| Original caption: “Four-starred General Macarthur and two-starred Chief of Staff, General Sutherland, step briskly out of the main entrance to the Corregidor tunnels.” General Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964), the commander of United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE), and Major General Richard K Sutherland (November 27, 1893 – June 25, 1966), his Chief of Staff, in conversation outside the East Entrance to Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor. Exuding public confidence, MacArthur and Sutherland stride out of the Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor for his daily walk and inspection tour. An empathy or bond developed between MacArthur and the Yale-educated Sutherland. They found they had much in common, working out an operational division of staff responsibility. The blue ribbon responsibility of operations and planning went to Sutherland. Activity on Corregidor centered on Malinta Tunnel. The tunnel itself was 30 feet (9 meters) wide and 18 feet (5 1/2 meters) high. It was an east-west passage, running westward at a slight descending incline. 2 electric-car tracks ran down the tunnel’s center. Other tunnels, known as laterals, branched off at regular intervals, 13 odd-numbered ones to the north and 12 even-numbered ones to the south. Each lateral was about 400 feet (122 meters) long and 15 feet (4 1/2 meters) wide. Separate laterals were routed to the hospital and quartermaster areas, branching into a further dozen laterals in each section. A small northern entrance led to the shore not far from North Dock, while a southern tunnel connected to the Navy’s part of the underground network. Iron doors and metal gates could be closed off to secure the complex from the outside if needed. Electric lights ensured illumination, and blowers provided ventilation. Japanese bombings had driven USAFFE Headquarters and most other offices into Malinta Tunnel for safety. Several 1,000 people lived and worked in the complex, and the lights remained on at all times. Humidity, noise, activity, and cold underground dampness were constant companions. Privacy was almost nonexistent. Corregidor continued to endure daily air raids and periodic shelling from Japanese heavy artillery now emplaced on the Ternate shore. General MacArthur and his staff closely monitored the progress of the fighting on Bataan from Malinta Tunnel. MacArthur allocated reserves between the II corps, but otherwise generally left tactical direction in the hands of Wainwright and Parker. Although they worked in the tunnel, MacArthur and Philippine Prime Minister Manuel L. Quezon (August 19, 1878 – August 1, 1944) lived with their families in neighboring cottages a half-mile east of Malinta Tunnel. They sat on a rise overlooking the south bay and the road leading to Kindley Field. Both men were just a minute’s drive to Malinta Tunnel, an important factor during air raids. Especially for MacArthur, the cottage provided some much-needed solace and a semblance of a home life for his wife and son. Nonetheless, these wooden structures and their scrounged furnishings were sad comedowns from Malacanan Palace and the Manila Hotel. Late in February, MacArthur received a direct order from United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945). He was told to leave Corregidor and travel to Australia, where he was to take command of an Australian and American army being organized to defend the country. MacArthur balked at obeying. “I fully expected to be killed. I would never have surrendered. If necessary, I would have sought the end in some final charge. I would probably have been killed in a bombing raid or by artillery fire. And Jean and the boy might have been destroyed in some final general debacle.” He told Sutherland that he would radio Roosevelt and refuse to leave, then join the infantry on Bataan “as a simple volunteer.” Sutherland argued MacArthur out of that emotional decision. According to Hunt, Sutherland said, “You are needed in Australia far more than you are needed on Bataan.” There remained the matter of telling Major General Jonathan M. “Skinny” Wainwright IV (August 23, 1883 – September 2, 1953), Commander of the Philippine Department, and his Chief of Staff Brigadier General Lewis C. Beebe (December 7, 1891 – February 17, 1951), who would be left behind. Wainwright appeared in Malinta Tunnel at midday on March 10, 1942, in response to a summons. Sutherland offered him lunch, which Wainwright rejected. “We only eat twice a day over there,” he said, gesturing toward Bataan. Sutherland explained that MacArthur was leaving the next day and that Wainwright would be promoted to Lieutenant General to command all troops on Luzon in a new command called the Luzon Force. Sitting together in the musty Malinta Tunnel, MacArthur told Wainwright that he was leaving. “If I get through to Australia,” he told Wainwright, “you know I’ll come back as soon as I can with as much as I can. In the meantime, you’ve got to hold.” Wainwright said nothing, well aware that he and his men could not hold out much longer. Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L. Huff (November 2, 1893 – November 11, 1962) and Jean Faircloth MacArthur December 28, 1898 – January 22, 2000) scrounged the Corregidor tunnels for enough canned goods to last 10 days and divided them into 4 duffels, 1 for each boat. Personal items were few and far between, but MacArthur had Huff remove the 4-star license plates from his vehicle because, the general told him, “We may not be able to replace them in Australia.” Then, after “a tense and unhappy and uncomfortable few minutes” of saying goodbye to those left behind, the little caravan of vehicles drove the short distance from the mouth of the Malinta Tunnel to the North Dock. The next night, March 11, the party of 22 walked through a light rain to the docks on Corregidor. Disliking the confinement of a submarine, MacArthur had chosen to try to escape on the sleek and fast Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boats that were now his only “Navy.” The 77-foot (23.5-meter) long PT boats, powered by huge Packard engines, were designed to speed in on enemy ships, fire torpedoes, then flee. With their lightly armored hulls, the PT boats could be blown out of the water by even a destroyer’s small guns if they were spotted and caught. 19 men, 2 women, and his son Arthur MacArthur IV (born February 21, 1938) clambered onto the 4 PT boats. On board the lead boat, PT-41, MacArthur took 1 last look toward the craggy hills of Bataan and the men he was leaving behind. “I could feel my face go white,” MacArthur later recalled. Then he turned to PT-41’s skipper, Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley (August 19, 1911 – April 6, 1996), and said, “You may cast off, Buck, when you are ready.” Minutes later, the 4 boats, in a diamond formation, nosed out into the waters between Bataan and Corregidor, engines turned low so they wouldn’t be heard by Japanese patrol boats. Then, as the dark masses of Corregidor and Bataan fell behind them, the boats roared loudly, engines coughing, and sped out toward a dark and churning China Sea. Some 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) away was Australia. The soldier with his hand on his hip has been identified as 2 people: Private Leroy W. Wyse Jr. (May 21, 1920 – September 27, 1947), of West Unity, Ohio, C Battery, 60th Artillery Corps, who was serving as an anti-aircraft gunner on Corregidor. Wyse enlisted in August 1941. He was transferred to Cabanatuan Prison Camp, where he was forced to grow rice. In September 1943, he transferred by “hell ship” to Japan. In Sukurajima, Osaka, he was riveting ships while trying to sabotage or slow down the work. Poor conditions of not being protected from the elements, from weather or air raids taking place, lack of adequate food, and regular beatings. Little medical supplies were available to the men, and a couple of the Japanese took pleasure in torturing the men by bashing them with bamboo sticks, making them stand at attention for hours, or kneeling in readiness for execution, to later strike them with the flat end of a sword. Wyse carried scars from the beatings. He moved to Akenobe Prison Camp in May 1945 to work in a copper mine. After the surrender, he was liberated in September 1945 and returned to the United States in October. After many hospitalizations, he died of his war wounds. Private 1st Class James C. Anderson (February 9, 1921 – November 26, 1942), Tyrone, Pennsylvania, 59th Artillery Corps, was also identified as the man behind MacArthur. Writing to his parents on his birthday, he stated that he was in good health, had plenty of “good eats,” and cigarettes. In a letter in February 1946, another survivor of Corregidor, Sergeant James V. O’Sullivan (February 11, 1913 – February 8, 1969), related that Anderson was taken to Cabanatuan Prison Camp on May 26, 1942. Shipped on the “hell ship” Tottori Maru to Mukden, which left Manila on October 6, 1942, and arrived in Pusan on November 8, 1942. All were ill. He died of malaria contracted in the Philippines. The local Anderson-Denny Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4559, is named for him, and John W. Denny (December 5, 1906 – March 25, 1943), killed in action in Tunisia in March 1943. Photo by Melville J. “Mel” Jacoby (September 11, 1916 – April 29, 1942). This photo appeared in the April 13, 1942, issue of LIFE Magazine, printed just before the surrender of the Bataan Force on April 9, 1942. A correspondent for LIFE and Time Magazines, but not trained as a photographer, Jacoby reported on the siege for 3 months from Manila and Corregidor. When LIFE Photographer Carl Mydans (May 20, 1907 – August 16, 2004) was caught by the Japanese in Manila, Jacoby took over on Corregidor. The result was a historic collection of pictures of Bataan and Corregidor during the siege. In February, Jacoby slipped out of Corregidor and went down to Cebu and met MacArthur in Australia. He was killed when a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk of the 7th Pursuit Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Jack W. Tyler (February 11, 1918 – February 3, 1996) struck his aircraft, a Lockheed C-40 Electra Junior. Tyler was taking off as the 2nd of 2 P-40s from “Twenty-Seven Mile” Batchelor Field, southeast of Darwin, Australia, lost directional control in propwash of lead fighter, strikes the recently arrived Electra parked next to airstrip, killing General Harold H. George (September 14, 1892 – April 29, 1942), Melville J. “Mel” Jacoby (September 11, 1916 – April 29, 1942), and base personnel 2nd Lieutenant Robert D. Jasper (June 9, 1914 – April 29, 1942), who were standing next to the Lockheed. A number of others received injuries, but Tyler, the P-40 pilot, survived. The crash is incorrectly attributed to 2nd Lieutenant Robert G. “Bob” Hazard (February 14, 1919 – September 11, 1942), but he died in a different crash en route to Port Moresby, New Guinea. | |
| Image Filename | wwii1458.jpg |
| Image Size | 279.24 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 1422 x 1287 |
| Photographer | Melville Jacoby |
| Photographer Title | |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | February 1, 1942 |
| Location | |
| City | Corregidor |
| State or Province | Luzon |
| Country | Philippines |
| Archive | |
| Record Number | |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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