JEWELLLW@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU (Larry W. Jewell) (02/13/91)
From: "Larry W. Jewell" <JEWELLLW@VM.CC.PURDUE.EDU>
The discussion on bunker busting reminded me of who will eventually
have to do the job when the Air Force has done all it can, and that's the
grunt.
This situation has (atleast) one clear historical parallel and that's
the operations to clear the small islands in Manila Bay.
In March 1945 Caballo Island had 400 mixed force troops, who had had
years to dig in, ready to face the inevitable assault. A complex of tun-
nels and pits on the east side of the island was the last nut to crack and
after several false starts the engineers ran a pipeline from the beach and
pumped 2,500 gallons of diesel fuel into the complex. The fuel was ignited
by white phosphorus mortar shells.
"'Results,' the 38th Division reported. 'were most gratifying.'
"A huge flash fire ensued, followed by a general conflagration and
several explosions."
Twice more the technique was used to further clear pockets of resist-
ance.
The other main point of resistance in the Bay was the so-called
"Concrete Battleship" on El Fraile reef. El Fraile had been turned into a
formidable fortress long before WW II by the U.S. Army engineers, who had
constructed atop the reef a concrete, battleship-shaped citadel known as
Fort Drum. The fortress walls were 25 to 36 feet thick, the top was 20
feet thick; the battleship was about 350 feet long and 145 feet wide, and
it rose 40 feet above mean low water. The fort's four 14-inch guns and
four 6-inch guns had been knocked out by Japanese fire or American demoli-
tions in 1942 and had never been repaired by the Japanese.
Some special method of attack had to be devised for Fort Drum, espec-
ially since Japanese machine guns covered the only feasible entrance. The
existence of a Japanese garrison had been discovered in late February when
the crew of an Allied Naval Forces PT boat, having decided that the fort-
ress was abandoned, made an unscheduled reconnaissance. The Japanese gar-
rison of seventy naval troops killed one American naval officer and
wounding another.
It was the second week of April before an attempt to clear the fortress
was undertaken.
The 38th Division, responsible for the capture of Fort Drum, developed
a plan of attack-get troops atop Fort Drum and then feed oil and demoli-
tions down the ventilator shafts. Since the fortress walls were unscal-
able, the 113th Engineers, 38th Division, rigged a drawbridgelike ramp to
the conning tower of an LSM, and F Company, 151st Infantry, on the morning
of 13 April, dashed across the bridge to the top of Fort Drum. While the
infantry covered all openings, engineers followed across the ramp with an
oil line and 600 pounds of TNT.
Rough weather interrupted the oil pumping at one point after the fuse
to the charges had been lit and a Major had to go back and cut the fuse so
repairs could be made.
3,000 gallons of diesel fuel were pumped in before the charges were set
off. The first results were not impressive, but then the fire reached the
magazines, holding 6- and 14-inch ammunition. The explosion continued for
8 hours and blew chunks of the Fort's roof, in twenty-foot-thick chunks
hundreds of yards in the air. It was 5 days before it was deemed safe to
enter the Fort.
Fort Drum was secured at a cost of one man to the attackers.
From: UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II, Vol.10.
Office of the Chief of Military History
____________________________________________________________________________
"Do not needlessly endanger your lives until ordered to do so."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Larry W. Jewell