The following excerpt is from the book Life as an American Prisoner of War of the Japanese by Charles Balaza. Mr. Balaza served with Battery K, 59th Coast Artillery on Corregidor and was an eye witness of the Corregidor sinking.
"One night after being relieved from unknown hours of duty (I don't remember if I fell asleep, or passed out from lack of it), my short rest was ended by one of my crew telling me that a ship had just struck a mine in our area.
Due to the fact that it was our searchlight that controlled this area of entrance from the China Sea into Manila Bay, and part of the North Channel between Corregidor and Bataan, I was very concerned as to what happened. We never received any orders from our command post to stand by for action, or to illuminate the buoy markers for any vessel's safe passage through the minefield. I immediately gave orders to interlock with searchlight #3, which was already in action, helping the rescue operation.
Just then our phone rang, it was our command post ordering us to illuminate the area where the ship had hit one of the mines. I told them our light was already in action and had the ship in sight. I was ordered to keep the light in action until further notice.
I looked at the vessel, it had struck a mine near a little island called Monja. It was in a vertical position, with its bow looking up to the heavens of the dark sky, as if begging for mercy by some great unknown miracle to be spared from her dreadful fate.
In a few short minutes, it disappeared into its murky, watery grave, making sounds like that of a coffee percolator from the bubbling water that was filling its insides. At that moment, I forgot about my loss of sleep and minor problems. Our problems were insignificant compared to the men, women, and children who were trapped in shark infested waters trying to survive. I felt very helpless until I realized that our searchlight played a very important part in the rescue.
Without our searchlight, the rescue mission would have been hampered by the darkness, making rescue operations more difficult in finding the people who were still alive. There was no moon, and the only light came from a few shining stars. Tired as we were, no one asked to be relieved from duty. We all stayed up until early dawn assisting in the rescue.
Our concentration on rescuing the remaining survivors was soon broken when we heard what we though sounded like a flight of bombers. A dreadful fear spread among us, but no one suggested putting out the searchlight. We were committed to stay in action until further notice, and committed we stayed. To our joy, the noise that sounded like bombers was PT boats coming from Mariveles Naval Base in Bataan to assist in the rescue operations of the people who looked like little black specks in the distant waters.
At about 4:30 or 5:00 AM we heard the sound of a fighter plane coming up from behind our position. It came up so quickly that it took us by surprise, and we all ducked for cover. The plane flew by without incident, so we thought it was our one and only plane going to help in the rescue. However, it banked right, and opened fire on Searchlight #3. I don't know why he didn't open up on us, we were perfect silhouette targets for him.
As daylight broke, we secured our searchlights and could see PT boats circling the area looking for remaining survivors. After we couldn't help anymore, my crew and I passed out from exhaustion. I'm sure we weren't the only crew that had this problem. I was told that I even slept through a bombing that morning without flinching an eyebrow.
I don't know the true reason why the captain of the SS Corregidor tried getting through the minefields without permission or searchlight assistance. On that dark night he nearly made it, only to strike a mine a short distance from the open sea."
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