WesWorld

Balintawak, Manila, Thursday, 25 December 1947

The home of Andreas Soriano was filled with people – family, friends, and hangers-on – celebrating the season with the traditional Noche Buena feast. Soriano himself had returned from the Misa de Gallo only a short while before the first guests had arrived. Holding an open house was a long-standing tradition among the members of the Principalia, and Soriano was well known for his largesse. He was also astute enough to make use of the occasion to smooth the feathers of those who had been buffeted by the recent tumult of political events, to mend fences with those useful to him, and to extract pledges of support from potential allies. Across Manila similar rituals were happening at the homes of other senators, as they too sought to buttress their positions for the future.

The Manila Times, Saturday, 27 December 1947

The ships of the German East Asia Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Bernhard Rogge, arrived at Cavite yesterday on a good will visit. It is expected that the flotilla will remain for several days before continuing its exercises on the China Sea.


The Malacañan Palace, Monday, 29 December 1947

Ramon Magsaysay carefully read through the report submitted by the commander of the Olongopo Ordnance Depot regarding the inventory of unused naval artillery, and made frequent notes with which to brief the Minister of Defense. While there were many naval guns in store, not all of them could be made useful in the requisite timeframe; the 305mm guns – for example – would require six months to be made useable at all, and would need perhaps a year’s construction of suitable emplacements – or, as the report stated, they could be turned into heavy railway artillery; which would necessitate serious expansion of the nation’s entire railway network. There were adequate numbers of 155mm guns removed from scrapped cruisers – which could be reworked inside of eight months. This was more promising, but the many 100mm guns were light enough that they could be available within six months. Still, such emplacements would be static, and he doubted that the Chinese would be so obliging as to only land where defenses were at their strongest. What he needed were options.