
er binoculars.
"But the admiral had said we
weren't to go 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 went into the
entrance and raised 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 a couple Of torpedoes
into their engine room. 1t didn't
work. The Japs had had all they
wanted of US. But just as 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
Bulkeley. "Since December z we
had probably sunk 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. For every
man In our combined crews, we'd
already probably killed or drowned
ten Japanese, and our casualties to
date were only one man wounded.
We were to lose more men later,
and all our boats but the Japs were
to pay at almost the same ratio.
ION the way back I realized that
we had fred 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"
''I can tell you about the army"
said Cox. 'I used to get bored at
Sisiman Cove and take trips to the
tront-sometimes up into the out
posts. There were 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-equaIly well trained and
equally good. Lastly, they had in
the fighting line about twenty-seven
thousand Filipino trainees-young
kids who had never worn a uniform
until a few weeks before the war
started.
''Their officers were equally un-
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-
taan, 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 a tread, tank would
be Junk by the roadside.
ST drove an ambulance in France
in 1910, and IN some ways it was
the same story on Luzon. The same
lack of equipment, planes, commu-
nications. The same disorganiZation
everybody falling back, or maybe
fighting without hope just because it
was a habit. Both in France and
Luzon you threw the book away
and did what you could with what
you had.
"But there were differences. In
France it was 'Scram, the Germans
are coming, we can't hold emf
and they'd drop their arms and run.
But on Bataan, even when they
knew in their hearts it was hopeless,
they'd say, Damn it, we're not back
ing up to Corregidor-we're going
to hold them here!' They kept on
fighting even down to the last ditch,
when they were so tired they stag
gered-and I have watched them
stagger-and when they surren-
dered, it was with their arms In
their hands"
That's more or less how it looked
to US on March l." said Kelly,
(which is a day I'll never forget.
It started off in a curious way-it
seemed that General Macarthur
wanted to take a 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 a 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 P40's patched to-
gether from the pieces of many 9TH
ers.
This proud American air force