USA's Singapore--Corregidor Is.

[Boonie Stomper]

About 10 days ago, May 6, marks the 75th anniversary of the surrender of Corregidor, 6,May 1942.  The island's area is about 2.5 square miles and there were about 65 miles of roads.  For defense, there were 56 coastal gun batteries (6, 8, 10,& 12 inch bore) and 76 antiaircraft guns (3 in. & .50 cal).  The Japanese began preparing Corregidor (the Rock) on 29 Dec.1941 by dropping 114,850 lbs of bombs, on 24 March 1942 they dropped 142,000 lbs, and the day before invading, they fired 16,000 shells on the Rock from the mainland.  When the USA began fortifying the Rock in 1902, the battleship was "king" in warfare, most of the big guns were facing west, towards the South China Sea.  The Japanese attacked from the north, east, and south.

In January, 1945 US forces began to "soften up" the Rock with aerial bombing.  In 25 days about 3,128 tons of US bombs fell on the island.  By 16 Feb. 1945, US troops had secured the Rock.  Even if you don't like math, you can figure out that there is a lot of iron shrapnel on those 2.5 square miles.

As much younger lad, I was privileged to spend a week on Corregidor in 1971.  At the time the only ones who were picking up relics were Filipino scrap metal guys, and unfortunately they also cut up some of the historic big guns.   I hiked & explored for those glorious 7 days and there was ordnance (most live), rusty equipment & rifles, bullets, shells, etc. all over.

Below is one of the things that I picked up that dramatically shows just how much shrapnel was flying about.  It is steel galvanized pipe, 2.5 in. diameter, 20.5 in. long and I counted 16 impact places, including the 2 big ones that severed it at the top & bottom.  If the 2.5 in. pipe took that many hits, it was an unhealthy environment for a soldier to walking about above the ground. 

[Desert Rat]

Many Thanks Boonie,

For your account, very well written of the US Forces in the Pacific...They all went through HELL fighting to win, island to island with horrendous losses...We all remember the one of the most famous images of WW2,  the US Forces hoisting the American flag at the top of Mount Soribachi?....The war was nearly over, the end in sight ...for at least a short time of peace before the next war would begin!