Evening star., 1945-10-21
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tCOnUlUueQ from F1TSC PdSe.D
for their gunners to correct their
fire on our batteries and other
critical targets.
1t was diShearteningly unequal
artillery fight, made more unequal
by the fact that our batteries were
under almost perpetual attack by
enemy bombers. Some of the Jap
planes were dropping bombs as
heavy as a ton, certainly no aid to
careful craftsmanship on our part.
Smelling Never Stopped.
The shelling never really stopped
during the entire 27-day battle of
Corregidor. Night brought no sur
cease. That is a simple sentence
which in no way can convey the
terror and the morale-rotting which
the Jap artillery batteries visited
upon us. No place on The Rock was
a suitable haven except the inner
recesses of Malinta Tunnel, and we
could not fight back from the tun-
mel, nor could it hold more than a
fraction of our men and women.
Four of their artillery hits stand
out especially in my memory of
those helpless days and nights.
One shell hit a Marine company
mess while the men were lined up
for their meager suppers, killing and
wounding IS of those gallant fight
ers. Another struck in the midst
of a group of men on Fort Frank
assembled to receive an incubation.
The third hit the enlisted mems
mess at the west entrance to the
tunnel.
But the one that scored directly
on Battery Geary was, perhaps, the
worst. 1t wiped out not only the
gunners, but also broke up of the
IL heavy mortars capable Of firing
at Bataan. Another was severely
damaged. Gen. Moore and I went
to Battery Geary Immediately after
the hit to survey the damage, which
clearly showed the tremendous pow
er of the Jap shell. A lotion bar
rel from one of our guns had been
picked up like matchwood by the
explosion and thrown $50 yards up
hill to the cratered golf course.
Feared to Hit Own Men.
For week after the fall of Ba-
taan I would permit none of our
guns to fire against the tip OF the
peninsula. For six days of that
week, the Japs fired at us from that
point, but I feared that if we re-
turned the fire it might fall among
my captured men. I found out later
that even when we did fire, after the
week of grace, we did wound some
of our men, including 1t. Col. Bob
Lindsey. who had been my old lst
Corps artillery officer.
However, even death from our
shells might have been welcomed
by some of our men at that time,
if they had been able to know
what was in store for them. For
by April IS the almost unbelievable
death march toward Camp O'Don-
nell was on.
From a handful of men who eS-
capped early in that never-to-be-f for
gotten savagery, and from respon-
sible men who participated in it
and later reported to me, learned
the sadistic details.
The Japs rounded up my defeated
and diseased men in detachments
of about 1000 each. The first phase
of the march was from Southern
Bataan up to San Fernando Pam
panga, about go miles. There, in
terrible physical condition, they
were herded into boxcars like cat
tie and shipped 20 miles by rail
to Capas, in Tarlac Province, where
they were prodded out of their cars,
lined up and marched about Z
more miles to O'Donnell.
Camp Had No Water.
Camp O'Donnell was the site of a
list Philippine Army Division can
tonment. The water supply at this
camp had not yet been sufficiently
developed when the war started,
and such installations as we had
had for pumping water had de-
Perforated beyond usefulness or had
been destroyed.
The only water for these thou
sands of starving and thirst -crazed
prisoners could be obtained from
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