Supply lines to the front units were inadequate.  The shock of  knowing  the enemy followed so closely on their heels as they entered Bataan hit the troops also.  The enemy pushed through the Layac  defensive and drove the last American troops back onto the Mt. Natib line. Inertia gripped all ranks. Sanitation was ghastly. Food cans were scattered randomly about the jungle.

Bataan was put on half rations. Rations for  one day were:

4 oz. of rice
1.5 oz. of sugar
1 oz. of canned milk
2.5 oz. canned fish, salmon or sardines
tomatoes when available - ten men per can

This ration continued from early January,  1942 until the middle of February.  Bread was issued for the first two weeks, but then disappeared.  During the last part of February, the rice ration went from 4 oz. up to 8 oz. and up again to 12 oz. during the last two weeks in March. At the end they were given 16 oz. But this was not enough. 

They began to eat anything they could find. They ate pony, mule, iguana, monkey, anything they could get their hands on. They ate the jungle. 

The sad fact was that large stores of food had been abandoned to the enemy on both Bataan and Corregidor.

Dysentery,  malaria and beriberi had combined to produce a weakened American and Filipino Army.  Russ had dengue fever during this time.  Most of the men were weak and sick actually to the point of staggering, and yet the fighting went on.

Day 434 - Early summer, 1943
While on a work detail loading onions, we began to eat them.  Naturally we were caught and taken outside and lined up to be questioned. As the guard came down to each man he would say "Why you take onions?". The man would reply that he  didn't take onions, and then he would get knocked down by the guard for he could smell them on the man’s breath.  When the guard got to me and asked "Why you take onions?" I replied, "Because I was hungry." This surprised the guard who stepped back, took me out of line and said, "This man speak truth." He put me  back  in line without hitting me,  then went to the next man, asked the same ques-tion. The man lied, so the guard promptly knocked him down!  Wonder why he didn't take my cue and "speak the truth"?

On  February  15th, 1942  Singapore fell.   A stunned  silence prevailed.  The chain  of  their relief line was broken. The Japanese propaganda radio in Manila beamed messages of Allied losses to the Americans in English. The theme song was "I'm Waiting For Ships That Never Come In".

American War correspondent Frank Hewlett wrote:

We're the battling bastards of Bataan.
No Mama, no Papa, no Uncle Sam.
No aunts , no uncles, no nephews, no nieces.
No rifles, no planes, or artillery pieces.
And nobody gives a damn.