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2nd Lt. Donald Ray Bertrand |
2nd Lt. Donald R. Bertrand was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on August 8, 1919. When he was two, his parents, Thomas Bertrand & Mary Pope-Bertrand, moved their family first to Estherville, Iowa, and then to Maywood, Illinois. In Maywood, he, his brother, and two sisters were raised at 205 South 8th Avenue and attended Emerson Grade School. He graduated from Proviso Township High School in 1939 and worked as a receiving clerk at a paper good company.
Donald joined the 33rd Tank Company of the
Illinois National Guard to fulfill his
military obligation. On November 28,
1940, Donald left Maywood for Fort Knox,
Kentucky, for training. At Fort Knox, Donald
learned to operate the all the equipment used
by the 192nd. He attended radio
operators school and qualified as a radio man.
When Headquarters Company was formed, in
January 1941, Donald was assigned to the
company as the technical sergeant in the
reconnaissance platoon. From September
1st to 30th, the 192nd was sent to take part
in maneuvers in Louisiana. When
the maneuvers ended,
the 192nd Tank
Battalion was ordered
to report to Camp
Polk, Louisiana.
The members of the
battalion had no idea
why they were being
sent there. What
they were told, on the
side of a hill, was
that they were being
sent overseas.
He returned home on leave and
got engaged to Evelyn Crowe.
While there, the battalion received orders for
duty, in the Philippines, because of an event
that happened during the summer of 1941. A
squadron of American fighters was flying over
Lingayen Gulf when one of the pilots noticed
something odd. He took his plane down and
identified a buoy in the water. He came
upon more buoys that lined up, in a straight
line, in the direction of an Japanese occupied
island. When the squadron landed he
reported what he had seen. By the time a
Navy ship was sent to the area, the buoys had
been picked up. It was at that time the
decision was made to build up the American
military presence in the Philippines.
The 192nd was boarded onto the U.S. A. T.
Hugh L. Scott and sailed on Monday,
October 27th. During this part of the
trip, many tankers had seasickness, but once
they recovered they spent much of the time
training in breaking down machine guns, cleaning
weapons, and doing KP. The ship
arrived at Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sunday, November
2nd and had a two day layover, so the soldiers
were given shore leave so they could see the
island.
In the Philippines, Donald received a
battlefield commission as an officer and
reassigned to C Company.
He was made a tank platoon
commander. On December 1st, the
tankers were ordered to the perimeter of
Clark Airfield to guard against Japanese
paratroopers. From this time on, two
tank crew members, or half-track crew
members, remained with each vehicle at all
times and received their meals from food
trucks.
On December 16, 1941, Donald and Lt.
Emmett Gibson were at Clark Field when
Japanese planes appeared and bombed the
airfield once more. The two
officers found themselves in a
slip-trench during a Japanese air
attack. Each one had a .30 caliber
machine gun and opened fire on the
planes. Both men watched as their
tracers went through the wings of the
Japanese fighters. The pilots of
the planes broke off the attack and took
off for home.
During the withdraw into the peninsula, the
company crossed over the last bridge which was
mined and about to be blown. The 192nd
held its position so that the 194th Tank
Battalion could leap frog past it and then cover
the 192nd's withdraw. The 192nd was the last
American unit to enter Bataan. One
night, while on beach duty, the Japanese
attempted to land troops on the beach
guarded by B Company. The company and
the Japanese got into a tremendous fire
fight. When morning came, not one
Japanese soldier had been landed on the
beach. The Japanese later admitted
that the tanks guarding the beaches
prevented them from attempting other
landings.
The company also took part in the
Battle of the Points on the west coast
of Bataan. The Japanese landed
troops but ended up trapped. One
was the Lapay-Longoskawayan points
from January 23rd to 29th, the
Quinawan-Aglaloma points from 22
January to February 8th, and the
Sililam-Anyasan points from January
27th to February 13th. The
defenders successfully eliminated the
points. Food for the prisoners was generous. The food was well prepared and each POW received a full mess kit of rice and a canteen cup filled with a thick cabbage soup containing pork. They even were given corn beef and cabbage one night.
The trip on the freighter lasted 13 days.
The reason was the ship made frequent stops in
ports along the coast of Luzon. The POWs
disembarked the ship at Davao, where they joined
another group of 1000 prisoners. To the
POWs these prisoners at Davao appeared to
be well fed when compared to the men in their
group. Upon arrival of new POWs, the
rations for these men were cut in half which
caused friction between the two groups. At Davao, the prisoners were assigned to a farm. The prisoners grew rice, sweet potatoes, cassava roots, coffee and squash. The food was used to feed the Japanese soldiers in the Philippines. Leftover food was ship to the military in Japan. The only part of this food the prisoners received were the plant tops from the sweet potatoes. The prisoners were fed rice three times a day. The evening meal would also include mongo beans. For three to four months, the POWs also received tuna fish once a week.
Unlike the many camps, there was plenty of water
available to the prisoners and there was a well
in the compound. The POWs could actually
keep themselves and their clothes clean.
Being clean was a great help in improving the
health of the POWs. While he was a POW
there, his parents received a POW card from
him. As the American forces got closer
to the
Philippine
Islands the
Japanese began
to send as
many POWs to
Japan or other
occupied
countries as
possible.
On June 6,
1944, the
Japanese sent
the POWs to
Lasang,
Mindano, by
truck.
Once there,
the POWs were
boarded onto
the Yashu
Maru and
held in the
ship's front
holds for six days before it
sailed.
The ship
sailed on the
12th and
dropped anchor
off Zamboanga,
Mindano, for
two days
before sailing
for Cebu City
arriving on
June
17th.
The POWs were
taken off the
ship and held
in a
warehouse.
The POWs were
returned to
the dock and
boarded an
unnamed ship
and arrived at
Manila on June
25th and was
sent to
Cabanatuan. On
December 12, 1944, the POWs
heard rumors that a detail was
being sent out. The next
day, December 13th, the POWs
went through what was a farce of
an inspection which started at
7:30 in the morning and lasted
until after 9:00. They
were told cigarettes, soap, and
salt would be issued. The
POWs were also told that they
would also receive a meal to eat
and one to take with them.
They were allowed to roam the
compound. By 11:30 A.M., the POWs were lined up, roll call was taken, and the POWs formed detachments of 100 men. The men were fed a meal and then marched to Pier 7 in Manila. During the march, down Luzon Boulevard, the POWs saw that the street cars had stopped running and many things were in disrepair. The Americans saw that the American bombers were doing a job on the Japanese transports. There were at least forty wrecked ships in the bay. When the POWs reached Pier 7, there were three ships docked. One was a old run down ship, while the other two were large and in good shape. They soon discovered one of the two nicer ships was their ship.
It was at this
time that the
POWs were
allowed to sit
down.
Many of the
POWs slept
until 3:45 in
the
afternoon.
They were
awakened about
5:00 PM and
boarded the
Oryoku Maru
for transport
to Japan. The POWs remained on the tennis courts for nine days. During their time on the courts, American planes attacked the area around them. The men watched as the fighter bombers came in vertically releasing bombs as they pulled out of the dives. On several occasions, the planes dove right at the POWs, dropped their bombs, and pulled out. The bombs drifted over the POWs and landed away from them exploding on contact. Since the POWs had no place to hide, they watched and enjoyed the show. They believed that the pilots knew they were Americans but had no way of knowing if this was true. What is known is that not one bomb was dropped on them even though they could be seen from the planes.
The
evening of
December 16th,
the Japanese
brought 50
kilo bags of
rice for the
POWs.
About half of
the rice had
fallen out of
the bags
because of
holes in
them.
Each POW was
given three
spoons of raw
rice and a
quarter of a
spoon of
salt.
The daily
routine for
the POWs on
the ship was
to have six
men climb out
of the
hold.
Once on deck,
they would use
ropes to pull
up the dead
and also pull
up the human
waste in
buckets.
Afterwards,
the men on
deck would
lower ten
buckets
containing
rice, soup,
and tea.
The dead were
thrown into
the sea. During the night of December 30th, the POWs heard the sound of depth charges exploding in the water. The ship arrived at Takao, Formosa, on December 31st and docked around 11:30 AM. After arriving at Takao, each POW received a six inch long, 3/4 inch wide piece hardtack to eat. This was the first bread they had since receiving crackers in their Red Cross packages in 1942. During the time in the harbor, the POWs received little water. From January 1st through the 5th, the POWs received one meal a day which resulted in the death rate among the POWs to rise. On January 6th, the POWs began to receive two meals a day. While docked at Takao, the Enoura Maru came under attack by American planes the morning of January 9th. The POWs were receiving their first meal, when the sound of ship's machine guns was heard. The explosions of bombs falling closer and closer to the ship was also heard. The waves created from the explosions rocked the ship. One bomb that hit the ship exploded in the corner of the forward hold killing 285 prisoners. The surviving POWs remained in the hold for three days with the dead, and the stench from the dead filled the air. On January 11th, a work detail was formed and about half the dead were removed from the hold, and a POW detail, of twenty men, took the corpses to a large furnace where they were cremated. These men reported that 150 POWs had been cremated. Their ashes were buried in a large urn on Formosa. Later in the day, the survivors of the forward hold were moved into another hold. On January 13th, the surviving POWs were boarded onto a third "hell hhip" the Brazil Maru. On the ship, the POWs found they had more room and were actually issued life jackets. The ship sailed for Japan on January 14th as part of a convoy. 2nd Lt. Donald R. Bertrand died in the ship's hold on January 20, 1945. The cause of death was listed as dysentery on the final report on the 192nd Tank Battalion, but U.S. Army records show that he died from wounds he had received during the attack on the Enoura Maru. Donald was 23 years old. After 2nd Lt. Donald R. Bertrand died, his body was thrown overboard after being stripped of its clothing. His clothing was given to other prisoners who needed it. Since he died at sea, 2nd Lt. Donald R. Bertrand's name appears on the Tablets of the Missing at the American Military Cemetery outside of Manila. |
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