Philippine diary, 1939-1945

HILIPPI E . IARY11939-194

BRIG. GEN. STEVE MELLNIt

WITH A FOREWORD BY CARLOS P. ROMUU

philippine diary 1939-1945

BY BRIG. GEN. STEVE MELLNIK (U.S.A., RET.) FOREWORD BY CARLOS P. ROMULO

VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD COMPANY new york

toronto

london

melbourne

Copyright©1969 by S. M. Mellnik All rights reserved. No parts of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means-graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information and retrieval systemswithout written permission of the publisher.

Published simultaneously in Canada by D. Van Nostrand Company (Canada) Ltd. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG

CARD

NUMBER 77·83657 PRINTED AMERICA

IN

THE

UNITED

STATES

OF

contents

1 2

Foreword

1

Corregidor at Peace

2

MacArthur .Prepares the Philippines for War

3 4 5 6 7

War Comes to the Philippines Corregidor's Baptism of Fire We Stop the Enemy on Bataan The Calm Before the Storm The Fall of Bataan

8

The Siege of Corregidor

9

The Capture of Corregidor

10

The Agony of Prisoners of War

11

Life in a Penal Colony

12 13 14 15 16 17

Operation Chicken Escape Preparations The Dash to Freedom Life with the Guerrillas The Last Lap to Freedom The Guerrilla Road to Corregidor Epilogue

18 34 52 70 80 98 108 134 156 178 196 208 224 240 266 278 313

foreword

The actual account of the Second World War has not been completely or exhaustively written . or recorded, and I believe a complete history of it will never be undertaken. Reality is always richer than language, and the task of reconstruction will ultimately have to settle for an approximation of what actually happened.

In recent decades, however, materials on the Second World Warmemoirs, historical reconstruction, evaluation, and military accountshave found their way into public print and have helped to enlighten the new generation with the actuality that was the war.

Steve Mellnik's book is an important addition to these materials. It has a unique significance in the sense that it sees the war from a very personal angle of vision, reconstructing the events before the outbreak of hostilities and prior to the last stand in Corregidor up to the fulfilment of MacArthur's "I shall return", from the register of his consciousness and private sensibilities. As' Steve Mellnik says, "fate gave me a unique opportunity to participate in the defense and recapture of the Philippines ... " This book is therefore a source material, not simply a scholarly narrative of events. It is written with perception and with the sort of love that comes from the memory of one who has himself beeI1 centrally involved in the events.

Carlos P. Romulo

corregidor

at peace

1

corregidor at peace / 3

a

s bursting shells pierced the stygian darkness with flickering light, they revealed the bare, tortured earth of Corregidor with chilling clarity. Seventy-three days of Japanese bombardment had reduced the island's surface to rubble. Skeletons of reinforced concrete structures stood awkwardly along pockmarked roads. Upturned automobiles, scorched vegetation, and streetcar rails twisted into pretzel shapes added to the desolation.

In foxholes and dugouts weary soldiers cracked under the strain of facing death a score of times each day. They had long since forgotten the feeling of a full belly, a bath, or a night's uninterrupted sleep. They were beginning to lose faith; many wondered aloud if the mighty United States could come to their rescue.

Around a battered concrete pier jutting into Manila Bay men had finished outfitting four PT boats for a long journey. Three of the passenger-filled craft had pulled away from the pier and waited offshore, like pale ghosts; the fourth bumped gently against wooden piles.

With extra gasoline drums lashed to their decks the boats could cover the 300 miles to Cuyo Island with fuel to spare. If all went well, a submarine would surface at Cuyo and fuel them for another 300-mile hop to Mindanao. From there a B-17 would carry the passengers to Australia-1,600 miles farther south!

A decision in Washington, D. C., had triggered the stealthy preparations in the dock area. It also had sparked a flurry of radio messages between Pearl Harbor and Corregidor. Earlier that evening Corregidor's command post had flashed this message to its commanders: "Searchlights will remain out of action between 1930 and 2000 hours. During this period, gun batteries will not, repeat not, fire on blacked-out PT boats exiting Manila Bay via the South Channel."

Followed by a billowing dust cloud, a half-ton truck bounced down a bomb-cratered incline and braked to a stop near the waiting PT boat. A tall figure stepped down from the cab and paused to get his bearings. He removed his droopy garrison cap and turned to peer into the darkness. Involuntarily, we peered with him. But there was nothing to see. The grim battleground of Bataan was only a dark blur against the sky in the north. Far-off Manila made a dull glow on the horizon in the east. Across ten miles of mined waters to the south lay Cavite Province. And to the west lay the China Sea.

4/ philippine diary

Mter communing silently for a few moments, the tall man sighed and moved toward the boat. A ragged line of men materialized before him. He grasped the nearest man's hand and said, "I'll be back."

Other men stretched out their hands to grasp his. "Good-bye and God bless you," they murmured brokenly. Many sobbed.

When he had shaken every hand, the tall man moved through the rubble, grasped a piling, and gingerly lowered himself onto the heaving boat. Powerful engines roared into life. As the boat pulled away and faded into the night, the man stood at attention and held his arm in rigid salute. A stray ray of starlight bounced off the moisture on his cheek.

General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General of the United States Army Forces, Far East, was attempting to run the Japanese blockade and reach Australia! The day was 11 March 1942.

As I returned to the command post, my thoughts flew back to October 1939, when I arrived in the Philippines as a first lieutenant of artillery. I did not dream that just two and one half years later the Stars and Stripes would be lowered in surrender throughout the islands.

My wife and two daughters were delighted with the orders to the Philippines-a place they romantically associated with Magellan, Moro pirates, and tailless monkeys in Zamboanga. I viewed the assignment as an opportunity for professional advancement: in Army circles, Corregidor was synonymous with high standards of military effectiveness.

Receipt of orders in April of 1939 coincided with a dramatic change in the Soviet Union's hierarchy: inflexible and "hard" Vyacheslav Molotov replaced pro-west Maxim Litvinoff as foreign minister. Four months later the USSR and Germany signed a pact of "friendship and nonaggression" -this after years of calling each other's leaders mad dogs and murderers.

Pursuing long-range plans to carve out a sphere of influence in Asia, Japan had taken Formosa in 1895, annexed Korea in 1910, conquered Manchuria in 1931, and invaded China in 1937. By 1939 her troops had occupied China's principal coastal cities and were forging into the interior.

Our ship had scarcely left New York in September when we learned that German troops had invaded Poland. Then, to our

corregidor at peace / 5

astonishment, massive Soviet columns moved into Poland from the east!

The complex moves in the international chess game were beginning to form a pattern. Since the Soviet-German pact led to the dismemberment of Poland, other moves would surely follow. But few of us aboard the army transport cared to study the game seriously.

We were more interested in the National League pennant race.

After seven weeks aboard ship, we disembarked at steamy Manila, 14 degrees above the equator. The city was a curious combination of East and West, old and new. While its modern buildings and wide boulevards proclaimed kinship with the twentieth century, exotically dressed aborigines and carabao-drawn carts suggested close ties with a primitive past. And its peculiar odor-a pungent mixture of Jasmine, burning incense, garbage, and sewage-made us gasp.

The Philippines' official languages-and the languages of commerce and society-were English and Spanish. Educated Filipinos spoke Spanish in their homes. Among the hundreds of dialects in the archipelago, only two found extensive use: Tagalog on Luzon and Visayan in the southern islands.

A three-hour boat ride across Manila Bay brought us to a small, nondescript island covered with dense vegetation. Two barges unloaded coal and lumber at a wide pier; faded concrete buildings were nestled among the trees, and a huge pile of coal stood adjacent to a power plant. Was this Corregidor, the famous fortress? If so, where was its armament?

An old friend, Capt. Norman Simonds, met us at the dock and showed us around the island. "From the air, Corregidor looks like a tadpole," he said. "Its round head is a mile in diameter while its curving, two-mile-Iong tail is less than a hundred yards wide in places. For identification purposes, the head is divided into three altitude levels: Topside, containing the golf course, officers' club, and headquarters; Middleside, where you will live, and Bottomside with its native barrio, warehouses, and power plant. The we llcamouflaged gun batteries are generally sited on slopes leading to the water's edge. Drive carefully along our winding roads-you can miss a U-turn and end up in the bay with no trouble!"

Corregidor's recreational facilities were modest but adequate.

Two tennis courts, a bowling alley, a gymnasium, and two baseball diamonds served the athletes. There was no place to swim, but for the benefit of those suffering from heat rash, the surgeon had roped

6/ philippine diary

off a section of rocky beach with a shark net! A library, chapel, motion picture theater, and post exchange added to the impression that Corregidor was a bit of America transplanted to the Philippines.

An active insect-control program suppressed the anopheles mosquito, and malaria and dengue fever were controlled if not defeated. The water, pumped from deep wells, was pure, but few Americans drank it from a faucet. The risk of catching dysentery was too great, so all families boiled their drinking water.

Though Corregidor was a healthy place by tropical standards, its climate influenced our lives and work habits adversely. The principal adversaries were rain, humidity, and heat. Between July and October we were drenched in 150 inches of rain! It washed roads away, stalled uncovered automobiles, and caused ferrous metals to rust overnight. Inside our homes moisture-laden walls created electrical short circuits, beds and clothing remained damp for days, and leather goods became moldy unless kept in a heated closet. During this period most Americans felt a strong urge to give up the practice of wearing clothes!

The rains stopped in November. December was dry, cool, and comfortable. March ushered in the hot season; April brought oppressive heat.

The temperature rarely dropped below 82 degrees Fahrenheit, or the humidity below 92 per cent, during April, May, and June. As a result, few Americans dared to work outdoors between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M., when the temperature and humidity exceeded 98. Men gasped for breath during the hot season .and prayed for cooling rains. Tempers frayed easily, and troops lost weight. The sick-call rate rose sharply. Suicides began to occur, and commanders sought to identify persons developing mental and psychological aberrations.

Under those conditions most Americans contracted fungus and impetigo-persistent skin diseases. Occasionally they fell prey to yaws, dengue fever, malaria, and diarrhea. Recognizing that the rate of hospital admissions in the tropics was far higher than in temperate-zone posts, the War Department limited our tour of duty to two years.

Much had been written about the military potential of the island we called the "Rock." According to Sunday-supplement writers Corregidor was a "rock-ribbed fortress with subterranean tunnels, huge defense cannon, immense food reserves, etc. etc." Unfortunately, the facts belied those lurid claims.

corregidor at peace /7

Commanded by Major General Walter K. Wilson, Corregidor's 6,000 soldiers made security their paramount concern. They trained on heavy cannon, planted underwater mines, and conducted beach defense maneuvers. Armed guards met every boat. Passengers of every nationality and rank had to show properly authenticated passes before they could come ashore. Sentries who prowled the beaches during hours of darkness were backed by a "Beach Defense Alert" unit trained to meet an enemy at the water's edge. A Field Officer of the Day tested the alert unit's reaction capability between midnight and dawn!

Those security precautions were not idle exercises designed to keep men out of mischief; they were dictated by the hard facts of geography and military necessity. The China Sea lay outside Manila Bay. Japanese-controlled Formosa was less than 200 miles north of Luzon! Hawaii, our support base, was 4,760 miles to the east. And hundreds of fishing vessels surrounded Corregidor each night! Anyone could see o-tir vulnerability to sabotage and espionage.

All newly arrived officers had to study war plans and become acquainted with those geographic and climatic factors bearing on military operations. My group analyzed V-shaped Manila Bay and the fortified islands guarding its entrance.

The fortresses were designed to control the entrance to Manila Bay. In time of war such control would permit our ships to enter the bay for fuel and repairs. Since Manila was the capital of the Philippine Commonwealth, and a very important port, V. S. control of the bay had strong political and economic implications.

My study showed that the islands could hold their own against a strong enemy naval force. The invisible minefields formed passive but lethal barriers. Long range fourteen- and twelve-inch guns could hit enemy vessels in the China Sea. And if the enemy penetrated the minefields, he would come under massed fire from twelve-inch mortars. \Though Corregidor was capable of fighting a successful toe-totoe battle with battleships and cruisers, it was not prepared to cope with land-based artillery or prolonged air attacks. Its case-hardened steel projectiles could slice through battleship armorplate like a hot knife cutting through butter, but they were ineffective against personnel. Not a single cannon on Corregidor was turreted or had protective cover-all stood out in the open!

Corregidor's mobile 3-inch ack-ack guns were designed to pro-

0.

!

! (;cJ

-Z en

Q.,

Q.,

~

"!

::r: Q.,

Q

z

< I·

~

en

I

5

I

"

'.

Ii

I .. ...

00:

...

....

.. ....

i•

••

...

J

•

00:

..

OJ

h

.",

...

.

~

~o"'08 "'V: . ... .

... ~

~!

!

.f

....

0.

0

... .~ .~ . :

;:,

..

oQ

:;,

...

~

:

a

•

:

~

!

.~ "

• Overall map of the Philippine Islands.

, F'

"

L' 1"

N AS

I-_:_--L.L

.. E R I TAG E

Philippine diary, 1939-19451 by Brig. Gen. Steve Mellnik ;

I. I K II A II Y

foreword by Carlos P. Romulo