Corregidor ,Philippines

Nice thread, have always had a fascination with WW2 in the Philippines, have read every book multiple times I could find on the topic since I was a kid, and have been posting at corregidor.org for quite a few years.
Loads of great threads there, this one stands out as the best of the best for the Rock https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/587
A monster thread of then and now pics https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/651/photos

And a thread on Ft Drum, a satellite island to Corregidor which is actually an island that was razed to the water and rebuilt in the shape of a battleship after WW1. During the long siege it was one of the very few batteries which could fire with impunity, even with some of the worlds largest howitzers and mortars along with uncountable bombing raids, the Japanese couldn't breach it and it kept firing until the very end [It was surrendered along with Corregidor, spiking its massive 14" guns with the last shots, rendering them useless for the enemy]
https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1959/fort-drum-1945-cdsg-nara?page=1&scrollTo=16864

I'm sure most of you guys know this already, just a little background for those who may not. The years have not been kind to Ft Drum, has been consistently raided by scrappers over the years causing massive loss of structural integrity, so much so that the 4 guns have fallen back into their turrets. Those inclined and able used to be able to visit, and there are some pretty epic threads on org, one guy made it down to the heavily flooded and extremely dangerous 3rd level ,, But visitors have been banned for some years now, and its safe to assume scrappers have ignored the ban ,, So this historic gem has fallen into an abyss and is largely just a phantom concrete shell.
 
Corregidor

Nice thread, have always had a fascination with WW2 in the Philippines, have read every book multiple times I could find on the topic since I was a kid, and have been posting at corregidor.org for quite a few years.
Loads of great threads there, this one stands out as the best of the best for the Rock https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/587
A monster thread of then and now pics https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/651/photos

And a thread on Ft Drum, a satellite island to Corregidor which is actually an island that was razed to the water and rebuilt in the shape of a battleship after WW1. During the long siege it was one of the very few batteries which could fire with impunity, even with some of the worlds largest howitzers and mortars along with uncountable bombing raids, the Japanese couldn't breach it and it kept firing until the very end [It was surrendered along with Corregidor, spiking its massive 14" guns with the last shots, rendering them useless for the enemy]
https://corregidor.proboards.com/thread/1959/fort-drum-1945-cdsg-nara?page=1&scrollTo=16864

I'm sure most of you guys know this already, just a little background for those who may not. The years have not been kind to Ft Drum, has been consistently raided by scrappers over the years causing massive loss of structural integrity, so much so that the 4 guns have fallen back into their turrets. Those inclined and able used to be able to visit, and there are some pretty epic threads on org, one guy made it down to the heavily flooded and extremely dangerous 3rd level ,, But visitors have been banned for some years now, and its safe to assume scrappers have ignored the ban ,, So this historic gem has fallen into an abyss and is largely just a phantom concrete shell.

It is on my list of places i want to visit , Have been to the Philippines a number of times but mostly in Cebu and Bohol in the central Philippines. My wife is from Bohol and we have a family home there. I have taken a detector with me last few trips to detect the beaches. The public beaches are very trashy to detect but the resorts are much better. My father served over there in the last part of the war on some small island. Just read a good book if you haven't read it yet (South from Corregidor) by John Morrill . I am surprised that someone with deep pockets and the right equipment hasn't gone after the remaining coins at the bottom of the bay. I would imagine the biggest issue would be the Philippines government claiming a large share of the treasure as in their treasure hunting permits. I see a lot of the sea salvaged peso coins come up for sale on E-Bay, and have some in my collection. I have a pretty decent collection of Philippines coins .
 
It is on my list of places i want to visit , Have been to the Philippines a number of times but mostly in Cebu and Bohol in the central Philippines. My wife is from Bohol and we have a family home there. I have taken a detector with me last few trips to detect the beaches. The public beaches are very trashy to detect but the resorts are much better. My father served over there in the last part of the war on some small island. Just read a good book if you haven't read it yet (South from Corregidor) by John Morrill . I am surprised that someone with deep pockets and the right equipment hasn't gone after the remaining coins at the bottom of the bay. I would imagine the biggest issue would be the Philippines government claiming a large share of the treasure as in their treasure hunting permits. I see a lot of the sea salvaged peso coins come up for sale on E-Bay, and have some in my collection. I have a pretty decent collection of Philippines coins .

Such a nightmare of trash and scrap in the bay, visibility close to zero and of course very hazardous even for a professional, I imagine it would be nothing short of miraculous to find something valuable and historic in the depths, though yes it is always possible.
Drum has been officially closed off for about a decade, same with Ft Frank [Carabao Island], though not much remains there anyhow except a couple tunnel systems and barren battery emplacements.

I recall asking about metal detecting on the Rock at org, was told it was not permitted, but they do of course have sanctioned hunts, and I imagine there has been alot of off the record detecting there over the years. Would be a dream to try but I imagine the trash/iron conditions there would be very frustrating to say the least, think about all the tons of shrapnel alone.

Not sure what the status of the Rock is these days, have to get back in the loop at org. I know it was shut down for the pandemic and has fallen on tough times in a lot of different ways, it is all but forgotten in the USA and not much of a priority for the Philippines.
 
Such a nightmare of trash and scrap in the bay, visibility close to zero and of course very hazardous even for a professional, I imagine it would be nothing short of miraculous to find something valuable and historic in the depths, though yes it is always possible.
Drum has been officially closed off for about a decade, same with Ft Frank [Carabao Island], though not much remains there anyhow except a couple tunnel systems and barren battery emplacements.

I recall asking about metal detecting on the Rock at org, was told it was not permitted, but they do of course have sanctioned hunts, and I imagine there has been alot of off the record detecting there over the years. Would be a dream to try but I imagine the trash/iron conditions there would be very frustrating to say the least, think about all the tons of shrapnel alone.

Not sure what the status of the Rock is these days, have to get back in the loop at org. I know it was shut down for the pandemic and has fallen on tough times in a lot of different ways, it is all but forgotten in the USA and not much of a priority for the Philippines.

Unfortunately, little is taught in school in their history classes about the war in the south Pacific and the brave men who tried to hold out till help got there. Most Americans don't even know these places exist. They should defiantly be preserved.
 
Unfortunately, little is taught in school in their history classes about the war in the south Pacific and the brave men who tried to hold out till help got there. Most Americans don't even know these places exist. They should defiantly be preserved.

Well the Philippines are obviously limited on resources and heavily over populated, so can't be expected to make investments in anything unless they get a return. Hopefully when/if the pandemic is ever over things can get back to normal and the tourists will return - Would be a dream for me to set foot on the Rock.
Too, I think there is a trend these days to paint pre WW2 Americans in that region as racist, imperialist occupiers, so many may not wish to pay any form of homage to them. With few exceptions, the Filipinos themselves who fought along side of Americans were largely raw, untrained recruits and did not fare very well in combat, I think this may rankle some till this day when studying the war.

By and large though, they conducted themselves well under brutal occupation, and had one of the largest and most successful guerilla operations of the war [Though yes, that too was mostly run and financed by the USA]. They didn't have to, Dutch East Indies for example [now Indonesia] completely collaborated with the Japanese, there was 0 guerilla movement there, and any remaining allied forces were hunted down and killed or captured very quickly.
Philippines resisted because they wanted to, not because they had to, and that is much to their credit.
 
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