Journey to coast artillery historic sites or coastal forts ONLY in the U.S., Pacific Territories, or the Philippines.
Bataan, 1942, American and Filipino (U.S. Army) soldiers abandoned and doomed by the U.S. government, which had to focus rebuilding the Pacific Fleet. TB owner attends the Bataan Memorial Death March (walking 26.2-mile marathon) at White Sands Missile Range each year and gets to meet the honored few men remaining of that hard time...
The mission is only the U.S., Pacific Territories and Philippines - please do not take it anywhere else.
We're the Battling Bastards of Bataan,
No Mama, No Papa, No Uncle Sam,
No aunts, no uncles, no cousins, no nieces,
No pills, no planes, no artillery pieces,
And nobody gives a damn!
Hewlett's limerick poem, "the Battling Bastards of Bataan" came to symbolize that abandonment. Frank West Hewlett (c. 1913 – July 7, 1983) was an American journalist and war correspondent during World War II. He was the Manila bureau chief for United Press at the outbreak of war, and was the last reporter to leave Corregidor before it fell to the Japanese.
The world was at war, but December 1941 began for the United States with this great nation isolated and distant from the conflicts. Soon, every newspaper in America proclaimed the news that no one believed could have happened: "The Japanese have Bombed Pearl Harbor," and America was at war! In a speech to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt described December 7, 1941, as "a date which will live in infamy".
Almost immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese air units from Taiwan attacked Clark Field in the Philippines to destroy the air command that the United States Army had stationed there. In the days leading up to Christmas 1941, the 14th Imperial Army of Japanese Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma landed in northern Luzon and compelled General Douglas MacArthur's defending forces, including the Filipino Reservist Army plus the American units (primarily Philippine Scouts regiments in the U.S. Army), to make a full retreat into the Bataan Peninsula. From there, the Allied forces formed a line that they held briefly, while taking extremely heavy casualties.
February came and went, and with it went the precious few supplies of food, weapons and medicine. The allied troops on the Bataan Peninsula were suffering not only from fatigue and disease but also from the feeling of abandonment. The Japanese placed a very tight barrier around the Philippines, further isolating the troops of General MacArthur.
Not wanting to lose General MacArthur to the Japanese, President Roosevelt had ordered him to leave the Philippines. The General had to make a decision to stay with his troops and disobey the President or leave the Philippines and appear to abandon the men who had fought so courageously to defend the islands. MacArthur chose to obey President Roosevelt and left with his staff on March 11, via PT boats to Australia. Before he boarded his boat to leave, MacArthur uttered the famous words of hope to his brave but weary warriors "I shall return." His PT boat group quietly slipped past the blockade and escaped to Australia.
At the time, the thinning ranks of American warriors began to feel abandoned and blamed General MacArthur for leaving when the situation looked bleak. The American GIs told derisive jokes and sang songs focusing their anger toward their absent leader. Within a few weeks, their situation worsened. On March 28, 1942, the Japanese forces began moving into position for an all-out assault against the American enclave. By April 9, the American forces on Bataan were compelled to surrender. Early the following month, Corregidor, the other harbor defenses of Manila Bay, and the rest of the American units in the Philippines were also surrendered.
The fall of the Philippines was unquestionably a serious defeat, but the valiant effort by the American and Filipino Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines had not been in vain. The "Lost Cause" became a brief delay that cost the Japanese more than they realized at the time. America and her Allies used that effort to slow Japan's war progress through the Pacific Theater. The Americans also viewed the struggle on the Philippine Islands as a type of battle cry to help get them through during the early days of World War II and to fight on to victory by 1945.
The annual Bataan memorial Death March occurs each year on the 3rd Sunday in March. 8,500 marathoners participate, including an original Bataan survivor who was with the New Mexico National Guard, 200th Coast Artillery, when the unit was sent to Bataan in 1941.
Many of the sources presented in this article are among 400,000 books, 1.7 million photos and 12.5 million manuscripts available for study through the U.S. Army Military History Institute (MHI) and the Army Heritage Museum (AHM). MHI and AHM are part of the Army Heritage and Education Center, 950 Soldiers Drive, Carlisle, PA, 17013-5021.