The last stand of all organized American and Filipino units were made in Corregidor after the fall of Bataan. This island fortress sits right smack in the entrance of Manila Bay, described as the finest natural harbor in the Orient. The Rock's defenses is quite formidable, it's like an unsinkable battleship. Bombings started on December 29, 1941 and the defenders held out until May 6, 1942. The defenders were low on everything except morale. They have nowhere else to go but the sea, nothing else to do but fight. Before surrendering to the enemy, General Wainwright burned the colors and radioed Roosevelt, "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed." Score board: 900 dead, 1,200 wounded for the Japs and 800 dead, 1,000 wounded for the defenders. Not bad, eh? POWs taken: 11,000. The battle of Corregidor marked the fall of the Philippines and all of Asia to the Japs. The blood spilled was not for naught because it severely upset Japan's timetable for the conquest of Australasia and the rest of the Pacific. General Masaharu Homma was disgraced and relieved because it took him 5 months to conquer the Philippines instead of the projected 2 months. He must've felt like banging his head on the Rock.
