Johlerpow and Zale et al.

One year later; end of February through the month of March 1942

Soldiers and civilians  had retreated to Bataan Peninsula before and after invasion of Manila by the Japanese. Some higher ranking officers had been ordered to the island of Corregidor. General MacArthur, his family and select others were evacuated via submarine to Mindanao. They were then flown from Del Monte to Australia. General Wainwright was given command of the forces in the Philippines. There were mixed emotions by the men as MacArthur, according to many of the men had an arrogant attitude. A friend of My father, John Zale, who was on the Bataan Death March shared that often when soldiers saluted MacArthur, he failed to return the salute or even acknowledge them.

Eric Morris who published the book “Corregidor” states that from the end of February and throughout the month of March, Japanese General Homma ordered an enormous number of reinforcements to the Philippines from Asia. On page 381 of the text the following numbers poured into Luzon.

• Seven thousand men to reinforce the ranks of the 65th Brigade and the 16th Division
• Eleven thousand men of the 4th Infantry Division who were under the command of General Kitano from Shanghai
• Four thousand men of the Nagano Detachment, a battle group from the 21st Division.
• On March 23, 1942, Artillery reinforcements moved up to the front line of Bataan and some were deployed to the shores of Batangas. General Homma was given four batteries of 240 mm howitzers, a mountain artillery regiment, and batallions of 300mm and 150 siege mortars.
• Sixty twin engine bombers flew into Clark and the Japanese Navy dispatched an air brigade.

Japanese General Homma called a conference of senior officials and it was agreed that April 3, 1942 would be “D-Day”

During the planning phase, Japanese combat patrols were pushing forward and came within a thousand yards of the defenders barbed wire.

Above entry paraphrased from Corregidor, The End of the Line by Eric Morris, pages 380-381