Battle of Corregidor
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| Pacific Campaign 1941-42 |
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| Pearl Harbor – Malaya – Singapore – Wake Island – Thailand – Hong Kong – Philippines – Borneo – Rabaul – Balikpapan – Ambon – Singapore – Makassar Strait – Palembang – Darwin – Badung Strait – Timor – Java Sea – Java – Christmas Island – Indian Ocean – Bataan – Doolittle Raid – Coral Sea – Corregidor – Sydney – Midway |
The Battle for Corregidor was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Philippines. The fall of Bataan in April 9, 1942 ended all organized opposition by the U.S. Army Forces – Far East (USAFFE) to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon in the northern Philippines. The island bastion of Corregidor, with its network of tunnels and formidable array of defensive armament, along with the fortifications across the entrance to Manila Bay, was the remaining obstacle to the 14th Japanese Imperial Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma. The Japanese had to take Corregidor; as long as the island remained in American hands, they would be denied the use of the Manila Bay, the finest natural harbor in the Orient.
Defense of Corregidor
Of four islands protecting the mouth of Manila Bay from probable attack, Corregidor, officially named Fort Mills, was the largest island, and was fortified prior to World War I with powerful coastal artillery. Only 3.5 miles long and 1.5 miles across at its head, the tadpole-shaped island lay two miles from Bataan. Its widest but elevated area, known as Topside, contained most of its fifty-six coastal artillery pieces and installations. Middleside was a small plateau containing more battery positions as well as barracks. Bottomside was the low ground where a dock area and the civilian town of San Jose was located. East of this was Malinta Tunnel, location of MacArthur’s headquarters as well as a hospital.Corregidor's garrison received the largest group of reinforcements right after the fall of Bataan, with some 72 officers and 1,173 enlisted men from more than fifty different units were integrated and assigned to the 4th Marine Regiment, commanded by Col. Samuel L. Howard. Unfortunately, very few of the reinforcements were trained or equipped for ground combat. By April 30 , 1942, the 4th Marines actually numbered 229 officers and 3,770 men, of whom only 1,500 were Marines. Maj. Gen. George F. Moore's artillery contingent and attached Filipino combat units comprised the remainder of the defense force.
The Siege
On December 29 , 1941, the defenders got their first taste of aerial bombardment on Corregidor. The attack lasted for two hours as the Japanese destroyed or damaged the hospital, Topside and Bottomside barracks, the Navy fuel depot and the officers club. Three days later, the island garrison was bombed for more than three hours. Periodic bombing continued over the next four days and with only two more raids for the rest of January, the defenders had a chance to improve their positions considerably. To the amusement of the beach defenders on Corregidor, the Japanese dropped only propaganda leaflets on January 29. On March 12, 1942 under cover of darkness, Gen. Douglas MacArthur was evacuated from Corregidor on four PT boats for Mindanao, where he was eventually flown to Australia.
On top of the bombardment was the increasingly dwindling food supply. The defenders were living on about thirty ounces of food per day. Drinking water was distributed only twice a day but the constant bombing and shelling often interrupted the ration. When the bombardment killed the mules in the Cavalry, they would drag the carcasses down to the mess hall and cook them up. The continued lack of proper diet created major problems for the Corregidor garrison, as men grew weakened and lacked reliable night vision.
Japanese bombing and shelling continued with unrelenting ferocity. Japanese aircraft flew 614 missions dropping 1,701 bombs totaling some three hundred sixty-five tons of explosive. Joining the aerial bombardment were nine 240 mm howitzers, thirty-four 149 mm howitzers, and thirty-two other artillery pieces, which pounded Corregidor day and night. It was estimated that on May 4 alone, more than 16,000 shells hit Corregidor.
From April 28, a concentrated aerial bombardment by the 22nd Air Brigade of Maj. Gen. Kizon Mikami, supported by ground artillery on Bataan from May 1 to May 5 1942, preceded landing operations.
The Fall
On May 5, Japanese forces led by Maj. Gen. Kureo Tanaguchi boarded landing craft and barges and headed for the final assault on Corregidor. Shortly before midnight, intense shelling pounded the beaches between North Point and Cavalry Point. The initial landing of 790 Japanese soldiers quickly bogged down from surprisingly fierce resistance from the American and Filipino defenders whose 37 mm artillery tolled heavily on the landing fleet.
The Japanese struggled due to the strong sea currents between Bataan and Corregidor and from the layers of oil that covered the beaches from ships sunk earlier in the siege and experienced great difficulty in landing personnel and equipment. However the overwhelming number of Japanese infantry equipped with 50 mm heavy grenade dischargers and "knee mortars" forced the defenders to pull back from the beach.
The second battalion of 785 Japanese soldiers were not as successful. The invasion force did not prepare for the strong current in the channel between Bataan and Corregidor. This battalion landed east of North Point where the defensive positions of the 4th Marines were stronger. Most of the Japanese officers were killed early in the landing, and the huddled survivors were hit with hand grenades, machine guns, and rifle fire. Some of the landing craft did however make it to the location of the first invasion force and found themselves moving inland enough to capture Denver Battery by 1:30 a.m. on May 6.
A counterattack was initiated to move the Japanese off of Denver Battery. This was the location of the heaviest fighting between the opposing forces, practically face to face. A few reinforcements did make their way to the frontline 4th Marines but the battle became a duel of obsolete World War I grenades versus the deadly accurate Japanese knee mortars. Without additional reinforcements, the battle would quickly go against the defenders.
By 4:30 a.m. Colonel Howard committed his last reserves, some 500 Marines, sailors and soldiers of the 4th Battalion. These reserves tried to get to the battle as quickly as possible but several Japanese snipers had slipped behind the front lines to make movement very costly. An additional 880 reinforcements for the Japanese arrived at 5:30 a.m.. The 4th Marines were holding their positions at the same time losing ground in other areas. The Japanese were facing problems of their own, several ammunition crates never made the landing. Several attacks and counterattacks were fought now with only bayonets.
The final blow to the defenders came about 9:30 a.m. when three Japanese tanks landed and went into action. The men around Denver Battery withdrew to the ruins of a concrete trench a few yards away from the entrance to Malinta tunnel, just as Japanese artillery delivered a heavy barrage. Particularly fearful of the dire consequences should the Japanese capture the tunnel, where lay 1,000 helpless wounded men, and realizing that the defenses outside Malinta tunnel could not hold out much longer, and expecting further Japanese landings that night, General Wainwright decided to sacrifice one more day of freedom in exchange for several thousand lives. In a radio message to President Franklin Roosevelt, Wainwright says, "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed." Colonel Howard burned the 4th Regiment's and national colors to prevent their capture by the enemy. Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright finally surrendered the Corregidor garrison at about 1:30 p.m. of May 6, 1942 with two officers sent forward with a white flag to carry his surrender message to the Japanese.
Outcome and Historical Significance
Corregidor's defeat marked the fall of the Philippines and Asia , but Imperial Japan's timetable for the conquest of Australia and the rest of the Pacific, was severely upset and her advance was ultimately checked at the battles for New Guinea, to the turning point in the Pacific War at Guadalcanal.
About 4,000 of the 11,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war from Corregidor were marched through the streets of Manila to incarceration at Fort Santiago and Bilibid Prison, criminal detention centers turned POW camps. The rest were sent off in trains to various Japanese prison camps. General Wainwright was incarcerated in Manchuria. Over the course of the war, thousands were shipped to the Japanese mainland as slave labor. Some were eventually freed at Cabanatuan and during the battle for Manila's liberation.
From February 16 to 26 , 1945 , American liberation forces spearheaded by the 503d Parachute Regimental Combat Team, swept into Corregidor and took it back during the Battle for the Recapture of Corregidor.
See also
- Battle of Bataan
- Battle of the Philippines (1941-42)
- History of the Philippines
- Military History of Japan
- Military History of the Philippines
- Military History of the United States
External Links
- [Animated History of The Battle of Bataan and Corregidor]
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