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I spent March 1939 until September
1939 in the infantry. We went on maneuvers at
Did you get sick on the voyage?
No.
He never gets sick. (Jane)
When we got to
Did you go ashore in
Yes. Something happened over there. I don't know if I told you or not.
No. (Jane, laughter).
They had a hula gal's show for us, free of charge. When I got up to leave, the
others had already gone. I didn't know where the heck they went. I went through
an exit and ended up in the ladies dressing room.
Oh (Jane, laughter).
I got out of there without anything happening.
I can just see him! (Jane, laughter).
Was that on
Yes. We were in the main terminal at
You went ashore. What was there?
There were a few natives and a small village. We had to anchor quite a ways out
and were "lightered" (ferried) ashore. From Guam, we went to
How long were you stationed in the
I was there from 1939 until 1944. Then, from 1944 until mid-1945, I was in
You were how old when you arrived in
the
I was twenty-two and assigned duty at Nichols Field outside
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What were your duties?
I was in the 27th Material Squadron. We were in charge of supplies and
aircraft. At Nichols Field, I started as an airplane mechanic and worked my way
up to crew chief. Eventually, I became a flight engineer. I got my start in a
ship called the A09, a Grumman Amphibian. The commandant of the base, Colonel
Ryan said, "That's my airplane!" We flew four hours a month, just
enough time so he could get his flight pay. He wouldn't let anybody else fly
that thing. Probably a year or so before the war Colonel George came and looked
at the aircraft. He said, "I want that plane." He got it because he
ranked Colonel Ryan. Colonel George flew the pants off us! He wanted to go to
all the bases in the
He said, "Okay, I'll take care of it." Within two days, I received
orders that said my per diem pay was exactly the same as the officers. Every
time we left base, I got $6.00 too. We continued to fly all over the islands.
About a month before hostilities began, we flew combat missions to observe and
engage enemy aircraft. Our guns were loaded but you couldn't fire on the way
out unless you saw enemy aircraft. On the way in, you could expend the
ammunition. We would empty the guns by shooting a porpoise or stingray down in
the water. For gunnery practice, we had aircraft that would tow targets. We
would shoot at them. We got pretty good with the machine guns. When we hit the
target latch, the tail would fall to the ground. The ground crew would have to
go and pick up a new one. They got mad at us when we hit the targets. Man, they
were mad at us!
How did the Filipinos treat Americans?
They were extremely friendly. Especially outside of
Could they speak English?
Sure because the
When did the war start in the
The war started December 7, 1941, which was December 8, 1941 at our end of the
world. When we got the word, we didn't
believe it. We found out in a hurry that it was true! On
December 8, 1941, we were ordered to fly photographic equipment from Nichols
Field up to the bombers at Clark Field. They wanted to take off and photograph
strategic positions on
Somebody said, "Gee, look at
how the navy is flying up there." "Look at that formation." I
took one look and shouted, "It's Japs!" Colonel Maitland, the commandant of
Clark Field, had made his troops dig slit trenches. I dove into one and,
shortly after that, the bombs came whistling down like you wouldn't believe.
They plastered us for about one-half an hour. Then their fighters came and
strafed. I was shooting at them with my 45-caliber submachine gun. I don't know
if I hit anything, but it sure made me feel good to shoot! After the fighters
left, this one guy fell into the trench. He said, "Help me!" I said,
"Sure, what's wrong?" He held his leg up in the air. He had no knee
left. It was all shot up. I had my bandage kit with me. I poured sulfa powder
in the wound and bandaged him up. I left and got a medical corpsman to take
care of him. I don't know what happened to him.
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Did the Japanese get the AO9 Amphibian?
Yes. They also destroyed almost all the B-17s. A couple of our P-40s got
airborne, but they couldn't do any good. Captain Wray, who flew us up there,
commandeered a car about two o'clock in the afternoon to get us back to Nichols
Field.
How far away were you from Nichols Field?
It was about sixty to eighty miles between the two places. Boy, I was shook up
when we got back. Sergeant Suttle, a friend of mine, saw I was upset so he
handed me a bottle of liquor. I didn't drink, but took a couple of good swigs.
It didn't even phase me.
Under normal conditions, I would have been flat on my back! Then the 1st
Sergeant said, "You have had enough for today." "Go down by the
hangar, lie down, and relax." "Nothing is going to happen
tonight." "Ya!" About midnight that same night, the Japanese
bombers came and clobbered Nichols Field.
Were you sleeping when the raid occurred at Nichols Field?
I was sleeping in the hanger when the first bombs came down. But it didn't take
me long to get out of there, I'll tell you!
Did they ring the siren? (Jane)
No.
Did they have a siren?
They had a siren but we were caught
with our drawers down. That's all there is to it! It shouldn't have happened
because we had all the indications that war was coming.
The Japanese had landed north of us at Lingayen. They bombed Aparri, a town
near Lingayen. They blasted and obliterated the pursuit base at Iba, about 60
miles west of Clark Field. The bomber commander, Major Gen. Brereton, had gone
to MacArthur's headquarters. He tried to get permission to take off and bomb
their launching base at
What were the functions of Nichols Field and Clark Field?
Nichols Field was a pursuit and observation base while Clark Field was a bomber
base.
There were no defenses for the
No. Armament consisted of Old World War I Lewis aircraft guns, the ones with
the drum on top of them. They would jam up! Everything we had over there was World War I stuff. We were outdated!
The Japanese zeros could fly circles around everything we had over there at
that time. The first airplane ride I took over there was in a
ZB3 where the pilot sat in front, the gunner sat in back and everything was
open.
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Where did you hide to get away from the bombing?
We didn't stay in the barracks. We were bivouacked away from the base about
one-half mile in "the boonies." Our field kitchen was there too.
Were there human casualties from the bombing and strafing?
Clark Field had the most injuries and
people killed because the Japanese caught them at lunchtime with their pants
down. Just how many, I don't know, but it was quite a few. At
Nichols, we had more time to disperse. The Japanese wanted to hit the bases and
knock out aircraft. I flew one bombing mission.
The 27th Bombardment Squadron (L) from the
What was the date of this bombing mission?
It was December 21, 1941.
Where is Lingayen?
Lingayen is north and west of
We wanted to try and sink some of them. It
was tough because we didn't have a bombsight in the plane. But,
we dropped the bombs at about 18,000 feet anyway. I don't know if we hit
anything, but I saw water splashing.
On the way home, instead of going straight back to Nichols Field, we made a big
circle. We weren't far from Lingayen and north of
You were a long ways from Nichols Field. Were you scared when you had to
bail out?
Yes because I had never jumped before! It was dark and I lit in a tree. I
stayed there since I couldn't see anything. I wasn't about to jump down. Who
knows what was below me or how far away the ground was? In peacetime we had
lost a couple of aircraft that had gone down through the jungle canopy. The
canopy could be a hundred feet from the ground.
What did you think about all night?
Well, just how fortunate I was to find a crotch in the tree so I could be
comfortable.
When daylight came, how far up in the tree were you?
I was about fifty feet up in the tree. I was lucky because the chute had caught
in the tree. The constabulary, or Philippine troops, found me the next morning.
The rest of the crew was scattered close to
How many crewmembers were in the plane?
There were six of us.
Were you ever together again?
No.
Jane, did you know he was shot down and spent the night in a tree?
Half of this I don't know. (Jane)
We stayed at Nichols Field until it was time to leave. We evacuated
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You got back to Nichols Field on December 23, 1941 and
Yes. First of all, there was no "front line" like we had in World War
I. Bataan was divided up into sectors. In a short period of time, since the
Japanese invaded, three different lines of defense for
About a month later, I was visiting a friend of mine who had dengue fever,
which is similar to malaria. He was in Hospital Number 2 at Cabcaben, which was
about thirty miles south of Pilar in southern
How far was that from where you were?
It was about thirty miles away. I stayed there until the surrender. A Japanese
observation flight would come over every morning. We called him "Washing
Machine Charlie." Later, after he had flown over, the bombers and strafers
would come. We got bombed and strafed
every single day!
How did shooting these weapons and the bombing affect your hearing? (Ben
Peterson)
I don't recall the shooting bothering my ears. I guess I didn't pay any
attention to it. The bombing was another story. If it were close, your eardrums
would burst. During heavy bombing and shelling I would keep my mouth open. This
would equalize the pressure in both sides of the ears.
Does the ground shake when bombs hit?
If bombs fall in the distance, you can feel a tremor. If it is close, you will
"bounce." In other words, the tremors would lift you up off the
ground and drop you again.
You're kidding? (Jane)
You arrived at
Yes.
The Filipino Army General MacArthur
developed was supposed to neutralize the Japanese invasion. Was it an effective
fighting force?
General MacArthur had an impressive army of two hundred thousand Filipinos. He
had a lot of bodies on paper! But there was no unity among the troops. For
instance, there were nine or ten different dialects in the various Philippine
regions. Soldiers were organized with no consideration as to who came from
where. They couldn't even converse! It would be like taking a Chinese soldier
and putting him in with an American and neither could speak each other's
language. Before the war started, General MacArthur said, "My Philippine
army can hold the Japanese at the beaches."
But when the Japanese landed at Lingayen, the Filipino army couldn't hold their
positions. They broke through the Filipino lines right after the invasion.
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What was War Plan
War Plan Orange was a plan to stock
By now, all American troops were located
on the
Right. General Wainwright was originally the
We were told to "watch the monkeys." "What they eat, you can
eat." If we saw a monkey, that's what we ate! We ate the jungle, i.e.
anything that moved, crawled, or grew!
We ate snake, lizard, pony, mule, iguana, rats, monkeys, you name it, and we
tried it! We tried EVERYTHING! We spent
more time looking for food than fighting the Japanese!
Could
you find any vegetables?
We found wild bananas. They tasted good but have very little meat and a lot of
seeds. You could just chew a bit around the edges and that was it.
Did you have water to drink?
There weren't any wells so we drank water from streams. I don't know why we
didn't get sick.
Everyone had to forage for food and fight at the same time?
Yes. General King tried to establish a line of resistance but failed. If we
would have had food and equipment, we probably could have counter-attacked. We
might have been able to push them off
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The bulk of MacArthur's defense was the Philippine army.
That's right. I can't fault them because they had it worse then we did and we
had it bad.
But General King couldn't see any reason to continue. When the Filipinos
couldn't form another defensive line, that was it. We had no defense! The Japanese were coming! Believe
me, they would have slaughtered us! He would rather surrender
than see his men slaughtered. He didn't have authority from Wainwright, his
commanding officer on
How did you personally feel about the surrender?
The night of the surrender, I couldn't
figure out why we had to stop fighting. I was scared and I was mad. It was
traumatic to know we were through. There were a lot of people who would like to
have kept on. But it was no use. We had no defense.
American
War correspondent Frank Hewlett penned a poem that went through our units like
wildfire:
The Battling Bastards of Bataan
We are the Battling Bastards of
No Mama, no Papa, no Uncle Sam!
No Aunts, no Uncles, no Cousins, no
Nieces,
No Planes, no Pills, no Artillery
Pieces!
And nobody gives a Damn!
The
troops identified with this poem?
Yes. It was a true assessment of our present situation!
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Did you fight it out with the Japanese until General King surrendered?
No. There was still sporadic fighting going on when King met with the Japanese.
He issued an order for his troops to quit and they did. After the surrender,
everything was chaos, I'll tell you! We burned as much as we could, i.e.
equipment, materials, our personal gear, or anything the Japanese could use.
What didn't burn was thrown into the ocean or wherever we could get rid of it.
I had a watch and a class ring. My folks had given me the watch for graduation
from high school. My ring was my high school graduation class ring. The night
of the surrender, I threw both of them in a creek so nobody could find the
damned things. They would have taken them off of me anyway. In fact, later on during the march, I saw Japanese
soldiers who had three or four wristwatches on their forearms. I knew darned
well where they came from! If anyone had any Japanese stuff,
they had to get rid of it, i.e. Japanese swords, money, yen, or anything
scrounged from dead Japanese. You didn't dare have any of that on you. If the
Japanese found it, you were finished!
Did you just stay put and wait for the Japanese?
No. We started walking toward Mariveles. After a while we stopped to rest
because we were exhausted. All of a sudden the whole earth started quivering
under us. It was a damned earthquake and were we shocked!
You were walking back toward Mariveles, away from the Japanese.
Yes. About two miles from Mariveles we stopped at a supply camp, which had an
ammunition dump. American troops had recently been there. To our surprise, the
kitchen still had food in it.
What kind of food did you have to eat in this camp?
We had C-rations, which were items packaged in cans. C-rations you could cook.
D-rations were absolutely dry foods. They usually consisted of a chocolate bar
with oatmeal and other nutrients. At this point, we had very little of
anything! And, even after we had surrendered, this knucklehead lieutenant
wanted to ration the food! We found a bunch of World War I hand gernades. We
told the lieutenant these had to be destroyed so the Japanese wouldn't get
them. He tried to stop us but we wouldn't listen to him. We found a slit
trench, pulled the pins, and threw them in. Half of them wouldn't even go off! The stuff we had! We were fighting
World War II with World War I equipment and I mean that literally!
That
must have been depressing. How many soldiers were in your group?
There was about fifty of us from various outfits, including some stragglers we
picked up along the road. But, during this time, I almost made a big mistake.
What was that?
I knew a planter down on the
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How long were you on
I was there from December 24, 1941, to April 9, 1942, and there were about
12,000 American soldiers there with me.
That's a lot of people to supply!
There were about 62,000 Filipinos troops as well.
How many miles long is that area?
What was happening on
When General King surrendered Bataan, the troops on
Who was out there?
General Wainright, his entourage, about 5,000 American troops, and the Filipino
government.
Did American soldiers go out there with him?
No. All American soldiers went to
How far was Corregidor from
Probably three miles across the strait.
There were about one hundred thousand troops including Americans and the
Filipinos on the
That's right.
Who was in charge?
General MacArthur was at first. When he left
(WRITER'S NOTE: After World War II, General Jonathan Wainwright was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor by President Harry S. Truman)
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How did the Japanese finally capture you and your group?
We stayed at our camp near Mariveles. I took my 45-caliber revolver, wrapped it
in rags, put in a can, and dumped a bunch of oil on them to protect it. I put
in the hollow of a tree. I'll bet it's still there. Anyway, about three days
later, a Japanese combat patrol just walked in.
What were you doing?
We were just sitting and waiting. We knew it was inevitable and only a matter
of time.
Do you recall what you felt?
Just Ahhhh. Just like, it's all over.
After the surrender and during the subsequent march, did you pray to God
and try spiritually to cope with this situation?
Absolutely.
You didn't blame God or feel, "Why did he allow this?"
No. I didn't say, "If you get me out of this, I'll go to church every
Sunday." There were people that did. Some hadn't seen the inside of a
church since heaven knows when. Before
the war I heard people say, "I don't believe in religion." "I
don't believe in God." After the war started, I never met an atheist. When
the bombs started falling and shells started whistling, it was a different
story. They got religion in a hurry.
The old saying from World War I,
"There are no atheists in the foxhole" is a good, honest statement
and pretty darn true. I carried a little pocket testament with me the whole
time and read it regularly. That's one thing the Japanese didn't take away from
me!
How did you carry it on the march?
I carried it between my legs in my shorts.
Do you still have it?
Oh yes.
What did the Japanese do after they entered your camp?
They had an interpreter who could speak danged good English. He told us that
the next morning we would be heading towards our place of captivity. He didn't
say where. He said we would be fed. Before we left a Japanese private got hold
of a 45-caliber pistol. I don't know where he found it. Apparently he hadn't
seen one before. He sure didn't know how to handle the danged thing because he
shot himself. They hauled him off and chattered like a bunch of monkeys. For a
while we thought they would reprimand us but nothing happened. We got ready to
move out.
The
Ya!