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AA. The first structure I noticed through the vegetation was the magazine. This is what it looked like before I cleared the brush and vines away. The roof is also missing here.
A LONG WALK IN 'NO MAN'S LAND.'
(CONT'D)
Before I reached my final destination of I-F-3, it started to rain. I packed my valuables in zip lock bags and waited awhile but it did not stop. Due to it already being past mid afternoon I decided to head for home. I-F-3 will be a future trip. (of course it stopped raining soon after that).
The closest path back to civilization was to head south and pop up on the airfield.
I had to cut some vines and branches for the first few minutes however the walking was not too bad. I came across some grassy sections and skirted them. Soon I came to numerous bamboo trees. Normally this would be impassable but this must be another species of bamboo with a smaller diameter. The ground has very little vegetation due to the thick canopy above but walking between the clumps of trees only involved cutting thorny vines.
This area is the strangest forested section of Corregidor I have ever experienced. Since the weather here has been quite windy the past few days, the tops of the bamboo trees were swaying heavily in the wind. Imagine hundreds of bamboo trees hitting each other to make loud hollow sounds.
You should hear the sound of bamboo trees “rubbing” across one another. That is difficult to explain. It is a mix of a squeal, a bark or an elephant in the throws of death. Add the dark clouds and that was one spooky place there!!!
Just when I thought I had had enough fun for one day, I heard and saw something off to the right. Damn, another snake. Out of the corner of my eye I saw it brush some branches as it dropped down out of a bamboo tree and quickly slither away to the nearby grass.
This time I got a good look at it. The snake was about 3 ft long, very skinny and dark in color. There was no flared neck like a cobra. That guy was also fast. (Postscript: the next day, the head of security told me that those black snakes live in the bamboo trees and are VERY poisonous).
As I type this two things come to mind. One, regardless what some people on this island say, at least one type of snake drops from trees. Second, if he chose to come towards me, there is no way in hell I could outrun him with those vines grabbing at me. I don’t think I will dwell on those thoughts.
The bamboo eventually gave way to terrain of about half trees and half grass. A few minutes later I was up on the west end of the airstrip. Some clouds were still around but it was mostly clear skies now. The wind felt great. I was in no hurry to get back to the Corregidor Inn so I took some photos along the way. For the rest of this trip report I will show you some of these views.
At 5:40pm I was on Bottomside at the intersection of the South Shore Road and the road the Malinta’s western entrance. The first stop was the south side Cove Café for a cold drink. It was dark as I headed up the hill to the Corregidor Inn.
Summary:
The 1917 era fortifications were not ‘too’ hard to find. For the most part, the only way someone would ever find any remnants of the 1942 and 1945 battles would be to trip over them. I had hoped for better hiking conditions and visibility.
From the time I left Kindley Field and later returned to it, my GPS track log says the elapsed time was 6 hours 3 minutes covering a distance of 2.5 kilometers. It was obviously a slow trip in the area. It took another 2+ hours to get back to Bottomside but only because I kept stopping to take photos along the way. The machine gun position I-M-6 is gone and I just missed seeing I-F-3.
After the morning drop off at Kindley Field I never saw one other soul (human anyway) until I got back to Bottomside. For the last couple hours along the road I was under monkey surveillance. Whether it is the views or the history, something interesting on this island always seems just around the next corner.
John Moffitt
AB. View of the magazine taken from above the doorway. I suspect that the cause of this roof collapse is not directly battle related. It may have been damaged during the war and by time but appears to have just fallen under the weight of the soil and concrete. This is the first time I can remember seeing no rebar being used in a magazine’s construction.
AC. Note the horizontal strip of concrete above the walls that was part of the roof. No rebar can be seen.
AD. The gun position is mostly covered in vegetation now.
AE: View of the beach taken just in front of the gun position.
AG. Under the vegetation and some broken concrete, this is all I found at II-M-7.
Malinta Gasoline
Storage System |
Middleside Officer's Qtrs |
Btry Denver Tunnel |
The Final Line of
Defense | Not Finding
RJ-43 |
Btry Chicago
Malinta's Navy
Tunnels (Part 1)
(Part 2) |
Type 96 AA Gun
| A Walk
on Tailside |
G-1 Command Post
