Evening star., 1945-10-13
Gen. Wainwright, Starting Retreat to Botoon,
Forced to Destroy Bridge, Cutting Off Own Men
Continued From First Page.)

En- route passed along the south
bank of the Agno and as I crossed
the main north-south highway at
Carmen I noted that Jap planes
had bombed the mile-1ong bridge
over the Agno between Carmen and
Viliasis. They had destroyed the
south span OF the vital bridge, blow
ing 1t off its abutment.
1t was time for cursing our luck.
because the 18th Division would
have to cross that, bridge on the
night of December 24-25 in its
withdrawal southwark.
Planned Temporary Repairs.
But while I was standing there.
viewing the damage, Col. Skerry,
my engineer chief, loomed out of
nowhere. He was already making
plans for temporary repair of the
bridge. AT the same time he was
having charges placed under the
unchanged part of the bridge so he
would be ready to blow it as soon
as the 18th got across, or blow it
If the Japs got to the river before
the 18th did.
From that point I got in touch
with my Alcala headquarters and
ordered it moved back to Bamban,
"a short distance south of Fort
StotSenburg. I told my operations
officer, my signal officer and few
enlisted men to wait at Alcala for
me.
I reached Alcala on the evening
of December "a. Christmas eve
always was something of an event
around our home in the good days,
and now I found my mind going
back over those memories of
Christmas tree, the arrangement
of our boys toys, the carefully
wrapped packages for my wife and
all the things that go with a family
on that night.
So 1 got in touch by phone with
Necker at RCA in Manila. He was
closing up. The city had been de-
clared an open one. But he was
kind enough to get through a mes
sage to Adele.
I remember it because it was the
last time I was able to wireless her
directly for three awful years.
Food Fails to Arrive.
was hot, dirty and hungry
from the days fighting, worrying
and travelling. But the food which
my headquarters commandant was
supposed to send up from Bamban
upon his arrival there failed to
come. We went TO bed that night
without dinner.
On Christmas morning, 1941, a
tank officer came past my skeleton
lied headquarters and gave us a
Christmas present. 1t was a can
of beans. Our little force, includ-
! ing Coils. Frank Nelson and Josh
Stansell, split it up. 1t was Christ
mas breakfast, lunch and dinner,
as well as our Christmas eve din
ner-and was nightly appreciated
My withdrawal plan toward Ba-
taan was divided into five phases,
designated as D1, Do, D3, D4 and
D5.
D1 called for withdrawal to a
line along Urdaneta, San Carlos
and Aguilar, about midway between
the base of Lingayen Gulf and the
| Agno. d. was line behind the
Agno. D3 reached from San Jose
to Santa Ignacio and ran through
lGerona, 16 miles farther south.
D4 reached from Cabantuan
through Zaragosa, La Paz and Tar
lac to the high ground west of Tar
lac. DIS stretched across the broad
valley leading down from Lingayen
Gulf from Bamban on the west to
Sibul Springs at the foot of the
mountains to the east.
1t was unlike any of the textbook
retreats I had studied at the War
College and at Leavenworth. 1t
differed from the retreat of Gen.
McDoWell's army from the First
Battle of Bull Run in that that had
been rout. Nor was it like Pope's
retreat after the Second Battle of
Bull Run, or Lees withdrawal from
Gettysburg.
Sought to Delay Enemy.
In these classic retreats the object
was to get away from the enemy by
Ispeed of movement Moving down
toward Bataan we had the definite
mission of delaying the enemy as
long as practicable, not only to per-
NIT Gen. Jones South Luzon force
to clear around Manila Bay and get
into Bataan, but also to enable Maj.
Gen. George M. Parker to prepare
our Bataan defenses for us. Ours
was more withdrawal than retreat,
withdrawal with delaying actions
all the way. But even that hurt
deeply. 1t was hard for an Amer
lean to get used to.
Withdrawal to line D1 was to be
completed on the night of Decem-
l. 40