Zg642. We found the Fort Frank Waterdam in the Sinalang Valley. I needed to rest and my friend John Moffitt looked around but did not find anything noteworthy.
A further cut in the food issue at Fort Frank and the other forts came on March 2 when each ration was cut to three-eighths normal issue. That same day an attack by two dive-bombers caused little damage to the fort but resulted in one aircraft being shot down by Battery Ermita. A few days later Battery Koehler’s 12 inch mortars hit Japanese artillery positions being prepared near Pico del Oro. Koehler’s salvos of eight 670-pound shells, when equipped with instantaneous fuses, were the most effective counter-batter instrument possessed when using high explosive shells, which were in short supply, did little real damage as most of the shells fired were armor piercing and thus exploded only after penetrating the ground for some distance. Only batteries Frank North, Ermita and 75mm guns had any large number of high explosive shells.