Evening star., 1945-10-24


we crammed Is persons into its
tight interior. Most OF them were
nurses, but there were some all
ing officers, including Col. Pete r.
win, my assistant chief of staff
CD. Irwin was suffering from
ulcers which probably would have
caused his death had he been cap
tured, He reached Washington afte,
the gravelike silence of surrender
had settled over The Rock and was
able to report on the battle for the
island fortress until May 8.
I sent my favorite gun away from
Corregidor on that sub. 1t was a
handsome Smith 81 Wesson revolver
which I had worn more often on
Bataan and Corregidor than I had
worn my regulation service auto
matte.
I had sent back to the. States fol-
the revolver shortly before the war
Now, when I feared it soon would be
taken away from me, I wanted my
son to have it. So I gave it to a
Col. Savage of the Air Forces, who
was leaving on the sub, and tolo
him to take it home with him, send
it to Mrs. Wainwright and tell my
wife to forward it to my son-a
captain in the Merchant Marine
My son eventually received it and
carried it through the war.
Nurse Refuses to Leave.
One of the most courageous act;
of the entira campaign happened
the night the submarine paid the
last call to Cerregidor. No one hao
worked harder or was more valuable
to her country than Capt. Mieler
chief nurse of the hospital in the
Tunnel. I told my surgeon, Col
Cooper, that I wanted Capt. Mieler's
name included on the list of girls te
be taken out by the submarine. She
was the only nurse I specifically
named.
But Col. Cooper came to me
shortly after receiving my order ano
reported that Capt. Mieler had tolo
him she did not chose to leave
a.. as, long as there's a patient in
the hospital" I considered-ano
still consider-this truly great act
of heroism. She knew as well as
that she was signing her captivity
warrant. Il =
After the submarine submerged
/ and left, the heat was turned on us
beyond all description. Without let
up we were shelled and bombed
especially along the northern side OF
the island which faced Bataan's
guns. One defending gun after an
other was smashed, as were all OF
( the searchlights we were depending
.ripon to illuminate the inevitable
landing forces. se
Flag Is Hit Again.
The flag was hit again, near the
end, and as was the case when il
suffered an earlier blow on Corregi-
dor, men leaped from cover to re-
store it to the top of its towering
1O0-foot pole.
This time, however, the fallen
flag could not be run up from the
ground. One of the four men who
came to it's aid-they had to dodge
not only through intense shelling
but also were attacked by three
dive bombers-climbed to the top
of the swaying pole to fix the hal
yard.
The four brave men involved were
Capt. Arthur E. Huff, in charge of
an antiaircraft battery; Corpl. Louis
A. Roark, Pfc. Roy o. Bailey and
Pvt. Harley H. Laird. I awarded
Silver Stars to them in the course of
many last-minute decorations and
citations to some of the most gallant
fighting men and combat units the
world has ever seen.
1t did not seem possible that the
tempo of the Jap shelling could
possibly be increased. But on May
it reached its all-time high during
a five-hour period from Z am. until
noon.
Maj. Gen. George F. Moore and I,
making careful check of that
overwhelming artillery assault, dis
covered that the Jap batteries hit
Corregidor with a 500-pound, 240-
mm shell every five seconds during
the five-hour period. The big shells
whined in and struck us amid a
shower of men, guns, dirt, rock and
debris with clocklike precision.
They fell at the steady rate of IL
every minute, which meant $500
rha11c for. fryo h ~
fill 600 trucks.
Drop 1900, 900 Pounds.
Moore and 1, delving further into
the mathematics of the fury, esti-
mated at the end of the five in
credible hours that the Japs had
hit The Rock with 100000 pounds
of shells. These were statistics
which ignored the other beatings we
took that day of May 4, 1912, for we
also had 13 air raids that day.
Gen. George c. Marshall had ra-
diced me from Washington the day
1 before, asking for a frank estimate
of the situation in the Philippines.
I replied:
Hostile air corps has bombed
3Corregidor relentlessly since "a
March. Enemy Immediately en-
placed artillery on south shore of
Bataan on April and since then
has subjected our defenses to ar
tillery fire.
Beginning April 29-the Emper-
or's birthday-hostile artillery fire
4 increased in intensity and has con-
tinued at that tempo to the present.
The hostile bombing has been rela-
lively ineffective, but artillery fire
from large-caliber guns 24o-mm.-
has destroyed large percentage of
coast and beach defense artillery
and small arms. Since April con-
tinued bombardnent has caused
about 800 casualties and has low
cred the morale OF troops. Difficult
to maintain morale at best because
/ troops have been under or subject to
artillery or air attack constantly
since December 20 and have re-
ceiver half of poorly balanced ra-
tion since January g. Morale, how
ever, is amazingly good considering
conditions under which troops are
presently operating. Persistent re-
ports from operatives indicate that