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The Final Act, the Curtain Falls
June 25 early morning hours
Japanese shelling is reduced to a more sustained level after midnight, but is still heavy enough to make movement difficult and to continue to exhaust the endurance of the remaining defenders. At 0500 hours the shelling stops again, and the defenders are finally able to take stock.
Oil and debris from the sunken submarines is drifting ashore, along with the bodies of some of the crew. The Filipino troops in Cheney Ravine have suffered horribly, with over 600 of the 900 killed or wounded and many of the survivors in deep shock. Few guns remain operational, and all of them are clearly doomed by the pinpoint and massive Japanese shelling and painfully accurate bombing.
Meanwhile General Moore has had a chance to finally hear the report from the fall of Fort Hughes. The only survivor tells of wounded slaughtered where they lay, morale collapsing and men running in panic over the side of cliffs, and a desperate attempt to surrender failing in the darkness and chaos of a night battle.
His garrison is down to less than 9,000 effectives, the rest have been killed, evacuated, or now filling the hospital wards of Malinta Tunnel or hiding in holes and tunnels effectively out of the fight from shell shock and exhaustion. Only around 2,000 of these troops can be considered infantry, and his beach defense guns are mostly gone so they only have machine guns and mortars to defend with. The constant shelling has wrecked most of the barbed wire, and now an amphibious landing can be expected from practically any direction. Moore can only be certain of having guns to defend the minefields with for only a few more days, at best, due to the rate his batteries are being neutralized.
It is clear to him that if the Japanese land his men are going to be massacred, no matter how many casualties they inflict and a landing similar in size to the previous one will certainly take the island.
He comes to the only decision he can. A radiogram is sent to Eisenhower in Australia informing Commander Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) that with no choice, the garrison will surrender on June 26. A final report is sent out by radiogram reporting the slaughter of the garrison of Fort Hughes, the dire state of the remaining defenses of Fort Mills, and the failure of Operation Shoestring. Eisenhower forwards the report to Washington by officer courier as well as a brief statement by radiogram informing General Marshall and President Roosevelt that he is giving General Moore permission to surrender at the discretion of Moore but at the approval of SWPA.
Meanwhile, the Rock undergoes another day and night of bombing and shelling and General Moore orders the destruction of the remaining artillery and small arms.
The end
General Moore sends a message by radio to the Japanese commanders and orders white flags be shown at Malinta Hill and multiple locations on Topside beginning at dawn on June 26. Tanaka orders a postponement of the days bombardment and sends with the help of the Navy a delegation to accept the American surrender.
At noon, June 26, 1942, local time, the last American fortress in the Philippines surrender, with 12,068 men (4,000 Americans, the remainder Filipino) going into captivity. Ahead is a long captivity at the hand of a brutal enemy and many (nearly 20%) would not survive it. But the long siege of the Gibraltar of the Pacific is at an end.
In the rest of the Southwest Pacific Area Command, at the direction of General Eisenhower, Taps is played in honor of the defenders of the Rock even as the American flag is hauled down far away in the Philippines.