The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-10-14
First Bdtaan Hardships
Described By Wainwright
CONTINUED from Page One)

AlS the WITHDRAWAL. buL the design
er of the American Army shoes
had no Filipino soldiers foot ir
mind. The average Filipino goes
barefooted most of his life, so that
his foot becomes as broad as a
bears paw. My men tried to strug-
gle into the hard, narrow (for
them) American shoes. Some man.
aged to get them on, but most OF
them simply threw away what was
left of their sneakers, tied tn e
Army shoes together by tn e
strings, slung them over their RI
files or packs, and walked into Ba-
tam barefooted.
The men who filed into Bataan
in the dark of January 6 were a
pathetic lot. Some came in silent,
blacked-out buses. But most OF
them came stumbling down t h e
main highway from San Fernando,
heavy with WEAKNESS and stepped
in the knowledge that they were
walking into little more than a
trap.
It was, in short, a sickening ex-
perience to withdraw into the pen
insula. I issued the order with the
greatest of sorrow.
Of the units l had lost en- route,
the largest was Col. Bonnett's COM
mand, cut off between Baguio and
the Bued River, and the forces of
Col. Moses, Noble and Maj. Gan
ahl, in all about 1000 men. AS for
the others, who brought my total
withdrawal losses up to nearly 40
percent, they died gamely, were
wounded and sent to the rear - or,
in rare cases, deserted.
Macarthur now put me IN charge
of what was called the I Philip
pines Corps, charged with defend
ing the left, or western, side of
line which ran across Bataan be-
tween Moron, on the China Sea,
to Abucay on Manila Bay. The
eastern, or right, side of the line
was manned by Maj. Gen., George
M. Parker's II Corps. Parker made
his headquarters below Orion, on
Manila May; I made mine near
Bagac, on the other coast of Ba-
taan.
Under me now I had the First
Philippine Division, the Thirty
First, Seventy-First and Ninety
First Divisions, the hard-fighting
Forty-Fifth Infantry Regiment of
Philippine Scouts, what was left
of the Twenty~Sixth Cavalry and
six Is nm. guns.
D viding my I Corps and Park
er's II Corps was the 3,620-foot
Mount Silanganan, steep jungle
wall that made contact between
the corps very difficult with our
primitive, insufficient or nonexls-
tent commune atoms.
That was depressing, tactically.
Worse, from morale standpoint,
was the necessity of telling my
weary men as soon as they arrived
in their Bataan positions that they
must Immediately 60 on half-ra-
tons.
A man can 10 fairly well on
American style half-rations. In
deed, later on IN captivity, half
of an American ration would have
brought tears of gratitude to our
eyes, but half Philiuino SOL
dier's ration is hardly enough to
hold body and soul together. In
the Filipino ration rice takes the
place of the wheat component and
canned fish mostly replaces the
meat quota. And the half-rations
on which we were going were Fill
Pine rations.
So while we waited for the Japs
to come to us, as we knew they
inevitably would, I sent our parties
and patrols to shoot every carabao
they could find, and put veteri-
marin in charge of the slaughtering
and the issuing of the meat.
Young carabo meat is not so
bad, particularly if you havesome
kind of seasoning handy. But Ba-
tam seemed to be land reserved
for carabao veterans. We would
soak the tough old meat in salt
water overnight and beat it for ex-
tended periods before we cooked it.
But even then it was test for
the strongest teeth.
On the night of January 9 re-
ceived word from Corregidor to as
semble all the general officers of
my l Corps at certain place on
the Bagac-Pilar highway, which
runs across Bataan about halfway
down the peninsula. General Mac
Arthur was going to visit us. >.
He drove up the east side of Ba-
tam, inspected Gen. Parker's II
Corps senior officers briefly, and
then came westward over to our
side of the peninsula. I had my
generals lined up for him as he
drove up in his Ford. He looked
fit.
Jonathan" he said, greeting me
most cordially as he stepped out
of the car, I'm glad to see you
back from the north. The execu-
tion of your withdrawal, and of
your mission in covering the with
drawal of the South Luzon force,
was as fine as anything in history"
Douglas was little expansive
on some occasions, and I don't
mean that unkindly. just wonder
ed if I deserved such praise.
And for that" he continued,
'I'm going to see that you are
made a permanent major general
of the Regular Army" That was
nice, fer I was only temporary