Evening star., 1945-11-02

SA AAltkGD y. AhAhE.
Gen. Drake, 1901 Connect
described to Gen. Wdin,urtght ii
to reach Corregidor. Gen. Brt
food supply by planting a gard
made a sketch of the location.
against the day when I could pos
sibly deliver 1t to his family.
Suffers Heart Attack,
Brig. Gen. Stevens was another
who had the misfortune to become
seriously i'll. He developed an
abscess on his liver and suffered a
slight heart attack. We were able
this time to have him moved to a
hospital.
But the hospital the Japs chose
was the one at Camp ODonnell,
the worst nest in the Philippines.
That was July 26, 1912, and the
rest of us silently resolved that we
must not become any sicker than
we were-a resolution that was in
creasingly hard to make come true,
when we looked at our bony bodies
and regarded the days supply Of
food. Brooding over this, one of our
officers lost his mind.
Tarlac brought together men who
had been separated on Bataan and
Corregidor and it was a time for
quiet exchange of experiences and
beliefs.
1t was there, as I have reported,
that I learned from Brig. Gen.
Clifford Bluemel the full story of
the sorry condition of his 31st Phil
ippine Army Division on the eve of
the Jap strike at Luzon. From other
division commanders I heard SINH
lar stories of frightening unprepar-
edness, confirming my own observa-
tionS. We had, indeed, faced care
fully trained foe with one of the
most helpless armies in the history
OF arms. 1t was no comfort, sitting
there in our rags at Tarlac, to con-
slider the state OF our preparedness
on the eve of a war which had
been brewing in Washington diplo-
matte circles for a long time be-
fore the blow fell.
Works on Diary.
l spent some time with my diary
while at Tarlac, adding experiences
and reading earlier passages over
and over again. I had begun that
particular book of memoirs on April
2, 1912, and the first entry in the
book always confronted me when RI
opened it to add to my story. That
first entry, written just short of
two weeks after I took over Gen.
MacArthur's old place on Corregi-
dor, read:
"On this date I hereby pledge
myself that unless ordered by higher
authority to do so I will not move
my headquarters to the south, in
the event that the fall of Cor
regidor is imminent, but will, III
necessary, surrender myself with my
troops. ts.-r
mo other course of action would
be honorable
Now, in Tarlac prison, I learned
from officers who had served on
Coregidor before I reached there
that as far back as January, 1942,
at the beginning of the Battle of
Bataan, the question of the survival
OF Bataan and Corregidor had been
discussed pessimistically.
At a conference on January "A,
Macarthur agreed with staff men
that Bataan was doomed, as indeed
it was, though our forces held 1t
against appalling odds through the
first week Of April.
The Corregidor meeting of Janu-
ary concluded, as had been con-
cluded in theoretical plans of years
before, that Corregidor could not
long stand with Bataan in possess
sion Of the enemy. 1t stood 27I
days.
AT the same conference it was
ordered that supplies OF food and
ammunition be withdrawn from
Bataan and a stockpiie raised on
Corregidor which would be capable
OF supplying 10000 men for the
proposed defense of the rock. Mac
Arthur believed at that time that
Corregidor could stand until July
!, and predicted that Bataan might
fall by the middle of February.
When he was ordered to leave
Tor Australia on March 10, Bataan
was still only half-conquered, but
he could see the handwriting on the
wall, for at Mindanao he told OH
cerS-to whom I later talked at
Tarlac-.that Corregidor could not
last beyond June /.
He assumed that I would be able
to get force OF 10000 men there for
the Rocks defense, but 1000 was
all I could muster when the time
came-and, as you know, Corregidor
finally went down on May 6.
The men at Tarlac who had been
close to Macarthur during my days
on Bataan told me OF the commando
er IN chiefs great despair over our
inevitable fate. He told Mai. Gen
George F. Moore:
Never in history has a force of
this size been so left out on q limb. !"
At Tarlac I also learned for the
first time the strength OF the Jap
blockade. Brig. Gen. Charles Drake
OF the Quartermaster Corps in
formed me that the last supply ship
to come in from the visayan Islands
to Corregidor arrived February 27.
It was the Elcano, carrying 1,000I
tons, which was about eight days
rations for Bataan. Two other sup
ply ships, the San Isidro and
Legaspi. were sunk thereafter while
en- route to our aid. and that ended
it.
(Tomorrow: Wainwright tells
Of his final days at Tarlac.)
Copyright, 1916, King Features
Syndicate. Inc. Reproduction in
whole or in part strictly prohibited. J
l