097 - Crossing Cavalry Point

The Japanese Attack Corregidor

While the Japanese Navy was pressing into the south Pacific, the job of securing the central Pacific had landed on the shoulders of the Japanese Air Force and Imperial Army. In fact, Japan’s Army had seized all of the Philippines except for a tiny tadpole-shaped island named Corregidor.
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It began, of course, with nightly bombing raids, which softened Corregidor’s defensive anti-aircraft batteries. Corregidor's Malinta Tunnel, located on the western part of the island, had once been the base of Operations for both General Douglas MacArthur and Filipino President Manuel Quezon.
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Now, Corregidor held only a portion of its former glory.

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All outlying Army Barracks now lay in ruins and the inland anti-aircraft batteries had been shelled into submission. Beginning May 1^st and extending through May 5^th, nightly bombing raids pounded Corregidor near Cavalry Point, on the northeastern side of the island, near the ‘tail of the tadpole’.
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However, Corregidor’s powerful gun batteries, mounted on topside were left largely un-attacked.

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Although the anti-aircraft batteries were numerous and well-supplied, their 14 and 11–inch guns weren’t suited to defend the island. They’d originally been designed as anti-naval batteries, able to hammer targets in Manila Bay or over in Manila itself. Against the Japanese bombers, they were virtually useless. Additionally, the big guns of topside were largely able to defend against the Japanese Marine landings, less than a mile away.

Now, the Japanese Marines did just as they had back at Lingayen Gulf, raiding the northeast shores of Corregidor. 790 Japanese raided the shores and with the help of combined Air Force, Navy - and even Army attacks from Bataan – they made short work of the invasion, quickly pushing the Americans and Filipinos up the tail towards topside and the fortress of Malinta Tunnel, where many of the injured waited their fate.

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