FORT DRUM. El Fraile Island after the concrete battleship was constructed.

 

By the end of 1941 all that could be done in the limited time since funds had been made available in midyear to improve the defenses of Corregidor and the adjoining islands had been accomplished. But the basic weakness of the harbor defenses- their vulnerability to attack from the air and from their landward flanks-was never corrected. They accomplished their mission, the denial of Manila Bay to the enemy, without firing a single round at a hostile warship; Japanese cruisers and destroyers blockading the bay stayed well out of range of Moore's heavy guns. But when Bataan fell the flank protection of Corregidor disappeared and the fortress was left exposed to destruction by air and artillery attacks and to landings by hostile forces.

 

 

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