Remembering Bataan

[VeeVee]

I thought I'd consolidate these photos into a new thread in observance of April 9, Bataan Day.

Remembering Bataan. A photo tribute by LRRP HK



Click thumbnail for larger picture




Pictures and photoshop work by LRRP HK.

To the Philippine Scouts

The desperate fight is lost; the battle is done.
The brown lean ranks are scattered to the breeze.
Their cherished weapons rusting in the sun.
Their moldering guidons hidden by the leaves.
No more the men who did not fear to die
Will plug the broken line while through the din
Their beaten comrades raise the welcome cry,
“Make way, make way, the Scouts are moving in!”

The jungle takes the long defended lines
The trenches erode; the wires rust away,
The lush dank grasses and the trailing vines
Soon hide the human remains of the fray.
The Battle ended and the story told
To open to the Scouts as they unfold
The tired little soldiers enter in.

The men who were besieged on every side
Who knew the dissolution of retreat
And still retained their fierce exultant pride
And still were soldiers—even in defeat,
Now meet the veterans of ten thousand years
Now find a welcome worthy of their trade
From men who fought with crossbows and with spears
With bullet and with arrow and with spade.

The grizzled veterans of Rome built upon
The Death-head horde of Attila the Hun
The Yellow Horror of the greatest Khan
The guardsmen of the First Napoleon
All the men in every nameless fight
Since first Man strove against Man to prove his worth
Shall greet the tired Scouts as is their right
No finer soldiers ever walked the Earth.

And then the Scouts will form to be reviewed
Each scattered unit now once more complete
Each weapon and each bright crisp flag renewed
And high above the cadence of their feet
Will come the loud clear virile welcoming shout
From many throats, before the feasts begin,
Their badge of Honor mid their comrades rout—
“Make way, make way, the Scouts are moving in!”

Written by 1st Lt. Henry Lee, 12th Military Police Company, during the Battle of Bataan. Lt. Lee was taken prisoner when Bataan fell and perished in the sinking of a Japanese “Hell Ship” Oryoko Maru transporting American POWs to Japan towards the end of WWII.

(Poem from the PSHS website)

[legionnaire]

by Brig. Gen Carlos P Romulo

Radio Broadcast - Voice of Freedom - Malinta Tunnel, Corregidor

9 April 1942 Bataan has fallen.

The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.

The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.

For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith--something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives.

The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds. But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more that flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come. Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand--a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world--cannot fall!


USAFFE Strength in Bataan January 1 to April 9 1942:

(US 30,000, Filipino 120,000) = 150,000

KIA - 10,000 WIA - 20,000 POW - 75,000

Japanese casualties

KIA - 7,000 WIA - 12,000 Disease - 10,000

[OneZero]

Today is the day that we Honor and Remember
"the FALLEN and the VETERANS"
of the last WAR.

from our generation to their generation, we say to them
'THANK YOU'...for everything...

May they find their 'PEACE' that they rightfully deserve...

[kalbs]

Thanks for this post guys. We should never forget

[26th]

Hey:

In memory of my uncle I never met and to all who were there with him on that day.

Rudy/26Cav

[adroth]

admin said:

Remembering Bataan. A photo tribute by LRRP HK

Kudos to the LRRP HK

=== ~~~ ===

If there are ever any doubts about the value of what you guys are doing, note the following disturbing fact about our current fighting men -- as reported by the commandant of the PAF NCO school.

timawa.net/forum/index.php/topic,12265.0.html

CORREGIDOR—It was the first time in his 17 years in the Philippine Air Force that Staff Sgt. Arnel Tabladillo had set foot on this battle-scarred island.

Tabladillo, 40, said his late father, a World War II veteran, had wanted him to become a soldier and told him of stories about Corregidor Island.

“Now I’ve finally seen the place that he always spoke about,” Tabladillo said in Filipino as he looked out the jeepney driving him and his classmates around the island to get a better glimpse at a bombed-out cannon several feet down the road.

For half a day on Friday, Tabladillo and 240 PAF personnel roamed Corregidor on an educational tour that was unheard of in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

. . .

A pilot project in military indoctrination introduced by Lt. Col. Guillermo Molina, commandant of the PAF Non-Commissioned Officers’ School, the trip was part of the curriculum to enhance pride in the latest generation of Filipino freedom fighters.

“It is unfortunate, even ridiculous, that many of our soldiers, and even officers, do not have a firm grasp of their military history,” said Molina, co-author of the official PAF history book, “The Philippine Air Force Story.”

. . .

This would help them understand military tradition as well as the evolution of martial arts and strategies, Molina said. Soldiers, for example, will understand why battles today are also about winning hearts and minds, being sensitive to culture, religion, gender issues and human rights.

Molina worked to include the exposure trip in the school’s course. Corregidor, the tadpole-shaped island at the mouth of Manila Bay, was an obvious choice at this time.

. . .

Incredibly, despite Corregidor’s rich history and popularity, only two of the 241 soldiers currently taking the basic and advanced NCO courses know exactly what this island was all about, Molina said.

. . .

They (NCO trainees) fell silent as the story of Corregidor was narrated at the light and sound show at the Malinta Tunnel.

Memorial to conflict

“This is worth it,” said S/Sgt. Reynaldo Taguinod. “It hits you in a different way when you see for yourself the story of your country and witness the battles then.”

[VeeVee]

Thanks Adroth. S/Sgt Taguinod's words... "This is worth it" sums it all up.

I think every single AFP serviceman should be mandated to complete a visit to Corregidor and Bataan as part of their tour of duty.

When I was a freshman in college, our History professor asked the students on the first day of class. Why is it important for us to learn history? The usual "so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past" answers were given. I've always thought about that but over the years I've come up with my own answers to this oft-repeated question in history classes:

Knowing our history will make us hold our indidivual selves to a higher standard.

Knowing our history will make us treasure and appreciate what we have right now.

Knowing our history will give us an identity that we will respect and protect.

Knowing our history will make us realize what we collectively have not accomplished, and will provide the impetus for us to take the first step in the right direction.

Knowing our history will make us a better person.

--------
...And in my opinion, knowing our history will make every AFP serviceman a better soldier. (cheers!)

[rickthelibrarian]

I will always remember. Thanks for the photo montage, guys!

[oklahoma]

to all....at the time of the 1942 struggle in the philippines it was loudly proclaimed that everyday that the japanese were delayed on bataan time was being bought to prepare for our eventual offensive that would take us to tokyo. of course, later we realized that they hardly slowed the enemy onslaught as it surged past the philippines, sweeping all before it in java, singapore,borneo,etc. all this may be true, but something else is also true. maybe, just maybe, that those japanese regiments decimated by combat and disease that had recently been slugging it out on bataan with the starving, emaciated defenders just might have been enough, had they been present, to turn the tide at kokoda down in new guinea, capturing port moresby,etc and putting our whole australian position at risk. the fact remains, when everybody else was getting clobbered in the far east and southeast asia, the american-filipino guys gave a very credible account of themselves, especially when they had no air force or navy, nor adequate medical and food supplies. we all, to this day, owe them our homage and gratitude. they may not have stemmed the jap juggernaut, but they were the obstacle that slowed them enough, just enough in some historian's view, to allow the allies to regroup and start the long road back. kinda like the alamo, methinks. just one bataan-corregidor geek's observation.