I recently visited the Mabatang battle site and took pictures. These are some of the research materials I used to find the battlefield where the 57th Infantry Philippine Scouts were attacked by the Japanese for the "First Battle of Bataan."

     

Here is a page from the book the "Philippine Scouts" printed by the Philippine Scout Heritage Society.




This is the road heading east toward Mabatang. This is the road that ran parallel and behind the main line of resistance.


This is the view from the road looking north - panning from northweset to northeast. This is roughly the position of the 3rd battalion, 57th Infantry PS. The sugarcane field no long exists. The area is cultivated for rice, and there is  a small housing development in what would have been the middle of the 3rd battalion positions.

       

A little background info on what happened here:

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From the Book "Fall of the Philippines" by Louis Morton

The 57th Infantry, under the command of Col. George S. Clarke, was the first unit on the II Corps line to come under heavy infantry attack. Along the main line of resistance were the 1st Battalion on the right and the 3d Battalion on the left. The 2d Battalion was in reserve. On 11 January a reinforced company of the reserve battalion, which had established an outpost line south of the Calaguiman, came under attack by the advance elements of Colonel Imai's eastern column, the 2d Battalion, 141st Infantry. Soon the Japanese began to cross the Calaguiman, about one mile north of the main line of resistance. By 2300 the Japanese battalion had reached a cane field on the left front of the 57th's 3d Battalion, directly before Company I. This cane field, about 150 yards in front of the main line of resistance, had not been cleared on the assumption that artillery would effectively prevent its use by the enemy as a route of approach.

That night the Japanese in the cane field moved out against the main line of resistance. First came an artillery and mortar barrage, which was answered by concentrated fire from the 75-mm. guns of the 24th Field Artillery (PS). Hardly had the 24th opened fire than the Japanese infantry jumped off in a banzai attack across the moonlit patch of ground in front of Company I. Wave after wave of screaming Japanese troops hurled themselves forward in the face of intense fire. Men in the leading wave threw themselves on the barbed wire entanglements, forming human bridges over which succeeding waves could pass.

Despite the appalling effects of the pointblank fire from the 75's, the Japanese continued their ferocious attack until Company I, its commander seriously wounded and its executive officer killed, finally gave ground. Company K on the right immediately refused its flank and the battalion commander threw his reserve, Company L, into the fight. When this force failed to halt the Japanese, Colonel Clarke committed a company of the reserve battalion and the Japanese attack stalled. At the approach of dawn, the Scouts began a counterattack which took them almost to the original line. When the action was broken off on the morning of the 12th, there were an estimated 200 to 300 dead Japanese on the field of battle.

During the night a number of Japanese had infiltrated into the 3d Battalion area, on the left of the regimental line. The 57th Infantry spent most of the next day routing out the infiltrators, man by man, in hand-to-hand combat. After a number of Scouts had been killed, a more efficient scheme for the elimination of the infiltrated Japanese was devised. Sniper parties consisting of riflemen assisted by demolition engineers were formed and these began to comb the 3d Battalion area systematically. By the end of the day most of the Japanese had been found and killed. It was as a result of his action as the leader of one of these sniper parties that 2d Lt. Alexander R. Nininger, Jr., was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

His was the first of World War II, although Calugas received his award for heroism in the earlier fight at Layac Junction.

Here are more pictures from my trip to Bataan. These ones are from Mt. Samat. Before anything else, I feel this inscribed message at the shrine's marble wall is what this trip is all about and why I'm posting these photos for everyone to see:



On the way to Mt. Samat.
     

 

The shrine at the museum level.
   

A couple of the mural sculptures. There were more but I didn't photograph all of them.
 

The cross.


Base of the cross.


View looking due north. Across is Mt. Natib. This area was the responsibility of the PA 21st Division.


View looking northeast. I think the town of Pilar is on the upper left and Orion the upper right. Somewhere down here is Trail 2 where the sputtering Japanese offensive was stopped by the Philippine army's 41st and 21st divisions.


View looking northwest. This was the 41st division's defensive area.


The kind of jungle terrain some of the fighting took place in.


Looking west toward the I Corp area and the west coast where the Battle of the Points took place.


View of the museum area from the horizontal bar of the cross.


Looking south and southeast. This is where considerable fighting  was done by the Philippine Scouts and the American 31st Infantry trying to stem the Japanese tide afer Mt. Samat fell to the Japanese.