Thursday, February 3, 1955 THE BATTALION Sec. II—Page 3
x War Correspondent Recalls
Dramatic Battle For Manila
Editor’s note: Ten years aj;o,
jubilant American troops smash
ed into Manila’s Santo Tomas
University to liberate thousands
of civilians held captive by the
Japanese. Today, Filipinos have
renewed their resolve to stand
with the United States at anoth
er critical hour in the Far East.
Here is'a story of the liberation
by an AP war correspondent
who was interned there, repatri
ated, but returned with U.S.
troops to be in on the freeing of
fellow internees.
- By RUSSELL BRINES
Associated Press Writer
The avmored column shot out of
•l^ie blood-red sunset, wheeled past
machine gun fire and rammed
through the front gate of Santo
Tomas University in flaming Ma
nila.
It was 6:30 p.m., Feb. 3, 1945—
a hallowed moment, a dangerous
moment.
‘ The sudden thx-ust, by a flying
unit of the 1st Cavalry Division,
started the liberation of thousands
of American and British civilian
prisoners of the Japanese.
It triggered the battle of Manila
•—one of the most vicious engage
ments of the Pacific war.
The stories, the memories and
the heartaches of that battle—sym
bol of the cruel venom of city
fighting—live on today in the Ori
ent, as it watches new tension be
tween West and East.
Ironically, the man who led the
grim and grimy cavalrymen into
IVJanila is the same man who now
stands technically in front of in
fantry forces defending Formosa—
Maj. Gen. William C. Chase, head
of the U.S. military mission to the
Chinese Nationalists at Taipeh.
His flying column, that hot day
a decade ago, reached the Santo
Tomas internment camp after a
•did dash through half a Japanese
>rmy, on a mission to rescue the
internees.
The lead tank, a monster in the
half-gloom, blasted at the Japa
nese guard, then butted down the
gate fronting the Spanish-style uni
versity that had been home and
prison to more than 3,000 men,
women and children for just over
three years.
Triumphant GI’s popped from
the turret and shouted to a hand
ful of prisoners — scarecrows in
patched clothes—who had been at
tracted by the shots.
Then in tears and sobs and stun
ned disbelief—for starvation dulls
the mind—liberation came to those
»vho had dreamed of it, hoped for
it, sometimes despaired of it, for
So long. &
«But there was a cruel finale.
The flying column, short of gas
oline and ammunition and tempo-
i^rily cut. off from the main body
advancing American forces, had
to remain within the compound.
Within hours, Japanese guns be
gan raking the three-story univer
sity building and the little wooden
shanties which the internees had
built for homes across its campus.
And so the memories of triumph
are dusted with ashes:
A battle-marked sergeant tender
ly tempting a scrawny prison child
with chocolate ... a woman blown
apart by an artillery shell because,
during a barrage, she rushed back
into her room to save her prize
possession — a faded, worthless
dress . . . diamond-bright tears of
joy in the eyes of a woman prisoner
whose husband came in with the
flying column . . . the rail-thin
frame of a once robust business
man, shaking weakly with a new
joke—the last he made before dy
ing the next day . . .
Even then, the battle in the city
outside was building up to a cres
cendo of terror.
A suicide garrison, built around
ruthless Japanese marines, holed
up w’ithin the six foot-thick walls
of the old Spanish city, the in-
tramuros.
The garrison began, with syste
matic brutality, to carry out a
previous threat of punishing the
filipinos if they helped the Ameri
cans, pouring down two highways
toward Manila.
Men, women and children were
driven into frame houses, which
were set afire, and machine gun
ned if they fled. They were shot
in churches. They were bayonetted.
Then American fire power reach
ed into the city, and a jungle war,
a last-man war, roared through its
streets and buildings.
For days, the city shook con
stantly with hammering artillery
fire. Air attacks were outlawed, to
save Filipino civilians. But big
guns were turned with pinpoint ac
curacy on eveiy Japanese position
—the fine, new legislative build
ings; the ancient churches; clubs
and hotels.
Then the infantry went in. They
crossed the sluggish Pasig river
and fought, yard-by-yard, through
the Intramuros. In one building,
Americans held one room, and Jap
anese dropped hand grenades
through cracks in the second-story
floor.
Now, bustling Manila, completely
rebuilt and sparkling, has few phy
sical scars of war.
But the memories are there. And
they must come back to many men,
as the Philippines announce again
their resolve* to stand with the
United States in the Far East.
For the air power that set up
the Japanese invasion—and led to
the battle of Mania—came from
F ormosa.
Enterprise Profits
Used For Expansion
Engineers Librarian
In Europe For Study
LOST FOR SEASON—Roger Harvey, probably A&M’s top
defensive basketball player, reinjured a knee in practice
and has been lost to the team for the rest of the season.
Coach John Floyd said Harvy, 5-11 guard from Denison,
was rapidly developing into one of the leading defenders
in the conference and was A&M’s fourth ranking scorer
with 108 points.
Robert E. Betts, librarian of the
Texas Engineers Library at A&M,
has arrived in Europe for a nine-
months study tour of the import
ant centei’s of learning in ten coun
tries. He sailed aboard the Queen
Mary on Jan. 15 after visiting rel
atives in Raleigh, N. C.
The Texas Engineers Library is
cooperatively sponsored by the col
lege and the State Board of Regis
tration for Professional Engineers.
It occupies the Gibb Gilchrist
building on the campus housing
nearly 30,000 volumes of technical
and scientific publications.
Betts recently authored articles
in two magazines, The Library
Journal and Texas Professional
Engineer.
On the trip abroad he expects to
do liSrary research at London,
Cambridge University, Southhamp
ton, Leeds, Manchester and Shef
field in England. He plans study
also at the Technical Institute of
Zurich, Switzerland, and the fa
mous University of Delft in Hol
land.
His itinerary will include visits
to libraries in Rome, Milano, Tor
ino, Venice and Florence in Italy,
as well as leading institutions in
Spain, France, Germany, Scotland
and the Scandinavian countries.
Betts will climax his trip by at
tending the International Confer
ence of Librarians in Brussels in
September. Later he will attend
a librarians conference in London
before returning to the United
States late in October.
He received his BA degree from
the University of North Carolina
and his degree in library science
from Peabody College in Nashville.
His graduate work in English lit
erature was taken at Columbia
University.
He was associated with the Li
brary of Congress both in the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and the
Army Medical Section, and in li
braries at Iowa Wesleyan and Uni
versity of Idaho before coming to
A&M in 1948.
Betty Bateman, who joined the
Engineers Library staff a year
ago, will be acting librarian dur
ing Bett’s absence.
Texas Forest Service Sets
Fall Research Fellowships
Shepperd To Speak
John Ben Shepperd, Texas at
torney general, will be the prin
cipal speaker at the initiation ban
quet of Sigma Delta Chi, national
professional journalism fraternity
at A&M, Feb. 18. Twenty A&M
students are due to be initiated
into the fraternity.
Plant Sctiool Starts
At A&M Feb. 7
The first meeting of the Indus
trial Plant Protection school will
be held on the campus Feb. 7-11.
The school will seek to provide
industrial plant protection person
nel with practical training in all
phases and procedures related to
plant security, said Wallace D.
Beasley, director of the school.
The school will be conducted by
the Texas engineering extension
service under the sponsorship of
the Industrial Plant Protection as
sociation of Texas.
The Texas Forest Service, a part
of the A&M System, announces the
availability of three research fel
lowships effective Sept. 1, 1955.
The fellowships will be granted to
candidates for the degree of Doc
tor of Philosophy in the field of
forest genetics, forest physiology
or wood technology (anatomy). The
amount of each fellowship is $1765
a year on a 12-month basis for res
ident students and $2080 per year
for out-of-state students.
Candidates holding a master’s
degree in a plant science are pre
ferred. The candidates may major
in either the A&M department of
biology, plant physiology or ge
netics.
The research fellowships are part
of the Texas Forest Service’s for
est tree improvement program un
der the direction of Dr. Brue Zobel
of the Research and Education De
partment. The Texas Forest Serv
ice will provide office, laboratory,
greenhouse, lathe house space and
equipment for the recipients of the
fellowships. Apartments owned
by the College are available at a
nominal rent to accommodate mar
ried students.
Funds for support of the fellow
ships have been made possible
through donations by units of the
forest products industries. Moneys
received from these contributors
are used not only for the fellow
ships but also for other tree im
provement research of the Texas
Forest Service.
For further information regard
ing the fellowships, inquiries should
be addressed to Dr. A. D. Folweiler,
director, Texas Forest Service, or
Dr. Ide P. Trotter, dean of the
graduate school.
Former Students
Infantry Grads
Three A&M graduates, class of
1954, recently were graduated from
the Infantry School’s basic infan
try officers course at Fort Ben-
ning, Ga.
They are Second Lt. Rowe D.
Caldwell jr., of Del Valle; Second
Lt. Gene A. Smith of Rockport and
Second Lt. Rupert E. Buckalew* of
Dallas. They entered the service
last September.
Designed for officers who have
not served with troops, the course
gave the lieutenants instruction in
the tasks and problems of an in
fantry unit commander.
“The American System of free
enterprise is great because, among
other things it reinvests a large
percentage of its profits in the
tools of production,” a noted indus
trialist and business man said last
week at A&M.
“Today,” the speaker, Raymond
E. Olson, president of the Taylor
Instrument companies of Roches
ter, N. Y., declared, “the annual
output of industrial instruments is
in the vicinity of 200 million dol
lars.” He gave the opening talk
at the tenth annual Symposium on
Instrumentation for the Process
Industries.
Olson said that “in 1931 our
output was plowed pack to replace
resources and capital equipment—
that is the ‘tools of production’
used up or worn out during the
year.”
The speaker declared that in
1851 “the year our economy was
established the estimated work en
ergy output of the country was 12
billions of horse power-hours; to
day it is estimated to be in excess
of 400 billion of horsepower-hours.
In 1851,” he said, “73 per cent of
the energy was supplied by ani
mals and human beings; in 1954
about 5 per cent of the energy out
put was supplied by animals and
human beings and the rest by tools
of production—that is 95 per cent
'of our 400 billion horsepowei'-hours
are produced by tools.”
In spite of the vastly reduced
use- of men’s muscles, employment,
Olson said, “exceeds 60 million
people. In the chemical and oil in
dustries today each employee com
mands approximately $50,000 in
equipment.”
The symposium was conducted
by the college’s department of
chemical engineering. Dr. C. D.
Holland was general chairman.
More than 300 persons from
throughout Texas and other states
attended.
Dr. J. P. Abbott, dean of the
college, gave the welcome address.
“This was one of the most suc
cessful and best attended Sympo
siums on Instrumentation Process
Industries we have ever held,” Hol
land said Friday at the close of
the three-day meeting.
Top-flight men of the industry
from all over the United States
attended the symposium. The
$100,000 exhibit of instruments,
placed on display in the Memorial
Student Center, drew wide atten
tion.
Konecny Named
To Extension
Assistantship
F. J. (Jack) Konecny has been
named executive assistant to H. D.
Bearden, vice-director of the Tex
as Engineering Extension Service,
A&M System. His appointment
was effective Feb. 1.
He has been with the Texas Edu
cation Agency at Austin for the
past nine years and r is chief con
sultant for the industrial education
department of the vocational edu
cation division of the agency.
Konecny is a graduate of A&M,
holding a master’s degi’ee in indus
trial education and a BS degree
in mechanical engineering.
Prior to his employment with the
Texas Education Agency he served
in the industrial vocational fields
as teacher or official in the public
schools of Austin, Corpus Christi,
El Paso and with Arlington State
College, Florida State University
and at Oklahoma A&M College. He
also has had wide experience as
a mechanical engineer and manag
er of several industries and busi
ness concerns.
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