Issuu

e a ed F agpole

Battle for Bataan

The Naked Flagpole

Col. Richard C. Mallonee, top left; Col. Nemeseo Catalan, top right; Gen. Luis Villa-Real, bottom left; Gen. Douglas MacArthur, bottom right.

T e Na ed F agpole Battle for Bataan -from the diary of

Richard C. Mallonee

edited by Richard C. Mallonee II

PRES~ESS

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Mallonee, Richard C The naked flagpole.

1. World War, 1939-1945-Campaigns-Philippine Islands. 2. World War, 1939-1945-Personal narratives, American. 3. Mallonee, Richard C. 4. Philippine Islands-History-Japanese occupation, 1942-1945. I. Mallonee, Richard C., 1923II. Title . . D767.4.M34 940.54'26 80-15538 ISBN: 0-89141-094-5

Text and jacket design by Marilyn Langfeld Typesetting by Helen Epperson

Technical editing by Richard D. Layman Printed in the United States of America

Contents

1 2

3 4

Foreword Preface The Gathering Storm Four Months and a Day The Death March Guests of the Emperor

Maps Lingayen Gulf Landings Withdrawal in the North Holding the Road to Bataan Through Layac Junction Situation in Bataan

vii ix

3 19 143 159

37 39 59 65 89

Foreword The

first part of Col. Richard Carvel Mallonee's account of his experiences with the 21st Field Artillery Regiment, 21st Division, Philippine Army, 1941-42, "The Gathering Storm," relates events in the Philippines just before Pearl Harbor. The main part of the book, "Four Months and a Day," concerns the war in Luzon and the Bataan Peninsula: beach defense and the withdrawal. "The Death March" describes the situation just after the surrender. Finally, "Guests of the Emperor." The original narrative was written in diary form during the combat and later in prison camp. The diaries are believed to be the only complete eyewitness account of the Philippine campaign to have survived the war intact. They were among the major sources used by Dr. Louis Morton for the official history, The Fall of the Philippines (Washington: Government Printing Office for the Office of the Chief of Military History, 1953). Although Colonel Mallonee put his diaries into typescript after the war and allowed Dr. Morton access to them, he regarded them essentially as private history, not specifically intended for publication. After his death in 1969, it was decided vii

viii

FOREWORD

that the historical value of his account was too great to remain hidden, and preparation for pUblication was undertaken by his son, Richard C. Mallonee II. As part of that preparation, Dr. Mallonee did further research in Taiwan and the Philippines. Every available Filipino officer who had been closely associated with Colonel Mallonee was consulted. Brig. Gen. Luis A. Villa-Real (in 1941 a captain and later a major, the regimental artillery executive) was most helpful in bringing these officers together in Manila to read and comment about the relevant parts of the diary. Col. Nemisio Catalan, who had been regimental artillery commander, was ailing but was subsequently visited at his home in Los Banos, Laguna. During the final editing of the work, it was necessary to compress much material and to reorganize some sections for the sake of chronological narrative, but the facts are all essentially as Colonel Mallonee set them down.

Preface When

the radio ' news of Pearl Harbor reached the Philippines, we in USAFFE-that very imposing title for such an unimposing military force, the United States Armed Forces in the Far East-knew that we were next. We received our orders from headquarters, North Luzon Force, and in chaos and bewilderment moved to our beach defense positions on Lingayen Gulf. The North Luzon Force was completely incapable of carrying out its mission of preventing the Japanese from landing on Luzon shores. The regimental and higher commanders and staff officers in the force were, with a few exceptions, American regular army officers or career officers of the Philippine Scouts, highly trained and dedicated. We knew the odds against us and knew what to expect. So we had a rather sardonic belly chuckle when we read the exhortation written probably by some reararea junior staff officer, to the effect that we were to hold our positions at all costs, to die falling forward toward the enemy. When we got our teeth kicked in and were driven off the beaches, not too stupendous a military effort for the Japanese, our orders were changed to more realistic ones. We were to fight delaying actions on a series of defensive positions, south ix

PREFACE

across the rice paddies of central Luzon, withdrawing into Bataan Peninsula where defensive positions of great strength had been prepared. In my opinion the withdrawal of the Luzon army from the beaches to Bataan is an epic worthy of a place in history alongside many other examples of "lost cause" actions. I am proud to have been a member of that force and to have contributed my small part to its success. I definitely consider its action was a success. The delay imposed upon the enemy at the beach and during the withdrawal, the fact that the Philippine army withdrew to Bataan maintaining its cohesion, the fact that it forced the enemy to bring his best troops in large number to reduce Bataan -all these things threw the Japanese march to the south off its calculated time schedule. In my opinion it saved Australia and New Zealand by allowing time to reinforce those nations, and it saved India by diverting troops, shipping, and material intended for an operation there. If in dealing with the defense of the beaches and the withdrawal into Bataan I appear overcritical, or if I have created the impression of fault finding, or have seemed to be throwing blame upon the Philippine army, I can only say that such was not my intention. I constantly tried to improve the tools with which I had to function in battle. If I had been in command I would have attempted to do the job in a different, and I think a better, way. The fact that my regiment had many faults and weaknesses does not alter the fact that it did a fine job in which I took great pride. The route of withdrawal of the column I was with passed through Angeles, just a short kilometer or so from Fort Stotsenburg. Nostalgia made me detour and visit the post, although I knew that the garrison had been withdrawn and the fort abandoned. I wish that I had not made that detour. I entered the deserted post past the Storm King, over whose summit the gathering clouds foretold the coming of the typhoon rains, and I stopped for a moment in front of 9 Wint

PREFACE

Avenue. No.9 Wint-that set of quarters where I had lived so happily with my family during the country-club era of the middle twenties. The bombing of nearby Clark Field had taken some toll of Stotsenburg. The roof of No. 9 had collapsed. The front screen door hung on one hinge. The jungle was coming swiftly down from the nearby Zambales Mountains to reclaim its own. Weeds were three and four feet high. Crawlers and climbers were tearing at the screens and pulling down the mediaguesthe swaZi sunshades. I drove on to the artillery parade ground, the parade of the 24th Field Artillery, Philippine Scouts. It had been a beautiful parade. The houses and barracks surrounding it, all with their meticulously manicured lawns, were lined with fire and flame trees that were gorgeously beautiful with their crimson glory at the proper season. Now it was different. There were chuckholes in the roads. Weeds were waist high, climbers 'choking the trees. Memory carried me back to the retreat parades, with their pomp and formality and color. The commander of troops would call us to the "present." Each officer's saber would flash up in the sunlight and then down to the salute position. The retreat cannon would be fired and the band would play the national anthem. The flag would come fluttering down, lowered slowly from pole top into the waiting arms of the corporal of the guard, who was meticulously careful that not one fold should touch the ground. I turned and looked at that flagpole. Many years later, the picture of that naked flagpole was still etched across my vision. It should not have been such a shock. I was a regular army officer. I knew what to expect. I knew the post had been abandoned. I knew what was about to happen when I left. But the sight of the pole without the flag that had fluttered there for almost forty years was more than I could bear. It was a symbol of the things taking place, and, even more, of the things to come.

xii

PREFACE

As I left the post through the hospital entrance, I turned for one last look at that naked flagpole. I was filled with a mixture of emotions: frustration, irritation, despair, bitterness, whitehot anger. But the principal taste in my mouth was from the dregs of shame; the knife wound of humiliation in my heart. My friends through the years have laughed at me. After all, it was just a flagpole. They have laughed at me for being so sentimental. Yes, I am sentimental. I have a love of country, a pride of country. I openly admit of my patriotism. I was brought up that way. I was trained that way. I honestly believe that the great majority of my fellow citizens feel the same way, but in our present generation we cloud that feeling behind a mask of indifference. Laughter greets the avowed patriot. That naked flagpole, then and now, symbolized our inadequacy, our futility, our ineffectiveness, our impotence, our inability to hold back the advances of what we thought to be a second-class power. It symbolized the rubbing of our military noses in the dirt. And why? In 1941 we were a powerful and rich nation. We had had ten pretty tough years, but we had recovered from the economic debacle of the depression. We raised, trained, and equipped many divisions of citizen soldiers, divisions that participated with great efficiency in the 1941 Louisiana maneuvers, divisions that were to demonstrate their combat readiness within a short time after Corregidor fell. What would have happened had we had a few of those divisions in the Philippines? We had sent tons upon tons of Lend Lease across the Atlantic. We gave fifty destroyers to England. What would have happened had those destroyers been in Philippine waters? What had we done for our Filipino friends? We sent them one reduced-strength regiment of antiaircraft artillery with practically obsolete guns, a few lightly armored vehicles that didn't deserve the dignity of the name tank, a few guns, and a few airplanes. We sent some personnel as individuals, not as organized units-senior officers like myself and junior youngsters just out of college ROTC.

PREFACE

xiii

I know all the arguments of my Anglophile friends. Russia was bled white. England was tottering. We could not fight two major wars in two opposite directions. Germany would conquer the world while we were engaged in a second-class war. There is much merit in these arguments. But I will never change my opinion that just a little-oh, so very little-would have been necessary before Pearl Harbor to have made the handwriting on the wall so clear to the Japanese government that Pearl Harbor would never have taken place. As I took my last look at the naked flagpole and turned away, it was with the feeling that it was as a virgin being abandoned, betrayed, left to be violated and befouled by the conqueror-and all so needlessly. There should never have been a naked flagpole. It could have been prevented. It should have been prevented!

_--.1

F I LIP I N A S It E R I TAG E I. I II K A K y

I Rol!!! !!!~~ 1II!!j1l' 111I~IJ'J.l!L The Naked flagpole ; battle for Bataan I from the diary of Richard C. Mallonee; edited by Richard C. Mallonee II

Col. Richard C. Mallonee, 1952.

Colonel Mallonee first served in the Philippines in 1926 for three years- in field artillery at Stotsenburg. In 1941 he was called back to" the Philippines to be senior instructor for the 21 st Filipino Division Artillery. The Bataan campaign and the events of this book followed .

. . . from the book ...

April 1942 ....

Every radio on Bataan was tuned to President Roosevelt's fireside speech on the status of the wa1, .every ear within range alert to catch the message. When it came, it was the death knell ofBataan . ... He spoke of the trackless miles of ocean between America and Japan, of the almost insurmountable difficulty of relieving the Philippines ... and he gave his own and America's undying promise that ultimately the Philippines would be redeemed. ... ISBN 0·89l41·094·5