The Wilmington morning star., 1945-10-17

VIE Sf9N SAAAtSN ssi tssS 4i-sk
pines. IS months before. 20 10
Ssv's rev assignment and hope
less situation.
Ss9. Carroll, NY oT<sssvly, met US
al Msviyeles with the .sep. We
climbed II silently asaa drove back
IL MY trailer headquarters in The
woods scs.ss. Q. Sassc, while
spsc.ls.eS o. tie to7css ! would
have under ls.s. when assumed
command q su L.zoii units on
the rrornins az March y.
would have. in all. about TO-
900 men, not nearly all Of them
combat troops. Gen. EoInma' new
landings in the Lingayen Gulf area
had increased the Jap force t o
about quarter of a million men.
There was, of course. little COM
parison between our physical con-
dition and arms, and theirs.
I would now command both the
and the II Corps. They made
up about $4,000 of my men, with
about $4,000 in Parker's II Corps
md $4,000 in my old I Corps.
sprinkled among them were lo,O0O
service, corpsmen, one or two
uuartermaster groups and t h e
medical units, which included
kbout 100 American nurses.
Far to the north I had two
small guerrilla bands, totaling g.
DoO and still reachable by radio.
On Corregidor and the three
smaller forts in Manila Bay -
Forts Drum, Frank and Hughes
were about 10000 more men, In
GLIDING a regiment of Marines. De-
tenders of the fortified islands were
under the overall command Of Maj.
Gen. George F. Moore.
My Navy" by that time con-
sisted of four motor torpedo boats,
commanded by Lieut.. John Bulke-
ley, two or three small mine
sweepers, and a few miscellaneous
craft. The "air force was down
to one P-40, in bad condition and
hidden at field just east of Ma
riveles.
Not long before we had raised
our air force to four P40's, thanks
to aid from the south. They con-
tinued to be used essentially for
reconnaissance, but one night they
more than reverted to type. Each
was fitted with makeshift bomb
racks and took off with a total OF
1000 pounds of explosives 900
pounds to each plane swept out
low over Subic Bay and raised
Hell with a concentration of Jap
ships.
The Jap radio, with its customary
flair for exaggeration. said that the
ships were attacked by q BITS
and that IA of the four -engined
Flying Fortresses had been shot
down by Jap gunners.
We got laugh out of that, but
the laugh froze when three Of the
four P-40's cracked up on the land.
~ ing back at Mariveles. S now
there was one.
On the morning Of March IL,
1912, l lined up all general officers
of the 1 Corps at my headquarters
and told them the news of Mac
Arthur's departure and of the new
command setup.
I watched their faces as I spoke.
They were all at first depressed by
the news that our great command
er had been forced, by order OF
President Roosevelt, the Command
er in Chief, to leave us. But
soon saw that they understood, just
as understood. They realized as
well as l what the score was.
then gave command of my old
l Corps to Brig. Gen. A. M. Jones,
and hitched up my creaking trial
er. l moved my headquarters 20
miles south to a clearing just east
of Mariveles, where Macarthur had
established what was called his
Advanced Headquarters on Ba-
taan.
It was not an ideal setup. My
trailer, bad as it was, was the
most durable structure in the clear
ing. The rest of my headquarters
force camped on the ground. There
were two or three pup tents, and
we gathered such telephone and
radio gear as we could muster.
The big problem staring me in
the face-at the start of what was
my short term as commander of
the Luzon forces - was, of course,
supply. Such as it was, I had no
control over it - which irked me
a bit. Macarthur had left the mat
ter Of Bataan supplies in the
hands of Brig. Gen. Lewis Beebe,
over on Corregidor.
So on March Is l went over to
The Rock to see Beebe. 1t was, as
I knew it would be, fruitless
visit. I came back to Bataan with
a heart made heavier by the fact
that now had to tell my men tlot
their rations - already cut to the
starvation quota Of one half of a
Filipino ration per man - would
now have to be cut by another
third in order for us to exist until
April 10.
That was the day the last of the
bony horses of the Twenty Sixth
Cavalry were shot and cut up.
Between March IS and 20 l spent
much of my time with the men
then using up the majority of what