History

Corregidor is a tadpole-shaped island off the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines.  It sits along the entrance to Manila Bay and its location makes it an ideal defensive stronghold guarding the entrance to the city of Manila.  This was initially recognized by the Spanish who established a military outpost there that would serve as a warning post to warn of any incoming attack.  In peacetime, it would serve as a customs post. When the Americans replaced the Spaniards as the new colonizers of the Philippines, they too saw the strategic importance of this tiny island that came to be known later on as  The Rock  owing to its rocky topography.

The Americans improved on the defensive layout of the island by converting it into a fortress after the First World War.  The showpiece of the island-fortress was its battery of guns pointing westward towards the South China Sea.  These were 12-inch guns capable of hurling projectiles 14 miles out.  The US Army Corps of Engineers designed an elaborate mechanism that could make these guns  disappear  by putting them on a rail that would bring them out when they are ready to fire and pull them back to their bunkers to reload and protect them from counter attacks. There were a total of 12 batteries installed on Corregidor in addition to mortars and anti-aircraft guns.  A garrison, called  Mile Long  was also built and could be reinforced from forces in Manila or Bataan.  A hospital was also built and the Malinta Tunnel was constructed to serve as a storehouse for munitions and other supplies.  Man-made fortress-islands were also constructed in the surrounding areas such as Fort Drum and El Fraile which serve to compliment the defenses already in place in Corregidor, the main island.

Corregidor entered into prominence during the Second World War.  When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, General Douglas MacArthur, the overall military commander of the combined Philippine-American forces of the United States Armed Forces of the Far East (USAFFE), concentrated his forces along the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor and hoped to hold out here until reinforced.  Despite the failure of reinforcements to arrive, the defenders of Bataan and Corregidor stubbornly kept the Japanese in check for almost 6 months long after Singapore, the impregnable fortress of the British fell to the Japanese earlier.  The stubborn defense put up by the USAFFE forces disrupted the Japanese timetable of invasion.  MacArthur valiantly and steadfastly kept the resistance going until he was ordered to Australia to lead the Allied forces for an impending counteroffensive which he reluctantly accepted.  He entrusted the command of the USAFFE to Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright and embarked on a perilous escape to Mindanao on Motor Torpedo Boats to waiting plane on the southernmost Philippine Island.  The key members of the Philippine Commonwealth Government, led by President Manuel L. Quezon followed suit, completely denying the Japanese total victory despite the eventual surrender of Wainwright on May 6, 1942.

Despite the defeat, the heroic stand of the men of Bataan and Corregidor became legendary and their memory was kept alive and honor vindicated when MacArthur retook the island in February 0f 1945.