Image description: "Natives at Batangas Philippines."(Personal collection of Norman Nigh) Photograph likely taken on or near Base R. Norman's friend Al Fikis is on the right.
At the time of writing (May 2022), my Southwest Pacific experience is winding down. With only a handful of weeks left here in the Philippines, I’m disappointed that I couldn’t visit New Guinea and Borneo (thanks, Covid.) However, there was one location in the Philippines where Norman made an appearance, and I was able to see it in person- Batangas City.
Image description: Map of southwestern Luzon, indicating locations of Batangas and Manila. (source: maps.google.com)
Batangas City is the capital of Batangas Province. It lies roughly 70 miles south of Manila on the Philippines' large island of Luzon. For a short time beginning in mid-1945, present-day Batangas City was the location of Base R, a base for the U.S. Army in the Philippines after its invasion of the country. Base R was where Norman and his Company C comrades arrived after leaving their last assignment in Borneo, and where they boarded the ship that returned them stateside.
Image Description: "Base R, Batangas, Batangas, P.I. From the east shore at Mainaga Cove. 28 June 1945." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502)
Base R was first activated in February 1945 on the island of Leyte, located on the eastern area of the archipelago and scene of General MacArthur’s triumphant return to the Philippines in October 1944. At the time, the U.S. Forces were busy retaking the big island of Luzon (location of Manila and Batangas). Base R then relocated to Batangas the following April, after Luzon was secured. It was to be a supply and logistics base for the U.S. Army. It contained storage for fuel, ammunition and other strategic materials. It was massive- covering most of modern-day Batangas City and stretching over to the nearby town of Bauan. I couldn’t find any data on the entire base’s actual size, but by the end of January 1946, I read that there was more than one million square feet of covered storage and over three million square feet of non-covered storage. Additional facilities of Base R included airfields, a cemetery, numerous churches and chapels, a large hospital, a Red Cross Club, Signal Corps buildings and even a college.
Image Description: "The new Hill Top American Red Cross Club for enlisted men at Base R. Batangas, Luzon, P.I. 16 September 1945." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502) Perhaps Norman and his comrades made an appearance here.
Image Description: The Hilltop area of Batangas today- location of the Batangas Provincial Capitol.
Base R was located near the shore of Batangas Bay, and as such engineers developed harbor and port facilities in the area. Among the U.S. Army engineers' projects there was the construction of berths for Liberty Ships, the massive, mass-produced ships responsible for moving troops and supplies throughout the Pacific during the war. (It was a Liberty Ship, in fact, the USS Geneva, that transported Norman and his comrades of the 593 boat battalion back to San Francisco at the end of November, where they arrived in early December 1945.)
Image description: "1052nd Engineer Dock No. 3, showing details and three stages of construction. Base R, Batangas, Luzon, P.I. 29 June 1945." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502)
Image Description: "The newly constructed Liberty berths are adjuncts of the port command at Base R, Batangas, Luzon, P.I. The first ship to dock is anchored there in Batangas Bay. 29 June 1945." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502) A Liberty Ship similar to the above docked here at the end of November 1945 to carry Noman home.
Also located by the bay was an LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized- Norman’s boat) assembly plant. In June and July of 1945, engineers dredged part of Batangas Bay and filled in a section of shoreline for construction of the plant. The entire “Boat Building Command,” of the LCM assembly plant comprised 45,470 square feet. At the time of construction, the Boat Building Command was intended to accommodate 4,000 troops of the Engineer Special Brigades and serve as not only an assembly plant but also a staging area for Operation Coronet: the coming invasion of the Japanese home islands.
Image Description: "The LCM's are loaded with personnel on the landing beach at Batangas Bay. Base R, Batangas, Luzon, P.I. Port Command. 29 June 45." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502)
However, there was to be no invasion of Japan. The bombs dropped in August 1945, and Japan’s official surrender took place the following month. Those Engineer Special Brigades already in the Philippines in September (including the shore battalion of the 593rd- Companies, D, E and F) were quickly sent off to Japan to assist with the early stages of the Allied occupation. Norman and company C didn’t arrive in the Philippines until November, nearly two months after Japan’s official surrender. Norman and the other members of the 593d boat battalion- Companies A, B and C- been stuck on and around the island of Borneo after taking part in Operation Oboe, the Australian-led liberation of Borneo. The men remained in Borneo after the surrender due to negotiations with the Australians over the fate of their LCMs. Finally, the Americans agreed to hand over the landing craft to the Australians, and they left Borneo for Batangas on October 30, 1945 aboard the Liberty Ship Richard Yates. Thus, the 593rd Boat Battalion, or “lost battalion” as they would come to be known, finally arrived in the Philippines. Meanwhile, due the war's end, Base R's operations began winding down, and by the end of 1945, Base R was reclassified as a "sub-base" to Base X, a larger U.S. Army facility in Manila.
Image description: "Leaving Borneo for Philippines." (Personal collection of Norman Nigh) On October 30, 1945, Company C boarded the Liberty Ship Richard Yates and arrived in Batangas five days later on November 4.
My husband and I visited Batangas City on April 23, 2022, 77 years after Norman Nigh’s brief presence there. Today, it has a population of about 350,000 and radiates out from a huge port facility. A few kilometers from the shoreline, in a more elevated area known as “Hilltop,” the former home of the Red Cross Club, now sits the Provincial Capitol of Batangas. We drove around the city from the port area (which we couldn’t enter) up to Hilltop and over towards the town of Bauan. It was uneventful. There are no markers indicating the past presence of Base R. It is all but forgotten. But nonetheless very cool to know my grandfather was there in 1945.
Image Description: Batangas today- entrance to the Batangas Port area. Photo taken 4/23/2022.
Image description: Batangas today- cranes and containers at the port area. Photo taken 4/23/2022.
Image Description: "The right front of the Emaculate (sic) Conception Church, which was constructed in 1776, showing extent of damage after an earthquake struck Batangas, Luzon P.I. on May 8 1942. Base R, Batangas, Luzon, P.I. 23 May 1945." (Image source: National Archives https://catalog.archives.gov/id/80666502)
Image Description: Batangas' Basilica of the Immaculate Conception today. Photo taken 4/23/2022.
References:
Batangas City Official Website - www.batangascity.gov.ph
Casey, Hugh J., Engineers of the Southwest Pacific 1941-1945: Volume VI Airfield and Base Development. Army Forces, Pacific, Office of the Chief Engineer. Government Printing Offices: Washington D.C. 1951
Dormaier, Alfred A. "Brief History of Company C" (U.S. Army War College, Historical Records Branch)
Heavey, William F., Down Ramp: the Story of the Army Amphibian Engineers. Coachwhip Publications (Landisville: 2010; originally published in 1947)
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