America's Last Stand

U.S. Soldiers manning a M3 Anti-aircraft gun. 

Food was scarce, water was limited with no air force or navy to rescue them. And to top all of that, their commander, General Douglas McArthur escaped to Australia even before the fall of Bataan. For Lieutenant General Jonathan M. Wainwright and his 13,000 U.S. and Filipino troops, it was hopeless.

The fall of Bataan on 9 April 1942 marked the end of all organized opposition by the USAFFE (U.S. Army Forces Far East) in the Philippines, inching closer to Japanese occupation. The 14th Imperial Japanese Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma now turned their focus on the tadpole-shaped island of Corregidor. Officially named Fort Mills, the island was one of the five forts that were part of the Harbor Defenses Of Manila And Subic Bays (Fort Hughes, Fort Drum , Fort Frank and Fort Wint). Homma had to take Corregidor, since as long as the island remains within American’s hand, the Japanese would be denied the use of Manila Bay.

Battery Hearn. 

Corregidor, called as “The Rock ” and “Gibraltar of the East” was the largest of the four islands fortified with powerful coastal artillery tasked to defend Manila Bay prior to World War I. The island is 5.6 km long and 2.4 km across at its head, the tadpole-shaped island is only 3.2 km away from Bataan. The highest and most elevated area is the Topside, which also held most of its artillery. Middleside was a small plateau that contains battery positions as well as some barracks. Bottomside was the lower area, where a dock area and the civilian town of San Jose were located. The island was armed a total of 45 coastal guns and mortars organized into 23 batteries (The two 300 mm guns of Batteries Smith and Hearn, with a horizontal range of 29,000 yd and all-around traverse were the longest range of all the island's artillery), some seventy-two anti-aircraft weapons assigned to thirteen batteries and a minefield of approximately 35 groups of controlled mines.

The hospital inside Malinta Tunnel

Also constructed in the island under Malinta Hill is an extensive tunnel system named Malinta Tunnel. It has a main east-west passage 826 ft long with a 24 ft diameter, in addition to 25 lateral passages, each about 400 ft long, which branched alternately from each side of the main passage. Another system of tunnels north of this housed the underground hospital that had 12 laterals with a capacity of 1,000 beds. The navy tunnel system lay opposite the underground hospital. East of it was McArthur’s headquarters, a tunnel with reinforced concrete walls, floors, and overhead arches that had blowers to furnish fresh air and a double-track electric tramway line along the east-west passage.

Corregidor was bombarded periodically starting 29 December 1941 until 2 January 1942. The first bombardment lasted only for two hours but destroyed or damaged the hospital, Topside and Bottomside barracks, the Navy fuel depot and the officers club. On 12 March, under the cover of darkness, McArthur boarded a PT boat bounded to Mindanao and eventually flown to Australia, leaving command of all U.S. and Filipino troops to Wainwright. 

The defenders comprised of troops from the US Army, Philippine Scouts, Philippine Army, US Marine Corps, US Navy, Philippine Navy, and civilians living with 30 ounces of food and given only water twice a day braved 614 Japanese bombing missions, dropping 1,701 bombs totaling some 365 tons of explosives, along with nine 240 mm howitzers, thirty-four 149 mm howitzers, and 32 other artillery pieces that pounded the islands day and night.

Japanese soldiers assaulting a U.S. bunker with flamethrower on the island of Corregidor.

On 5 May, Major General Kureo Taniguchi spearheaded the final assault on Corregidor. A battalion of 790 strong Japanese soldiers landed on the beaches between North Point and Cavalry Point. The invading force was quickly bogged down by U.S. and Filipino troops, whose 37 mm artillery exacted a heavy toll on the invasion fleet. However, the defenders were forced to full back out of the beaches due to the extensive use of 50 mm grenade launchers (knee mortars) by the Japanese infantry. A second battalion of 785 Japanese landed east of North Point, the area of responsibility for the 4th Marines Regiment. The area was well defended, killing most of the Japanese officers quickly while the huddled survivors were hit with hand grenades, machine guns, and rifle fire. The remaining survivors managed to join the first landing force, and later on captured Denver Battery.

At 04:30 Colonel Samuel L. Howard, commander of the 4th Marines Regiment, committed all his reserves to a counter offensive to reinforce the marines already engaged with the enemy and hopefully, recapture the lost battery. The move was costly due to Japanese snipers that slipped through the lines. 800 Japanese reinforcement landed at 05:30. At 09:30 Japanese artillery hammered Corregidor with a heavy barrage. At the same time, 3 tanks landed and forced the Americans to fall back inside a trench near Malinta tunnel.

Wainwright's message to President Franklin Roosevelt before the surrender 

"There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed."

Japanese soldiers celebrating after the surrender of Corregidor. 

At 13:30 of 6 May 1942, Wainwright sent two officers carrying white flags to deliver his surrender message. The Filipinos and Americans casualties were 800 men killed in action with 1,000 men wounded. The Japanese suffered 900 men KIA (killed in action) and 1,100 men wounded.

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