Charles Reel's Biographical Sketch


After the death of Charles Reel in 1983, the family found in his personal papers, a page of what looks like a memoir he was writing about his experience in the war:

"Everybody was proud of our outfit and the record achieved.   After the fall of Bataan when food got real scarce and repair parts for our guns ran low and we saw the boys who had escaped from Bataan, suffering from malaria and dengue fever, there was some recession of hopes; however, we still held hopes of reinforcement of troops or supplies until a few days before the final surrender.   I remember once a submarine came in, supposedly from Australia, and brought a supply of 51 second fuses for 3in shells.   (We had run out of anything but 21 sec.)   The next flight of Jap bombers that came over lost 3, blown up in mid air, and 4 more went away smoking.   We then thought help to be only days away.   I believe that, even though the realization in those last hours that our chance of survival was futile and we were so battle worn and weak that further resistance was impractical, the saddest hour of my life was the one when the stars and stripes was lowered and the white flag of surrender was raised.   I had seen my fellow soldiers seriously wounded and killed, later I was to see them die by the hundreds in prison camps from starvation, disease and exposure, even beaten to death by the enemy guards, but still the thoughts of surrender were worse.

Briefly, I arrived in PI 22 April 41 on AS Army Transport Republic.   There my Best Buddy Eldridge Pendergras and I were separated.   He went to 31st Inf, later to transfer back to Ft. Bragg before the war.   I went on to Corregidor, took basic in "F" battery and later, when the 3rd Bn was formed; "I", "K", "L" and "M" batterys were formed, I went to "M" Battery.   Served as Battery Mechanic and machine gun crewman.   We were told in October that war with Japan seemed imminent and that Formosa based planes could bomb us at will.   We stayed on alert with live ammo from then until the outbreak.   During the first attack of bombers on Corregidor our batteries shot down a bomber, and no more attempts to bomb Corregidor were made until 29 Dec.

Battery "M" moved out to Manila that night and set up at Nichols Field to Combat low flying aircraft.   There I shot down my first enemy plane.   After the airfield was abandoned we moved to Pendyken area near Malakayan Palace and remained until Manila was declared an open city.   We moved into Bataan for protection of temporary airfields there and on 28 Dec. got orders to return to Corregidor.   We had two men killed in Manila on Pier 7.   A Sgt. Morrison and Cpl. Scheaffer.   There were several others wounded.   On Corregidor we sat up our Guns on Malinta Hill and around the airfield at Monkey Point.

Lt. Friedline, a fine young officer from Texas, was killed on Malinta Hill along with Pvt. Moore and Cpl. O'Brien, when a fire was started by enemy fire shells.   Several others were seriously wounded.   We had moved a 1.5 Cal auto loading gun from a disabled British ship, to the top of Malinta, stripped the traverse and elevation gears from it and maneuvered it by hand.   This was so effective against dive bombers that the enemy concentrated all bombs and artillery upon it, thus bringing the casualties.

During the first dive bombing attack on Corregidor, the small arms (.50 Cal) fire was so effective that one flight of 27 bombers lost all but three, which limped away with smoke issuing from their fusilage.   One foggy morning old Photo Joe dived low out of the clouds to take a look at us, our guns were not expecting anything on such a foggy time however I had an M1 rifle, which I had retrieved from a deceased member of the 31st infantry.   He was so low that it seemed that you could bayonet him, I opened fire and brought him down."


No other pages of my father's manuscript have been found.    Note: Eldridge Pendergrass was Charles' boyhood friend.   They both grew up together in McDowell Co., NC.   Before WWII, they served together in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Eldridge later married Charles' sister Carrie.

After returning to the US my father chose the Army as his career.   He was a recruiter in Hendersonville, N.C., then Asheville, N.C., where he met his wife Virginia Angel.   They were married in Asheville, N.C. on September 15, 1950.   At that time he was stationed at Ft. Meade, Maryland.   He was later reassigned to Camp Pickett, Va, near Blackstone. In 1952, he was assigned Recruiting duty in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1954 he was assigned to the Personnel department of the 92nd Engineers at Ft. Bragg, N.C. (Fayetteville).   He achieved the rank of E-9, Sgt. Major of Personnel for the 92nd Engineers.   In 1961 he was diagnosed with Brit's diabetes (insulin dependent) and was forced to give up his career with the Army and retire.   He returned to school and earned an accounting degree.   He worked for a few years as an accountant but his health continued to fail.   He was eventually awarded a 100% disability by the Veteran's Administration, because his illness had been caused by malnutrition and conditions suffered in the PO W camps.   He died December 23, 1983 in Asheville, North Carolina at the Oteen Veterans Hospital.


I salute those of you who lived through that ordeal and are still here to tell about it.   If anyone can tell me anything about the prison camps, life on Corregidor prior to the surrender or may have known my father, I would like to hear from you.

Thank You,
Charmaine Reel Ernst
nointellg@aol.com