MARINE
SERGEANT* TEACHING
FILIPINOS the operation of a machine
gun. |
|
Until the evacuation of Manila at the end
of December, local defense of the island had been provided by a small
number of artillerymen, who performed this task in addition to their
other duties. Such an arrangement had not permitted an effective defense
or left time for the construction of strongly fortified positions. This
deficiency had been recognized but it was not until Admiral Hart made
the 4th Marine Regiment available on 24 December that steps were taken
to correct the weaknesses of Corregidor's defenses.
By chance, Col. Samuel L. Howard,
commander of the 4th Marines, was in Manila when Hart turned the
regiment over to the Army "for tactical employment." He reported
immediately to General MacArthur and then to General Sutherland who gave
him his orders. They were brief and to the point: "Proceed to Corregidor
and take over the beach defenses of that island." Howard thereupon
returned to his regiment at Olongapo to prepare for the move. Within a
week the entire regiment had reached Corregidor and on 29 December
Colonel Howard was designated commanding officer of the beach defenses.
The 4th Marine Regiment, which had arrived
from Shanghai only a month earlier, had been considerably reinforced
since the start of the war. The 766 marines who had escaped from China
had been organized into a two-battalion regiment in which each battalion
consisted of only one machine gun company and two rifle companies. The
companies, moreover, had only two of their platoons. When war came, the
regiment had absorbed the Marine detachment of the Olongapo naval
station and had organized a third platoon in the rifle companies as well
as two additional companies from other Marine detachments in the
Islands. On reaching Corregidor the regiment gained enough men to form a
3d Battalion by absorbing the marines who had formerly been stationed at
Cavite. The strength of the regiment (less detachments) now totaled 66
officers and 1,365 enlisted men, substantially the same strength it had
at the end of the campaign. It carried with it when it moved to
Corregidor a 6-month supply of rations for 2,000 men, more than ten
units of fire for all weapons, a two-year supply of clothing, and
sufficient medicine and equipment for a 100-bed hospital.
The arrival of the marines filled a
serious gap in Corregidor's defenses. There had never been enough men on
the island to man the large seacoast guns, the antiaircraft defenses,
and the beaches as well. Before the war barbed wire had stretched along
those beaches which offered possible landing sites, and pillboxes had
been erected deep in the ravines leading to Topside and Middleside. But,
as Colonel Howard observed in his initial reconnaissance, much remained
to be done to guard against an enemy landing.
When Howard assumed command of
Corregidor's beach defense the island was already organized into three
sectors, and he deployed his regiment accordingly. In the East Sector,
which stretched from the tip of the tail to the narrow neck and included
Malinta Tunnel, he placed his 1st Battalion. The 3d Battalion took over
responsibility for the area to the west, the Middle Sector, which
included most of the barracks and installations on Topside and
Middleside. The western end of the island was designated the West Sector
and its defense assigned to the 2d Battalion. In reserve Howard kept the
headquarters and service company.
As soon as the marines reached their
assigned positions at the end of December they began to improve existing
defenses and to prepare new ones. Some work had already been done in the
West and Middle Sectors, but, except for a final defense line on the
east side of Malinta Hill, there were no defenses east of Malinta
Tunnel. The marines turned to with vigor and in the next three months
laid miles of barbed wire- twenty-one miles of wire were laid in the
East Sector alone-planted land mines, dug tank traps, trenches, and
tunnels, cleared fields of fire, built gun emplacements, set up interior
and switch positions, and established final defense lines in each
sector.