Friendly fire from Corregidor to Bataan

I found some info involving the Bataan Death March and Bataan when I visited Corregidor last Friday.

According to the historical guides on the island, the guns of Corregidor had inadvertently fired on the POWs of the Bataan Death March, causing some casualties.
This was documented, they claimed. Unfortunately, since I was only on a day tour, I lacked the time to look at the records on the island. They also mentioned that it was the British that first released this story while the Americans hushed it up.

As an aside, I bumped into a Japanese tourist who visited the island. On board the ferry, we discussed the Death March before I met the island's historical guides. According to the tourist, he was told that the Death March was a military necessity. It was a gruesome thing to do, he admitted but the Japanese had to use the prisoners as a human shield to force Corregidor to stop shelling Japanese positions and supply routes. The supply routes, he added, was partly the same route the prisoners took.

I don't know but this seems a coincidence. At first glance, it seems there might be something to the claim of friendly fire. It looks logical and plausible. Anybody else who has heard of this claim? It is a fact that some of the guns of Corregidor were still firing at Bataan when the troops in the peninsula surrendered.

 

I agree that it looks like a lame excuse.

I am just the messenger. Please don't shoot the messenger. I just relayed what I was told. I am down on my knees begging for mercy . . . I'll just make sure I'm far away from that hole. There might be crazy Spartans looking to get a good kick out of lil old me.

 

when i was a kid, i remember some accounts by death march survivors. it was the individual atrocities that happened along the way. they tracked the original route of the march and they were laughing and drinking all the way.

but militarily, it was a necessity. the japanese expected less than 30,000 POWs after the fall of bataan. but when they did surrender, it turned out there were more than 80,000. so the commander in bataan had a nice logistic problem. the only POW camp big enough was in capas, tarlac. to get there, one had to ride a train and the nearest arm of the line was in san fernando, pampanga. that's at least 110 kilometers from where they were.

the choices were, process them in bataan and probably end up with 80,000 prisoners dead of starvation and exposure (plus several hundred of your own soldiers dead of the same cause,) or force march them to the nearest rail bend. the japanese chose the latter, and there was urgency in their task. you'd expect a lot of one-sided bayonet action along the way, under the hot summer sun.

 

Spartans

Were they in world war 2>

 

LOL. Sorry, I wrote that just after beating the deadline crunch. I guess that also came from watching the lampoon version thrice.

To Mac,
That, I think, was the situation in the Japanese view. Still, being told that the few guns firing from Corregidor had inadvertently caused some casualties at the beginning of the Death March is intriguing so I wonder if anyone has also heard of this in one form or other?

 

not on my side. we have to get some philippine maps. wait...

ok, it started in mariveles, which was the japanese jump-off point for attacking correigidor in manila bay. that alone would have explained it. but the time frames are still confusing.

 

I'm looking for my copy of the "Wainwright Papers". It holds a record of the activities of the various gun batteries on Corregidor. It's the closest thing I could think of ever getting close to satisfying my interest in this intriguing matter.
As to the time frame, Corregidor didn't surrender until May so its guns were still firing at selected targets during and after the surrender of Bataan. As to the range, Mariveles is, as shown in your map, within the theoretical range of the gun battery nearest to Bataan.

 

Interesting stuff Falcon. Thanks for posting it.

Yep, Just an excuss. At least that was one Japanese person who knew of the death march

 

Well, to be fair, think of it like this. Supplies come by rail and take the easiest, direct route to the troops. The wounded are moved along these same supply lines, so why wouldn't the POWs? If a route is already established, why not use it? It would not make sense to find an alternative through the jungle when there is already a pre-existing route used by the wounded/supplies.

 

That's what I thought too. That's why I just can't dismiss the claim that friendly fire did hit prisoners of the Death March. Once an area is preregistered for artillery fire, all that has to be done is to fire the artillery piece and the shell goes to that general area.

 

Most of the long range, 12-inch mortars and guns firing from Corregidor were still able to hit targets on Bataan, especially after the Japanese chose to set up their gun batteries immediately next to the still-full, American Field Hospitals, full of wounded soldiers and other outlawed, neutral positions. Corregidor's gun batteries were surprisingly accurate until the final days of the siege and we have Colonel Paul Bunker to thank for that. The Coastal Artillery Boys of the Fortified Islands of Manila Bay exacted a heavy toll of the Japanese invaders.

 

If I remember correctly, this book has some veterans' recollections of having to dodge counter-battery shell fire from Corregidor. They may be the tail-end of the marchers.

We Remember Bataan and Corregidor
by Col. Mariano Villarin

 

Thanks for the info. Now all I have to do is get my hands on that book.

 

And where they friendly fires from Bataan to Corregidor in attempt to murder MacArthur ?

 

Uh, no. MacArthur had already been recalled to Australia by that time.

 

I just came across a mention of American casualties to due to counter battery fire from Corregidor in the Surviving Bataan and Beyond:

Amazon.com: Surviving Bataan And Beyond: Colonel Irvin Alexander's Odyssey As A Japanese Prisoner Of War (Stackpole Military History Series): Dominic J. Caraccilo: Books

 

Thanks for posting info on this book. It's just amazing how we can find tidbits of information just by asking a simple question.

 

Here's a first hand account of friendly fire from Corregidor by the late Maj. Richard M. Gordon:

HistoryNet - From the World’s Largest History Magazine Publisher » World War II: Interview with Major Richard M. Gordon — Bataan Death March Survivor

 

Thanks for sharing what you found. His tale is a very touching account. It also confirms what the Japanese told me in Corregidor that the prisoners were used as human shields.