Hour Ahead

For seven consecutive days before General Douglas MacArthur left Corregidor, the War Department's Philippine communiques had a pleasant, unchanging sameness. U.S. scouting units continued to harass enemy communications. A Japanese cruiser fired several shells into the port of Cebu, but the slight damage inflicted hardly made the effort worthwhile. Another Jap division was landed at Mindanao, south of Luzon. Somehow--the means were not disclosed--a 3,000-ton enemy tanker was sunk. Otherwise, all was quiet in the Philippines.

The lull in fighting may have meant that porcine General Tomoyuki Yamashita was readying what he hopes will be the final offensive against Bataan's defenders. In any event, the front MacArthur left was quieter than the one he went to.

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