Show THEY WERE E ir i k I A V I E f r l WHITE 01 y TilE THE STORY STony SO FAR FAn The story of their part In the battle for the Philip Philippines Philippines pines Is being beine told by four of the five naval officers who are all that Is left of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 They are John Bulkeley now Lieuten Lieutenant ant Commander squadron commander R R. R D. D B Rally Kelly KeU second In command and Ensigns Anthony Akers and George E. E Cox Jr Kelly Belly has told how be he was sent to the tunnel hospital on Corregidor where he met a nurse named Percy Peggy Survivors from the sinking of a shipload of refugees were brought broucht to the hospital and patients from Manila ManUa were moved mond there From them be he learned how badly the war was colne going for us A member of the tank corps Is speaking CHAPTER IV What happened to your tank II We were lying on our side In that paddy and the Japs would come over and look at us We played possum in there all day They tried to open our door with bayonets but we had it locked In the afternoon a Jap Tap officer looked at us through the slots slots all all of us lying still hold hold- holding holding ing breath and then he said In English all dead II But we figured it was a trick trIck trIck- kept right on playing possum and I sure cure enough in about an nn hour they came back for another look But we were lying in exactly the same positions This time they gave a afew afew afew few disgusted grunts and walked off oR About an nn hour after dark we lis Us- listened listened carefully and then unlocked our door Sure enough they'd gone so o we beat it for the road Tell me what became of your shoes I asked him I couldn't fig figure figure ure how an experienced soldier would ever let himself get separated ed from his shoes The kid grinned sheepishly I guess that was a fool damn trick he said You see it had been hotter than hell in that tank and we were all dirty and tired and sweaty so we decided to take a bath in a creek just across the rice paddy But we had to go through mud to get there so keep keep- keeping keeping ing our clothes on until we got to the water hole we took off oR our shoes hoes and hid them in the tall grass But when we got back we hunted bunted for several hours and we couldn't find that grass clump Finally we started on barefooted But where were the Japs II They'd gone on ahead toward ti Manila The next night we were resting by the roadside We heard hearda a n noise behind us so we scooted low lowin lowin in la the bushes by the side of the road and saw more of them go by byon byon byon on bicycles bicycles all all headed toward Ma Ma- nila It seemed to be a Jap recon recon- reconnaissance reconnaissance patrol because behind them came trucks and guns and ins in in- infantry infantry s fantry going by in the dark dark so so close we could have reached out and touched them If wed we'd had a ma ma- machine machine machine chine gun we could have wiped out several everal hundred but we only had our They kept up most of that night one night one group stopped slopped and ate chow on the road bank opposite us we were scared stiff stiR they'd come over and find us It was hard for forthe forthe forthe the wounded to lie quiet Our tank driver had a rivet stuck in his throat throat every every time he took a drink the water would come leaking out out out- and the radio operators operator's arm was full of shrapnel from an exploding bullet The rest of us were okay I but our feet were getting damned sore core At dawn we stopped by a native village to collect some shoes but their feet were all an too small Howd they treat you Fine gave Fine gave us all the food we could eat but you could see they didn't want us around Afraid the Japs would find us hiding there and shoot them too You couldn't blame the natives na tIves So we got out and spent the other six days of the trip sleeping in ditches or brush clumps walking nights nights' II Were the wounded weak Sure and so were we The tank driver with the hole in his throat wanted to stop stop said said for us to leave him behind We were afraid the the Japs would get him and we couldn't spare him we gun a gun we had only three for the six of us What did you do carry him Hell no We gave him a 45 told him hed he'd better use it now if he be wasn't coming with us So he changed his mind and decided to come on on He made it too But it took plenty of guts None of them lacked that Here Kelly shook his head Sometimes training often equipment but never guts cuts But getting back to that hos hose pital I went back to my bunk Peggy helped me get my arm set set- settled setI I tied and we talked a n little bit She was a smart girl Having been with the Regular Army she knew real re 11 soldiers when she saw them and you didn't have to talk long longwith longwith with these poor brave kids who were so green they forgot their shoes to to know what the score was Here we were trying to hold off the Japs with less than two thousand regu regu- regulars regulars regulars lars plus these green kids who had hadi i really been sent here to polish off their training trai ing plus thousands of Fil Fil- Filipino FilIpino Fil- Fil Filipino boys just as brave but just as green most of ot whom had never been in uniform until a few weeks before the war started Where In hells hell's the navy they'd ask me Why arent aren't ar nt they bringing us tanks and planes and more men It only takes two weeks to to get here from Pearl Harbor Of 01 course curse hurse none of them knew what had happened at Pearl Harbor r i-r They'll be along Id I'd say Any day now Hell they'd say disgustedly We wont won't see them for six months Suppose we dont don't Id I'd say This place can last six months Wasn't it built like Malta and Gibraltar Gibraltar- to withstand siege Only pretty quick I began to find out how wrong I was Corregidor had been built years ago and then wed we'd agreed not to modernize if It the Japs didn't modernize the Carolines We kept the agreement they Anyway ammunition and provisions were so short the Rock would be do do- doing doing doIng ing good to hold out three months A IIA few days das after that the nurses in my ward were buzzing around I I heard some talk about a party they were giving in their quarters that evening inviting their boy friends who for the most part were young army officers stationed on the Rock And I almost fell out of my cot that afternoon when Peggy in a seeming seeming- seemingly ly offhand way asked me If U Id I'd like to go It was nice of course to be chosen by the girl I liked best out of other men on that Rock most of whom would have given an ear car just to talk to a white girl But it got me me to thinking too I liked her but the the other girls had said there was a young medical medi medi- medical medical cal officer shed she'd been dating pretty steady steady and and what the hell hen was I A naval officer in an army hospital here here today gone tomorrow tomorrow-so so I b t t ta a tee 9 Sure enough in about an hour hoor they came back for lor another look hadn't let myself get started think think- thinking ing or lag or tried not to anyway Naturally I said sure I wanted to go So Peggy said shed she'd see If U Ushe she could fix it with the doctor And after she got through with him he be was certain it would do me good if U I was back in the ward by by ten Here in Newport maybe you wouldn't think it was much of ot a par par- party ty But it was a swell night with a abig abig abig big moon hanging over Manila Bay peaceful and peaceful and best of all the girls had broken out with their civilian dresses That doesn't sound like much but one look at them after seeing nothing but but uniforms for months was like a trip back home Makeup too too they they looked so damned nice you could eat them with V a spoon and Peggy had put just a at touch t uch of perfume in her hair hair any any anyway way If U it wasn't that it was some some- thing What did we do Well danced to a portable portable Ill Ill I'll bet we played Rose of San Antone a dozen times and and Peggy and I figured out a way way wa we could dance with my arm in a sling And afterward we sat out on the grass and talked I remember somebody saying You think they'll ever bomb this place Of course we knew eventually they would but that night the war seemed a thousand miles mUes away Only somebody spoiled ed edit it all by asking Peggy when this medical officer was getting back from Bataan and she said she thought tomorrow Next day I was out In the court court- courtyard courtyard courtyard yard getting ettIng some fresh air Lieu Lieu- Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant tenant Kelly who was invalided in inthe inthe Inthe the tunnel hospital at Corregidor continued I III I was wa's allowed a certain number of hours per day out of my bunk when bunk when the raid air alarm went off oR but by now we didn't pay any attention I looked up to notice that nine Jap planes were going over over- overhead overhead overhead head but what the hell they did that all the time lime and of course the anti aircraft opened up just up-just just a for for- formality formality mality because they were up out of range when range when all of a n sudden Barn sudden I Ithe the whole Rock seemed to jump and we wo made a dive for the tunnel be be- because because cause at last they were bombing us It was quite a pasting Halt Half an hour later a batch of nurses came in in an ambulance pretty ambulance pretty well shaken shake Up p. p They'd been strafed strafed- had to leave the ambulance and run for the roadside ditches A few min ruin minutes utes later the wounded began to come in in all all the serious cases went into my ward They had only two i iI I J T operating tables so the litters Utters were lined up waiting their turn while the nurses pitched in and took care of the minor surgery cleaning wounds digging for shrapnel band bandaging aging There was no time for anes anes- anesthetics anesthetics except a quarter of a grain of morphine but the wounded cere certainly certainly had guts They'd grab the side sido of their litter with clenched fists and tell teU the nurses to go to it it-It it it really wasn't hurting much The raid had been going an hour when all of a sudden the lights went out but in 11 ii half hail a minute the girl had produced flashlights I remember remember ber Peggy standing there holding a J flashlight on a guys guy's naked back on the operating table while a doctor probed for some shrapnel in his kid kid- kidney ney You could see her face and those steady green blue blue green eyes of hers hersby hersby hersby by the light reflected back up from this guys guy's back and just then there was a terrific crunching bang bang bang-a a bomb had landed right outside the tunnel entrance entrance and and with it a sudden sud sudden den blast of air through the tunnel It wasn't nice and yet I dont don't think Peggys Peggy's hand even wobbled Presently the thc lights came on and we found one hospital-corps hospital man had crawled under a bed He wasn't even sheepish Youre damn right I was scared he said Thought the whole place was coming down on onus us Peggys Peggy's flashlight beam on that naked back had not moved Hell HeU of ofa ofa ofa a fine nervy girl to have in a war Or any other time But it was getting on toward New Years Year's and bad news began to come from Manila The Japs were clos clos- closing closing closing ing in But very few of them realized it itin itin itIn in Manila said Akers Akers' I was there with my boat on courier duty from December 13 until Manila fell feU Staying with Admiral Hart until the seaplane took him out to join the Dutch East Indies fleet You certainly couldn't criticize morale The average Filipino had a childish belief in us He was ab ab- absolutely absolutely ab- ab absolutely certain that the Americans would be there next week with plen plen- plenty ty of equipment sure Dead that our American soldiers would throw back the Japanese Believed all the optimistic optimistic optimistic broadcasts and rumors When a raid would come of course they were pretty excitable We slept aboard the boat and when the bombs started down we were supposed to get away from the wharf and out into the bay Some Some- Sometimes Sometimes Sometimes times people used to stow stowaway away to get away from the bombs They never lost faith though Right up to the end there were big dances at the Manila Hotel and you you could watch the Filipino boys in uniform telling their girls about their heroic exploits And there were plenty of them to tell too But over at the American merican Army and Navy Club they knew what the score was They didn't feel like dancing there Their faces fac s were plenty long Of course the up higher-up Filipinos knew the truth If you'd see one with a long face you could be sure he was a Senator or better I had a girl there there Dolores Dolores was washer washer her ber first name and by American standards she was looking good as ashelL hell Her father was a Spaniard from Catalonia and her mother was wasa a mestiza Shed She'd been elected Miss Philippines a year or so before Fairly tall and lithe with big black blackeyes blackeyes blackeyes eyes and enough of the Oriental so o you'd never forget her face among the other brunettes you know Her father I think was a Senator and the family had a hell of a lot of money His brother owned a 3 lot of mines They had a big colonial house in the suburbs Usually when I was Invited out shed she'd send a car down for me but the first time I Iwas Iwas Iwas was coming out alone she said never mind about directions directions and and so it turned out Every traffic cop I met knew just who they were and could point me on my way So they were really big shots on the island Her father knew what the score was although Dolores didn't dream it was coming so soon The last time I saw her just before the Japs came in she knew Manila had been de de- declared declared declared an open city but she thought that only meant there wouldn't be beany beany beany any more more bombs All AU that night the southern army had been moving through Manila trying to get to Bataan before they were cut off but she didn't know what the march marching marching ing meant That night her uncle a tough old Spaniard who had mines all over the world got pretty drunk and almost had a 8 row with her fa- fa father fa fa- father father ther the thc Senator The uncle said the whole mess was the fault of this opposition faction fac fac- faction faction tion of Filipino politicians hollering their silly heads beads off oft for independence ence no ence-no no wonder the Americans if U they were getting out in four more years hadn't socked a lot of money into fortifications Then he cussed the Filipino politicians out for not appropriating money for the army army- they'd set let MacArthur Mac Arthur up with a big salary and a penthouse and then hardly given him hima a dime to train and equip an army army it it was all aU win win- dow He said uld he wasn't so worried about himself because he be owned plenty of property outside the islands is is- is lands But he be told the Senator hed he'd probably end up pulling a for his part in this independence foolishness and serve him damned well right So I could sec see there were a few natives who knew what the score i ore was TO BE DE CONTINUED |