Caballo Island

Caballo Island

Cavite | Luzon | Philippines

Lat 14° 22' 0N Long 120° 37' 0E Island at the entrance to Manila Bay near Corregidor.

This island was a former US Army coastal defense post, located inside Manila Bay. There are many untouched relics still remaining on the island, including two massive 14" coastal guns and four 12" mortars, all still emplaced in their pre-WW II positions. Today it is abandoned and off limits to visitors generally.

Fort Hughes

Tony Feredo reports:
"The fort's magazines and other concrete structures of the batteries are there. All old wooden building already gone. Wharf is still original and a big chunk already got destroyed via a typhoon in 2002. No memorials except for a few markers where bones of Japanese soldiers were re-buried years after the war."

Battery Craighill
There are two pits, each armed with 2-inch Mortar M1912 on on 12-inch Mortar Carriage M1896M3. These had 50% longer barrels than the ones on Corregidor.

Tony Feredo adds:
"They also fired experimental rounds on 12-inch shells to be used as AA rounds. The problem was that it did not produce the proper muzzle velocity to arm the fuse at a certain height which will cause the shell to detonate."

Crew members from the gunboat USS Mindanao (PR-8) joined te crew of this gun on April 10, 1942 after the fall of Battan. After firing only 26 practice rounds, the Army instructors qualified the sailors as artillery qualified. By the end of the battle, they had fired 500 shells at targets at Bataan and Cavite. Continually bombed by the Japanese, the gunners suffered only one casualty.

Battery Gillespie
14-inch M1910 on 14-inch Disappearing Carriage Limited Fire (DCLF) M1907. This battery is perched on top of Caballo Island. Crew members from the gunboat USS Luzon (PR-7) joined te crew of this gun on April 10, 1942 after the fall of Bataan.

Battery Woodruff
14-inch Gum M1910 on 14-inch Disappearing Carriage Limited Fire (DCLF) M1907.

Battery William
155mm GPF M1917 / M1918 of M1917/1918 Carriage. Originally there were 3 guns but one was detached to form Battery Hooker during the siege of 1942.

Battery Hooker
155mm GPF M1917/M1918 of M1917/M1918 Carriage semi-fixed to "Panama Mount" concrete gun block.

Battery Leach
6-inch Gun M1908 on 6-inch Disappearing Carriage- Limited Fire (DCLF) M1901.

Battery Fuger
6-inch Gun M1908 on 6-inch Disappearing Carriage- Limited Fire (DCLF) M1901.

Battery Idaho
Battery I, 59th Coast Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) operated four 3-inch guns, on the eastern end of Ft. Hughes. Sailors from USS Oahu (PR-6) manned Fort Hughes anti-aircraft guns on the lower end of the island.

Japanese 120mm Mark 10 Gun
Photo by Tony Feredo, March 2006.

Search Light No. 11
Tony Feredo visited in March 2006 and found the remains of the 60" search light base still there with an adjacent tunnel.

Sherman M4 Tank
Disabled on the beach by Japanese landmine.