Last Broadcast of Corregidor

[damienmalchus]

May all the heroes name echo to eternity and may their names be honored! RIP to all that lost a love one!

[loudmxr]

I have been there. It is a stunning experience. I have set foot on those beaches and climbed those hills and I have wept.

[blueprairiedog]

My father was on Corregidor on this day. He and others like Strobing were transported to various camps by rail car, packed in like anchovies, after the surrender. The rail cars were so hot, my Dad said, that the men standing by the walls were severely burned. They spent some time in a camp in the Phillippines, then went to Japan as POWs on "hell ships" without food, water, or sanitation. Many died, packed so tightly they didn't fall until the ship was unpacked in Japan. God bless them.

[AriesGoddess93]

Er... I just heard "how about a chocolate soda?"

Is that code for something?

[stereonut001]

@AriesGoddess93 Maybe they were talking about Yohoo?

[AriesGoddess93]

@stereonut001 LOL

[Aethian]

@AriesGoddess93 Chocolate soda's were a popular thing back in those days. I got to have one when I was a kid and visiting relatives that were young adults during this time. They taste different.

[AriesGoddess93]

@Aethian Interesting...

[Mr3star1sun]

this is a very important peice of history

[beatlejim64]

If it wasn't for the WWII generation...we MIGHT not be here...THANK YOU...

[BracedPoleCat]

My grandfather survived Omaha and fought through Bastone. After the Victory in Europe day he was shipped to the pacific to fight there as well, but luckily the war ended before he got there, so he spent a few months playing baseball in the Philippines :P thank god for our greatest generation.

[rasjimenez]

awesome, chilling, but awesome

[coolferds06]

@emmthreejonny Taking gratitude to the American heroes who helped the Philippines liberated from the Japanese.

They are great heroes and brave men. They sacrifice a lot for the liberation of its allies and friends.

[romanlegions]

Hmmm, according to the NY times article of his death in 1997, he was a corporal. This is a morbidly interesting piece of recording. I am always interested in the psychology of the people moments away from death. Probably during this time, Strobing was thinking of what the future would entail him as a POW.

[spaceboardingpass]

There's a quote that goes along with the dispatch: "There is a limit of human endurance, and that point has long been passed." - Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwrigh.

[Clarkesque]

The way the person who's reading the Morse voice is distorted is all the more chilling. Its hard to hear this when you know Corregidor falls and many of these men die during the Death March. I'm glad Strobing and others survived through this.

[joebombero1]

@Clarkesque actually the "death march" was suffered by the soldiers on Bataan a few weeks earlier. The Japanese had transports to move the survivors of Corregidor and could take their time since the whole of the Philippines had effectively been pacified by this surrdener.

[clants08]

what a war ^_^

[noobler9]

"chocolate soda" wow lol

[2006mikko]

agree, when i was there i surely can feel and imagine the echoes and the sight of that place half a century ago.

[azthundercloud]

i visited the island when i was stationed at clark field. i found a 50cal. bullit that i still have.

[tomterrific4]

I went to corrigidor ...this is a terrific piece of history. Tears are in my eyes

[ardashir51]

Whatever happened to the man who made the original broadcast? Did he live through captivity by the Japanese or not?

[TheRandomRabbit]

@ardashir51 Yes. Irving Strobing. He spent three years as a POW, later died at 77 years of age, of cancer.

[ardashir51]

@TheRandomRabbit Well at least he lived through his captivity.

[TheRandomRabbit]

@ardashir51 Yes, and returned home to his family.

[Sniperboyist]

Chilling. At the time this broadcast was sent, my late Father was at his post on "Topside" 60th Coast Artillery, Battery B, Anti-Aircraft. He survived the war thankfully or I would not be here to write this. Thank you for preserving this important piece of history.

[GaryW48]

Not to be counterproductive, but it had always been my understanding, that this recording of the voice and the transcribing of the morse code, was from an RCA or NBC Radio Engineer at the NBC listening post in San Francisco, California. Still, the listening to this brings chills up my spine from the first time I ever heard it on either an Internet website, or an NPR broadcast.

[Angryrnmedic]

That's what the appeasrs gave our guys in the Philipines back then. So very sad. Just as bad as what the Germans did in WWII.  RN

[petekilde]

Superb my friend!