Bataan, Our Last Ditch

[VeeVee]

Bataan, Our Last Ditch

Well researched and most comprehensive book about the campaign.

[legionnaire]

Just got this book this last Saturday! Some great pics too.

Philip

[VeeVee]

Excellent book! It's very detailed and is my defacto Bataan campaign bible.

It mentions the Scout machinegunner who was shown in the Shootout! series of the History Channel. I looked him up in this book, his name is PFC Narcisco Ortilano. It's in the chapter "The Scouts in Mabatang".

The author, John Whitman was also shown in the documentary many times explaining the action:

smg.photobucket.com/albums/v477/jvsv/Living_History/Shootout/shootout04.jpg

[VeeVee]

I was flipping through my copy of this book and re-reading some sections. I'm amazed at the blow by blow detail of this book with regards to the campaign. While it's honest about its description of many negative aspects or embarrassing actions of the Bataan defenders, it cites very many instances where the Philippine Army and the Scouts did very well and were very admirable. I'd like to post a collection of some of these passages because it can make us more proud and honored to be portraying them in reenactments.

I'd like to start with this which I've posted in some other thread. I'll add some more later:

From "Bataan, Our Last Ditch" by John W. Whitman

"Considering how bad the Philippine Army was when compared to the Scouts, it is amazing how remarkably well they actually did. For although they had shortcomings in all areas imaginable, they kept the more experienced and better-armed Japanese at bay for nearly one hundred days. The Philippine Army provided the vast majority of the soldiers on Bataan, occupied most of the fighting positions, were employed in the frontlines longer than the Americans or Scouts, and suffered the majority of combat and nonbattle casualties. Although performance during the first battles, especially before arriving in Bataan, was often disastrous, and although blind panic and refusal to obey orders were not uncommon, instances of entire battalions deserting their officers declined sharply as time passed. On Bataan the Filipinos were paragons of soldierly virtue when compared to their earlier performance. The Filipino soldier did stop the Japanese, did inflict staggering losses on him, and certainly delayed the complete and early conquest of Luzon. And considering the state of training, equipment, and unqualified, poorly trained native leaders, these facts are astounding. The Filipinos were good material, but they needed training and leadership. With training and effective officers, they performed well. This is the recurring theme, the oft-repeated "if only" of Bataan veterans. If only there had been more time, if only the Philippine Army could have been trained to the level of the Scouts. If only! Untrained recruits of all nationalities will break and run with depressing regularity, and the Filipinos were no exception."

[VeeVee]

Monday, April 6
------------
On April 6, the Americans and Filipinos staged a last ditch counterattack...

Three hundred men from Col. Whetherby's 41st Infantry (PA) pushed eastward early that morning to establish a line across Trail 29 to which the 45th Infantry (PS) could advance. Hoping to surprise the enemy, the 41st Infantry decided against using an artillery preparation; it would be a sneak attack. It is amazing that the Filipinos could still be called upon for an offensive operation and, more amazing still, it was a night attack, one of the most difficult and hazardous of military maneuvers.

...Whetherby was ordered to use only 300 of his 650 effectives - a provisional battalion of three 100-man companies commanded by Filipino Major Zobel. After Col. Fortier gave them orders about 1600 hours on April 5, American and Filipino officers organized their men for the effort and put them into motion. Leaving the west bank of the Pantingan river just after midnight, the 41st Infantry slithered down the 300-foot tall banks, crossed the boulder-strewn brush-cloaked river, and slowly scaled the steep wooded cliffs of the opposite side. After catching their breaths on the east bank, the Filipinos crept cautiously into their old kitchen area. Straining to see in the dark, they found a small number of Japanese asleep in the rear-area shelters and huts the 41st Infantry had recently evacuated. These Japanese were old enemies, their Abucay and Trail 2 opponents, men of Nara's 65th Brigade.

About 2 hours after clibming into and out of the river, the Filipinos stole across the darkened terrain, bayoneted and knifed some sleeping enemy, and pushed ahead of their objective, Trail 29...

But Japanese who escaped from the kitchen area sounded the alarm, and before noon the Japanese counterattacked with forces equalling a reinforced battalion and pushed the Filipinos off Trail 29 into a defensive position on a small ridge paralleling the Pantingan river. Here the 41st Infantry held.

Drawing on their experiences in Abucay and Trail 2, the hardened survivors of 4 months of war dug in. In the next 36 hours, the Filipinos, backed against the Pantingan, and armed only with rifles and machine guns suffered 30 percent casualties, 100 men killed or wounded while defending their little ridge.

[VeeVee]

Buying Time, the Guagua-Porac Line
--------------

...Only the artillery prevented complete disaster. The 21st Artillery had three under-strength battalions commanded by Philippine Army second lieutenants...
The Filipinos -- Pangasinans, Ilocanos, Pampangans, and Bontocs -- fired point-blank direct fire for six long hours and serviced the guns as cooly as if it were a peacetime practice.

Standing fast and firing at visible enemy required trmendous courage from the gunners and strong, steady leadership from the officers. For six hours the artillerymen were the most advanced elements of the entire division...

Lt. Valdez's 1st Battalion, 21st Artillery, swung its eight British model-1917 75mm guns to the left front and fired shrapnel shells at targets less than eight hundred yards away, stopping a Japanese penetration in the center of the division. West of the road, Lt. Mercado's wooden-wheeled 2nd Battalion, and Lt. Acosta's 3rd Battalion fired high explosive up the Pio ravine into an assembly area holding Japanese tanks. The two artillery battalions fired eight rounds per minute from each of sixteen cannon and turned the assembly area into a smoking cauldron. The tanks did not attack.

...The 21st Artillery defended the division so well that the Japanese made no efforts against the line the next day.

[rickthelibrarian]

Whitman's book is truly excellent! I've read it 2-3 times.

[jimmay]

ordered the book a few days ago, I can't wait to read it ;D

by the way rick are you from surplusrifleforum.com?

[rickthelibrarian]

One and the same!! I keep turning up like a bad penny!!

[jimmay]

It's great to have someone from the other forum, especially when interested in this subject.

[rickthelibrarian]

Glad to be here! Whitman's book has a lot of firearms-related items in it. For exacmple, the ejector on the M1917 was notoriously weak and often broke. As a result, many solders whoused the rifle had to resort to using a cleaning rod or other narrow item to poke out the empty case after each shot! Not too good when you needed rapid fire!!

[cco23i]

GREAT BOOK!! I read it while in Guam and I just could not put it down! I finished it in 4 days for gosh sakes!

Scott

[VeeVee]

You finished that thick book in four days? You must have been on vacation

[VeeVee]

I had the opportunity to have more vets sign my copy of this book.

[rickthelibrarian]

That's great! I had a bunch of former POWs sign my "Death March" by Donald Knox, including several who were interviewed for the book.

[VeeVee]

Just updating the Bataan vets signature collection on the book