Fugitives: Evading and Escaping the Japanese

Prologue

FrzOLOGUE. That night we were hit by a series of squalls that came from nowhere. We dropped the sail and rolled free on large waves. Charlie Smith and Catalina took shelter from the rain below deck in the tiny cabin. Chick, Lakibul, and I huddled under ponchos on deck, with Lakibul at the tiller. An especially strong squall hit us and the boat tipped over. The mast was flat out on the water. Chick, Lakibul, and I were spilled overboard, along with many of the supplies stored on deck. We clung to the high side of the boat, and as we clambered to get up out of the water, the boat righted itself. She was full of water, but stayed afloat. We bailed like mad for about an hour, using any container we could find that would hold water. We were cold, miserable, and scared. The boat was finally emptied. The squalls departed , but not without taking a heavy toll. All of our water had been spilled. All of our rice, which we had been carefully rationing, had gotten wet. All ofour sugar was wet. Save for a few floating coconuts that we were able to fish out of the sea, we were without water and had a minuscule amount of food. On the bright side, we still had a sail-and fuel for the engine. And best of all, we were still alive. 2 Fugitives Soon after daybreak on a morning in August 1941, the S.S. Annie Johnson hove-to in the center of North Channel, the narrower of the two inlets to Manila Bay. There, along with several other vessels, she sat motionlessly, her propellers turning ever so slowly to hold her steady against the tide while her rudder headed her bow into a light northeast wind. The vessels were awaiting an escort to guide them to the Manila harbor. A mile to starboard stood Corregidor Island; the same distance to port stood the southern tip ofBataan Peninsula-two obscure geographic points destined soon to take places in history beside Valley Forge and the Alamo. Dead ahead a maze ofmines floated just below the surface, each tethered by a steel cable to an anchor on the ocean's floor, barring the Annie Johnson's entrance to Manila Bay and the docks of the city of Manila-The Pearl ofthe Orient-the capital of the Philippines. Corregidor Island. Three miles long but with a width best measured in yards, the island resembled a grotesque, overgrown tadpole. Facing the South China Sea, its volcanic rock head-Topside-rose to more than six hundred feet above the beach. Trailing to the east, its body lay closer to sea level except for one small bulge-Malinta Hill. III concealed on Topside were some of the largest and most accurate coast artillery pieces possessed by the United States Army. Well concealed in Malinta Hill was a honeycomb oftunnels containing a command post, barracks, mess hall, infirmary, munitions dump, motor pool-all the services that normally are housed in buildings at a military fortress. East ofMalinta Hill was a small airport-Kindley Field. Bataan Peninsula. A background ofsoft light-green forest framed the bamboo and nipa huts lining its shore. Dugouts and small sailboats , some with one outrigger and others with two, moved close along the coast. Hidden in this idyllic setting were more coast artillery pieces poised to join with Topside in unleashing on any invading naval force a fury seldom, if ever, before seen in warfare on the sea. The North Channel was the only route open from the South China Sea to the bay, for the eight-mile-wide South Channel was mined so heavily that one foolish enough to try it might find it possible to cross from the shore of Corregidor to Fraile Island and from thence to Cavite Province by stepping from one lethal floating device to the next. Frologue ) The Manila Bay entrance-built, rebuilt, and expanded since the 1900s-was the Gibraltar of the Orient, a bastion which would keep Manila safe from intrusion by any enemy. Or so it was thought. ...