Escape from Davao
Page 44
13 a fascination with flight: Abilene Reporter-News (Texas), September 9, 1956.
13 he worked several jobs: Elizabeth Nell Denman, author’s interview.
13 Dyess was the school’s ranking: Ibid; J-Tac, student publication of John Tarleton Agricultural College, February 15, 1944.
13 intending to enroll in the law school: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 15–16; e-mail correspondence from Elizabeth Nell Denman to the author, July 23, 2004.
13 “Son,” Judge Dyess promised: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 16.
13 A Presbyterian who had embraced: E-mail correspondence from Elizabeth Nell Denman to the author, July 23, 2004.
13 “Mother,” he would reply: Hallie Dyess, quoted in Abilene Reporter-News (Texas), April 23, 1974.
13 he stood six foot one: E-mail correspondence from Elizabeth Nell Denman to the author, October 15, 2005.
13 At Hamilton Field: Letter from Ray Hunt to the Commander, American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, 1981.
13 “You look like”: Ibid.
14 “He was intelligent”: Grashio, Return to Freedom, 7.
14 “PLUM”: Ibid., 2.
14 Jack Donohoe: Jack Donohoe, author’s interview.
14 At Pearl Harbor, the Coolidge: Walter D. Edmonds, They Fought with What They Had: The Story of the Army Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, 1941–1942
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1951), 49–50.
14 The Japanese, declared the officers: Grashio, Return to Freedom, 2; Fortune, February 1942, 53; Ind, Bataan, 3. The most famous manifestation of this national hubris, however, was the declaration of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, who, while puffing on an after-dinner cigar just three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, reportedly announced that a conflict with Japan “won’t take too
long … say about a six-months’ war.” See Bruce Catton, The Warlords of Washington (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1948), 9.
15 He concluded with an estimate: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 27.
15 “I’ll bet you five pesos:” Grashio, Return to Freedom, 2.
15 Grashio had just fallen back asleep: Ibid., 3–4.
15 Four, in fact: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 29.
16 For the ABCD powers: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 77.
16 Word of the Pearl Harbor attack: Ibid., 79–83.
16 It has been speculated: Manchester, American Caesar, 230–35; Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 282.
16 Shortly after receiving: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 282–83.
16 At 1015 Formosa time: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 84.
17 At 1145: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 301.
17 “Tally ho, Clark Field!”: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 30.
17 While Dyess led: Grashio, Return to Freedom, 4–5.
17 Growing up, Grashio was competitive: Devonia Grashio and Samuel E. Grashio, author’s interview.
17 “119 pounds of condensed dynamite”: Spokane Spokesman-Review, date unknown.
18 Nevertheless, much like his father: Devonia Grashio, author’s interview; Grashio, Return to Freedom, 1.
18 “Ed … took me right under his wing”: Chicago Tribune, January 29, 1944.
18 “as smooth as glass”: Grashio, Return to Freedom, 5.
18 until 1220 hours: Ibid.
18 “All P-40s return to Clark Field”: Ibid.
18 It was about 1230: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 318–20.
18 The Japanese bombardiers: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 86; Manchester, American Caesar, 237–38; Saburo Sakai, Samurai! (New York: Bantam,
1978), 47.
19 “how utterly and abysmally wrong”: Grashio, Return to Freedom, 5–6.
19 In seconds, the hunters had become: Ibid., 6; Sakai, Samurai!, 50.
20 “I was sure I was going to die:” Sakai, Samurai!, 6; Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 328.
20 “Never try to outmaneuver a Zero”: Sakai, Samurai!, 6.
20 When Grashio touched down: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 375.
20 “By God, they ain’t shootin’ spitballs”: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 30.
20 the order came in to abandon Nichols Field: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 393.
20 “eerie glow”: Dyess, The Dyess Story, 30.
20 “We got kicked in the teeth”: Joe Moore, author’s interview.
20 Despite sufficient advance warning: Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 409.
21 “Oh, God help us”: Lt. Cmdr. Charles “Chick” Parsons, Oral History, U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis, MD, 128. Surprisingly, there would be scarcely a murmur of inquiry from Washington regarding the disastrous events of December 8, 1941, on Luzon. Brereton received only a dressing-down from Arnold and Marshall refrained from discussing the calamity with MacArthur, though weeks later he did wonder aloud in the presence of a reporter: “I just don’t know how MacArthur happened to let his planes get caught on the ground.” Unlike what transpired following the attack on Pearl Harbor, there would be no scapegoats, no official inquiries. Responsibility for the catastrophe would never be assigned. For a more detailed examination of these crucial events, see Bartsch, December 8, 1941, 410–24, and Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 88–90.
2. A LONG WAR
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22 “No time to falter or catch”: Henry Lee, “Abucay Withdrawal (Pilar Bagac Road),” Nothing but Praise, 15.
22 McCoy had graduated from Annapolis: Col. Jack Hawkins, USMC (Ret.), author’s interview.
22 Through orders and scuttlebutt: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 161.
22 With no air force, no navy: Ibid., 90–97; MacArthur, Reminiscences, 121–26.
23 The landing of Gen. Masaharu Homma’s 14th Army: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 98–114.
23 Just barely ahead of them: Ibid., 165–89; John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945, Volume 1 (New York: Random House, 1970), 314.
23 All around him: Edward Dissette and H. C. Adamson, Guerrilla Submarines (New York: Ballantine, 1972), 42; John Toland, But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor (New York: Random House, 1961), 115; Ind, Bataan, 188; Lee, They Call It Pacific, 135; Mellnik, Philippine Diary, 50; Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 165, 179, 234.
23 Fired tanks containing millions of gallons: Morton, The Fall of the Pacific, 164; Lee, They Call It Pacific, 153; Toland, But Not in Shame, 142.
23 A rising tide of terror: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 116, 232; Toland, The Rising Sun, 315.
23 a gifted prodigy: Biography of Rear Admiral Melvyn H. McCoy, U.S.N. (Ret.), Navy Office of Information, Internal Relations Division, March 27, 1968, 1.
24 “It was as the Czar of Math”: The Lucky Bag, 1928, Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Academy, Special Collections and Archives Division.
24 Though he could be coldly cerebral: Jack Hawkins, author’s interview.
24 After assignments in Nicaragua: Biography of McCoy, 1.
24 These lonely forays: Lt. Commander Melvyn H. McCoy, Letters home from
Canlaon, September 17, 1941, and Banahao, Philippines, November 6, 1941, Personal Papers.
24 “It doesn’t do her much justice”: Evening Sun (Baltimore), January 28, 1944.
24 The hands of 1st Lt. Austin Shofner’s wristwatch: Lt. Austin C. Shofner, “Diary: 1941–1943” (unpublished), 160.
25 Ordinarily, the Marine did not smoke: Austin Shofner told Bill Smallwood that “I started smoking on Corregidor; you can’t believe the starvation we went through.”
25 He had brought that infectious optimism: Shofner, “Diary: 1941–1943”, 160; Kenneth W. Condit and Edwin T. Turnbladh, Hold High the Torch: A History of the 4th Marines (Washington, D.C.: Historical Branch, G-3 Division, Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps, 1960), 204.
25 It was not long after that: Austin Shofner, Smallwood interview.
25 Located at the maw of Manila Bay: Ibid., 206; Mellnik, Philippine Diary, 5–11; Marine Corps Gazette, November 1946; Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 471–78.
; 25 “Corregidor was indeed a mighty fortress”: Clark Lee, “Everybody Knew When the Planes Were Coming,” in Samuel Hynes and Anne Matthews et al., Reporting World War II: Part One: American Journalism, 1938–1944 (New York: Literary Classics of the United States Penguin, 1995), 303.
25 Most of the Marines: J. Michael Miller, From Shanghai to Corregidor: Marines in the Defense of the Philippines (Washington, D.C., Marines in World War II Commemorative Series, Marine Corps Historical Center, 1997), 18.
25 Lieutenant Shofner jumped to his feet: Shofner, “Diary: 1941–1943,” 160.
25 Corregidor’s “antiquity” up close: Austin Shofner, Smallwood interview.
25 The soles of his spit-shined: E-mail correspondence from Donald Versaw to the author, September 11, 2005.
26 “I wanted to go out and see”: Shofner, “Guerrilla Diary” (unpublished), 2.
26 Eighteen bombers: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 480.
26 men and machine guns chattered away: Shofner, “Guerrilla Diary,” 2.
26 The twinkling of the metal bombs: Shofner, “Diary: 1941–1943,” 160.
26 “I couldn’t tell what their targets were”: Austin Shofner, Smallwood interview.
26 His father had always told him: Shofner, Nashville Banner, May 28, 1984.
26 Shofner learned the values: Ibid.; Stewart Shofner, author’s interview. Austin Shofner, Smallwood interview.
26 His gridiron prowess: Austin Shofner, Smallwood interview.
26 “Football Maxims”: As Austin Shofner and any Tennessee football player who played under legendary coach Robert Neyland would attest, Neyland’s famed “Football Maxims” were not just the foundation of Neyland’s highly successful eighteen-year coaching career in Knoxville, they were also an essential part of his plan for educating his charges to be successful in their endeavors away from the gridiron. According to the research of one of Neyland’s former players, 1950s fullback Andy Kozar, Neyland’s thirty-eight total maxims were derived from the six original axioms of another West Pointer who had a major impact on Neyland’s life and career, the Army football coach known as the “Godfather of West Point Football,” Charles Daly. Daly’s axioms were divided into two categories, “Football Axioms” and “Game Axioms.” Daly’s “Football Axioms” were as follows: “1) Football is a battle. Go out to fight and keep it up all afternoon. 2) A man’s value to his team varies inversely as his distance from the ball. 3) If the line goes forward the team wins; if the line comes backward the team loses.” Daly’s “Game Axioms”: “1) Make and play for the breaks. When one comes your way, score. 2) If the game or a break goes against you, don’t lie down—put on more steam. 3) Don’t save yourself. Go the limit. There are good men on the side line, when you are exhausted.” For more information, see Robert Reese Neyland and Dr. Andrew Kozar, Football as a War Game: The Annotated Journals of General R. R. Neyland (Knoxville, TN: Falcon 2002); Andy Kozar, “Neyland’s Maxims,” College Football Historical Society 16, no. 2 (February 2003).
26 “There aren’t many like Neyland”: Shofner, Nashville Banner, May 28, 1984.
27 His uncanny ability to motivate: Stewart Shofner, author’s interview.
27 supposedly bombproof Middleside Barracks: Condit and Turnbladh, Hold High the Torch, 204.
27 Shofner ordered a dentist: Shofner, “Diary: 1941–1943”, 161.
27 “Suddenly,” Shofner would say: Shofner, “Guerrilla Diary,” 2.
27 Twenty-five miles in length: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 245; Manchester, American Caesar, 267.
27 nearly 80,000 American and Filipino troops: Toland, But Not in Shame, 124–25.
27 They came from all corners: Ibid., 124; Ind, Bataan, 183;
28 swollen cataracts of men, animals and machines: Ind, Bataan, 179.
28 Following closely behind: Toland, But Not in Shame, 118.
28 “small Dunkirk”: Lt. John Posten of the 17th Pursuit Squadron, as quoted in Bartsch, Doomed at the Start, 197.
28 carrying with it large stores: Whitman, Bataan, 49.
28 The abandonment of 5,000 tons of rice: Despite the dire situation, overzealous Filipino officials adhered to commonwealth regulations that forbade the transfer of rice between provinces ibid., 46. Even more shockingly, nearly 2,000 cases of canned fish and corned beef were not confiscated from Japanese wholesalers because USAFFE had placed a prohibition on such seizures, ibid., 46–47.
28 MacArthur had also ordered: Morton, The Fall of the Philippines, 255.
28 The madness of the retreat: Ibid., 254.
29 On January 5, 1942: Ibid., 257.
29 loaded with suspect ammunition: William B. Breuer, The Great Raid: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of Bataan and Corregidor (New York: Hyperion, 2002),
10, 26.
29 waiting … for help from the States: Ibid., 238–42.
3. THE RAID
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30 “We only know our candle”: Henry Lee, “Prison Camp Reverie (Three Years from Home),” Nothing but Praise, 45.
30 German forces controlled territory: John Mosier, Cross of Iron (New York: Henry Holt, 2006), 180–81; Winston Groom, 1942: The Year that Tried Men’s Souls (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2005), 157.
30 it was feared that: James K. Eyre, Jr., The Roosevelt-MacArthur Conflict
(Chambersburg, PA: Craft Press, 1950), 68; David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War: The Extraordinary, Story of the Transformation of a City, and a Nation (New York: Ballantine, 1988), 91–92.
30 gave way to mass hysteria: William B. Breuer, The Air-Raid Warden Was a Spy, and Other Tales from Home-Front America in World War II (Edison, NJ: Castle, 2005), 14–16.
30 Japanese submarines sank merchant vessels: Ibid., 8; Richard Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War On?: The American Homefront, 1941–1945 (New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press/Nation Books, 2003), 44, 63, 169.
30 One elected official: Toland, The Rising Sun, 297.
30 The original copies: Groom, 1942.
31 Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066: Lingeman, Don’t You Know There’s a War On?, 337–42; Dower, War Without Mercy, 79–81.
31 America’s romantic fascination: Condit and Turnbladh, Hold High the Torch, 195.
31 In an April panegyric: Life, April 13, 1942.
31 war celebrities: New York Times, January 30, 1942; 105; Life, March 16, 1942; Time, February, 23, 1942.
31 seemed heaven-sent to a nation: Eyre, The Roosevelt-MacArthur Conflict, 60.
31 Streets in large cities and small towns: Life, March 30, 1942.
31 Buoyed by messages from Washington: Manchester, American Caesar, 270–71; Morton, Strategy and Command, 151; MacArthur, Reminiscences, 127.
32 “Help is on the way”: MacArthur’s typed communiqué, issued by Col. Carl H. Seals, adjutant general, was distributed to all USAFFE commanders on Bataan on January 15, 1942. College Park, MD: National Archives and Records Administration (cited hereafter as NARA), RG 407, Philippine Archives Collection, Box 12.
32 And so the defenders: Ray C. Hunt and Bernard Norling, Behind Japanese Lines: An American Guerrilla in the Philippines (New York Pocket, 1988), 25; Whitman, Bataan, 452.
32 FDR had cabled President Quezon: Manchester, American Caesar, 272.
32 With the German and Italian declarations of war: Morton, Strategy and Command, 143.
32 America’s ill-prepared military: The World Almanac and Book of Facts (New York: New York World-Telegram, 1939), 948.
32 According to Field Marshal Sir John Dill: Field Marshal Alan Brooke (1st Viscount Alanbrooke), Diaries (London: Collins, 1957–1958), 292–93.
32 At the end of the three-week Arcadia Conference: Morton, Strategy and Command, 158–59.
32 In his fireside chat: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “On Progress of the War,” February 23, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, NY.
33 He was not told, however, that the convoys were not intended for the Philippines: As Manchester explains in American Caesar, 2
75, “the White House and War Department were raising false hopes in the doomed Philippines, but they weren’t guilty of malice.” The most notable instance of this strategy regarding the Philippines concerns the Pensacola convoy, one of several American convoys that would sail from the United States for the Pacific in the early weeks of the war, but were instead destined for Australia or other outposts. The large convoy led by the heavy cruiser Pensacola was originally scheduled to arrive in the Philippines in the second week of December, but had been diverted to Brisbane shortly after the commencement of hostilities. The ships had been loaded with nearly 5,000 men, 9,000 gallons of aviation fuel, hundreds of trucks and jeeps, four dozen 75 millimeter guns, almost four million rounds of machine gun ammunition, 600 tons of bombs, fifty-two A-24 dive bombers, and eighteen P-40s. Although this matériel would serve a vital