The Rock

After the fall of Bataan, the Japanese turned the full weight of their artillery and air force onto the island fortress of Corregidor. For nearly a month, massive guns up to 14 inches in caliber salvoed back and forth across the North Channel of Manila Bay. Finally deciding …

1942-05-06

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After the fall of Bataan, the Japanese turned the full weight of their artillery and air force onto the island fortress of Corregidor. For nearly a month, massive guns up to 14 inches in caliber salvoed back and forth across the North Channel of Manila Bay. Finally deciding that the defenses were soft enough for an amphibious landing, assault troops from the 4th Infantry Division secured a beachhead and pushed up the narrow “tail” of Corregidor. The 4/4th Marines – actually an ad hoc force of sailors, soldiers and marines -- armed with little more than small arms and grenades consolidated their positions and waited for the Japanese assault.

Corregidor, Philippines

The Battle of Corregidor, fought on May 5–6, 1942, was the culmination of the Japanese campaign for the conquest of the Commonwealth of the Philippines during World War II. The fall of Bataan on April 9, 1942, ended all organized opposition by the U.S. Army Forces Far East to the invading Japanese forces on Luzon, in the northern Philippines. The island bastion of Corregidor, with its network of tunnels and formidable array of defensive armaments, along with the fortifications across the entrance to Manila Bay, was the remaining obstacle to the 14th Japanese Imperial Army of Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma. Homma had to take Corregidor, since as long as the island remained in American hands, the Japanese would be denied the use of Manila Bay, the finest natural harbor in the Far East. The U.S. Army, however, then successfully recaptured the island in 1945.

Japanese

American

Scenario Type = Standard