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Lest we Forget - Corregidor falls
The Manila Tribune ^ | misc

Posted on 05/06/2015 1:17:59 PM PDT by Oatka

Seventy-three years ago today.

Here's some covers in commemoration, with the last report sent by Irving Strobing, who survived the war.

A nice detailed of the report here. Right up to the end we kicked butt and took names.

[excerpt]
The Americans and Filipinos on shore, unaware of the confusion in the Japanese ranks and still reeling under the effects of the bombardment, met the enemy with every weapon they could muster. One 2-gun 75-mm. battery near the tail of the island, just east of North Point, had never disclosed its position and it opened fire, together with some 37-mm. guns, at a range of about 300 yards, on the incoming landing craft. The few remaining searchlights were turned on but were quickly shot out by artillery fire from Bataan. But there was enough light for the guns onshore from the tracers which "like a 4th of July display danced and sparkled pinkly from Kindley Field to Monkey Point."[8] At point-blank range they struck the surprised and confused Japanese, sank a number of the boats, and caused many casualties. "Beach defense officers at the scene," wrote an observer, "reported that the slaughter of the Japanese in their barges was sickening."


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corregidor; worldwarii; wwii

1 posted on 05/06/2015 1:17:59 PM PDT by Oatka
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To: Oatka

Corregidor was taken back by the marines who pour gas down the ventilation shafts and set the Japanese on fire.


2 posted on 05/06/2015 1:19:33 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: minnesota_bound

Do the same to any ISIS Holes found.


3 posted on 05/06/2015 1:24:49 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Oatka

It was a wonderful gesture to have General Wainwright present on board the Missouri for the signing of the Japanese surrender.


4 posted on 05/06/2015 1:30:26 PM PDT by Mollypitcher1 (I have not yet begun to fight....John Paul Jones)
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To: Oatka

As a young Marine Corporal I visited Corregidor some time in 1971. Amazing tunnels and defenses. Rusted artillery pieces everywhere. I have pictures somewhere but it would take me some time for me to find them.


5 posted on 05/06/2015 1:32:23 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 ((VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!))
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To: SandRat

you know , for as worked up as Americans are these days about the Jihad a-holes , we faced a vastly tougher enemy with the Japs in WW2 . They were truly hard core and often well led and well supplied . Nothing in the entire islamist push even comes close to what the Japs hit us with . What has changed is that America has allowed itself to become ‘led’ by idiots that have no , or little resolve . We have allowed ourselves to become led by lawyers ( and all their clueless arrogant advisers)and not by our warriors . We have plenty of great warrior/leaders , they abound , but our Leftist/progressive/ pacifist/socialist media refuses to give them much of a forum . Only Fox News ( to some extent ) REMEMBER WW2 ...and what it took to WIN that . Remember what horrific enemies we faced then . These raghead circlejerkers are nothing . We just need to focus and take them out . All of them . Right ? ;^)


6 posted on 05/06/2015 1:39:05 PM PDT by LeoWindhorse
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To: LeoWindhorse
YEP! We need when we find these new Scum to do what was suggested, tell the UN To go eat Horse Road Apples and use Zippo Tanks and Guns on the TRASH.
7 posted on 05/06/2015 1:56:37 PM PDT by SandRat (Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
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To: Mollypitcher1

“Will General Wainwright step forward, and accompany me while I sign.”

MacArthur’s generous salute to the U.S. forces commander who survived three years in Jap captivity, is still remembered.


8 posted on 05/06/2015 2:14:40 PM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease.")
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To: minnesota_bound

I want to correct the post. It was army and naval forces who created the bonfire.

Excerpt: On April 5 a series of pipes were brought to the slopes and hooked up to a pump on a Landing Craft, Mechanized (LCM) attached to two Navy pontoons known as cubes that contained the fuel oil and gasoline. The device became known as the “Rube Goldberg.” Division engineers of the 113th Engineer Battalion linked the sections of pipes with flexible joints running up from the pumps on the LCM to the top of the hill. After first successfully testing the device with seawater, the “Rube Goldberg” was declared ready to be put to good use. A mixture of more than 2600 gallons of diesel oil and gasoline was pumped from the LCM into the mortar puts near the entrance to the tunnels. When the pontoons were empty, the infantry lobbed white phosphorus (WP) mortar shells into the pits. According to the official 38th Division after-action report, “the results were most gratifying.” A tremendous volume of flame erupted from the pit followed by a secondary explosion as small arms munitions began to cook off. There were seven subsequent explosions. A previously unknown drain cover blew out of the hillside and some of the fuel escaped and burned on the North Beach.
http://www.johnshively.com/Articles/Retaking%20Fortified%20Islands%20of%20Manila%20Bay.html

Another article with photos.

Excerpt: The fort burned for two weeks and no Japanese prisoners were taken, only 68 body remnants recovered.
http://laststandonzombieisland.com/tag/corregidor/


9 posted on 05/06/2015 2:17:01 PM PDT by minnesota_bound
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To: Oatka

Irving Strobing survived the Japanese POW camps and was informed after he was freed just how important his last messages from Corregidor had been to the war effort. He died in 1997 at age 77.


10 posted on 05/06/2015 2:25:47 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("The rat always knows when he's in with weasels." --Tom Waits)
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To: Red_Devil 232

I was there in 1962, a young LCPL. Same conditions.


11 posted on 05/06/2015 3:21:19 PM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners. And to the NSA trolls, FU)
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To: NTHockey

I was on a TDY to Cubi Point with our Squadron of F4-J Phantoms we were there on bombing and live fire training for the air crews. My Dad and Mom came to see me on their vacation from serving in Laos with USAID. They managed to get me a three day pass and took me to Manila with a day trip to corregidor. Very interesting times for a young Marine who would be heading to war in Vietnam(Danang)in two weeks.


12 posted on 05/06/2015 4:36:46 PM PDT by Red_Devil 232 ((VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!))
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To: minnesota_bound
Glad you corrected...the USMC wasn't really involved in Philippine action.

Off topic, but the postcards jogged a memory...my late mother was a WAAC in 1943, and she once showed me some letters from her fellow pals - one was from a lady who's brother had been captured at Bataan; there were a couple of sentences where she mused that she almost wished he'd died, because "we're hearing what the Japs do to their prisoners.".

13 posted on 05/06/2015 4:45:53 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (It ain't a "hashtag"....it's a damn pound sign. ###)
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