STANDING FORMATION, 10 January 1942.

On the evening of the 9th Wainwright and Parker received orders from Corregidor to have all their general officers assembled to receive an important visitor the next morning. At the first light of dawn a PT boat carried General MacArthur and his chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Richard K. Sutherland, across the channel from Corregidor to Mariveles. From there they drove up the East Road to Parker's headquarters where they talked with II Corps officers and inspected positions in that sector. Moving west across the Pilar-Bagac road MacArthur met Wainwright and inspected I Corps installations. When Wainwright offered to show MacArthur his 155-mm. guns, MacArthur replied, "I don't want to see them. I want to hear them."

The Japanese unwittingly chose the day of MacArthur's visit to Bataan to make their first demand for surrender. In a message addressed to the American commander and dropped from the air behind the American lines, General Homma told MacArthur that his men were doomed and the end near. "The question," he declared, "is how long you will be able to resist. You have already cut rations by half. . . . Your prestige and honor have been upheld. However, in order to avoid needless bloodshed and save your . . . troops you are advised to surrender. . . . Failing that our offensive will be continued with inexorable force. . . ."

The only answer the Japanese received to their request for surrender was an increase in the volume of artillery fire from II Corps.