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Fort Drum , concrete battleship - part three Fort Drum , concrete battleship of the Philippines- part three At the time of the beginning of World War Two , Fort Drum was manned by the members of the 59th Coastal Artillery . The 59th Artillery has a long and illustrious history. It was originally activated as the 2nd Company, Coast Defenses of Southern New York on January 1918 at Ft. Wadsworth, New York. It received its personnel from the 13th Coast Artillery Regiment, which can trace its lineage back to the 18th Century. The regiment was sent to France, shortly after its activation and was first committed to action in the province of Lorraine on 12 September 1918. On 30 June 1924, the unit (less equipment and men) was transferred from New York to Ft. Mills, Philippine Islands and re-designated Battery C, 59th Coast Artillery (Harbor Defense). By 1929, all batteries and the 59th Regiment were assigned the fixed defense of Corregidor and Ft. Drum. Ft. Drum is the fortification that was built on a small island near Corregidor, and was commonly called the "Concrete Battleship". The unit's weapons consisted of 12 inch and 14inch guns and 12" mortars. In 1935, the regiment was assigned the secondary mission of air defense of Corregidor and Ft. Drum, and was augmented with 30 caliber machine guns. With the war clouds gathering in 1939, two more batteries, a searchlight and a sound locator were added to the 59th. The evacuation of dependents from the area was completed when the last families departed for the United States in July 1941. When the Japanese made their attack on Pearl Harbor, the 59th was at battle stations. Saturation bombing and artillery fire was started against Corregidor on 29 December 1941, and by the middle of January 1942, no spot on the entire island was more than 25 yards from a shell or bomb crater. During this period, the 59th fired the first rounds that any U.S. Artillery unit had fired in a coast artillery role since the Civil War. Fort Drum, though a primary target, was the only American installation that continued firing up to five minutes prior to the surrender of Corregidor on 6 May 1942. The ceaseless bombardment by the enemy knocked 15' of concrete off the deck of Ft. Drum, and during am 24-hour shelling, Corregidor received over 16,000 rounds. One shot hit a mortar position and ignited the powder magazine, destroying the last two 12" mortars and killing 48 men. The 59th repelled several Japanese landings and exacted a fearsome toll of enemy lives; but a successful beachhead was finally established by the Japanese on Corregidor on 5 May 1942. Although the beachhead was contained using personnel from the 59th as infantry, the water supply was reduced to three days rations and General Wainwright made the decision to surrender the island at 1200 hours on 6 May 1942. Battery E at Ft. Drum continued to fire until 1155 hours, then drained the re-coil oil from their guns and fired one more round to destroy their guns. The Battery Commander, LTC Kirkpatrick, then ordered the flooding of the "Concrete Battleship". During the battle, all members of the 59th were either killed, missing in action or taken prisoner by the Japanese. click on image for larger view of this fort still located in Manila Bay to this very day 
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Tough battleship!Never heard of a concrete boat?Untill now.Concrete?Maybe I am reading wrong?HMMMMMMM? [You can do whatever you dream of doing in life]
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3/6/2007 3:19 pm |
Kurt , go back further in my blog posts for parts one & two of the story. you'll find this once was a small island that the U.S. Army Corps of enginneers leveled the island flat & poured concrete up to 42 feet thick to build this almost blast proof fort . cool shirt , too KISS rocks! 
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