I was reading the history for my Dad's CA/AA battery on Corregidor.

One thing that perked my interest was the fact that his site was strafed by a flight of two ME 109s.I didn't know 109s were used in the Pacific.

Any info would be interesting to read.

They were not. Allied intelligence thought the Japanese had Bf 109s and so pilots etc., were informed that they might encounter them. As a result there were reports of Bf 109s being seen just like there were reports of He 112s during the BoB.

I would tend to agree with you but this came directly from the official battery history. Seeing that they were a seasoned AA crew I would think that they would be able to tell the difference between aircraft.

Dec 24, 1941 "Frequent flights of planes were seen circling Manila Bay area, maneuvering to and from Manila area. Three Messerschmidt type 109 fighter planes operated for a short while over the South channel area, two of them strafed the ration boat Neptune between Fort Hughes and Fort Drum. Batteries B and H fired on these planes flying out the south channel with good results, causing their very fast maneuvering." http://corregidor.org/ca/btty_hartford/hartford_2.htm

Capt. Starr does state "of type", but they were different than the run of the mill Japanese types.

Japan acquired five Bf 109 E-7s in 1941, for evaluation. They had no armament.

In Japan they were painted with the standard Japanese markings, white numerals on the rudder and red band outlined in white is around the rear fuselage.

They were used in comparison trials by the Japanese Army Air Force with the Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa, Nakajima Ki-44 Shoki and the Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien.

The Japanese were interested in the DB 601 engine which they license-built it for their Kawasaki Ki-61 Hien. They had little interest in the Bf 109 itself. The Allies, expecting to encounter Japanese Bf 109s in combat, assigned a code name of “Mike” to the Messerschmitts. None were flown in combat.

wasn't the Hien also called the "Tony" which I understand had a more than passing resemblance to the Bf-109?

Identification guides used by the USAAF included photos of the BF109 and FW190 because of pilot reports that they had been seen in the PTO. Neither was used by the Japanese in combat.

After action reports indicate that even seasoned crews can mistake what they see. Confusion, adrenaline, perspective call all contribute to confusion. On Dec. 7 at Pearl Harbor, gun crews reported the use by the Japanese of planes painted in US colors and marked with US stars. They were US planes, of course, which the crews had seen every day before the attack, but following the bombing claimed they were something else.

THe Ki-61 was originally thought to be of Italian design because it was unlike anything else the Japanese had, and bore resemblance to the MC-202 (and BF109) and was code named "Tony" because of this.

The interesting thing is the Ki-61 did not make its official combat debut until 1943, although apparently one was sighted during the Doolittle Raid and misidentified as a Bf-109? Using Wiki as a source here, so I'm not sure how reliable that is.