JAPANESE BOMBERS OVER CORREGIDOR

At the beginning of May, Japanese artillery and aircraft opened the final phase of the bombardment, the phase in which, Homma's orders read, they would "overwhelmingly crush" the island's defenses and "exterminate" its defenders, "especially the ones concealed in wooded areas." By that time all forces were ready and began to move into position for the assault. As soon as the remaining guns, searchlights, and pillboxes had been destroyed and the beach obstacles blasted out of the way, the troops of the 4th Division would embark for Corregidor.

The Americans received their first hint of the Japanese landing plan on 1 May when artillery fire from Bataan was concentrated on the narrow tail of the island and on the area around James Ravine, which provided a pathway from the beach to Topside. The intensity of the attack was hardly justified by the installations remaining in either area. Observers could only conclude that the enemy was concentrating his fire in preparation for the landing.

The attack on 1 May was discouraging to those who believed that the bombardment of 29 April represented the enemy's maximum effort. The first shells began dropping before dawn and continued until midnight. At 1515 the 274th air alarm of the war was sounded and eight bombers dropped their loads before the entrances to Malinta Tunnel. "Much mess equipment, motor transportation and communications destroyed," General Moore noted in his report. A half hour later, then twice more before dark, air alarms sounded and bombs dropped on the island. That night, when Lt. Col. Earl L. Barr, executive officer of the 60th Coast Artillery (AA), returned to Malinta Tunnel from a visit to the antiaircraft battery at Kindley Field, he encountered a "morgue-like gloom."

The next day was even worse. The artillery from Bataan opened up at 0730, then the planes came in. It was not until three hours later that the all clear sounded. The respite lasted only thirty minutes, after which the Japanese guns opened fire again. Until 1945, except for two lulls of one and two hours' duration, the attacks were continuous. During a five-hour period of the day, 3,600 shells of 240-mm. caliber, in addition to shells of other sizes, fell in the vicinity of Batteries Geary and Crockett on Topside. The rate of fire of the 240-mm. howitzers alone was twelve shells per minute. "Moore and I," wrote General Wainwright, "delving further into the mathematics of the fury, estimated . . . that the Japs had hit the rock with 1,800,000 pounds of shells," in addition to the bombs dropped by Japanese aircraft during thirteen air raids. It was the heaviest concentration of fire yet experienced on Corregidor.

As on the day before, the attacks of the 2d were directed at the north shore in those areas where the landing would be made. It was on this day that the Battery Geary magazine was hit and the entire battery destroyed with a "shock like that of an earthquake." The entire shore line facing Bataan was heavily worked over and Bottomside, "except for the Power Plant and Cold Storage Plant which had an almost charmed life," was thoroughly saturated with shells of all calibers. "It was a nasty place to cross . . .," wrote one man. "One felt positively in the spotlight for artillery batteries on Bataan as he walked from the Power Plant to the tunnel."

Malinta Hill and the area to the east received a heavy shellacking also on the 2d. At the end of the day the whole tail of the island was covered by a cloud of dust and small fires were burning everywhere, "in the shell-scarred tree trunks and stumps," and in the woods. Fanned by a brisk west wind, the fires spread rapidly and were brought under control only after all the men in the area had turned fire fighters.

Sunday, 3 May, was a repetition of the day before. There were five air-raid alarms during the day, with the planes again concentrating on James Ravine and Kindley Field. The enemy aircraft over the field met no fire from the antiaircraft batteries, whose guns and height finders had already been damaged or destroyed. Artillery fire during the day was so heavy that the dust blinded the spotters observing counterbattery fire. "Situation here is fast becoming desperate," Wainwright reported to General MacArthur at the end of the day's action. "With artillery that outranges anything we have except two guns, he [the enemy] keeps up a terrific bombardment as well as aerial bombing."

That night an American submarine on patrol in the South China Sea stopped outside the mine channel for an hour before returning to Australia for torpedoes. It took out 25 passengers, all that could be crowded into its tight interior. Among the passengers were Colonel Constant Irwin, who carried a complete roster of all Army, Navy, and Marine personnel still alive; Col. Royal G. Jenks, a finance officer, with financial accounts; Col. Milton A. Hill, the inspector general, 3 other Army and 6 Navy officers, and about 13 nurses. Included in the cargo sent from Corregidor were several bags of mail, the last to go out of the Philippines, and "many USAFFE and USFIP records and orders."