TARLAC RAILROAD STATION ; salvaging a carload of .30-caliber ammunition
 

As the front-line units moved back, the troops to the rear began to carry out the supply plan. On 24 December General MacArthur's headquarters had ordered the evacuation of Fort Stotsenburg and the destruction of its 300,000 gallons of gasoline and large amounts of high octane fuel. Lt. Col. Wallace E. Durst, Post Quartermaster, was able to save about 50,000 gallons of gas by shipping some of it to the rear and issuing the rest to vehicles in the immediate area. "No material amount of gasoline," reported Durst's assistant, Lt. Col. Irvin Alexander, "was abandoned to the enemy."51 In addition to gasoline, Stotsenburg stocks included 8,000 pounds of fresh beef, about 100,000 components of dry rations, large supplies of clothing, and air corps ammunition and equipment. When the post was finally abandoned, almost nothing of value was left, according to Colonel Alexander. All supplies, he said, had been shipped to Bataan or issued to troops in the Stotsenburg area.52

The evacuation of Fort Stotsenburg long before the approach of enemy forces, aroused much criticism from officers who disagreed sharply with Colonel Alexander's optimistic statements on the amount of supplies saved. Colonel Collier exaggeratedly described the evacuation of Stotsenburg as a "frenzied departure" in which "warehouses filled with food, clothing, and other military supplies were left intact." Also left behind, he reported, were 250,000 gallons of gasoline and several obsolete but serviceable planes.53 General Drake, MacArthur's quartermaster, reported that only a portion of the reserve supplies stocked at Stotsenburg had been removed before its evacuation.

 

 

 

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