I am guessing that title will arouse the interest of my golf-playing readers who may wonder if I have decided to add a measure of respectable leisure activity to my life. Not happening. I am no golfer. I have found more valuable, constructive ways to use my time—a conclusion motivated largely due to those who found observing my incapacity to drive, chip, put and whatever else you have to do to play a respectable game of golf to be the grist for jokes and a source of great merriment. So, to avoid the depressive effects of dealing with golfers ridiculing me on the links, and to reduce my need for expensive, therapeutic intervention, I have adopted the views of G. K. Chesterton, who wrote, “I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.”
That being said, golf is a very exacting and challenging sport. Imagine how exacting and challenging it would be, however, if the course you were “hitting” was covered with bomb craters, shattered trees, and rubble—and you were being shot at. On February 16, 1945, for the paratroopers of the “hitting the links” took on a whole new meaning.
Corregidor, “The Rock”
Corregidor, called “The Rock,” had been an island fortress since the days of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. The United States Army coastal artillery had guarded the entrance to Manila Bay since the early 1900s, and Corregidor was the lynchpin in the defense of the city. The Japanese knew that to control the Philippines, they had to gain control of “The Rock.”
The Japanese Army had attacked the Philippines on December 8, 1941, and the American and Filipino forces, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, continued to occupy Corregidor, the Bataan Peninsula, and other areas across the Philippine Islands. Gen. MacArthur and his family were ordered by President Roosevelt to leave for Australia. On March 11, MacArthur and his family braved over 500 miles heavy seas and Japanese controlled waters, escaping to Mindanao on a U.S. Navy PT boat where he was flown to Australia. Upon his arrival, MacArthur declared, “I have come through and I shall return.”
Back on Corregidor, the American defenses, deprived of re-supplies of water, food and ammunition, continued to weaken. Under continuous Japanese bombardment and relentless efforts to land on the island, the Americans’ strength began to wane. The Americans fought savagely against a Japanese amphibious assault on May 4, but Gen. Wainwright, the American commander, saw the futility of continued resistance. On May 5, Gen. Wainwright surrendered his force of 11,000 Americans and Filipinos. Two-thirds of those who surrendered would die in captivity.
“I Shall Return”
On October 20, 1944, Gen. MacArthur waded ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte. He broadcast a message to Filipinos throughout the islands, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!” Months of fighting, however, still lay ahead. One of those battles was the re-taking of Corregidor.
American intelligence determined that around 900 Japanese troops were defending the island of Corregidor. It was decided to attack the island by a simultaneous amphibious landing with the main axis of the attack by airborne forces on the “Topside” an area roughly a mile and a half across.
Topside had been devastated by American pre-invasion bombardment. Shattered trees, rubble from demolished buildings, and debris cluttered the hilltop. Huge bomb craters pot-marked the entire landscape. The only areas where the paratroopers could land was the parade field and the abandoned golf course.
The most experienced airborne unit in the Army, 503rd Parachute Regimental Combat Team (PRCT) would be dropped on to Topside. It was a difficult, and to the Japanese defenders an impossible way to attack the island. Topside had cliffs that were 500 feet above the ocean paratroopers had to face high winds that could easily drive them over the cliffs and into the ocean. The size of the drop zone and the low altitude allowed only six seconds to make each drop.
On the morning of February 16, 1945, the 503rd loaded aboard C-17 transports and headed toward Corregidor. The higher than expected winds forced the planes to come in at around 400 feet and only five or six troops could jump each time and the transport planes had to circle back after each drop. The altitude was so low that the troops’s chutes would fully deploy only a few seconds about treetop level. Plane after plane came in, circling back, dropping more troops, and circling back again.
1st Lt. Edward T. Flash (Co. F), described the landing zone as filled with craters, cement boulders, tin, glass, exploded steel bloom from the nearby buildings, and sharp tree limbs that stuck skyward. “One of the first men to jump onto the golf course was Captain Logan W. Hovis, the surgeon of the 3rd Battalion, was in the first stick of the second plane. Although Hovis landed safely in the center of the golf course, the strong winds caught hold of his parachute canopy before he could collapse it and dragged his slight 120-pound body across the course.
Though he could have tried to grab onto something or cut himself free of the harness, he “did not want to risk injuring his hands.” In time, his canopy snagged on a shattered tree but Doc Hovis had become so entangled in his parachute lines that he could not move. Eventually, 1st Lt. William D. Ziler found him and cut him out of his cocoon. As it turned out, Doc Hovis’s expert hands would find more than enough work throughout the next few days.
The other 3rd Battalion surgeon, Captain Robert R. McKnight, severely fractured an ankle upon landing and was pinned down by enemy fire for some time behind a fallen tree. After rescue, the injured McKnight was evacuated from Corregidor” (from Warfare History Network).
Bad Intel, Good Soldiers
As it turned out, there were about 6,000 Japanese defenders on Corregidor. Yet, the 2,050 US Army paratroopers retook the “topside” against the majority of that force in 13 days.
The retaking of Corregidor was one of the greatest airborne assaults in history. The 503rd suffered 169 dead and 531 wounded. 210 soldiers, over 20%, were seriously injured upon landing. Some were shot before they hit the ground. With small numbers in the initial assault, the force could have easily overwhelmed them if the Japanese had been ready for an airborne assault on Topside. But the Japanese, years into the war and loss after loss on the battlefields of the Pacific, still underestimated the resolve and fortitude of the American fighting man.
Veterans’ Day
Human history is an ever-present and on-going battle against tyranny and oppression. From Lexington and Concord to the battles of recent memory, American liberty has been secured by the American military. Our freedom depends on our willingness to value it enough to continue to be willing to sacrifice to defend it. That is why all veterans have taken the oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. Tyranny is always crouching at the door.
Harper sends