Show r 3 IN THEY WERE T E ETHEY E F WHITE I y J W. W JP P iT JI TUB TilE STORY SO FAR R The story of 01 their part In to the battle for the Philip Phillp Philippines pines Is II being told by four of the five naval baval officers who are all aU that Is left of Motor 1 Torpedo DOlt Boat Squadron 3 They are John Bulkeley now Lieutenant Commander squadron n commander R. R B. B Kelly second command second in command and Ensigns Anthony Akers and George Georce i E. E Cox Cos Jr Kelly KeUy sent to the tun tunnel nel bd hospital on Corregidor learned from the wounded there how badly the war was going coins oln for us our big bla naval base was cone gone and our air force nearly wiped out While he was there the hos host hospital hospital pital was bombed Ensign Akers Is tell telling ing Ina some of his experiences before Ma 1 olla nIla fell CHAPTER V Twelve hours before the Japs en en- entered entered entered the town I was sent back Into Manila to pick up the remnants I had bad just eighty gallons of gas to go those thirty miles miles finally finally got back backwith backwith with ten A curious thing happened during those closing hours nobody had bad given orders to blow up the oil reserves Maybe some of them be belonged longed to private companies it would go against a business mans man's grain to blow up good oil oL Finally a little junior grade junior grade naval lieutenant noticed it il He had no authority but buthe be he gave orders he had no right to give and presently the oil was blaz blaze ing I hear he got a Navy Cross for doing it itI itI I i was in Manila about that time said Cox A UA A big air attack was go go- goIng tog lag on although it had already been declared an open city For that reason I had gone in with the guns gunson gunson gunson on my boat with their canvas covers coverson on for on-for for welfare reasons Yet open city or not the big air raid was on streets deserted except for a few people running run ng nowhere in particular lar Jar like crazy planes crisscrossing the sky above The big church about a mile mUe from shore was just beginning to burn In the harbor boats were were burning and sinking on all sides sides five five and ond thousand ten ten thousand ton ton- ners tiers But not a single shot was fired tired at the planes which planes which came down as low as five hundred feet feel I uI went up on into the city and everywhere people were kind and helpful The Japs laps were right out outside side the town and yet the store store- storekeepers storekeepers storekeepers keepers would give me anything we Americans needed without either money or a voucher voucher just Just sign a paper that was all nil They trusted us I took my boat into the harbor just as the Japs were entering the city said Bulkeley It uIt was night and we could see the town burning a a a huge pall death death pall of smoke hang hang- hanging tag ing above and oil oU six inches deep over the water It looked like doom hanging over a great city and it was Made you feel bad We stayed out there from nine o'clock at night until about three in the morning Didn't dare go ashore and anyway our Job was to destroy harbor ship shIp- shipping ping ping SO so what was left of It wouldn't fall taU into Jap hands I had to leave all my spare uni uniforms forms in my locker there damn them said Akers I hope none of them fit lit Watching them take over made you feel pretty sick said Bulkeley We finished up and started home to get back before dawn now and then looking back at the fires over the water Every time it made us sore sore It was a tough New Years Year's Eve for me too said Kelly because we knew more or less what was go go- goIng Ing on Then there was another rea rea- son Some of the army officers were throwing a little New Years Year's party with the nurses that night and since this medical officer Peggy had been going with was just back from Bataan of course I knew where shed she'd be Along In the evening after sun sun- sunset sunset sunset set I walked out to the mouth of the tunnel and sat down to watch the twilight of the old year die away It had bad been a tough year but the theone theone theone one ahead looked worse And here was I useless for the war in an army hospital From away off I could hear them playing the portable at the officers officers' party and I remembered remembered remembered how cute Peggy had looked In her civilian dress when she danced an that didn't help any Pretty soon one of the other nurses I knew Charlotte came out and sat down near me She wasn't at the party because she had to go on duty soon but that didn't matter because her herboy herboy herboy boy friend had just been wounded three days before and she was wor wor- worried worried ried led sick about him Just uJust then I noticed someone sit sit- sitting sitting ting tang down on the other side of me me-I me I turned and by George it was Peg Peg- gy Not In uniform either She was wearing that cute looking cool cool looking cotton print cotton print civilian dress dressI I couldn't figure it il you like the party I asked it any good I dont don't know know she said I didn't go to the party you asked U Yes she said I 1 was asked But it was New Years Year's you sec and andI I thought it might be nice here Not very many nice things hap happen pen to you during a war but this was about the nicest that ever hap hap- happened happened to me then or any other time It made m de me feel so good that be between between tween the two of us we managed to get Charlotte cheered up She had hac hato d to go back on duty presently an and d she managed to sneak us out a cou coupie coupie pie of cold Pabs Pabst t N t- t Jo I JI t J 01 I beer to celebrate on But Peggy had been preparing The Island was wason wason wason on two meals a day but shed she'd man man- managed managed aged to hold back a couple of ap ape apples pIes ples and a whole box of marsh marsh- mallows That was our New Years Year's Eve supper and Ill I'll bet that yours wherever you had it couldn't have tasted any better Running any kind of romance no matter how mild was a real problem problem lem on Corregidor About the best place to sit was right down where we were at the tunnels tunnel's mouth But the road ran right In front of it and every five minutes an nn army truck would barge tactlessly around the curve shining Its down dimmed-down headlights right on you Then for another three minutes you were choking with dust If you got tired of this and tried to go for a walk you'd hardly get started when you would realize that eleven thousand men were trying to sleep all over that hat little Island and If 11 you went far ar you OU would step on most of them in n the dark and not many of them would thank you for It There wasn't an on unoccupied square foot any any- where We proved that later on when the doctor prescribed walks for me meto meto meto to to build back my strength be be- because because because cause Id I'd lost thirty pounds pounds and and Peggy Peggy was assigned to go along The Hie troops swarmed on that island every pond was crowded with them bathing and I would always have lave to go ahead to take a look f 3 w t too Sif r it K Yet open city or not the theair big air raid was on on over hilltops and be sure Peggy wouldn't surprise them Meanwhile Bulkeley was report- report reportIng reporting Ing ng to the Admiral dally daily and was formulating a plan which plan which he would talk over with me as I was his second officer officer for for what we would do when our gas ran out We had damned little left and the army couldn't spare us any Our first plan was when we got down to our minimum to get out to Australia The navy patrol bombers had planted caches of gasoline among the islands like stepping- stepping steppingstones steppingstones steppingstones stones and the Admiral gave us their location But the first step- step steppingstone steppingstone pings tone was Singapore and the Japs were working their way down the peninsula closer and closer to toil it il Could we get there first Of course we wouldn't leave the Philip Philip- Philippines Philippines pines until all aU of our torpedoes were gone and we had just enough gas left to make the final run But then as you know Singapore fell feU felland felland and also the southern islands- islands Celebes and The route with the cached gas was closed- closed that thai plan was out So then we said who wanted togo to togo togo go to Australia anyway Our Job was to defend Manila ManUa Bay Bay wasn't wasn't that our part in the war plan Yet even then It kept coming up sup sup- suppose suppose pose the worst came to the worst and Luzon folded up the up-the the whole ar ar- archipelago even cven even Java what Java what then Then Bulkeley here hit on a real plan When our gas was down to Just what we could carry carryon on our decks Instead of waiting around to get captured by the Japs wed we'd take our boats to China to continue the llie war At first glance you'd say that ui t was crazy the crazy the Japanese holding most of the Chinese coast coast but but not the way the skipper had it t thought out He knew China from the years ears hed he'd spent spen out ou there these on a gunboat while I was there on a destroyer The Japs were closing In on Hong Kong that Kong that was fine for us Wed We'd make our dash shoot dash shoot our last few remaining fish at their gathered transports Just where they least ex expected ex- ex expected an on attack and then head north toward the region of Of course the Japs held that tha t coast too but Bulkeley had worked out an answer nil all In the utmost utmos t secrecy Hed He'd gotten in touch with wit h Colonel Wong the th Chinese military ry observer Wong had cabled Chung king kin to the vicinity Co I cabled back that it could I. I be done doneThey doneThey They said the Japs held the Swa Swa- tow region thinly thinly thinly-at at no point did they go more than ten miles inland So at an agreed time and at an agreed rendezvous on the coast would send a raiding party down to fight its way to the beach and meet us There we would burn our boats boats- now useless with all torpedoes ex ex- expended expended expended against Jap targets The Chinese couldn't hold that point long but but long enough to hustle us through that ten held Jap-held strip onto free tree Chinese soil There trucks would take us to the nearest air air- airfield airfield field we would fly to and from there a motored four-motored American ferry-command ferry plane would bring bringus us back to the States Where was the flaw We couldn't see one unless somehow it leaked out Besides myself only four liv liv- living livIng living ing people knew They were De- De DeLong DeLong Long of our squadron Captain Ray chief of staff Colonel Colo el Wong and of course the skipper here who had worked out every detail But before we left we knew there would be plenty of action ahead for forus forus forus us here and I told Bulkeley I was crazy to get out of this hospital and asked for his his help If U they'd let me get back to duty Id I'd agree to o anything anything pr lse to soak my hand band for so many m ny hours a day any day any anything thing they said sold Just to get back even on a status So we staged It for the next morning when the ward doctor would be dressing my hand at about the same time the head surgeon made his rounds We tackled him I made my talk and he seemed to waver Tell this bird you need me I said to the skipper We really do said Bulkeley but Just then Peggy overheard and queered the whole thing Certainly not noU she said You cant can't let him go back to duty with his dis hand wide-open wide I That swung him back Duty he growled Who said anything about duty Two weeks of it and you'd lose your whole arm I tried to argue point argue point point out that if f the went out on a mission I could hold on with one arm as aswell aswell aswell well as two but Peggy had done it and now he wouldn't listen U One of these days youre you're going goIng go go- ing to find an empty bunk I said I was gloomy all that next week but aut Peggy said I was a fool That there were plenty of well fit men mento mento mento to do my Job And that If U I hadn't been so damned stubborn In the first place and had got that hand treated In time Id I'd never have come cometo cometo to the hospital and never met her and would she she never have been able to break up my plan to get out so it was all my fault uShe's always had that cute way of ot seeming to storm at you and dress you down so that tha t you ended up by grinning and couldn't stay mad at anything long longSo longSo longSo So it went along for another week she leading me out for walks every day to get some of those thir thir- thirty thirty thirty ty pounds back and then one day we returned to find that Bulkeley had been by looking for me said me-said said he was going out on a raid that night up to Bay looking for a Jap cruiser that hed he'd waited hoping to take me but finally had to leave It set me almost crazy If U I hadn't been out on that damned health tour with a pretty girl I wouldn't have missed the raid So here I was while my gang was up there tangling with a cruiser maybe may may- maybe maybe be getting killed because the Japs had Bay so thick with guns that it was almost suicide s to go in All that night there was no news I was up at Any Any dope from the torpedo boats still boats still nothing But at seven they said yes Bulkeley Bulke Bulke- Bulkeley Bulkeley ley had come back b ck managed to j sink a cruiser and get away but the other boat bo t was missing missing proba proba probably bly lost It was a job j b we did for the Army explained Lieutenant Bulke Bulke- Bulkeley Bulkeley Bulkeley ley describing the historic attack of his P. P T. T Boat In Bay men men- mentioned A UA couple of Jap ships one of them an Imperial Navy awe aux auxiliary aux aux- auxiliary cruiser with Inch 6 guns had been shelling our millimeter emplacements on Bataan Bataan blasting blasting them with heavy stuff The major majorIn In n charge had been wondering how to get rid of them and had phoned Admiral Rockwell who gave us permission to tackle the job We knew they were based in Bay Bay- probably In Port is on the west coast of Luzon just north of Bataan I decided to send two boats the boats the 31 boat which wb ch was was' Lieutenant DeLongs DeLong's and the 34 boat which was Kellys Kelly's now com com- commanded by Ensign Chandler I went along in it t for the hell of it We tested everything tuned everything tuned the motors greased torpedoes and got under way at ot nine o'clock chugging north along the west coast of Ba Da- It was very rough We throttled tied down to thirty knots and even then we were shipping water but we got off oft the entrance to Bay about half an on hour after midnight Here according to plan plin the two boats separated DeLong In the 31 boat was to sweep one side of Bay and I the other We were to meet at Port at the end If something happened and we didn't meet there then we were to rendezvous at dawn just outside the mine fields of Corregidor TO rn OF Or CONTINUED i F i Fice ice t t. t ty I |