The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Japanese Attack on the Philippines (12/10/1941) - Jul. 29th, 2004

www.military.com ^ | John W. Whitman

[SAMWolf]

Confusion Reigns

In the momentary quiet in the wake of the departing bombers, the incongruous sound of a San Francisco radio station playing popular jazz came over a radio set. The lull was brief. Enemy fighters now rolled in to complete the destruction. The lone B-18 drew the attention of Zeros, which strafed it and exploded some of its bombs. H Battery of the 515th Coast Artillery (anti-aircraft) let loose with its automatic 37mms. Air-cooled .30-calibers and water-cooled .50-calibers from a platoon of M Battery, 60th Coast Artillery (anti-aircraft), rattled away at the planes. Local air corps machine guns also engaged the Japanese. The combined fire brought down two Zeros.

Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Boeing P-26A

A low-flying Japanese pilot, his canopy open and his white scarf blowing in the wind, roared over the Americans and waved at them. The pilot of another plane took special interest in a ditch full of airmen. Omar L. McGuire could see the pilot's hands at the controls as he banked the plane sharply after each dive. "It gave me a strange sensation to be looking into the man's helmeted and goggled face while he was looking into my ditch," McGuire recalled.

A hapless P-35 flying low to the ground drew the fire of hundreds of trigger-happy Americans. Rifles, pistols and machine guns set up a terrible din. Next, an American observation plane came into sight. Although the pilot waggled his wings, flashed his running lights and did everything he could to show he was friendly, his reward was to have every armed man on the ground fire at him as furiously as possible. As the stricken plane sank lower, the observer bailed out. The roar of small-arms fire increased as the men on the ground concentrated on the parachute and sent 12 bullets into the observer.

The Japanese bomber fleet had divided north of Manila, and 27 aircraft had gone after army installations at Nichols. The remaining 54 bombers flew in magnificent V-shaped formations toward Manila. It was a beautifully clear tropical day, and the silver planes sparkled and flashed in the sun like minnows in a pond. Near the city, the Japanese split once more, this time into two 27-plane formations. One half went after shipping in Manila Bay while the second half lined up on the navy yard at Cavite.

Cavite

Single-engine floatplanes and larger flying boats raced in every direction across the bay in a rush to get airborne. Submarines hastily abandoned their mooring places at buoys and tenders, sprinted outside the harbor's breakwater and submerged.

The Japanese were not terribly successful in their anti-shipping efforts. They might have misidentified Maréchal Joffre as an aircraft carrier or large warship. They went after her but missed. The misses, however, put a bomb forward of the bridge on the 5,343-ton steamer Sagoland, set her afire and sank her. Fragments from a bomb that exploded 50 meters away lightly damaged the tanker Gertrude Kellog.

Americans around Manila watched the Japanese arrive. One of the observers was Admiral Thomas C. Hart, commander of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet, who would have a clear view of the destruction of his fleet base. He was disgusted at the absence of Army fighter protection, the very protection he had assumed MacArthur's air force would provide.

Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Martin B-10B

The Navy used Cavite chiefly for refueling and light repair. The base was packed with offices, residences, foundries, machine shops, aircraft repair shops, boat shops, parachute rigger lifts, lumber yards, ammunition depots and numerous warehouses. Normally inhabited by fewer than 2,000 civilians, Cavite had grown to 5,000 workers when the war started.

AA Gunners Prepare

Marine Corps anti-aircraft gunners outside the yard received word to man their nine 3-inch guns at 1100. The Japanese came into sight at about 1210. The air raid siren atop the yard's powerhouse began wailing to warn those in the yard and to prevent workers who had left for lunch from returning.

Japanese aircraft attack Cavite Navy Yard, near Manila, on December 10, 1941, in a painting by Japanese artist Chosei Miwa.

Private R. Jackson Scott, a young Marine who had left high school at age 16 to join the Corps, was serving as a second loader on a 3-inch gun as he watched the ghostly white planes come in at about 20,000 feet. To him, it was an unreal sight.



The 27 enemy planes circled Cavite slowly and deliberately as they formed over Manila Bay for the attack. They split into three groups of nine planes each, then headed for the north side of the yard. What looked like phonograph needles began falling, twinkling in the sunlight. They soon sounded like coal rattling through a metal chute. One string of bombs hit the water and lifted a line of huge geysers. The first attack -- the breathtaking explosions and the novelty of it all -- drove the anti-aircraft gunners to ground. They reluctantly got up and manned their guns when a second wave of nine planes drifted in.

Nailed To The Mast

Gun crews fired when the planes came into range. Private Scott passed the 25-pound shells to the first loader, who never looked back. He just moved his hands back, received the projectile, swung it forward, dropped it into the breech and pushed it home with his right arm. The sharp crack of 3-inch guns followed, one after the other. The sustained rate of fire for a 3-inch gun was 12 rounds per minute, one every five seconds. The crew of Scott's gun managed a rate of one round every three seconds for a solid hour, just short of the gun's maximum rate of fire.

Death and destruction left in the wake of the Japanese bombing of the Cavite Navy Yard on December 10, 1941.

Exploding anti-aircraft shells spread little clouds that gave the gunners a sense of accomplishment. "We're right on 'em. We're right on 'em, but we're hittin' below 'em. Use some longer fuses!" yelled the height finders. The 21-second fuses, the longest available, still detonated the shells below the Japanese bombers. Even less effective were sailors firing pistols, rifles and machine guns. A civilian worker in Cavite watched the shells explode well short of the planes and exclaimed, "By God, we're going to be nailed to the mast!"


Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Boeing B-17D

Well-trained Japanese pilots and bombardiers had a perfect target in Cavite, a small island only 50 acres in area that was connected to a small peninsula by a 200-yard-long causeway. The Japanese dropped their bombs into Cavite in a strike nearly as good as the first day's attack on Clark. Almost every bomb fell within the Navy Yard.

[SAMWolf]

Ships

The first string of bombs straddled the 6,750-ton USS Otus, a former Lykes liner undergoing conversion to a submarine tender. Bombs that landed in the shallow sea threw up geysers of water topped with mud and smoke. Engaged in taking on torpedoes, Otus backed away from the wharf unscratched, but left behind the torpedoes she had come to pick up.


Direct hit! Two bombs strike Sea Lion (SS-195) almost simultaneously. First U.S. submarine casualty of the war, she went down in the shambles of Cavite - was later raised from the shallows off Machina wharf and sunk in Manila Bay to prevent capture. Sea Dragon (SS-194) (shown at right) narrowly escaped the blast.

Two submarines were nestled at Machina wharf, Sealion and Seadragon, tied up next to the minesweeper Bittern. The old, 840-ton Bittern caught fire. Sealion's engines had been dismantled for an overhaul, so she had no chance to run. She took a direct bomb hit aft of the conning tower and a second that smashed through the main ballast tank and pressure hull and exploded in the engine room. The second bomb killed four sailors, put a starboard list on the boat, and sank her halfway by the stern.

Seadragon's overhaul had been rushed to completion with the exception of dozens of cans of paint that were still on the boat's wood-slat deck. A blast next to her damaged Seadragon, and the paint cans caught fire. When the torpedo repair shop ashore was hit, pieces of metal scythed across Cavite. Air flasks and torpedo warheads exploded and caused even more damage to the ships. The paint shop blew up and splattered burning paint over the yard's wooden buildings; all were extremely dry and burned easily. A barge holding torpedoes was hit, capsized and rolled the torpedoes into the water.



The skipper of the ex-minesweeper -- now tender -- Pigeon had kept steam up and pulled away from the burning Sealion. Sailors on Pigeon tossed a towline to Seadragon and pulled her to safety. The first two waves of bombers did not hit the destroyer Peary, which had been undergoing repairs, but the third wave straddled her. Bombs hit the central wharf, and fell into the water alongside Peary. One bomb hit the fire-control platform on the destroyer's main mast and ignited small fires the length of the ship. The minesweeper Whippoorwill towed her clear.

Another Pass

The planes swung in for another pass. This time they scoured the east side of the base. Violent explosions blew blackout covers off windows, shattered glass and vigorously shook buildings. Many of the yard's buildings were light, modern and constructed of wood. They offered no protection at all.



Once the first 27 bombers finished their work, another 27 -- those that had struck at shipping -- came in and finished unloading their bombs. The Japanese scored direct hits on the yard's power plant, dispensary, torpedo repair shop, supply office and warehouses, the signal station, commissary, receiving station, barracks and officers' quarters. For two hours, maybe longer, the bombers passed steadily back and forth above Cavite, taking great pains to ensure that their aim was accurate.

Stray bombs hit the densely populated, centuries-old town of Cavite, which was jammed right up against the navy yard. Rather than dropping to the ground during the attack, people ran wildly in a blind search for nonexistent safety. One bomb penetrated the roof of the provincial governor's office, exploded in a prison cell on the bottom floor and killed a jailer and several prisoners. More than 100 civilians were killed at the provincial building and the plaza alone.



After the bombing ceased, Japanese fighters came in low and strafed anything they could see through the thick smoke. Zeros blew one PBY out of the sky above Laguna de Bay and sent a ball of flaming debris into the lake. They forced another flying boat onto Manila Bay in a crash landing, but lost one of their own nimble fighters to the .30-caliber machine gun in the PBY's bow.

Attack Over

Then the attack ended. The flight home for Japanese pilots was nerve-wracking because weather over Formosa had deteriorated since the morning. By dusk, when the planes were due back, the ceiling was down to between 300 and 450 feet. Aside from one Zero that crash-landed just off the coast, the fighters were able to make forced landings on Koshun Field at the south tip of Formosa. The bombers also got in safely. During debriefings, Japanese pilots claimed 104 U.S. planes destroyed, 43 from aerial combat. Bomber pilots claimed two submarines, two destroyers, two small transports and three other ships. Despite those inflated claims, there was no doubt that they had inflicted serious damage on Cavite. In addition to Masaharu Higa, Petty Officers 2nd Class Tamotsu Kojima and Kiyoharu Iezuka of the 3rd Kokutai failed to return. Sixteen other Zeros sustained hits but made it home.


Aircraft in the Philippines, December 1941: Republic P-35

Americans at Cavite tried to sort out the confusion after the Japanese had cleared the area. Because the dispensary had been destroyed, Navy corpsmen set up an aid station in the Marine guard shack near the main gate, where doctors established a 70-bed facility. Able-bodied men directed walking wounded through the wreckage to the guard shack and carried those too seriously wounded to walk. Many of the victims suffered from bad burns.

Stretcher bearers carried casualties between rows of beds until they found one containing a dead man. They then removed the body and placed the new patient on the same bloody sheets. The dead were carried out and placed next to the base exchange. Medical personnel grabbed trucks, cars and horse-drawn carriages to take the injured to nearby Cañacao Naval Hospital, to Manila, or to barrios outside Cavite. Volunteers canvassed local civilian drugstores and commandeered all the surgical dressings and drugs they could carry. Men involved in the rescue work began vomiting. Thinking it a was reaction to the smell of the torn and burned bodies, they put on their gas masks -- only to vomit again. A PT-boat shuttled seriously wounded men to the piers at Cañacao. Within two hours the hospital was filled and corpsmen told the less seriously wounded they would have to go somewhere else. Drivers trucked bodies and parts of bodies to Manila's air-conditioned Jai Alai Fonton Pavilion and stacked them wherever there was room.

Clear The Way

Sailors fought scores of roaring fires through the heat of the 90-degree day, but they could not keep water pressure in the hoses. Exploding 500-pound torpedo warheads and alcohol fires drove the firefighters back. They tried to save the burning machine shops, but whenever they made any headway against the lubricant-fueled fires, the strong winds shifted and routed them.


Invasion of the Philippines
December 10, 1941 - May 3, 1942

Naval officers at the Commandancia, a beautiful example of the best in Spanish architecture, hurried in and out of the war plans office as they evacuated classified papers. Firefighters pumped water from Manila Bay in an attempt to slow the approaching fire, but soon the Commandancia was also ablaze. Fires were so intense by 1530 that searchers abandoned their efforts to locate people trapped in the debris. A half hour later they began yelling, "The admiral says clear the yard." The fight to stay the flames was abandoned.

Additional Sources:

www.fourthmarinesband.com
www.history.navy.mil
www.mississippi.net
history.acusd.edu
www.navsource.org
www.ibiblio.org
www.grunts.net
www.brooksart.com
www.onwar.com
www.west.net

[SAMWolf]

By the close of December 10, the Americans had conceded control of both the skies and the seas. Many had considered the successful bombing of Clark on December 8 a fluke, the result of a surprise attack. But the December 10 razing of Del Carmen, Nichols and Cavite confirmed some hard facts: P-40s with poorly trained pilots could not successfully engage in dogfights with Zeros; and their anti-aircraft guns were too short-ranged to reach enemy bombers. Especially discouraging was the growing fear that neither American commanders nor soldiers were ready, psychologically or professionally, to match the Japanese.

December 10 was the second of many disheartening days to come. All too soon, a Japanese army would land on Luzon, driving the defenders to Bataan and Corregidor. In an astonishing series of aerial engagements that began on December 8, Japanese air forces had created the conditions that would lead to the most humiliating American defeat of World War II.

[SAMWolf]

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

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UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004



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Good Thursday Morning Everyone


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[Neil E. Wright]

Another outstanding thread .... PI then was a whole lot different than when I was stationed in PI in the early '70s.

I think I'll snag a couple of cold ones and lose myself in my memories of the Philippines .... Subic Bay, Olongapo City, Subic City, Clark AB and environs (had a buddy in the AF from my hometown who was stationed there during the same time period), Manila .... ah, memories .... :)

±

"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM

[SAMWolf]

Morning Neil. Thanks again for your service.

Never made it to the Philippines. My brother-in-law was stationed there in the 60's with the Air Force.

[SAMWolf]

Good Night Snippy.

[snippy_about_it]

Subic Bay

[snippy_about_it]

Good night Sam.

[GATOR NAVY]

Hey, I've been there!

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. Have you sailed all the seven seas?

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Snippy.

[GATOR NAVY]

Nope, never been in the Atlantic, Med or Carribean. Been all over the place in the Pacific and IO though.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone at the Foxhole.

[The Mayor]

July 29, 2004

Power Outage

Read: Read: 2 Timothy 1:6-12

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. —2 Timothy 1:7

Bible In One Year: Psalms 49-50; Romans 1

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The silence awakened me at 5:30 one morning. There was no gentle whir of fan blades, no reassuring hum from the refrigerator downstairs. A glance out the window confirmed that a power outage had left everyone in our neighborhood without electricity just as they would be preparing for work.

I realized that alarm clocks would not sound, and there would be no TV news. Coffee makers, toasters, hair dryers, and many telephones would be useless. Beginning a day without power was simply an inconvenience and a disruption of routine—but it felt like a disaster.

Then I thought of how often I rush into the day without spiritual power. I spend more time reading the newspaper than the Bible. Talk radio replaces listening to the Spirit. I react to difficult people and circumstances in a spirit of fear rather than the spirit of“power and of love and of a sound mind”that God has given us (2 Timothy 1:7). I must appear as spiritually unkempt as a person who dressed and groomed in the dark.

Our power outage was short-lived, but the lesson remains of my need to begin each day by seeking the Lord. His strength is not for my success or well-being, but so that I will glorify Christ by living in His power. —David McCasland

There’s never a lack of God’s power
In prayer and reading His Word,
For Jesus in heaven is listening-
Your prayer will always be heard. —Hess


The human spirit fails us unless the Holy Spirit fills us.

[alfa6]

Last day of vacation buimp for the Foxhole, dangnabit!!!!

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Professional Engineer]

Good morning ladies. Flag-o-gram.

[GailA]

Good morning...hmmm has hanoi john or breck girl been to Walter Reed to do a photo op of them 'visitin' our injured Troops?