Deadly Pattern

On Corregidor and in the foxholes of Bataan the strict procession of days marched on with a deadly, thundering sameness. The Jap, scorned in his offer of "honorable surrender," was back at work again.

Apparently he no longer had the stomach for head-on smashes. Now he was out to pound the U.S. positions until they lay ready for the taking.

From dawn to dusk his bombers went over in flights of from three to 54. Mostly they left their cards at Corregidor, home address of Lieut. General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright and keystone of the U.S. structure of resistance.

Without pursuit planes, there was not much for the defenders to do about it except to keep the raiders high. From their foxholes on the mainland, infantry soldiers kept patrols out in no man's land to be sure that "Tojo" was keeping quiet. Probably in search of prisoners and information, a U.S. force plowed into the Jap lines, and "Skinny" Wainwright was able to report a successful brush.

At week's end the pattern changed, but only briefly.

Meanwhile the Jap apparently was thinking of trying to storm the Manila Bay fortresses from the south. On the Cavite shore he began to gather small boats. When they were massed into a good target, the guns of Forts Hughes, Drum and Frank (south of Corregidor) again went into action, shot them to kindling.

For the rest, life had settled into a galling pattern: take the bombing, watch the Jap, wait, wait, wait.

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