كورگيدور

كورگيدور
Corregidor

Native name: Isla ng Corregidor
Map of Corregidor Island
كورگيدور Corregidor
الجغرافيا
الموقع	خليج مانيلا
الإحداثيات	14°23′8″N 120°34′23″E
الأرخبيل	جزر الفلپين
إجمالي الجزر	1
أعلى نقطة	Topside
الإدارة
الفلپين
السكان
الجماعات العرقية	تگالوگ

كورگيدور جزيرة صـخرية محصَّنـة تغـطي حوالــي 5كم² عند مدخل خليج مانيلا في جزيرة لوزون في الفلبين. تدعى أحيانا جبل طارق المحيط الهادئ. يسكن هذه الجزيرة حوالي 320 شخصا. وخلال الفترة المبكرة من الحرب العالمية الثانية، اتخذت القوات الأمريكية والفلبينية في هذه الجزيرة قرارًا بالوقوف في وجه القوات اليابانية المهيمنة. وكان استسلام هذه القوات في 6 مايو 1942، النقطة الفاصلة في انتهاء مقاومة الولايات المتحدة المنظمة في الفليبين.

استولى اليابانيون على كوريجدور حتى استعادت الولايات المتحدة لوزون في فبراير عام 1945م. وقد تخلّت الولايات المتحدة عن جزيرة كوريجدور حيث استعادتها جمهورية الفليبين عام 1947م. وفي عام 1954م أصبحت كوريجدور الضريح القومي المكرس للمقاتلين الفلبينيين والأمريكيين الذين لاقوا حتفهم أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية. يوجد في الجزيرة متحف حربي ونصب تذكاريّ للحرب من الرخام.

 الجغرافيا

Corregidor Island and the entrance to Manila Bay.

Despite being located nearer to the southern coast of Bataan, Corregidor and the other fortified islands of Manila Bay fall under the jurisdiction of the City of Cavite. Corregidor, also known as "The Rock" for its rocky landscape and the heavy fortifications, along with Caballo Island, about 1.7 km (1.1 mi) south, divide the entrance of Manila Bay into the North and South Channel.

The tadpole-shaped island, with its tail running eastward, is about 6.5 km (4.0 mi) long, about 2.0 km (1.2 mi) wide at its widest with a total land area of about 900 هكتار (2،200 acre). The highest elevation is at 180 m (590 ft) on the Topside. The island is divided into four sections:

 الجيولوجيا

Corregidor and Caballo islands are remnants of a volcanic crater, the Corregidor Caldera, which was last active about one million years ago. However, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) still classifies Corregidor as a potentially active volcano.

 التاريخ

 Spanish colonial era

The island came under Spanish sovereignty on May 19, 1570, when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi and his forces arrived in Manila Bay. Legazpi was authorized by the Spanish Crown to establish the capital of the Philippines in Manila, and to convert the Muslims in Luzon and Mindanao to Christianity. Corregidor was used as a support site for the nine Spanish galleons used during the campaign.

Under Spanish rule, Corregidor served not only as a fortress of defense, a penal institution, and a station for customs inspection, but also as a signal outpost to warn Manila of the approach of hostile ships.

The name "Corregidor" comes from the Spanish word corregir, meaning "to correct". Isla del Corregidor, the old name of the place, literally means "the Corregidor's island".

Several explanations for how the island was named have been suggested. One story states that the island was called Isla del Corregidor (literally, Island of the Corrector) due to the Spanish customs system, wherein all ships entering Manila Bay were required to stop and have their documents checked and "corrected". Another version claims that the island was used as a penitentiary or correctional institution by the Spanish government, and thus came to be called El Corregidor. Corregidor is also a specific position of authority within the former Spanish administrative structure, the title for the man who was the head of a territorial unit known as un corregimiento. The institution of administrative districts called corregimientos (with each district chief known as El Corregidor) was in use throughout Spanish America and the Philippines. For example, the Philippines had "corregidores" in charge of Bataan and Zambales, among others.

On November 23, 1574, the Chinese pirate Limahong and his 65-vessel fleet with 3,000 men anchored between Corregidor and Mariveles. From that site, he launched two successive attacks against Manila, commanded either by Limahong himself or by the Japanese pirate Sioco. Both attacks failed due to a fierce battle defense led by the governor, Juan de Salcedo.

In November and December 1600, during the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain, the Dutch privateer and Admiral Olivier van Noort used the surroundings of Corregidor Island as an anchorage for his last two ships, Mauritius and Eendracht. From there he engaged in activities that the Spanish considered to be piracy, targeting ships on the sailing route to and from Manila. This situation ended after the naval combat of Fortune Island on December 14, 1600. The Spanish lost their flagship, the hastily converted Manila galleon San Diego, as the unbalanced weight of her extra cannon caused a permanent list and put her gun ports below the waterline. But they captured the Dutch ship Eendracht, and Admiral van Noort retreated from the Philippines. Continuing the three-year voyage in his one remaining ship and arriving home with 45 men still alive, van Noort became the first Dutch sea captain to circumnavigate the world. The Dutch East India Company was formed a few months later.

In response to these events, and also to prevent sudden attack by Muslims from Mindanao, a watch vessel was posted at Corregidor to control the entrance to the bay. According to data from 1637, this vessel had a crew of twenty men, who were paid 540 pesos a year for this task.

Corregidor Island was taken over by the Dutch in June 1647, and from there they launched an offensive against Cavite which was repelled by the Spanish garrison under the command of Andre Lopez de Azalduigui. The Dutch would remain on the island for seven more months, however, as it served them well as an operations base from which to intercept Chinese merchant traffic in the vicinity of Luzon and Cebu. Finally they withdrew with few of their expectations fulfilled.

In October 1762, during the British invasion of Manila and Cavite led by Samuel Cornish and William Draper, Corregidor was used as an anchorage for warships, particularly HMS Panther and HMS Argo. It was also used as an anchorage for the fully loaded Spanish treasure galleon Santisima Trinidad they had captured, during November 1762. The British sailed the captured galleon to Portsmouth, England, where it was sold for a fortune.

The arrival of the Spanish fleet led by General Ignacio Mario de Alava, with the mission to place the Philippine Islands on alert, did not affect the fortunes of Corregidor Island. He limited his activity to the setting up of a naval station at Cavite.

On January 18, 1853, the Corregidor Island Lighthouse was first lit on the highest part of the island, to mark the entrance of Manila Bay for vessels coming in from the South China Sea. The Spanish government built this Second-Order light, which is situated 639 أقدام (195 m) above sea level and visible for 20 ميل (32 km).

 Spanish–American War

Corregidor Island was included in the Philippines' defense plan prepared in 1885 by General Cerero, but no action was taken to implement it. When the U.S. Navy's attack was thought to be imminent, a 12 cm gun of the "Hontoria System", which came from the Spanish Navy's cruiser Antonio de Ulloa, and two shorter 12 cm guns of the same caliber from the Spanish gunboat General Lezo, were installed on the rocky island of El Fraile. On Caballo Island, south of Corregidor, the Spanish army installed three 15 cm naval guns from the Spanish navy cruiser Velasco, which was undergoing repairs.

At midnight on the night of April 30 to May 1, 1898, U.S. Navy Commodore George Dewey led his naval squadron, with his flag hoisted on board the protected cruiser يوإس‌إس Olympia, eastward along the southern coast of Corregidor Island, beyond the reach of Spanish batteries and with no navigational lights on, preparing to fight the Battle of Manila Bay.

At a distance about one mile off El Fraile, Dewey's fleet changed course to the northeast, steaming towards Manila. When they were discovered, the Spaniards fired from El Fraile's artillery. An American response followed immediately, first by يوإس‌إس McCulloch and then by يوإس‌إس Boston, يوإس‌إس Raleigh and يوإس‌إس Concord. Since the flotilla's speed was ten knots, they were soon far away from the Spanish batteries. Dewey sailed for Cavite where he destroyed the naval forces of Admiral Montojo.

Once the Cavite shipyard was subdued by means of a stipulated pact, two American ships went ashore at Corregidor Island on May 3 forcing the Spaniards on the island to surrender. Colonel Garces, chief of the coast batteries at the entrance of Manila Bay, and the island's governor, First Class Naval Lieutenant Augusto Miranda, were urged to come to terms with the Americans, and so they did. Therefore, Miranda remained on the island with only 100 soldiers under the Spanish flag; Garces and officers under his command, as well as 292 men with their weapons and ammunition, were transferred to Mariveles port. From there they moved through the provinces of Bataan and Pampanga until they reached Manila on May 5. There they joined the Spanish navy battalion which was already quartered in Sampaloc.

On May 4, the American ships opened fire against the 100 men who, according to the pact, had been left on Corregidor and demanded the garrison forces be reduced to 25 men. The Spanish governor consulted Manila authorities, and they ordered the evacuation of the island. The troops were sent to Naic, Cavite on boats while the island's governor was transferred to the American cruiser USS Baltimore and became a prisoner with his family. The Americans offered to free him but the governor rejected this. Shortly afterwards, he was disembarked in Balanga, Bataan. In this way the Spanish presence on Corregidor Island, which had lasted 328 years, came to an end.

A cannon that had guarded the residence of the Spanish colonial governor on Corregidor, the Dewey Cannon, was taken as a prize of war to the United States. It was later awarded to the rural town of Three Oaks, Michigan, where it was remounted as a historical display.

 American colonial period

Bottomside in 1982

المدخل إلى نفق مالينتا

In 1902, the island was organized as an American military reservation. In 1903, a convalescent hospital was established by the U.S. Army.

The Board of Fortifications chaired by William H. Taft recommended that key harbors of territories acquired after the Spanish–American War be fortified. Consequently, Corregidor was fortified and incorporated into the harbor defenses Manila and Subic Bays. In 1908, a Regular Army post was established on the island, designated as Fort Mills, in honor of Brigadier General Samuel Meyers Mills, Jr., Chief of Artillery of the U.S. Army from 1905 to 1906. By early 1909, H Company of the 2nd Battalion of the Corps of Engineers was assigned to Corregidor and started on the construction of concrete emplacements, bomb-proof shelters, and trails at various parts of the island. This pioneer engineer company left Fort Mills on March 15, 1912. All or part of 35 different numbered Coast Artillery Corps companies served tours at Fort Mills between 1909 and 1923.

The defense of Corregidor was the immediate responsibility of the Philippine Coast Artillery Command, commanded by Major General George F. Moore at the start of World War II. Stationed on the island after the return to the regimental system in 1924 were the following regular units:

• 59th Coast Artillery (U.S. Regular Army)
• 60th Coast Artillery AA (U.S. Regular Army)
• 91st Coast Artillery (Philippine Scouts)
• 92nd Coast Artillery (Tractor Drawn) (Philippine Scouts)
• Headquarters, Harbor Defenses of Manila and Subic Bays and the Seaward Defense Command.

In addition to Fort Mills; the army post on Caballo Island was named Fort Hughes; on El Fraile, Fort Drum; and on Carabao Island, Fort Frank. According to the war plan, these forts could withstand a six-month-long siege, after which the United States would provide aid. The fortifications on Corregidor were designed solely to withstand seaborne attack. Though American military planners realized that airplanes would render Fort Mills obsolete, the United States was restricted from improving the fortifications by the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. In 1932–1934, the U.S. Army constructed the Malinta Tunnel, with its series of related laterals, to protect its military stores and vital installations in the event of war.

Fort Mills's defense installations had cost the U.S. government more than $150 million, which did not include the expense of fortifying the neighboring islands of Caballo, Carabao, and El Fraile.

The fortifications on Corregidor

Marker of the Pacific War Memorial

 الجغرافيا

Corregidor Island and the entrance to Manila Bay.

Aerial view of the ruins

 انظر أيضاً

• جغرافيا الفلپين
• Fort Drum (El Fraile Island)

 المصادر

• Gerez, M. B. The Story of Corregidor.

• الموسوعة المعرفية الشاملة
• [1]

 وصلات خارجية

• Recapture of the island
• A Glimpse of Life in Corregidor before WWII [2]
• A Glimpse of Life in Corregidor before WWII Part 2 [3]
• Photos of Corregidor - MacArthur Memorial [4]
• Corregidor Then and Now [5]
• Fortifications of Luzon [6]
• Corregidor Photos
• Tour Corregidor Island thru Sun Cruises Inc.
• Corregidor Island, the Fortress of Freedom
• By Order of Major Kline
• So Proudly We Hail! (1943) : Wartime film dramatization