April 24, 1942

I thought for a short time this afternoon that the Japs meant business. They started throwing metal at us at about three o’clock and kept it up for about three hours. I believe it was the heaviest concentration of artillery fire they have placed on the island thus far. It was also quite generally distributed from Topside all the way out to Monkey Point. However, not a great deal of damage was done, although they cut wires and water lines again. It is increasingly difficult to keep telephones going under this fire, and we are required to conserve water in every possible way due to breaks in the mains. We are gradually losing our artillery as the Japs keep pounding away. Every now and then a big shell drops into a battery position and destroys one or more guns. In time, the attrition will wear our guns down to nothing, for there are no replacements in sight. Practically all the destruction has been caused by artillery fire from Bataan since April 9th. Bombing today was very light, although there were several air raids. The Japs appear to fly over principally for the nuisance value.