Fort Drum | |
---|---|
El Fraile Island | |
Part of Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays | |
Near Cavite City in Manila Bay in the Philippines | |
Coordinates | 14°18′18″N120°37′50″E / 14.30500°N 120.63056°E |
Type | Island-fort |
Height | Top deck is 40 feet (12 m) above water at mean low tide |
Site information | |
Owner | Philippines |
Controlled by | Cavite City |
Open to the public | No |
Condition | Ruins |
Site history | |
Built | 1909–1914 |
Built by | United States Army Corps of Engineers |
In use | 1941-1945 |
Materials | Reinforced concrete |
Battles/wars | |
Events | World War II |
Garrison information | |
Occupants | None |
Fort Drum, also known as El Fraile Island (Tagalog : Pulo ng El Fraile), is a heavily fortified island situated at the mouth of Manila Bay in the Philippines, south of Corregidor Island. Nicknamed a "concrete battleship", [1] the reinforced concrete sea fort, shaped like a battleship, was built by the United States in 1909 as one of the harbor defenses at the wider South Channel entrance to the Bay during the American colonial period.
It was unique among forts built by the United States between the American Civil War and early World War II, as it was a sea fort with turrets. It was captured and occupied by the Japanese during World War II, and was recaptured after U.S. forces ignited petroleum and gasoline in the fort, the conflagration killing 68 Japanese soldiers and leaving it permanently out of commission. Due to the high temperature caused by the conflagration, it took five days before U.S. soldiers could enter the fortress.
The fort, now abandoned, was named after Brigadier General Richard C. Drum, [2] who served with distinction during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War, and died on October 15, 1909, the year of the fort's construction. The island and the other former harbor defenses of Manila Bay fall under the jurisdiction of Cavite City. [3]
On the night of 30 April–1 May 1898, Commodore George Dewey's squadron entered Manila Bay, passing El Fraile, where three 120 mm guns were mounted: one Hontoria 12 cm gun from the Spanish cruiser Antonio de Ulloa , and two shorter 120 mm guns from the Spanish gunboat General Lezo. [4]
The shore guns exchanged fire with USS McCulloch, which was briefly illuminated by a soot flare-up from her stacks, and soon also USS Boston, USS Raleigh and USS Concord opened fire. However, Dewey's ships passed the forts without significant damage, and fought the Battle of Manila Bay in the morning. [5]
The Board of Fortifications chaired by William H. Taft recommended that key harbors of territories acquired by the United States after the Spanish–American War be fortified. [6] Consequently, the rocky El Fraile Island was fortified and incorporated into the harbor defenses of Manila and Subic Bays.
Initially, Fort Drum was planned as a mine control and casemate station. However, due to inadequate defences in the area, a plan was devised to level the island, and then build a concrete structure on top, armed with four 12-inch (305 mm) guns on twin mounts. [7] This was submitted to the War Department, and they decided to change the 12-inch (305 mm) guns to 14-inch (356 mm) guns mounted in twin armoured turrets.
The forward turret, with a traverse of 230°, was mounted on the forward portion of the upper deck, which was 9 ft (2.7 m) below the top deck; the rear turret, with a full 360° traverse, was mounted on the top deck. The guns of both turrets were capable of 15° elevation, giving them a range of 19,200 yards (17,600 m). [8] Secondary armament was provided by two pairs of 6-inch (152 mm) guns mounted in armoured casemates on either side of the main structure. There were two 3-inch (76 mm) mobile AA guns on "spider" mounts for anti-aircraft defense, probably the 3-inch Gun M1918 and probably added circa 1918. [9]
Overhead protection of the fort was provided by a 20-foot (6.1 m) thick steel-reinforced concrete deck. [10] The exterior walls ranged between approximately 25 to 36 ft (7.6 to 11.0 m) thick, making it virtually impregnable to enemy naval attack. [11]
Construction began in April 1909 and lasted for five years. The rocky island was levelled by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was built up with thick layers of steel-reinforced concrete into a massive structure roughly resembling a battleship, 350 ft (110 m) long, 144 ft (44 m) wide, and with a top deck 40 ft (12 m) above water at mean low tide. [12] The 14-inch (356 mm) M1909 guns and their two custom built M1909 turrets, named Batteries Marshall and Wilson, were delivered and installed by 1916. The M1909 guns were specially designed for Fort Drum and were not deployed elsewhere. [13] The secondary 6-inch (152 mm) M1908MII guns on M1910 pedestal mounts in casemates, Batteries Roberts and McCrea, were installed the same year. [14]
Searchlights, anti-aircraft batteries, and a 60-foot (18 m) lattice-style fire control tower were mounted on the fort's upper surface. The living quarters for the approximately 240 officers and enlisted men, along with the power generators, plotting rooms and ammunition magazines, were located deep inside the fort. [15] [16]
Battery Marshall was named for Brigadier General William Louis Marshall, Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and Chief of Engineers 1908–1910. Battery Wilson was named for Brigadier General John Moulder Wilson, Civil War Medal of Honor recipient and Chief of Engineers 1897–1901. Battery Roberts was named for Benjamin K. Roberts, a cavalry, artillery, and coast artillery officer, who was made Chief of Artillery for one day in 1905 prior to his retirement. [17] [18] [19] Battery McCrea was named for Tully McCrea, an artillery officer in the American Civil War. [20]
The successful invasion of Luzon by the Imperial Japanese Army in late December 1941 quickly brought land forces within range of Fort Drum and the other Manila Bay forts. Just before the outbreak of war in the Pacific Theatre on 7 December 1941, Fort Drum had been restaffed with men and officers of the 59th Coast Artillery Regiment (E Battery). The wooden barracks located on the fort's deck were dismantled to provide an unobstructed field of fire for Battery Wilson.
On 2 January 1942, Fort Drum withstood heavy Japanese air bombardment. On 12 January 1942, an M1903 3-inch (76 mm) seacoast gun with a pedestal mount was transferred from Fort Frank and installed at Fort Drum to help protect the fort's vulnerable "stern" section from attack, and it was named Battery Hoyle. [9]
The very next day on 13 January, before the concrete emplacement was fully dry and the gun had been bore-sighted or checked for assurance level, it became the first American battery of seacoast artillery to open fire on the enemy in World War II when it drove off a Japanese-commandeered inter-island steamer, apparently bent on a close inspection of Fort Drum's vulnerable rear approach. Until that time, the cage mast control tower masked the fire of the rear main turret, while the height of the gun above water created a dead space, even had the field of fire been clear. [9]
The first week of February 1942 saw the fort come under sustained fire from Japanese 150mm howitzer batteries positioned on the mainland near Ternate. By the middle of March, the Japanese had moved heavy artillery into range, opening fire with 240mm siege howitzers, destroying Fort Drum's 3-inch antiaircraft battery, disabling one of the 6-inch guns, and damaging one of the armored casemates. Sizeable portions of the Fort's concrete structure were chipped away by the shelling. [21]
The armored turrets were not damaged and remained in service throughout the bombardment. [21] Counter-battery fire from Fort Drum's 14-inch guns and Fort Frank's 12-inch mortars was ineffective. With the collapse of American and Filipino resistance in Bataan on 10 April, only Fort Drum and the other harbor forts remained in American hands.
On the night of 5 May, the 14-inch batteries of Fort Drum opened fire on the second wave of the Japanese forces assaulting Corregidor, sinking several troop barges and inflicting heavy casualties. [22] Fort Drum surrendered to Japanese forces after the Fall of Corregidor on 6 May 1942, and was occupied by them until 1945. [23] The 6 meter (20-ft) thick reinforced concrete roof enabled Fort Drum to withstand concentrated and frequent pounding from the Japanese from about 15 February to 6 May 1942. No U.S. personnel in Fort Drum were killed during the siege and only five were injured. [24]
The four 14-inch turret guns were never out of action and were still firing effectively five minutes before the Fall of Corregidor. [10] As at the other forts in the Philippines, Fort Drum's garrison destroyed the guns before the Japanese occupied the fort, which is why one 14-inch gun has fallen back inside its turret. The surrender of the Manila Bay forts marked the end of U.S. resistance in the Philippines.
In 1945 following the offensive to recapture Manila, the heavily fortified island was the last position in Manila Bay held by the Japanese. [25] On 13 April, after a heavy aerial and naval bombardment, a modified Landing Ship Medium (LSM) with a bridging arm came alongside the fort. U.S. troops used the extended arm to run directly from the ship onto the fort quickly gaining control of its top deck and confining the Japanese garrison below. [26]
Company F of the 2nd Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment, 38th Infantry Division and a detachment of the 113th Combat Engineer Battalion were chosen to lead the attack on Fort Drum because they had earlier led the successful assault on a mortar battery at Fort Hughes on Caballo Island. [27] Rather than attempting to break into the battery, they had used white phosphorus mortar rounds to ignite a 2,500 US gallons (9,500 L) mixture of two parts diesel fuel and one part gasoline that had been pumped into the battery through a vent. This method was repeated twice on subsequent days. [26]
At Fort Drum, the combat engineers modified the technique they had used at Fort Hughes. After the gasoline mixture had been pumped in through air vents on the top deck, a timed fuse of TNT was used to detonate incendiary grenades. [28] Several U.S. Army film crews filmed the entire operation from around Manila Bay. [29] [30] The explosion ejected a 1-ton hatch 300 ft (91 m) into the air and blew out parts of the fort's reinforced concrete walls. [31] U.S. troops had to wait five days before the fortress could be examined because of the heat and internal fire that raged for several days; all 68 Japanese soldiers were killed (six were found to have suffocated in the upper floors of the fort, while the charred remains of the remaining 62 were found in the fort's boiler room). [25] With the capture of Fort Drum and the other Manila Bay forts, Japanese resistance in the Bay area ended. [27]
The ruins of Fort Drum, including its disabled turrets and 14-inch (356 mm) guns, remain at the mouth of Manila Bay, abandoned since the end of World War II. [28] [25] In the 1970s, looters started removing scrap metal inside the fort for resale. [25] This activity was ongoing according to a report in 2009. [32]
An automated light, approximately 6 m (20 ft) on a hexagonal white concrete post with gallery was installed in 2001 [33] by the Philippine Coast Guard on the top deck for guiding ships entering the South Channel of Manila Bay. [32]
During one of the final chapters of Neal Stephenson's novel Cryptonomicon , lead character Sgt. Robert "Bobby" Shaftoe parachutes to Fort Drum and pulls the fuel-oil hose and nozzle from the LSM up to the air vents atop the fort. He subsequently meets his demise after pumping all the fuel, dropping a live white phosphorus grenade into the vent and diving in afterwards. [34]
Call of Duty: World at War features Fort Drum in Map Pack 3, released August 9, 2009. The map is called Battery and features Marine Raiders fighting the Imperial Japanese Army. [35]
Corregidor is an island located at the entrance of Manila Bay in the southwestern part of Luzon in the Philippines, and is considered part of Cavite City and thus the province of Cavite. It is located 48 kilometres (30 mi) west of Manila, the nation's capital city and one of its most important seaports for centuries since the Spanish colonial period. Due to its strategic location, Corregidor has historically been fortified with coastal artillery batteries to defend the entrance of Manila Bay and Manila itself from attacks by enemy warships.
The Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays were a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command, part of the Philippine Department of the United States Army from circa 1910 through early World War II. The command primarily consisted of four forts on islands at the entrance to Manila Bay and one fort on an island in Subic Bay.
Fort Mills was the location of US Major General George F. Moore's headquarters for the Philippine Department's Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays in early World War II, and was the largest seacoast fort in the Philippines. Most of this Coast Artillery Corps fort was built 1904–1910 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Taft program of seacoast defense. The fort was named for Brigadier General Samuel Meyers Mills Jr., Chief of Artillery 1905–1906. It was the primary location of the Battle of Corregidor in the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in 1941–42, and of the recapture of Corregidor in February 1945, both in World War II.
Fort Hughes was built by the Philippine Department of the U.S. Army on Caballo Island in the Philippines in the early 1900s. The fort, which part of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays, was named for Major General Robert Patterson Hughes, a veteran of the American Civil War, Spanish–American War, and the Philippine–American War.
Fort Frank was one of the defense forts at the entrance to Manila Bay established by the United States. The entire island was designated as Fort Frank, in honor of Brigadier General Royal T. Frank, as part of the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays built by the Philippine Department of the US Army in the early 1900s.
Fort Wint was part of the harbor defenses of Manila and Subic Bays built by the Philippine Department of the United States Army between 1907 and 1920 in response to recommendations of the Taft Board prior to the non-fortification clause of the Washington Naval Treaty. Fort Wint was located on Grande Island at the entrance of Subic Bay, approximately 35 miles (56 km) north of Manila Bay. The fort was named for Brigadier General Theodore J. Wint. As specified in the National Defense Act of 1935, this was one of the locations where coastal artillery training was conducted. A battery of the 60th Coast Artillery (AA) was stationed here.
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. In modern times, coastal artillery has generally been replaced with anti-ship missiles, such as the Ukrainian R-360 Neptune.
The Battle of Corregidor, fought on 5–6 May 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II.
Several boards have been appointed by US presidents or Congress to evaluate the US defensive fortifications, primarily coastal defenses near strategically important harbors on the US shores, its territories, and its protectorates.
Battery Way was a battery of four 12-inch mortars located on the island of Corregidor. Battery Way was one of two mortar batteries at Fort Mills that, with Fort Hughes, Fort Drum, Fort Frank and Fort Wint formed the Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays. Battery Way was named for Lt. Henry N. Way of the 4th U.S. Artillery.
The 16 inch gun M1919 (406 mm) was a large coastal artillery piece installed to defend the United States' major seaports between 1920 and 1946. It was operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Only a small number were produced and only seven were mounted; in 1922 and 1940 the US Navy surplussed a number of their own 16-inch/50 guns, which were mated to modified M1919 carriages and filled the need for additional weapons.
Seacoast defense was a major concern for the United States from its independence until World War II. Before airplanes, many of America's enemies could only reach it from the sea, making coastal forts an economical alternative to standing armies or a large navy. Substantial fortifications were built at key locations, especially protecting major harbors. Seacoast defense also included submarine minefields, nets and booms, ships, and, later, airplanes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played the central role in constructing fixed defenses, but all of the armed forces participated.
The 12-inch coast defense mortar was a weapon of 12-inch (305 mm) caliber emplaced during the 1890s and early 20th century to defend US harbors from seaborne attack. In 1886, when the Endicott Board set forth its initial plan for upgrading the coast defenses of the United States, it relied primarily on mortars, not guns, to defend American harbors. Over the years, provision was made for fortifications that would mount some 476 of these weapons, although not all of these tubes were installed. Ninety-one of these weapons were remounted as railway artillery in 1918-1919, but this was too late to see action in World War I. The railway mortars were only deployed in small quantities, and none overseas. The fixed mortars in the Philippines saw action in the Japanese invasion in World War II. All of the fixed mortars in the United States were scrapped by 1944, as new weapons replaced them, and the railway mortars were scrapped after the war. Today, the only remaining mortars of this type in the 50 states are four at Battery Laidley, part of Fort Desoto near St. Petersburg, Florida, but the remains of coast defense mortar emplacements can be seen at many former Coast Artillery forts across the United States and its former territories. Additional 12-inch mortars and other large-caliber weapons remain in the Philippines.
The 8-inch gun M1888 (203 mm) was a U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps gun, initially deployed 1898–1908 in about 75 fixed emplacements, usually on a disappearing carriage. During World War I, 37 or 47 of these weapons were removed from fixed emplacements or from storage to create a railway gun version, the 8-inch Gun M1888MIA1 Barbette carriage M1918 on railway car M1918MI, converted from the fixed coast defense mountings and used during World War I and World War II.
The U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps (CAC) was an administrative corps responsible for coastal, harbor, and anti-aircraft defense of the United States and its possessions between 1901 and 1950. The CAC also operated heavy and railway artillery during World War I.
The 12-inch coastal defense gun M1895 (305 mm) and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Most were installed on disappearing carriages, with early installations on low-angle barbette mountings. From 1919, 19 long-range two-gun batteries were built using the M1895 on an M1917 long-range barbette carriage. Almost all of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped during and after World War II.
The 59th Coast Artillery Regiment, later the 59th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, was a regiment in the United States Army. It served as a heavy artillery regiment in France in World War I, and was in the Battle of Corregidor, Philippine Islands, in World War II.
The 10-inch Gun M1895 (254 mm) and its variants the M1888 and M1900 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Most were installed on disappearing carriages, with early installations on barbette mountings. All of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped during World War II. Two of the surviving weapons were relocated from the Philippines to Fort Casey in Washington state in the 1960s.
The 14-inch Gun M1907 (356 mm) and its variants the M1907MI, M1909, and M1910 were large coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1895 and 1945. They were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Most were installed on single gun disappearing carriages; the only installation with four guns in twin turrets was built at the unique Fort Drum in Manila Bay, Philippines. All of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped when World War II brought about a general upgrade.
The 6-inch gun M1897 (152 mm) and its variants the M1900, M1903, M1905, M1908, and M1 were coastal artillery pieces installed to defend major American seaports between 1897 and 1945. For most of their history they were operated by the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. They were installed on disappearing carriages or pedestal mountings, and during World War II many were remounted on shielded barbette carriages. Most of the weapons not in the Philippines were scrapped within a few years after World War II.
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