FALL OF CORREGIDOR

The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Landing in the Lingayen Gulf, they swept southward across the island of Luzon toward Manila, Subic Bay, and the Bataan peninsula in between.  The Japanese onslaught was overpowering.  On 10 December 1941 the Navy Yard at Cavite was bombed, and by December 21^st, the headquarters of the Naval Defense Forces of the Philippines had to be moved to the island of Corregidor off the southern end of Bataan.

Steadily the staunch but outmanned American defenders were pushed down the Bataan peninsula toward Corregidor.  Fighting every inch of the way, hoping in vain to stall the enemy until reinforcements could arrive, combined US and Philippine forces held out for months.  US Army troops made their last stand on Mt. Samat, a 588-foot hill in central Bataan.  Wounded, starving and dehydrated, they surrendered on April 9^th.  Those who were captured were marched 100 miles up Luzon in the hot Philippine dry season.  Mortality on this merciless march approached 50%, earning its designation as the “Bataan Death March.”  The remaining Army and Navy personnel fled to Corregidor two and a half miles offshore, including COL Samuel L. Howard, USMC, and his 4^th Marines from Naval Station Subic Bay.

Corregidor is a three square mile fortified island that in 1942 was home to an airfield, parade ground, extensive barracks, and numerous gun emplacements.  Tunnels sunk deeply into Malinta hill provided underground storage, command bunkers, and a hospital.  As the situation deteriorated, GEN Douglas MacArthur was ordered to leave his command post deep in the Malinta Tunnels.  On a dark night of 11 March, as he and wife and son stepped onto four PT boats, he uttered his famous promise, “I shall return.”

The garrison was now under the command of LGEN Jonathan M. Wainwright and by May the situation was desperate.  Howard, his Marines, and 700 bluejackets defended Corregidor’s beaches.  The Japanese bombardment was unrelenting.  Though the gun batteries on the island fought bravely many were hindered by the fact that the guns were cemented in place facing the wrong direction (traditionally it had been thought that attack would come from the sea).  To make matters worse most of their ammunition consisted of armor piercing anti-ship rounds–of limited use against planes and personnel.  Subjected to heavy 24-hour bombardment, the 13,000 weary and hungry troops endured until the 6^th of May.  Then, to save further carnage, Wainwright surrendered the garrison.  Navy personnel (including nurses) taken prisoner totaled 1700.  Wainwright and COL Howard survived the war as POWs, Howard received the Navy Cross and was promoted to MGEN.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 MAY 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Aluit, Alfonso J.  Corregidor.  Manila, Philippines: Galleon Publications, 1989.

Hall of Valor, Navy Cross Citation of Samuel Lutz Howard.  Military Timee website, AT: https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-7713/, retrieved 24 April 2026.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 3  The Rising Sun in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1948, pp. 193-206.

Morris, Eric.  Corregidor: The End of the Line.  New York, NY: Stein and Day, 1981.

Site visit, Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, Mt. Samat, Republic of the Philippines, February 1989.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 165-66.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The fall of the Philippines on this day was the last in a series of stunning Allied defeats at the beginning of the Pacific war that stretched from Pearl Harbor to Wake Island to Singapore.  Radio broadcasts from the garrison on Corregidor during the final days had been relayed back to American living rooms, giving the general public a sense of involvement in the loss.  But the situation brightened in the days that followed, as news of the battle of Coral Sea reached America.

          The WWII escort carrier USS CORREGIDOR (CVE-58) remembers the battle for the island.  Our modern Arleigh Burke destroyer HOWARD (DDG-83) remembers a Marine Corps 1^st SGT from Vietnam with the same surname.

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