Singapore and Hong Kong had fallen to the forces of Imperial Japan,
Thailand and Burma had been invaded and islands across the Pacific
captured. But one place, one tiny island fortress garrisoned by a
few thousand hungry and exhausted men, refused to be beaten. That
island fortress was Corregidor which guarded the entrance to Manila
Bay and controlled all sea-borne access to Manila Harbour. At a
time when every news bulletin was one of Japanese success,
Corregidor shone as the only beacon of hope in the darkness of
defeat. The Japanese 14th Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu
Homma, threw everything it had at Corregidor, officially named Fort
Mills. But deep within the island's rocky heart, a tunnel had been
excavated into Malinta Hill and there the US troops, marine, naval
and army, endured the terrible onslaught. At their head was General
Douglas MacArthur who became a national hero with his resolute
determination never to surrender, until ordered to evacuate to
Australia to avoid such a senior officer being captured by the
enemy. Bur with his departure, the rest of the garrison knew that
there was no possibility of relief. They would have to fight on
until the bitter end, whatever form that might take. That end came
in May 1942\. The defenders were reduced to virtually starvation
rations with many of them wounded. Consequently, when, on 5 May the
Japanese mounted a powerful amphibious assault, the weakened
garrison could defy the enemy no longer. Corregidor, the 'Gibraltar
of the East', finally fell to the invaders. Those invaders were to
become the invaded when MacArthur returned in January 1945\. For
three weeks, US aircraft, warships and artillery hammered the
Japanese positions on Corregidor. Then, on 16 February, the
Americans landed on the island. It took MacArthur's men ten days to
hunt down the last of the Japanese, after many had chosen to commit
suicide rather than surrender, but Corregidor was at last back in
Allied hands. In this unique collection of images, the full story
Corregidor's part in the Second World War is dramatically revealed.
The ships, the aircraft, the guns, the fortifications and the men
themselves, are shown here, portraying the harsh, almost
unendurable, realities of war.
General
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