hmsmmbi • ■ - .■ mmm mm : ■. <
Defeated Defend
ers Make Way To
(lorreiridor Is.
The f-'I! .ving message, after
being delayed for several days,
arrived at The Associated Press
New York office:
CORREGIDOR (D. lay d)
AH night long last night, nurses,
dazed with fatigue. and wn
weary fighters braved Japanese
bombers and the shark-infested
waters to escape from stricken
Bataan for comparative safety on
Corregidor Island, Manila Bay
fortress, still in the hands of Unit
ed States forces.
(This is the first cabled news:
dispatch to reach The Associat- j
ed Press directly from Corregi-1
dor since the fall of Bataan).
The Associated Press dispatch !
was sent by Dean Sohedler. who
said some swam and others row-,
ed pitifully small boats through .
the bombs and vicious machine I
gun blasts of enemy planes.
Those who swam were picked ;
up in mid-channel by other small
craft. Nurses, fatigued by days
and nights of service in Bataan's
hospitals under constant fire,
stumbled ashore so weary they
could scarcely walk.
“I questioned soldiers who had
■gone night after night without
sleep, who had eaten but little
during those final days when
they were faced with overwhelm j
ing odds. They had stood and
fought and then retreated to
stand and fight again. But while!
they tried to be obliging and tell
about Bataan’s last hours, they
wanted only one thing now —•
sleep.
“They were gripped by the de
sire to sleep. Their memory of
experiences is not clear to them.
“During the night, we looked
across the channel toward Bataan
and heard the bombing explo
sions, saw many colored by fires
as the defenders’ last defiant ac
tion destroyed the munitions
dumps, fuel and anything which
might be valuable to the ever
pressing enemy.
“We heard over the short wave
radio secret station in the hills
of the fall of Bataan. The sol
diers here, veterans of scores of
pounding bombing raids, wept un
ashamed at the announcer's
words, 'Bataan has fallen ’ ”
riave $2.00 by paying in ad
vance for your subscription.
first Pictures cf Bata an Released Alter Its Fall
BATAAN’S “ONE-MAN ARMY
1 h . ## - ■;.» #4 :,. J& f ' •’»
*-hc> Vfc . fcAWSSr.^*.'. ... -ftfc. .. „
Capt. Art Wermillh (left), “one-man army” credited with destroy
ing more than 100 Japs du«> fi:Jion> filling *>n r.iia;u?i. if
shown with his aide somewhere along the heseiged line.
. — ^ ““ " i
Although their own rations were short, American and Philippine
defenders of Hataan shared bread with captured Jap soldiers (fore
groifnd> dtj p in the .jungle behind the defense line.
I
I
An American soldier gives water to a dying Jap soldier on Bataan
during the fighting there. The War Dept, indicated 36.853 gallant
American-Filipino soldiers faced death or capture in collapse of
their stubborn defense ines.
■ ' J
DEFENSE CRUMBLES O ; BATTERED BATAAN
W th its announcement that the heroic do cnders ol Bataan had collapsed in face o'
n erwhelm ng Jap onslaughts, the War Oept. in V. a>h:ngton released this as on*
if the latest pictures to arrive from the >e!eagui .ed peninsula showing how it had
be* n battered by Jap air raids.
A YANK NAPS BN DUS IDS GUNS
Physical exhaustion caused the failure rh ‘ mete 1 counter- ' ’• on t’ >
Bataan peninsula Lieut. Gen. Wainwrigh ; <' <• : P c \Var Dent. t< n " tV
defense had been overcome. Here Corp. > 1 Snenc- r ?isp. ’
Peninsula, cat naps by his “tins. (lT. S S'_ _ _ _
Japanese prisoners are led blindfolded to headquarters of Brig. Gen. Clinton A.
Pierce for questioning during days when American and Filipinos were taking pri
soners on Bataan. Today many American s were presumed to be dead or captured
in the drive that cracked their defense. This picture was made by Cl irk Lee, Asso
ciated Press reporter and released by the Vvsr Department.