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April 30, 1942

Thursday Ft. Hughes

The Jap dive bombers didn’t hold revielle but they did the next thing to it——-they interrupted breakfast. They were 15 minutes late today and did some damage. About 0900 the big boys came over and dropped a stick which crossed the pits. While they put out the lights and broke some communication lines they didn’t do much damage. We now know that a direct hit on our “wardroom” will not hurt us, though it will shake us up. The bombing and shelling continued throughout the day with the main concentration on Corregidor. At night we started out again firing and continued until midnight. The Japs had started it and I think our purpose was to shut them up. I had the watch on top the hill and couldn’t see where we were shooting. However, I could see one Jap battery of 4 or 5 rapid fire guns and they were certainly going to it. This is certainly grim business for me to be sitting on top a lighthouse with a pair of binoculars witnessing like a football game. The Japs kept the artillery going until 4 am the next morning.