Abucay Defense line battlefield tour, Bataan

[labrador]

This year, we decided to skip the National Commemoration of the day of Gallantry, April 9 (lot's of bigwigs and politicians) and set off to visit some actual battlefields on the Bataan peninsula and shoot a few photos as well. These were mostly taken at the Abucay Hacienda defense line where Imai's 141st infantry first probed the lines of the 57th Div. PS and then scucceeded in breaking the USAFFE defense line between the Philippine Army 53rd and 51st Divisions.

Abucay church was an artillery spotter's position of the US 57th division:



We then proceeded to the Abucay defense line:

























we ended our tour at the Morong church, where E troop US 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts conducted the last Cavalry charge of the US Army.

[nelz]

.
Fantastic !!

[Stefan1944]

Great photos....

[gebirgsjäger]

Great Pics. Japan Soldiers beautyfull.

[Storm56]

Nices pictures!!!

[Tanaka]

not bad, although it would be nice if atleast one guy in the unit could put his puttees on correctly.

[Halle]

Very good impressions guys , you really portray the Japanese soldiers well . Not sure about the puttees as I'm no expert on Jap uniforms , Tanaka , you'll have to come out of retirement ....

[labrador]

Thanks for the constructive advice, Tanaka. Not really an expert myself (i'm one of the PS infantrymen) but i will take it up with the IJA group head. as far as i know, someone downloaded a tutorial on putting them on. I am pretty sure that in the mad rush to get out of the vans and shoot photos, some were not very well done. I have tried putting them on myself a couple of times and getting them properly done up is quite a challenge. Any secrets or tips you are willing to share? Are they all wrong?

[Oberleutnant Ulrich]

Fantastic stuff! I would love to see more of this in the future. I would have looved to reenact as a Japanese soldier...but I would find pictures of myself odd as I just look German but the Pacific war should be reenacted more often..it's easier on the reenactor as you can get so much closer to the real thing...it doesn't feel like your missing something unlike reenacting German...you miss your PANZER!

[Tanaka]

Very good impressions guys , you really portray the Japanese soldiers well . Not sure about the puttees as I'm no expert on Jap uniforms , Tanaka , you'll have to come out of retirement ....

would rather punch myself repeatably in the face mate than do that lol. Doing the chalke valley show in June and then im gone.

Puttees are a piece of piss once you've practiced a few times. ALWAYS put them on with your leg bent, so get down on one knee to do them, this flexs your calf muscle and means if you wrap them as tight as you can they will stay up forever without cutting off the blood in your legs.
I have done a guide of putting on puttees before.

Start off the puttee on the inside of the foot with the point of the puttee facing backwards.

Wrap around once, covering the bottom of the first to stop it un-wrapping itself

Do another complete wrap

Third wrap flip the puttee over in your hand to get the re-basse on the front

4th wrap do the same, the puttee in your hand should now be back the right way to continue un-wrapping

Continue to wrap the puttee up your leg

Once your up the top take the tape and bring it down across the front of your shin

Wrap the tape once around the bottom of your leg then back up across your shin to create the X pattern

Wrap the tape around the top of your leg until you have just enough left to fold under the tapes on the outside of your leg

Wrap it around a couple of times, if you have any excess tape left tuck it under the puttee material

Completed

[labrador]

Cool! great detail, Tanaka san. Will try this soon. Domo Arigato gozaimasu!