COMMENTARY NOTES CONCERNING HUDSON HILL'S PLATE 1, FIG NO. 2

THE UNDERGROUND TUNNEL TO WHEELER

Hill's illustrations reflect his belief that there was a tunnel linking the South Shore Road to Wheeler Battery. The concrete Pill Box in Figure No. 2 (above) is Battery Monja, and the road, clearly not to scale, appears to be the South Shore Road as it approaches Wheeler Pt.

 There were, in accord with Coast Artillery tunnel design principles, at least two entrances to each part of Wheeler Tunnel. The main entrance was immediately adjacent to the trail leading down towards Battery Cheney, opposite a pathway which led from the Enlisted Men's Married Qtrs. The entrance was at the 500ft elevation.  The secondary entrance opened at the cliff edge.  There was a portal, equipped with a single ladder, at an approximate alignment the front parapet of Battery Wheeler, at approximately 560 ft elevation.

Hill's belief that there was a tunnel into Wheeler Battery was reasonable, though his surmise that it came from the vicinity of Wheeler Point is mistaken. On more than one occasion, the Troopers of the 503d had taken and cleared Wheeler Battery of Japanese defenders, only to find later that it had been reoccupied. Although there is a small shaft dug at chest height from one of the rooms in Wheeler Tunnel towards the Battery, either it was never completed, or is partially collapsed.  It thus cannot furnish any confirmation that Wheeler Tunnel and Wheeler Battery were ever connected.