Conquering Corregidor Island 10: Battery Way

* 1913, the year Battery Way was supposedly finished

* a Battery Way mortar
* another mortar
* another look at a mortar
* a mortar in position
* Trailer Pransis posing beside a Battery Way mortar

* spider-web-like grills found on the floor of Battery Way;
I wonder what purpose those grills served

* a shell head?; found on the grounds of Battery Way

Battery Way is situated west of the hospital at Topside in Corregidor Island. At first inspection, Battery Way seems to be too secluded. But its power lay in the ability of its composing mortars to fire in any direction. The space was relatively small but it must have been a well-maintained battery.

* Shell Room No. 2

* a telephone box

* an inner room within the Shell Room

* shot from inside the Shell Room
* a bullet hole; the ammo must have been particularly strong as it was able to pierce that heavily-reinforced door

* Cartridge Room No. 2; it was apparent that the name was a recent addition –
there were faded text behind it already

* a painted message stating when Battery Way was cleared; this clearing must have pertained to the clearing of army debris and other heavy military materials

* one wonders what happened within this dark room during the War
* light at the end of the tunnel

* another door inside the Cartridge Room and a shaft, most likely for ventilation

* a close up of what could have been a ventilation shaft

* lock of a door
* the outside environ in the area of Battery Way was particularly inviting

To summarize Battery Way’s features [from Corregidor Foundation, Inc.]:
- four (4) 12-inch (305 mm) M1890 mortar; able to lob 1,000-lb.(454.5 kg) deck piercing shell 01 700-lb.(318kg) high explosive shell 14,610 yards (8.3 miles or 13.35 km) in any direction
- max. bagged charge weight: 63 lbs. (28.6kg)
- firing elevation: 45º min - 70º max.
- rifled bore length: 10 feet (3.05m)
- fire rate:: 1 round / minute – 1 round / 45 seconds*
- standard crew per mortar: 14 men

* although this was seldom followed as it was their practice to load and fire two mortars at a time to simulate the “salvo” effect

* as with other places in the island, Battery Way was equipped too with trolley lines

* view of a room inside a structure in Battery Way


* view of the outside from within a structure with trolley lines on the foreground

* the battered yet surviving structure

* part of a structure in Battery Way; obviously made for ventilation
* the Ordnance Repair Shop; found as one transfers from Battery Way to Battery Grubbs

There was also a note about Major William “Wild Bill” Masello Jr. who commanded over Battery Way in the last few days before the surrender of Corregidor to the Japanese. What I find interesting in this note was the event when he ordered the telephone to be destroyed so that he would not able to receive any call ordering him to surrender. That explains the empty telephone box. Lastly, there was that very insightful note. Now we know that Battery Way was the last battery to be in operation before Corregidor fell.