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Late at night on May 5, 1942 (as late at night as it could be and still be considered May 5th), elements of the Japanese 61st Infantry and 7th Tank Regiments approached Corregidor and landed as part of their final invasion of the island. They expected no opposition whatsoever and, frankly, they really didn’t expect to find anyone living.
That’s beca…what? Corregidor? Where is it? Hmmm, yeah, we should probably have a little more background. Corregidor is a very small island (about 10 square miles) just a couple miles off the southern coast of the Bataan Province. The Bataan Province is located in central Luzon in the Philippines. As the photo shows, Corregidor (known as “The Rock”) looks a lot like a tadpole. As the photo does not show, this island sits right in the middle of the entrance to Manila Bay, so it possesses tremendous importance.
The Japanese, after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, landed in the Philippines just before Christmas and swept south, overrunning the Bataan Peninsula on April 9, 1942, after a tremendous battle with enormously under-manned, under-gunned, and under-fed U.S. soldiers. Looking out over the waters, the island of Corregidor stood as the next target, with less than 13,000 U.S. and Filipino troops led by General Jonathan Wainwright, just escaped from Bataan.
The Japanese set up gun enplacements on the Bataan coast and, with help from Japanese bombers, initiated the ”softening up” process. “From April 9th until May 6th, Corregidor was subjected to an air and artillery barrage that was so intense and so constant that the men on the island likened the bombardment to that of giant machine guns.” So writes E.M. Flanagan, Jr. in his book Corregidor: The Rock Force Assault, 1945. Those manning the guns in defense of the island were subjected to a merciless pounding from everything ranging from 75mm artillery pieces to 240mm howitzers.
As the Japanese watched the myriad explosions and dust clouds rising, the thoughts going through their minds mirrored those that U.S. soldiers would have two years later at places like Tarawa, Peleliu, and Okinawa…how could anyone be left alive?!? Many of the Americans had remained alive…by hiding in an elaborate underground tunnel system below Malinta Hill.
So as the Japanese set foot on the “tail of the tadpole” on this night in 1942, there would be American soldiers to “greet” them. But what kind of battle would there be? That’s for tomorrow…
Recommended Reading: Corregidor: The Rock Force Assault, 1945 – While concentrating on the re-taking of Corregidor in 1945, there is great background information on the Battles of both Bataan and Corregidor that were fought in those dark days of 1942.
