Eve of a Hundred Midnights (43 page)

239        “China days had taught us”:
MJ, “In the air somewhere in Australia,” p. 4.

239        For a time:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 14.

240        “Congratulations”:
HRL, cable to MJ, December 26, 1941.

241        “I was scared then”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 13.

241        “None of us knew”:
Dunn,
Pacific Microphone,
p. 160.

242        “just a stone's throw”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 14.

242        “The same thing”:
Ibid.

243        “Anything to stay”:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 151.

243        “By the time we'e
[sic]
finally”:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

244        The U.S. Army Transportation Service:
Gibson and Gibson,
Over Seas,
p. 226.

245        “It still seemed better”:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

245        “Carl and Shelley decided”:
Ibid.

245        It is often the case:
Sorel, p. 160.

247        They had to leave behind:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

248        Another journalist in Manila:
Royal Arch Gunnison,
So Sorry, No Peace
. New York, NY: The Viking Press, 1944, p. 50.

249        now he watched:
MJ letter to ESM and MM, April 10, 1942, Melbourne, Australia. Additional accounts were made by Carl Mydans.

249        “Annalee supplied”:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 153.

249        Unfortunately, they couldn't find:
Ibid.; MJ, April 4 cable.

251        “Soon we'll be in the Indies”:
MJ, April 4 cable.

251        “We could just barely make out”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 15.

Chapter 10: Into the Blackness Beyond

257        “We scrambled”:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

257        “That was our introduction”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 16.

257        “MacArthur, he said”:
Ibid, p. 15.

257        Nevertheless, the military:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 160.

260        “The Rock [Corregidor] was teeming”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 16.

262        “Help is on the way”:
General Douglas MacArthur, “Message from General MacArthur,” January 15, 1942, Miscellaneous Papers, Fort Mills, 1941– 42, “General Correspondence Files Relating to Civilian Employees, 1941–1955,” Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917– [AGO], RG 407, National Archives, College Park, MD.

263        “It is a matter of fact”:
AWJF, “With MacArthur: An Eyewitness Report,”
Liberty,
April 18, 1942, p. 19.

263        Clark Lee would later pointedly:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific
.

263        “subdivision of hell”:
AWJF, “With MacArthur,” p. 19.

263        According to a War Department:
“FM 30-26,” in
Regulations for Correspondents Accompanying U.S. Army Forces in the Field
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. War Department, January 21, 1942).

264        “Pressmen are allowed”:
MJ, “Bataan Writers Allowed to File 500 Words Daily,”
Editor and Publisher,
February 7, 1942, p. 7.

264        “In Bataan the troops”:
MJ, “Corregidor Cable No. 79,”
Field Artillery Journal
, The United States Field Artillery Association, Baltimore, MD, Vol. 32, No. 4, p. 267.

264        “The pictures of Bataan”:
C. Gerston, “Bataan Wounded,” letter to the editor in
Life Magazine,
May 11, 1942, p. 4.

265        “Now they've gone through weeks”:
AWJF, “With MacArthur,” p. 19.

266        The same morning:
Colonel Carlos P.
I Saw the Fall of the Philippines
. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1943, p. 92.

267        “They were the sweethearts”:
Ibid.

267        “We were of all ages”:
Amea Willoughby,
I Was on Corregidor: Experiences of an American Official's Wife in the War-Torn Philippines
. New York: Harper & Bros., 1943, p. 134.

268        “That was her only concession”:
Fadiman, July 31, 2014 conversation.

269        “eloquent of self-reliance”:
Willoughby,
I Was on Corregidor,
p. 138.

269        “frilly, helpless”:
Fadiman, July 31, 2014 conversation.

269        “We were impressed”:
Willoughby,
I Was on Corregidor,
p. 138.

269        More often than not:
AWJF, “With MacArthur,” p. 19.

270        Pursuit Hal orchestrated:
MJ, “Melbourne Cable (Jacoby No. 1)” (dispatch to DH), April 18, 1942, Melbourne, Australia, p. 1.

271        “Since the troops”:
MJ, “Corregidor Cable No. 75” (telegram dispatch to DH). February 7, 1942, Corregidor, the Philippines.

271        Corregidor was “not the best place”:
Dunn,
Pacific Microphone,
p. 160.

272        Her daughter Anne Fadiman would recall:
Fadiman, email to the author, January 21, 2013.

272        In their January 2, 1942:
Louella O. Parsons, “Ruth Hussey to Play ‘War Bride,' Story of Honeymoon Under Fire,”
Los Angeles Examiner,
January 2, 1942.

273        “there could be no Dunkirk”:
AWJF, “With MacArthur,” p. 19.

274        In mid-January:
Francis B. Sayre, “Confidential for Time Inc.” (telegram),
January 15, 1942, Fort Mills, in Francis B. Sayres Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

274        “We have informed your families”:
DH, telegram to MJ and AWJF, January 21, 1942, New York, NY, in Francis B. Sayres Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

274        The first of Mel's cables:
MJ, “Philippines Cable No. 65,” January 18, 1942, Corregidor, the Philippines.

275        Mel's second “magnificent” dispatch:
MJ, “Manila Cable No. 66,” January 18, 1942, with USAFFE headquarters, Corregidor, the Philippines.

276        “On Bataan, Mel”:
Melville Jacoby: 1916–1942
(memorial pamphlet), Division of Journalism, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, 1942, p. 8.

276        What Mel was hearing:
“Jack Can't Get a Date on His Birthday” (episode synopsis for
The Jack Benny Show
), available at Jack Benny in the 1940s, “The 1941–1942 Season,” sites.google.com/site/jackbennyinthe1940s/Home/1941-1942-season.

278        “Annalee will be able”:
Churchill, “Bull Session,” February 23, 1942.

278        “There is keenest rivalry”:
MJ, “Philippines Cable No. 72,” February 1, 1942, Bataan, the Philippines.

279        “Do you want to go”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” pp. 1–2.

281        “must have been boiling”:
MJ, “This Is Our Battle,” p. 21.

284        “I believe you will make it”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 2.

284        “We could say goodbye”:
Ibid., p. 1.

285        “I will be very busy”:
MJ, “Corregidor cable—Part I” (cable to DH), February 23, 1942, received over telephone from Army Radio, Corregidor, the Philippines.

285        “We sit by”:
MJ, “CEBU (Philippines) Cable” (cable to DH), March 17, 1942, somewhere in the Philippines.

286        “impregnable as the mountain”:
Ibid., p. 1.

287        “It was hard to realize”:
Charles Van Landingham, “Escape from Bataan,”
Saturday Evening Post,
October 3, 1942, p. 63.

288        “too bright moon”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 2.

289        “We talk very little”:
Ibid.

Chapter 11: False Convoy

292        “Two Japanese cruisers”:
AWJF, “Ours Is Full of Holes,” p. 39.

292        Once scouts:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 5.

294        “We heard the same thing”:
AWJF, “Ours Is Full of Holes,” p. 39.

294        “We stuffed ourselves”:
Van Landingham, p. 63.

294        Wine flowed readily:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 6.

295        “It was warm”:
Van Landingham, p. 63.

295        “Each little fishing boat”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 6.

296        “Every night on the ship”:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

297        wearing Mickey Mouse:
MJ, “CEBU (Philippines) Cable,” p. 7.

297        “They are short on food”:
Ibid.

299        On the third day:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 255.

300        “We had forgotten there”
: Ibid.

300        As soon as the
Princesa:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 6.

300        “Fine. Travelling”:
Anne Whitmore, letter to ESM and MM, February 27, 1942.

300        In Los Angeles:
MJ, telegram to ESM and MM, February 27, 1942, Cebu, the Philippines.

301        In Barili:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 256.

303        “Cebu brought back”:
Van Landingham, p. 63.

303        “It is amazing”:
MJ, “Background on Cebu” (cable to DH), April 11, 1942.

304        Cebu City seemed:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 256.

305        “jittery as race colts”:
MJ, “Background on Cebu.”

305        532-foot light cruiser:
Bob Hackett and Sander Kingsepp, “IJN Kuma: Tabular Record of Movement” (revision 9), 2014, available at: Junyokan! Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's [Imperial Japanese Navy's] Cruiser Force, combinedfleet.com/kuma_t.htm.

305        The shelling destroyed:
Kemp Tolley, “Target: Corregidor,”
World War II Journal
5, ed. Ray Merriam (Bennington, VT: Merriam Press, 1999), p. 22.

306        “One [shell] struck”:
Van Landingham, p. 63.

306        “postcard beauty”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 7.

307        Given as much privacy:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 257.

307        Mel described Elza's gardens:
AWJF, “Dear Mother and Dad #2,” letter.

309        “The moon rising, shadows”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 7.

309        “progressing as rapidly”:
AWJF, Cable to DH, Feb. 28, 1942, Cebu, the Philippines.

311        “All kinds of men make up”:
MJ, “Corregidor Cable No. 79,” p. 267.

311        “We keep thinking”:
AWJF, April 10, 1942 letter.

312        “Some of the most courageous”:
Tolley, p. 22.

312        At first, Cebu:
“Report of Army Transport Service in Philippines. 8 Dec 1941–6 May 1942,” Records Relating to War Support Services, 1941–1947, Records of the Adjutant General's Office, 1917– [AGO], RG 407, National Archives, College Park, MD.

313        Pons had led:
“Blockade Runner: Gallant Captain Outwits Japs in Small Philippine Freighter,”
San Francisco Chronicle,
November 6, 1942.

313        Colonel Alexander Johnson:
Gibson and Gibson,
Over Seas,
p. 249.

313        Pons, who had been:
Van Landingham, p. 65.

313        At 4:00
A.M
. on March 10:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 259.

315        “Don't be damn fools”:
Ibid., p. 260.

315        
Doña Nati
's crew:
Fadiman, July 31, 2014 conversation.

316        “cross-legged, cross-fingered”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 8.

317        “like a brick chimney”:
Ibid.

317        No planes came, but:
Van Landingham, p. 63.

318        Pons later said:
San Francisco Chronicle,
“Blockade Runner.”

318        “To me, the trip”:
Van Landingham, p. 65.

320        On that anxious night:
Lee,
They Call It Pacific,
p. 266.

320        Captain Pons told:
Ibid., p. 267.

321        “right through a hornet's”:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 9.

321        Pons was trying to:
San Francisco Chronicle,
“Blockade Runner.”

322        Annalee filed:
MJ, “In the Air Somewhere in Australia,” p. 9.