MF: I never felt the same around them people any more. Thats right, I never did.
AK: I guess, just to get the intensity of the bombing that would cause that much stress, there were about 50 some bombers that dropped there bombs. When they dropped, and you say, they hit that mess hall which was about 200 yards from you, you're talking about a whole lot of bombs that were falling and going off, so there must have been, the explosion must have tremendous and horrendous and the noise. Can you kinda just describe that a little more?
MF: Well, we counted the planes, I think there was 54 of them, something like that. About that time we started hearing this sound. When they hit the building, boards, people, everything, the debris was just flying way, way up in the air. The rumble, and the explosion, to me, that was the worse thing I'd ever heared in my life up until that time. It was terrible. Everybody was just spellbound. They couldn't believe that!
AK: Being that close to you, were things flying by you, debris, pieces of wood, fragments?
MF: Yeah, and falling on us. They was exploding up, most of it went up arced over, and stuff was falling all over the place.
AK: Debris was actually falling right around you. Were there quite a few men from company D right there at the time? Coming out of the mess hall?
MF: Yeah. In fact, there was a whole bunch of us. People just started running and spread in all directions going back to wherever their duty station was at at that time.
AK: The reaction as that debris was falling, all of you sort of froze momentarily. Is that what you said?
MF: Yeah.
AK: Then how soon was it before you started going to the motor pool, and somebody else went someplace else?
MF: Oh it wadn't very long, I'd say maybe a minute, less than a minute.
AK: Were you all running, hitting the ground and running? Or were you just running?
MF: I got my motorcycle and went out this road and got in the ditch. But the other people...
AK: Some of them did go right for the ditch, didn't they?
MF: Yeah. We had fox holes dug all over that place due to the fact that we had got advance warning that somebody was going to attack us. We didn't know it was Japanese or Chinese or somebody else. We didn't know really. We was prepared, we had fox holes and things like that dug.
AK: You had combat posture.
MF: Yeah. I'd say 10-15 seconds everybody just like froze stiff and got their thoughts together and stuff flying on all direction and these bombs falling and exploding before we could get ourselves together and do what plan of action, what we was going to do, where we was going to go. Just everybody knew where they had to go back to where their duty, wherever they was working, or whatever they was doing, everybody had the sense to try to get back to that area because we didn't know what was going to happen.
AK: Some of them went back to their guns and their tanks to man their weapons...
MF: Yeah, because we had all their... We was combat ready. Our tanks had ammunition in them, our trucks, our jeeps, everything that had a weapon on it. We was ready for combat. But we didn't have it right there with us right at that particular instant, see. Most everybody had their sidearms, things like that.
AK: Was it most dangerous and most explosive and most intense combat, violence I guess, was that the initial thing when they hit within 200 yards of where you'all were eating? Or was it some other things that were more...
MF: Oh, it was a whole lot of other things a lot worse than that. That was just the...
AK: I'm just talking about on Clark Field now, this one day, this first day.
MF: No, just that first day, that was our worse time.
AK: OK. We're going to go on into the others. OK, so then later on in the day you'all were going to move out. Are you going to be a pretty good size area when you move out to the bivouac area?
MF: Yeah. Well see, our prearranged deal, they had a combat plan or whatever you wanted to call it. Each outfit moved to their designated area that they had to move to.
AK: Sort of an assembly area.
MF: Yeah. We wadn't caught short, not really, we knew where we was going in other words, if this happened. So, as it happened, we got orders to move out, so we moved out, and we knew exactly where we had to move to.
AK: How far was that?
MF: Oh, about 5-6 miles away from Clark Field. But the people, they was scatter all over the country. Everybody had their own assembly area to get away from there, you know, to disperse...
AK: And also to try to sort of get into a semi-combat posture, I guess.
MF: Yeah. We had certain areas of...
AK: So how big an assembly area did company D have? You're talking about 17 tanks now right? Three platoons?
MF: At that time, our tanks wadn't with us. Our tanks was around Clark Field. All that was left was the maintenance section, supply, the mess, like the headquarters.
AK: Right. Did the tanks stay around Clark Field or did they go to the assembly area with you?
MF: No, they stayed there. They stayed there until, well, I don't recall how long they stayed there. 2-3 days or a week. Then we moved to southern Luzon.
AK: How far south did you go?
MF: I'd say about 50 miles.
AK: Clark Field was about 70 miles north of Manila and you went south of Manila.
MF: We went down in this...
AK: There's Lyman Bay and they landed right down in that area, the Japanese.
MF: That was the idea. We come down in here...
AK: You're with the 194th now...
MF: Yeah.
AK: So you're just a few miles south of Manila.
MF: No, we was at least 50 miles below Manila. We went way down in there.
AK: When did you go down there? About three day after the initial bombing?
MF: No, it seemed like it was about a week. Somewhere in that neighborhood, something like that.
AK: That bombing was the 8th so that would be about the 15th.
MF: Yeah.
AK: and then they were going to land in Lingayan gulf on the 22 of December.
MF: Yeah, but they landed down south before they did up here.
AK: Right.
MF: Thats why we went down here. One of the, lets see...
AK: They landed 12 December at the very end down here...
MF: Somewhere down here, I don't recall, but anyway. we went down in here...
AK: Did you'all actually engage the...
MF: No. Never did.
AK: There was no combat.
AK: The next thing I'm trying to do is trying to find out when you're going to go back north up to Lingayan gulf. They land on the 22nd, its when they land.
MF: Well 194th, we never did go to Lingayan gulf. We didn't. The 192nd went up there. At that time I was with the 194th.
AK: You mean D company didn't go to Lingayan gulf.
MF: No, D company, we went south. Cause we was with the 194th.
AK: Right, I'm aware of that. There's a little confusion is the reason I'm asking all these questions because Kenneth Hargon (sp?) <093> says they was at Lingayan gulf, and he was in company D. But I think he went up there and was further south, but I don't know.
MF: The farthest we ever got was San Fernando.
AK: You mean north?
MF: Yeah.
AK: You weren't up on the Agno river?
MF: No.
AK: Does that mean anything to you?
MF: Well I know where its at. We was on...
AK: Of course, Grover Brummit (sp?) was up there, because he was with headquarters company. Lets look at the map here... See, here's Lingayan gulf and they land up there on the 22nd and sometime they withdraw you'all from the south and bring you back up there. And then the Agno river, well they did take you across the Agnew river because thats where they left the tanks.
MF: We wadn't never, we never up in Len Gane gulf, we was way back down here, see?
AK: Yeah, yeah, thats not so far back, though, see...
MF: Well, thats true. We went up there, as far as I was concerned, it was still south.
AK: Its not too far south, see... In other words, the Agnew river was the second delaying line. The first delaying line was a little bit north of that and I would say it was probably, there's about 20 miles between those two lines there, and from the first delaying line to the beach theres probably another 15 miles. So somewhere up in there company D came up there and I think they landed on the 22nd of December and I don't think they came off that line until about Christmas or maybe after Christmas. Do you recall the day that they destroyed those tanks?
MF: Well, on Christmas day I got hit in the head with a piece of shrapnel. I was on the southern side of that river, south side, not north. After that I went to the, that day I got hit in the head with a piece of shrapnel, on Christmas day, the day they was lined up here along this river, they was on this side, they hadn't went across yet.
AK: They were on the north side of it.
MF: Yeah. No, the south side. On this side.
AK: Ok, on Christmas day?
MF: Yeah. Thats the day I got hit. That night, they may have moved across the river. I don't recall. It was that night, or that afternoon that they moved across the river, then thats when we lost all those tanks up there. They blowed the bridges out behind them.
AK: They lost all their tanks, actually, before they ever was involved in any engagement with the enemy. But there was some men from company D that like... some of them were with headquarters and they were fighting up here even right up in Lingayan gulf, you know. From Harrodsburg, one or two of them. As far as company D was concerned, you were lined up south of the river then they want to cross the river and then the bridges were blown and they were ordered to withdraw and couldn't get across and therefore they lost almost all your tanks, didn't they?
MF: Yeah.
AK: How many'd you lose? Do you know?
MF: We lost about 10 of them. We didn't have but 15 all together, see. We lost somewhere around 10.
AK: 10 out of your company? There were some more lost out of some of the other company too.
MF: Yeah. A company lost...
AK: Are you pretty sure about those number, about 10 out of B company?
MF: Well, maybe it wadn't quite... I don't know though, I know it was more than 5 because we had more than one platoon up there. It seemed like we had 2 platoons. Maybe it wadn't 10, but...
AK: Close too it, eh?
MF: Yeah. Because we didn't have many tanks left.
AK: Who else lost tanks across there?
MF: A company.
AK: They lose a platoon? or two platoons?
MF: I don't know if they lost a platoon or not, but they lost some tanks.
AK: Any other company lost some tanks there?
MF: Lets see, B...
AK: I'm talking about, left there because the bridge had been blown out.
MF: Yeah, but I don't recall exactly who. But I know it was more tanks lost than just our company.
AK: Right. And I think that totalled about 15 didn't it, altogether.
MF: Yeah. We lost at least half our company of our tanks. My brother, he was up there. We lost halftracks, we lost 2 or 3 motorcycles, well I don't recall what else we lost, because I know I was upset because they lost my motorcycle!
AK: You had a personal interest in that loss!
MF: You're not kidding! I done went through 3 of them. I had 5 in the company and I went through 3 of them.
AK: And here goes another one.
MF: Yeah. And here goes another one. Recon section, Recon got caught up there.
AK: Do you know what happened, the reason that got caught where the bridge was blown before they got back?
MF: Somebody just goofed up and blowed the bridge before they was supposed to.
AK: Did the American engineers blow it or the philippino engineers?
MF: Philippino.
AK: Scouts or the Army?
MF: Scouts. Yeah, I don't think they let the Philippino army fool with anything like that. I tell you what happened. That evening, we moved, now its coming back to me. We moved from south back up there. I got lost from our company. I went all up around San Fernando, I went all over. I'd been in enemy territory and everyplace else. Putt-putting around on that old motorcycle. Run out of gasoline. A Philippino got me some gasoline. All night long I went putt-putt-putt. One morning just about daylight I come up on this bridge and come back across it. General Weaver was sitting over there in a service station. I mean his staff car was sitting over there. I come back in there. I mean I was shot. I was wore out. That was all there was to it. I went over to see if I could find out where our company was. I was fortunate. Our company was right above that bridge! Aligned up along the river there.
AK: Getting ready to cross over?
MF: Well, they was there waiting because they thought the Japs would be on the other side. They wadn't sure. They was lined up along this river with their guns pointing across the river.
AK: Deployed parallel to the river? or in column?
MF: Yeah. Parallel to the river. I talked to General Weaver. I told him where I'd been and all that. He told me I'd been in enemy territory and every place else. He gave me something to eat and I got in the sedan and went to sleep. He put me in there and I went to sleep. I don't know, I slept to maybe 9 or 10 o'clock. 2 or 3 hours. He woke me up. Said "Get up. I got a job." He wanted me to guard that bridge. He wanted me to let nobody cross it from our side more or less. So I went up there and I was on guard. Then about 2 o'clock in the morning here he come and he wanted to cross it. I told him "I was sorry. I wouldn't let him go across it!" And he said "That's what I wanted." He said "I said nobody!" And I wouldn't let him go across. He wanted me to stop him and thats exactly what I done. That night and next day, as I can recall it, the tanks went across. They went on the other side of the river. I don't know how long they was up there, a day or so, a half, its been so damn long, I can't remember. That night after our tanks went across there they blowed that bridge. I mean really blowed that thing. I wadn't too far away from it. Timber and stuff... They blowed that bridge when the Philippine infantry was still crossing that thing. Whether the engineers blowed it, or if it was sabotage by the Japanese, I don't know. I mean I didn't know. Old me, I was just a buck sergeant in the maintenance section. That night that thing went sky high. And there was people still on it! About a day or so, or half a day, or something, I don't recall how much time elapsed, then thats when we found out that that was the last bridge that anybody could get back across that river. Thats when we lost all our tanks. Thats when we lost our tanks up there.
AK: <218> How wide was that river there?
MF: Just about as wide as... well, about as wide as Kentucky river down there, do you know where Brooklyn Bridge is down there? About that wide. Just about that big.
AK: Was it steep banks?
MF: No, it was plenty of places you could go in. But it was deep and run swift. In fact, in runs all the way out to the sea from there, it comes out of the mountains.
AK: I believe Grover Brummit (sp?) told me that one person from D company, one tank commander pulled his pistol and put it to the head of his driver and said "cross", and they crossed. Did you hear that story?
MF: No. I don't know of anybody got across or they didn't get across. I don't know.
AK: As they were coming back into the company and reassembling the company and getting it under control, do you remember that? What happened there?
MF: No. I was...
AK: Were you evacuated or something with your wound?
MF: At that time they took me to a field hospital and dressed my head. I kinda cracked my shoulder bone a little bit. They put my arm in a sling; messed my left leg up a little bit. Because when I got hit I was doing about 50 miles an hour on a motorcycle.
AK: What is it, an artillary round or a bomb?
MF: A shell hit in a tree. A piece of shrapnel took me right through the head. I got a groove there in my head. I got cut along here...
AK: How long were you hospitalized?
MF: I wadn't.
AK: They sent you back to the company?
MF: They bandaged me all up, and sewed me up.
AK: Who did it? Dr. Pallit (sp?) involved in that?
MF: I don't know whether he was or not. They sewed on me a little while and it was rough. Fighters were bombing everything. It was right up in the lines. I got hurt about 1 o'clock and I didn't get to the doctor the next morning about 10 o'clock. After that shrapnel hit me, me and that motorcycle made about 2 flips in mid-air before it throwed me loose. I went right down the gravel road sliding on my arm, my face, my chest, my legs. I guess I looked a bloody mess. I mean, I never did black out or anything.
AK: Did somebody come along and pick you up and take you back to the medics.
MF: No. When I quit rolling and turning, this Philippino nurse, I don't know where she come from, but she bathed me off and cleaned me up and somebody got me in a jeep and started looking for a first aid station. We looked and looked and looked ... and we found one the next day about 10 o'clock.
AK: In the meantime you were bleeding and suffering and feeling pretty bad.
MF: That Philippino, she bandaged me up pretty good. My head, down here, and here, my chin, my nose, just took all the skin off my arm...
AK: So when'd you get back to the company?
MF: Well I stayed with the company. They fixed me all up and I stayed with my maintenance section. My mechanics got a rocking chair from somewhere and put it in the back of the maintenance truck and thats where I stayed when we moved. They put me in there and tied me in this rocking chair. I couldn't lay down on account it put so much pressure on my head up here. It almost, well, it went through my skull except the membrane on the inside. It didn't break that. If it had the doctor said I'd been finished. I stayed with the company and the guys, my mechanics, took care of me. When the stitches need be took out they took me to a hospital. I don't know where. They took the stitches out. I just stayed with the company! I didn't go in no hospital or nothing else. I don't know how long I was like that. I don't recall. But everything got OK and I took all the bandage off and I just kept on trucking. I never did stop, I kept on running my maintenance section from the back of that truck.
AK: How are you going to get the disaster about losing so many of their tanks, maybe 10 of them. When'd you get that word? After you're wounded? When you came back?
MF: Yeah, yeah, I learned about it later on, see.
AK: How many? Next day? Or day after next?
MF: Oh I don't know. It seemed like, maybe, it may have been 2 or 3 days.
AK: Allright. When you found out about it... What I'm trying to find out about is What are they going to do with those men who left there tanks over there and crossed the river? How are they going to get them back into action? Going to redistribute the tanks around? or draw new tanks?
MF: Well, from what I can recall, they did. They took tanks from, maybe A company, or ...
AK: B company?
MF: Well B company, the 194th, they wadn't with us. They was in Alaska. We took B company's place. We had A and C and D.
AK: D being from Harrodsburg.
MF: Yeah. They just consolidated all the tanks and more or less reissued them out to where everbody would have an equal amount.
AK: Was that from the whole battalion, or from the whole group?
MF: As well as I can recall it was from both battalions, the group, yeah. As well as I can remember.
AK: OK. So when you get back then they've already done this?
MF: Oh yeah. They done took care of that.
AK: So now instead of having... originally both groups had about 104 tanks, I think, or some there abouts. So now you're about 20 tanks short less than you had counting the other two that left. So you still have about 80 tanks between the two battalions.
MF: I would say that, yeah, something like that. And we lost a few, well, we got a couple burn up, a couple bombed, we lost one tank coming out, retreating, back on Bataan. Withdrawal they called it. We lost 2 or 3 that way where they'd get hit with a bomb.
AK: 3 out of company D?
MF: Yeah.
AK: You'd know which tanks were lost because you had to go salvage them.
MF: Yeah.
AK: When was the first one lost by bomb? Do you remember? You know, after they crossed the Agno river, they're going to stay there couple three days, on this second delaying line.
MF: Well I think, as well as I can recall, it was a first defense when we pulled back in Bataan. We lost...
AK: You lost one to bombs.
MF: Yeah. Something happened to the tank and the troops evacuated. We was right up in the lines at that time. The whole company. Me and the tank crew, I don't know, somebody else out of my maintenance section, we went in that tank and took all the radios and guns and ammo...
AK: Salvaged everything you could out of it.
MF: Yeah. I think it was hit with a 47 millimeter. Knocked the track off.
AK: An anti-tank gun or something.
MF: Yeah.
AK: You know, there was 2 big delaying lines in Bataan, after you got back into Bataan. I guess you get back into Bataan around first week in January. They occupy this line right here. This is at Mount Santa Rosa. You remember that?
MF: Yeah.
AK: There was a line over here, on the east side of it, and one on the west side of it. Was D on the east side or the west side? Or do you recall?
MF: We was over here on the ...
AK: East side?
MF: Yeah. We was on this side over here.
AK: Allright. This first delaying line, is that where that tank got hit? or was down here on the second one?
MF: Yeah, up here on this line right here (first line).
AK: Do you know which tank it was and what crew members it was?
MF: No, I don't recall.
AK: On the employment of those tanks up there, in the first week of January, or maybe it might have been a little later, thats when they came in there anyway, were they scattered all across here, which would probably be 10 or 15 miles? Well it wouldn't be 10 miles, its about 2 miles over to that mountain there.
MF: Yeah, they were more or less pillboxes. Thats the way they used us. We pulled in there, they was setup behind the infantry. I mean infantry was the first line of defense...
AK: All the way across (missed something here)
MF: Also had them on the beach.
AK: Were they dug in here?
MF: Yeah, some of them were dug in, some of them wadn't dug in. Some of them had natural concealment. They didn't have to dig thereself in see.
AK: Were you getting spare parts of things, or were you just salvaging stuff off other tanks?
MF: We were salvaging stuff off other tanks. When one would go out, we'd get everything off it that was possible, we off there like, slowed wheels and tracks, anything...
AK: Scavenging, anything you could take off...
MF: Right.
AK: Allright. As company D was deployed across here, where was the rest of the 194th? Were they in this general area too?
MF: <370> Yeah they was down along this beach, along...
AK: But D company was essentially across here...
MF: Yeah, we was part across there, but there was part of the other battalion...
AK: I'm talking about D company now...
MF: No, they had us all mixed up. They had some of D company, and some of A company, and some of C company, here, and the same way down through here.
AK: Down and across the beach there, just kind of scattered, using a tank like a...
MF: Say C company had 3 tanks and we had 2 they'd more or less, the boss over that operation. Then again sometimes we'd pull back and maybe D company would be all along here, and here... We didn't stay in no one place all the time.
AK: You said that you had the 3 knocked out again. Is that a pretty good figure? Or... You know you got that 1 knocked out onto here.
MF: Yeah, we got 1 there, we got 1 more... well, two's all I can recall. We got one that they dropped a bomb right down the turrett on.
AK: When was that? Was that before you got to Bataan?
MF: No, that was right up here on this line.
AK: On this same line.
MF: Yeah, thats when the one that... Then we had another one. I can't recall... it wadn't up in this line, it was back here somewhere. We was all over this place. Everytime they had a hot spot we got a tank had to go in the hole. Somebody. It was either D or A or C company. It wadn't necessarily D company that plugged the hole. We might be here today, and up here tomorrow. They switched them around wherever they needed them.
AK: They're going to stay up here on this first line until about... In other words, there's one little period there where they withdrew some of the Japanese forces and moved them someplace else then they were bringing in reinforcements and maybe a week or two...
MF: A month.
AK: ...was kind of a little respite from the fighting. That was when you were behind this line right here I guess wadn't it? In Bataan, this first line.
MF: Yeah.
AK: When you withdrew off that line do you remember being pushed off that line? Do you remember that?
MF: Yeah. I remember when we dropped back.
AK: Alright. When you dropped back did you'all move kinda in a column or were you scattered all over hell again? Do you recall how they did that?
MF: Well they come back, we had roads all through these mountains and rice patties. They setup the other line back here.
AK: They came back behind that line.
MF: Yeah. I was up here, right up there with the maintenance section, we was right up there with the tanks. I stayed with the tanks. Me being a crew chief and riding a motorcycle I had to stay up there with them.
AK: I mean you were actually going from site to site to site. You knew pretty much where they were and how they were deployed didn't you?
MF: Yeah. I knew exactly where they was at. But it wadn't just D company up here. It was a mixup deal.
AK: Were you working with some of the others that were mixed in there too?
MF: Yeah. I worked on any tank that needed to be worked on. It just wadn't D company up here, it was A company and C company.
AK: As they pulled back to this second line they going to move off this line all the way back to the next line?
MF: Yeah.
AK: Were the tanks going to be the last to come off, do you recall or do you know?
MF: The tanks come out. Well, the infantry retreated, withdrawed first.
AK: Ok. Then it was night I guess.
MF: Yeah. Then we stayed up there, I stayed right up there. Then the company commander told me to get my men, my maintenance crew out of there if we could. So we come down here and got on this road.
AK: You're talking about the road along the beach there.
MF: Yeah.
AK: Thats the Abucay. How do you pronounce that little town there Abucay, do you remember? Its one of the bigger towns.
MF: I don't recall.
AK: Orion. Do you remember that town?
MF: Yeah. As we come out here, right here mind you, as the maintenance section pulled out, the tanks were still up here, the Japanese made a landing right in here. Right here.
AK: On this side? Right here at Orion?
MF: Yeah. They landed right in Orion. They come in there with their landing forces. Right there. I just barely got out of that place. I just barely made it back here. That afternoon, when I was coming out, there was Japanese troops all along here. They never did fire at us or nothing. That was late in the evening when we got through here. Just about dark. Then our tanks made a withdrawal. And they got all the way back. As well as I remember I don't recall, yeah I recall one tank that got the idle wheel blowed off of it. And another one got the track broke on it, they dropped a phosphorous bomb on it and broke the track.
AK: All of them got back to that second line.
MF: Lets see B company... not B company... C company... I don't know. It seemed like C company got a tank knocked out.
AK: Actually, Morgan, the land back into Lingayan gulf back into the Bataan pinnensula, you'all didn't, other than the first disaster where the bridge was blown and you had to destory your tanks, and D company fought a delaying action all the way back, you really didn't lose much.
MF: No.
AK: You didn't have any KIAs either to amount to anything did you?
MF: No.
AK: You didn't lose anybody from D company did you?
MF: None that I can recall.
AK: In other words, you lost... Brooks was killed and then there were some others wounded like yourself...
MF: We had a whole lot of guys, shrapnel wound and small caliber wounds.
AK: Out of D company.
MF: Yeah. We got a Lt. Petrie (sp?) killed. He wadn't from, he got with us after we got to the Phillipines.
AK: He was assigned to D company.
MF: Yeah. And we had a Lt. Quinn (sp?), he was killed. Another tank commander. Our company commander, he got killed.
AK: His name was Captain...
MF: Altman.
AK: Where'd he get killed? Early on?
MF: I think he got killed on Bataan but I don't know. After I come off of Bataan, I mean after we come back, that night coming back here behind this line here, no, it was after we got behind this line that...
AK: Captain Altman got killed.
MF: Yeah.
AK: When you got down... what I'm trying to get at, when you fight, all during the fighting phases of it, do you know how many people in D company got killed? You had your three officers that were killed, two lieutenants and one captain and Black was killed. Were there others?
MF: A guy name of Million (sp?), Joe Million.
AK: Million? He was from Harrodsburg right?
MF: Yeah.
AK: Where was he killed?
MF: He was killed when we was up here on this line there by that river.
AK: In Bataan? or Agno up north?
MF: Yeah.
AK: Very early on.
MF: Yeah.
AK: Was he in a tank?
MF: He was sitting on his tank, standing on his tank.
AK: Killed by bombing or strafing or artillary?
MF: The only way we could ever think he got killed was a sniper.
AK: You think a sniper got him.
MF: Yeah. Thats all we ever knew about it.
AK: Coming from Bataan, or from Lingayan Gulf area, from the Agnew river area, thats a big river up there, the land back into the peninsula of Bataan, yourself, how many times were you exposed to artillary, bombs, small arms?
MF: Artillary and bombs, all the time. Small arms, not too much.
AK: You're talking about around the clock?
MF: Yeah, well, no no...
AK: 24 hours? Day mostly?
MF: When the sun went down they quit. When the sun came up they started out again. That the same way on Bataan.
AK: Are they going to get close to you? Are they usually hitting pretty close to you... Looking at the intensity of it and the frequency and the ... in other words, as a maintenance man you're going to be on the front a lot of times. Are you going to have minutes where you're not going to have anything getting close to you or is it going to be ever so often there's going to be something, just generally, I know you can't say exactly. Is something going to hit pretty close to you?
MF: Oh yeah. Every day. They would bomb anything that moved or anything they could see a flash from, anything like that. They was either bombing or strafing. I was back in the rear echelon in the maintenance section and I got a call to go, I need batteries are dead, or anything, we went. When we come through Manila we got a brand new Mercury out of the showroom and took it with us and when we got on Bataan we cut it down, stripped it and made us a little truck out of it. Thats what we hauled batteries and things on. That thing would fly. We'd go across country and places like that. Every day we out to outrun bombers, they'd strafe us, and drop bombs at us and everything else. That was every day. Artillary, they could practically shoot all the way over sometime. They was clear out in the water. We had shells drop real close to us every day.
AK: Lets break it in two components. Lets talk about before you get into Batann when you come in from Lingayan Gulf area from the Agnew River...
MF: From there we just had...
AK: ...back into, you delay up there a little bit before you go into Bataan. You talking about bombing and shelling every day up there too as you're moved back?
MF: We had bombing every day but shelling not every day. Because we was moving back and where we was at it too far them to shell. Say we'd hold for about 2-3 days then they'd move the artillary and then we'd get it see. Then we'd move back a little bit. We had bombing every day and before we got in Bataan we'd get shelling just every once in a while. Not very often really.
AK: On that bombing that you had every day, how many times would it get so close to you that it would cause you considerable trouble where you'd be down in the hole and you'd get up and say "whew!"
MF: Practically every day.
AK: How many times did you have to jump in your hole because of bombing? 3-4 times, 5, 10...
MF: Every day. Maybe 2-3 times a day. Worst thing about it, when you got in the bombing attack or shelling you never was near your fox hole you was someplace else, and you'd have to do the best you could.
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MF: After the war got started and the Japanese had air superiority and sea and everything else over there we practically run out of food. We was eating after dark and before sunup because anything that made a light, moved, or anything the Japanese would bomb it. Our food was very scarce. We got down to 2 meals a day. We was eating rice, caribou, if they could find one someplace and kill it. We eat up the 26th calvary of the Phillipine scouts, their horses and their mules. My maintenance section, which I shouldn't tell this, but we used to go out on the road and give the Phillipino's a ride. If they had two bags we'd take one of them. We killed Iguana's, its a big lizard like thing. We shot monkeys, we shot snakes, anything else that would live. We ate monkeys, dogs, we ate anything that was more or less eatable. We used to go up in the mountains and get the poor old Phillipino's chickens. Bananas that we could find ripe, mangos, papayas, cashews, we learned to eat the hearts out of banana trees and we learned a lot of things how to survive by doing these things.
AK: Before you were captured you mean? Because of the shortage of food?
MF: Yeah.
AK: There was such a troop, the density of troops there in that thing, how wide is that, its only a couple of three miles wide isn't it? Bataan?
MF: No, its wider than that, its about 15-20 miles wide.
AK: Yeah, yeah, its 40 miles wide in some place, 15 or 20...
MF: We's right here see.
AK: Its about 50 miles long isn't it? Maybe not quite that long.
MF: Yeah.
AK: So you're in an area about 20 by 50 roughly. But even so with the troop density you're going to eat all those monkeys up pretty soon aren't you?
MF: Yeah. But the funny part of it is, after we fell back in Bataan, and come all the way back in there, one night I took a load of wounded troops on a maintenance truck all the way back into Mariveles to the field hospital back there. They had a place back there that I'd say about 100 yards long and 50 yards wide that was stacked at least 20 foot up in the air with type C rations. Thats what they told me they were. Well, they issued some rations, but when Bataan fell the Japanese got all that type C rations. It wadn't anybody starved to death but we was getting in pretty bad shape and malaria fever, I done had malaria fever a couple of times. After I got off of Bataan I had it again on Fort Drum.