Evening star., 1943-06-23
They Call Ii Pacific
by CLARK LEE

ss'N SSS
til his exciting escape by airplane
some six weeks later.
I took my typewriter and packed
my razor and toothbrush and the
slack suit I had worn out from
Manila in my little canvas bag. Re-
gretfully gave away the souvenirs
had taken from dead Japs in
Bataan: The neat little .25-caliber
suicide pistol with a single bullet
IN its magazine; the .38 Luger, the
rifles gas masks, fatigue caps. hand
grenades, .37mm. shell and the
rest.
We were not supposed to tell any
one we We're going. but it was a
difficult secret to keep. The Sayres
had left in the past few days and
President Quezon and his party.
We said good-by to only a few
people. Col. Diller and Col Sid
Huff took us into a tunnel lateral,
where quarters had been fixed up
for Mrs. Macarthur and young Mac
Arthur. We drank farewell toast
and pledged that we would all drink
another one some day-some place.
Mrs. Macarthur came in and wished
us luck. So did Maj. Romulo and
few others.
I went down to the north dock at
$50 ready to go aboard the launch
which was to take us out to the
Princesa, anchored midway between
Corregidor and the southern shore
of Bataan. The Jacobys finally ar
rived and we piled into the launch
and headed out into the bay in the
deepening shadows. The sun was
already down, but the sky behind
MariVeles was flaming with color.
The PrinceSa de Cebu had already
weighed anchor and was steaming
toward Corregidor at slow speed,
keeping we'll clear of the mine fields.
We tied up alongside and Clambered
aboard over the low railing onto an
open deck. The ship was about 200
feet long with three decks in the
forward SuperStructure The first
class cabins were under the bridge.
Pigs and chickens were penned on
the long main deck, which was open
at the sides. With both her twin
Diesels going wide open the Princesa
could make about 10 knots.
X
AS soon as we were aboard the
captain directed the helmsman to
change course. Follow that tor
pedo boat" he ordered One of the
PTS was waiting to lead us through
the channel in the mine fields. a
course which was now thoroughly
familiar to me. The torpedo boat
chugged slowly ahead, cutting her
speed to accommodate ours She
was too far ahead for me to recog-
nize the helmsman.
AS we left the channel there was
sudden squirt of firing from the
black slope of Mount MariveleS. Red
tracerS shot out from the shore and
there was an answering line of trac-
ers from the sea. That was bad
sign. 1t looked as if our shore de-
tenders had spotted Jap boat out
there, only few miles from us. But
maybe they were shooting at one of
our own torpedo boats. There were
no guns on the Princesa de Cebu.
The Jacobys and I decided to sleep
on deck and the boys rigged up three
cots for us, complete with sheets and
blankets. We put our life preserv-
ers by the side of the cots and went
over to sit by the rail. Corregidor's
big searchlights were probing the
darkness behind us, keeping we'll
away from our course.
We'll, here we go again" said
Annalee.
We remembered then to tell An
malice one more thing that Gen. Mac
Arthur had told us. When he shook
hands with us he had said: IF you
don't make it, don't feel badly about
having tried. l will fight as long as
l can hurt the Jap. but unless we
get reinforcements the end here will
be brutal and bloody
What he said had confirmed our
own conviction that even if We were
dive bombed and sunk. or machine
gunned in lifeboats. or died of thirst
on a raft, we would not regret hav-
ing tried to get through.
tCopyright l943, by Clark Lee the Viking
Press
Continued Tomorrow