CENTENNIAL SUNDAYS
Bataan: The battle, the march, the prison camps
According to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 stories at the time, the 200th Coast Artillery 鈥� made up of about 1,800 National Guardsmen, mainly New Mexicans 鈥� was activated and sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for training in late 1940 and early 1941. In August 1941, the Journal reported the Guardsmen were leaving Texas for an unknown destination, but it quickly became clear they were being sent to the Philippines.
Within 24 hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes began their assault on the Philippines near Manilla, where the 200th Coast Artillery was stationed. On Dec. 19, as fighting intensified in the Philippines, the 515th Coast Artillery was carved out of the 200th to man antiaircraft weapons.The 515th originally was made up of 20 officers and 500 enlisted men, and was led by sa国际传媒官网网页入口鈥檚 then-Lt. Col. Harry Peck. Peck was promoted to colonel during the war.
On April 9, 1942, the main U.S. and Filipino forces on the Bataan Peninsula surrendered, and more than 47,000 of the surviving, starving and disease-plagued U.S. and Filipino defenders of Bataan embarked on the 65-mile Bataan Death March. During this trek, 16,450 men died, and the remaining were sent to prison camps.
In May 1942, the Journal reported that the 200th Coast Artillery and 515th Coast Artillery from New Mexico were decorated for their outstanding performance of bravery from December 1941 to March 1942 in the Philippines, withstanding 鈥渁ttacks of overwhelming numbers of hostile troops and dive bombers.鈥�
It would be another three years before any of those soldiers made it home to actually receive the honors.
Of the more than 1,800 men in the 200th and 515th regiments from New Mexico, 829 did not survive 鈥� dying in battle, or during the Bataan Death March or in prison camps. Only half of those who did return were still alive a year later.
