Category Archives: Military History

CAPAS – FILIPINO SACRIFICE IN THE SHADOWS OF NEW CLARK CITY

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Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.
Inside the three towers of the Capas National Shrine. Three columns representing Japan, the Philippines and the United States. A desire for peace.

The spire of the Capas National Shrine rises 240 feet into the air above the hot, humid plains of central Luzon.  There is lots of symbolism included in the site.  Three parts of the towering spire represent the peoples of the Philippines, the United States and … Japan.  Covering 54 hectares – 130 acres – over half of the grounds have been planted with 31,000 trees representing the 25,000 Filipinos and 6,000 Americans who perished here at Camp O’Donnell following the end of the Bataan Death March in 1942.  The park was named a national shrine by President Cory Aquino in 1991 with the tower was added in 2003 with a memorial wall behind with the names of those known to have perished here at the camp.

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HIGH ATOP MONTE NERO, THE COLONEL WEPT – MAGIC OF KRN

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View from atop Krn looking northeast into the heart of the Julian Alps, Jezero Lake far below.

Over a hundred years after the tumult of the Great War, vestiges of the struggle remain in visible evidence around the 2245-meter-high mountain top of Krn – Monte Nero (Black Mountain) in Italian.  Strands of barbed wire twirl about on the slopes adding to the drama of the incredible views from the Adriatic Sea to the Italian Dolomites and into the heart of the Slovene Julian Alps.  Here on Krn and its surrounding ridges, mountain warfare on a harsh scale took place from mid-June 1915 through to the end of October 1917 when the Battle of Caporetto moved the unmovable front far to the west for the Italian Front’s last acts.

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THE COMMONWEALTH ARMY – VALOR IN DEATH HONORED ON MOUNT SAMAT

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The Philippine flag whips in the wind atop Mount Samat with an urn representing eternal light at the entrance to the Colonnade at the Shrine of Valor.

The last post described the Dambana ng Kagitingan – Shrine of Valor – standing atop Mount Samat on the eastern side of the Bataan Peninsula. While most monuments tend to reward victory, sometimes more can be learned in defeat. Most of the defenders here on Bataan were Filipino. Most of those who died here, on the Death March and in the initial stages of the Japanese prison camps were Filipinos. With the surrender on 9 April 1942, the Army of the Philippine Commonwealth ended. It would not be resurrected again until the nation gained independence in 1946. At that time, it transformed into the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Many of the leaders of the new Forces saw prior service in the army of the Commonwealth.

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MOUNT SAMAT HONORS THE VALOR OF BATAAN

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An old 155 mm US howitzer sits beneath the Shrine on Mount Samat.

MOUNT SAMAT REMEMBERING AMERICAN SACRIFICE

Visitors to the Philippines enjoy a day’s outing, boating across Manila Bay to see the old guns of Corregidor. Off the regular path lies an even more important monument atop a mountain in the southern region of the Bataan Peninsula – the National Shrine of Mount Samat – Dambana ng Katingnan (Shrine of Valor).

Bataan, the sight of the worst defeat suffered by American forces in history. 78,000 men – the vast majority Filipinos new to soldiering – surrendered after a campaign of just over four months. As bad as the long battle against the enemy, the harsh jungle environment, malnutrition and disease was, another type of battle would fall upon the men afterwards, the battle to survive.

A two-part post with the first dealing mostly with the Shrine, the campaign and US Army units remembered here at Mount Samat. The second post will cover the Philippine Army divisions honored here. It is important to remember as hard as it was for American units to suffer on Bataan, Corregidor and throughout the islands, the Filipinos were forced to take the suffering to another level, both with the Commonwealth Army and the civilian population, as a whole.

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FROM THE NORTHWEST TO THE FIELDS OF FRANCE – 361st INFANTRY REGIMENT IN THE GREAT WAR

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Private Ora Roscoe
Grave of Ora and his wife on the right.
Grave of Ora and his wife on the right.

On a recent visit to a cemetery, I visited several family ancestors buried in the very small community of Bellfountain, Oregon. Bellfountain lies in the southern part of the Willamette Valley. Amongst the graves, I found one particular headstone near the family ancestors mentioning the man’s service in World War 1 as part of the 361st Infantry Regiment.

The American Army mushroomed almost overnight with the country’s entrance into World War 1 in April 1917. Selective Service – conscription – was brought back for the first time since the American Civil War. One of the units raised, mostly from draftees from Washington and Oregon was the 361st Infantry Regiment, 181st Infantry Brigade, 91st Division.

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ARTILLERY OF CORREGIDOR – BIG GUNS ON AN ISLAND

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12-inch gun of Battery Hearn
12-inch gun of Battery Hearn, one of the few guns having a 360-degree field of fire.

On the island of Corregidor at the entrance to Manila Bay, American coastal defense came to a high point in the big gun defense theory of protecting vital areas of a homeland.  Using some of the biggest guns in the American arsenal, the defenders held off the enemy for over five months.  The end came swiftly though, flaws in the system exposed terribly.  Capitulation meant the garrison force marched on to the horrors of Japanese prison camps.  With the fall of the island fortress, the theory of coastal defense would slowly re-evolve.

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PHILIPPINE SCOUTS WITH A UNIQUE STORY – MANILA ABMC CEMETERY

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Donato Cabading was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment - Philippine Scouts
Donato Cabading – right foreground – was a sergeant with the 45th Infantry Regiment – Philippine Scouts. He died the end of January 1942.

During the early battles in the southwestern Pacific, most of the defenders against Japanese aggressions were Filipino. Among the graves and the Walls of the Missing, you will find many of their names. In this post, some of the stories of the Philippine Scouts, a truly unique unit of the American Army, come forward.

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REMOVING MYSTERY FROM THE WALLS OF THE MISSING – Manila ABMC

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A few of the Walls of the Missing - Manila ABMC
A few of the Walls of the Missing – Manila ABMC

Over 36,000 names cover the Walls of the Missing at Manila ABMC Cemetery.  The men unaccounted for during World War 2 all over the southwestern Pacific.  Most serving on ships sunk at sea or planes never coming home.  There are plenty of others, bodies never found in the jungles of the Solomons, New Guinea, the Philippines, Burma or other locations.

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MANILA ABMC CEMETERY – HEROES LIE IN THE MYSTICAL SILENCE

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The chapel at Manila ABMC Cemetery flanked on either side by the hemicycles of the Walls of the Missing.

Surrounded by skyscraping condominium towers on the former site of the Fort McKinley, grass fields festooned with thousands of white granite crosses mark the largest American military cemetery outside of the United States.  The Manila American Battle Monuments Commission – ABMC – Cemetery holds the remains of 17.097 men who died mostly in the World War 2 fighting in New Guinea and the Philippines.  The names of another 36,286 men whose remains never discovered inscribed on The Tablets of the Missing place on limestone piers within two hemicycles separated by a small chapel atop a small hill.  The quiet is out of place in the frenetic world of Bonifacio Global City outside of the cemetery walls. 

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“BALLOONS UP” – SHORT LIFE OF THE ARMY BALLOON SERVICE

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French Cagout R going up operated by men trained at Fort Omaha.

Technological advances correspond to a lot of monies spent on projects becoming out-of-date by the time of final completion or very soon after.  Excellent cases abound in the field of defense spending.  Take the example of the US Army Balloon Service for illustrative purpose.

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