Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 1. It is now clear what the American public was seeing in newspapers in December 1941 to show American forces in the Philippines was actually a photo from 33 years earlier when the American Great White Fleet was making a world tour in late 1908 to showcase American Naval power. Image was provided by John Duresky who bought it in the www. Click here:
https://greatwhitefleet.us/home/world_cruise/manila_philippines/
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The Great White Fleet in Manila Bay and early WWII images.
The Great White Fleet in Manila Bay and early WWII images. These pictures were provided by my friends John Duresky and John Moffitt. John Duresky posted them in Facebook also, click here and go to the entry of about the 17th Aug. 2024 with this title: Philippines MIA Search and Recovery Project. Click Here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/872960403880807
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Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 2. 1941 12 31 PITTSFIELD MA BERKSHIRE EAGLE News Paper. Asiatic Fleet steaming past Corregidor. On the picture they wrongly labeled Caballo Island (Ft. Hughes) Corregidor Island; Corregidor is the left one! The first picture John Duresky sent.
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Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 3. Wirephoto of the American Great White Fleet steaming past Corregidor and entering Manila Bay in 1908. This picture was provided by John Duresky.
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Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 4. Postcard of the American Great White Fleet steaming passed Corregidor and entering Manila Bay in 1908. This picture was provided by John Duresky.
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Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 5. Wire photos and postcard combined for comparison of the American Great White Fleet steaming past Corregidor and entering Manila Bay in 1908. This picture was provided by John Duresky.
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Great White Fleet passing Corregidor 6. John Moffitt sent this and said: This photo shows you how long and low Corregidor Island looks when viewed from far across Manila Bay. I took this photo from a banca on the way to Limbones Island (Cavite side of the mouth of Manila Bay).
Upper mid left-hand side in my photo is Mount Mariveles, Bataan sticking up through the clouds. Corregidor from left to right shows Topside starting at the steep cliff and sloping down to Bottomside. Part of Bottomside, which is very low, looks to be at water level however the big bump of Malinta Hill really sticks up. Tailside is seen at a relatively even near level past Malinta Hill and ends hidden behind Caballo Island.
The “World Tour” photo with the labeled numbers, 1,2 and 3 is correct. That photo was taken from somewhere on Cavite.
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John Duresky wrote his observation of the WWII picture situation and shared it with his friends.
Good morning guys,
I just posted this Facebook in PHILIPPINES MIA SEARCH AND RECOVERY project, click here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/872960403880807
I sent you the wirephoto in 2021, so this is a big update to that photo
A tale of two great tragedies and a tale of two photos at the start of WWII for America.
The first tragedy America thinks of is the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, it thinks of the many news films showing it in flames and with huge explosions during and after the attack on December 7th, 1941. It thinks of the countless still photos from that day and the days that followed. It thinks of President Franklin D Roosevelt on December 8, 1941, proclaiming before Congress
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan….”
It thinks of the Arizona Memorial even today leaking bunker oil into Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona holding the remains of hundreds of men entombed in her below the memorial. It is remembered through many movies made either about the attack itself, documentaries about Pearl Harbor, interview of the survivors of Pearl Harbor, or movies or TV shows where that attack is central to the story. Following that attack, the photos and film from Pearl Harbor at first were not shown and for about a week the true scope of the disaster of the attack only slowly came out in newspapers, along with those photos so familiar to everyone now. What followed then were countless photos over the following months showing the damage of the attack and the rebuilding effort at Pearl Harbor.
The second great tragedy is one far less known to Americans which resulted in a far greater loss of American and Filipino lives, and lives of other islanders and allies, spread over the course of the war. It is in the little known, and almost never quoted, part of President Roosevelt’s speech below where he said:
Yesterday the Japanese Government also launched an attack against Malaya.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong.
Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam.
Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands.
Last night the Japanese attacked Wake Island. And this morning the Japanese attacked Midway Island.
What most Americans do not know is that within the War Department (now the Defense Department) there was a Hawaii Department and a Philippine Department, and in newspaper reports it shows men and women were assigned to them. A casual reader of the FDR’s address might think that the attack on Pearl Harbor was THE attack against the United States, and the attacks on all the other places were attacks against foreign places with American forces on them, but within the American government both places held equal stature.
A good summary of the intertwining story of Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and the other places mentioned by FDR is here.Click Here: https://www.army.mil/asianpacificamericans/philippinedivision.html As noted, it was just by chance that weather stopped the attacks on the Philippines from happening at the same moment as the attack on Pearl Harbor. As it happened, the attack on the Philippines occurred only hours after Pearl Harbor, but across the international dateline on December 8th, a date which as a result does NOT live in infamy in the U.S. even though it should.
The two photos are examples perhaps of another reason why December 8th is not a day which lives in infamy in the American consciousness.
Unlike Pearl Harbor with its many films and still photos of the day of the attack and the aftermath of the attack, with the attacks on the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and other places where Americans lost their lives, very few photos of those days and the days after exist. Unlike Pearl Harbor, they were quickly cut off by the Japanese forces so little got to them, and little got out from them.
Attached is an example of this lack of visual documentation about those events. The first wirephoto I bought in 2021. It was used in newspapers in December 1941 to show the American fleet in Manila Bay. It looked like it could be the American fleet of that time because most destroyers, etc., had 3 to 4 smokestacks. Then I just bought an RPPC (abbreviation for Real Picture Postcard) with an explanation at the bottom. RPPC are photos printed on special paper to be used as postcards to mail out. It is unmistakably the same fleet taken perhaps only minutes apart. With this it’s now clear what the American public was seeing in newspapers in December 1941 to show American forces in the Philippines was actually a photo from 33 years earlier when the American Great White Fleet was making a world tour in late 1908 to showcase American Naval power. Click Here:
https://greatwhitefleet.us/home/world_cruise/manila_philippines/
This is typical of the early photos from the Philippines at the start of WWII. Often the public would only see stock photos of Manila and other areas taken before the war. Then when the war began very few photos got out, and nothing with the drama of the destruction seen at Pearl Harbor even though places like Clark Field and the Cavite Naval Base took a terrible beating. In this link which is also above is a photo of men on a tank watching men on horseback going by. What is not known to most is that the men on horseback are headed to the first and last mounted American cavalry charge of WWII (which was successful) and the men on the tanks were involved in the first tank-against-tank combat for American in WWII, with the first American tank man killed on December 8, 1941. Click Here: https://www.army.mil/asianpacificamericans/philippinedivision.html
Then, as Pearl Harbor began rebuilding, war and fighting raged for months in the Philippines with no reinforcements and no significant resupply. The survivors of the day of infamy in the Philippines would fight, become POWs, and suffer atrocity after atrocity until the war ended, with the death toll of those brave souls many times worse than the death toll at Pearl Harbor.
No movie, documentary, or miniseries exists which begins to tell the story of the war in The Philippines. Telling the story of WWII for America with that story receiving so little attention is like telling the story of Texas’ fight for independence without telling the story of the Alamo.