Bernstein, Capt. Max M., M.D.

Capt. Max Martin Bernstein M.D. was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 30, 1913, to Harry Berstein and Bella Schechtman-Bernstein. With his two sisters and three brothers, he grew up at 4845 North Avers Avenue, Chicago, Illinois He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1930, and the University of Chicago in 1934 with a Bachelor of Science. He then attended the university’s medical school, specialized in cardiology, and graduated as a member of the Class of 1937. He also may have been in the Illinois National Guard at one time, since he had been a medical officer at Camp Grant, near Rockford, Illinois. He worked as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Cook County Hospital, in Chicago. On October 16, 1940, he registered when the Selective Service Act took effect and named his father as his contact person. He was inducted into the U.S. Army in January 1941, in Chicago, and was commissioned a second lieutenant the same day.

In August 1941, the 19th Ordnance Battalion was taking part in maneuvers in Arkansas, when its A Company was called back to Ft. Knox. The company inactivated on August 16th, and the next day it was activated as the 17th Ordnance Company a totally independent ordnance company. On the same day, the company received orders to go overseas. It is believed that it was at that time that Bernstein was assigned to the company with two medics. It is believed he was promoted to first lieutenant at this time.

The reason the 17th Ordnance Company was created appears to be tied to the creation of the First Tank Group. There are at least two stories of how the tank group ended up in the Philippines. In the first story, the decision to send the 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions overseas was the result of an event that happened earlier in 1941. According to this story, a squadron of American fighters was flying over Lingayen Gulf, in the Philippines, when one of the pilots, who was flying at a lower altitude, noticed something odd. He took his plane down and identified a flagged buoy in the water and saw another in the distance. He came upon more buoys that lined up, in a straight line for 30 miles to the northwest, in the direction of Taiwan which had a large radio transmitter. The squadron continued its flight plan south to Mariveles and returned to Clark Field. When the planes landed, it was too late to do anything that day.

The next day, when another squadron was sent to the area, the buoys had been picked up by a fishing boat – with a tarp on its deck covering something – which was seen making its way to shore. Since communication between the Air Corps and Navy was difficult, the boat escaped. It was at that time the decision was made to build up the American military presence in the Philippines.

Members of the 192nd Tank Battalion members believed that the reason they were selected to be sent overseas was that they had performed well on the Louisiana maneuvers in September 1941. The story was that they were personally selected by Gen. George Patton – who had commanded the tanks of the Blue Army – to go overseas. There is no evidence that this was true and it is known that even before the battalion took part in the maneuvers it’s members had heard that they had been selected to go overseas. One sergeant wrote home in early August about being sent to the Philippines and said in the letter that he was happy that the 194th Tank Battalion was being sent instead of the 192nd.

The fact was that both battalions were part of the First Tank Group which was headquartered at Ft. Knox and operational by June 1941. Available information suggests that the tank group had been selected to be sent to the Philippines early in 1941. The group was made up of the 70th and 191st Tank Battalions – the 191st had been a medium National Guard tank battalion while the 70th was regular army – at Ft. Meade, Maryland, the 192nd, at Ft. Knox, the 193rd at Ft. Benning, Georgia, and the 194th at Ft. Lewis, Washington. The 192nd, 193rd, and 194th had been light tank National Guard battalions.

The 194th was assigned M3 tanks to replace its older M2A2 tanks and other tanks. The tanks were sent west from Ft. Knox, Kentucky, where they had been requisitioned by an officer of the 192nd Tank Battalion, 2nd Lt. William Gentry, for the battalion. Gentry was given written orders from the War Department giving him authority to take tanks from any unit so the 194th had its full complement of tanks. In some cases, the tanks he took had just arrived at the fort and were on flatcars and about to be unloaded when he and his detachment arrived and took the tanks from soldiers waiting to unload them. In other cases, Gentry went to other tank battalions and requisitioned the tanks which in some cases were within five hours of their required 100 hour maintenance. From Ft. Knox, the tanks were sent west, by train, and were waiting for the battalion at Ft. Mason, in the San Francisco Port of Embarkation.

The company was ordered to proceed to the Presidio, California, which was its Port of Embarkation. It is not known if the company went west on one train or multiple trains; they may have been on the same train carrying the tanks for the 194th. The troop train had passenger, baggage, and kitchen facilities. The company's trucks, maintenance vehicles, and half-tracks were loaded into flatcars at Ft. Knox. When the train reached Bolen, New Mexico, the company lost a supply truck with equipment because of a fire that was caused by ciders from the train's locomotive when the truck's canvas roof caught fire. The train arrived at the Presidio on September 5th.

When they arrived, Capt. Richard Kadel, commanding officer of the 17th, received orders that the company was to immediately load 54 M3 tanks and an unknown number of half-tracks onto the USAT President Coolidge. The company was given the responsibility over all ordnance equipment and armament until the ship was at sea. It took the company 3 days and 2 nights to load the equipment and the turrets of 20 tanks had to be removed so that they would fit into one of the ship's holds that did not have enough headroom. So that the turrets went back on the tanks they came off of, the tanks' serial numbers were hand painted onto their turrets. Armament was also removed from the tanks. A replacement truck and equipment for the truck that burned up came from the Quartermaster Corps. The ship’s captain also ordered that the fuel and batteries be removed from the tanks. He stated they would be sent to the Philippines later, but it appears he had a change of mind, or received orders, because the batteries sailed with the tanks. Perhaps it was simply explained to him that without the batteries, the tanks could not be unloaded from the ship.

The soldiers boarded the USAT President Calvin Coolidge which sailed at 9 PM. The enlisted men found themselves assigned to bunks in the ship’s holds with the tanks. Those men with lower bunks found them unbearable to sleep in because of the heat and humidity. Soon, most men were sleeping on deck but learned quickly to get up early because the crew hosed down the deck each morning. Many of the men had seasickness during this part of the voyage. The soldiers spent their time attending lectures, playing craps and cards, reading, writing letters, and sunning themselves on deck. Other men did the required work like turning over the tanks’ engines by hand and the clerks caught up on their paperwork. The ship arrived at 7:00 A.M. on September 13th in Honolulu, Hawaii, and the soldiers were given four-hour passes ashore. At 5:00 PM that evening the ship sailed.

The next morning, the members of the company were called together and they were informed they were going to the Philippines. The reality was there were only three places that they could be sent: Alaska, Hawaii, or the Philippines. One tank company of the 194th had been sent to Alaska, so that left only two places. When the ship arrived in Hawaii, the men were given day passes to see the island, but they had to be back on ship before it sailed later that day. On the next leg of the voyage, the ship was joined by the USS Guadalupe which was a replenishment oiler. The heavy cruiser, USS Houston, and an unknown destroyer which were the ship's escorts. During rough weather, the destroyer approached the Coolidge for a personnel transfer. The soldiers recalled that the destroyer bobbed up and down and from side to side in the water with waves breaking over its deck as it attempted to make the transfer. When it became apparent that a small boat would be crushed if it attempted to transfer someone from one ship to the other, a bosun’s chair was rigged and the man was sent from the Coolidge to the destroyer. A few of the tanks in the hold broke loose from their moorings and rolled back and forth slamming into the ship’s hull. The tanks did this until the tankers and members of 17th Ordnance secured them.

The ships crossed the International Dateline the night of Tuesday, September 16th, and the date became Thursday, September 18th. A few days past Guam, the soldiers saw the first islands of the Philippines. The ships sailed south along the east coast of Luzon, around the southern end of the island, and up the west coast. On Friday, September 26th, the ships entered Manila Bay at about 7:00 in the morning. The soldiers remained on board and disembarked at 3:00 P.M. The members of the 194th were bused to a train station and then rode a train to Fort Stotsenburg. The battalion’s maintenance section, remained behind at the pier, with the 17th Ordnance Company, to unload the tanks and reattach the tanks’ turrets.

The 194th's maintenance section and 17th Ordnance reinstalled the batteries, but they needed aviation fuel for the tanks’ engines to get them off the docks. 2nd Lt. Russell Swearingen, 194th, went to the quartermaster and asked him for the fuel. He was told that they did not have any at the port so he would have to go to the Army Air Corps to get it. When he arrived at the Air Corps command, he was informed that they couldn’t give him the aviation fuel without a written order. It took two weeks to get the last tanks off the docks. In addition, the company had to unload its own equipment from the ship. Most of the equipment would allow it to manufacture replacement parts for the tanks. To do this, it had several trucks that were mobile machine shops with some machines that were one of a kind machines. It appears spare tank parts had already arrived and placed in warehouse. The ordnance company was not able to get the tank parts released to them.

While all this was going on, the 194th’s half-tracks, peeps, (later known as jeeps), and motorcycles arrived. The members of the company were back on the docks unloading them. The 194th’s reconnaissance detachment had Harley-Davidsons at Ft. Lewis but the new motorcycles were Indian Motorcycles with all the controls on the opposite side of the bikes. After they were on the docks, many of the peeps - that were sent over for reconnaissance - were taken by high-ranking officers for their own use since they were the first to arrive in the Philippines.  When the men finished their work, they rode busses to a train station and then a train to Ft. Stotsenburg.

Upon arriving at the fort, they were greeted by General Edward P. King Jr. who apologized that they had to live in tents and receive their meals from food trucks until their barracks were completed. He informed the battalion he had learned of their arrival just days before they arrived. After he was satisfied that they were settled in, he left them. It rained the first night in the tents flooding many of the tents. They also quickly learned not to leave their shoes on the ground or they became moldy.

Upon arriving at the fort, they were greeted by General Edward P. King Jr. who apologized that they had to live in tents and receive their meals from food trucks until their barracks were completed. He informed the battalion he had learned of their arrival just days before they arrived. After he was satisfied that they were settled in, he left them. It rained the first night in the tents flooding many of the tents. They also quickly learned not to leave their shoes on the ground or they became moldy.

After spending three weeks in tents, they moved into their barracks on October 18th, the barracks were described as being on stilts with walls that from the floor were five feet of a weaved matting called sawali  This allowed the men to dress. Above five feet the walls were open and allowed for breezes to blow through the barracks making them more comfortable than the tents. There were no doors or windows. The wood that was used for the support beams was the best mahogany available. For personal hygiene, a man was lucky if he was near a faucet with running water.

The days were described as hot and humid, but if a man was able to find shade it was always cooler in the shade. The Filipino winter had started when they arrived, and although it was warm when they went to sleep by morning the soldiers needed a blanket. They turned in all their wool uniforms and were issued cotton shirts and trousers which were the regular uniform in the Philippines. They were also scheduled to receive sun helmets. Since the job of ordnance was to service the tanks, they followed the workday used by the 194th Tank Battalion. A typical workday was from 7:00 to 11:30 A.M. with an hour and a half lunch. The afternoon work time was from 1:30 to 2:30 P.M. At that time, it was considered too hot to work, but the battalion continued working and called it, “recreation in the motor pool.” One of the major differences between Ft. Knox and Ft. Stotsenburg was that the men in the Philippines had an attitude that a war with Japan was very close. The soldiers knowing this worked to prepare for an expected invasion. This belief was confirmed as more and more American units arrived in the Philippines.

During this time, the members of the company helped the 194th remove the heavy grease from their tanks guns. The grease had been put on anything that would rust while the battalion was at sea. The company also helped the tank crews sight their guns. Over the next three months, they also installed radios in the tanks that were not the correct radios, but they would fit if one of the machine guns was removed. A piece of tank track was welded over the gunport.

At the end of the workday, the men had free time. The fort had a bowling alley and movie theaters. The men also played softball, horseshoes, and badminton. Men would also throw footballs around. On Wednesday afternoons, the men went swimming. Once a month, men put their names for the chance to go into Manila. The number of men allowed on these trips was limited.  Other men were allowed to go to Aarayat National Park where there was a swimming pool that was filled with mountain water. Other men went canoeing at the Pagsanjan Falls and stated the scenery was beautiful. They also visited the local barrios which resulted in cases of sexually transmitted diseases.

The 194th and 17th Ordnance made one trip to the Lingayen Gulf. Things went well until they turned on a narrow gravel road in the barrio of Lingayen that had a lot of traffic. A bus driver parked his bus in the middle of the road and did not move it even after the tanks turned on their sirens and blew whistles. As they passed the bus, the tanks tore off all of one side of it. The tankers bivouacked about a half-mile from the barrio on a hard sandy beach with beautiful palm trees. The tankers had a swim and got in line for chow at the food trucks. It was then that the battalion's two doctors told them that they needed to wear earplugs when they swam because the warm water contained bacteria and they could get ear infections that were hard to cure. No one came down with an ear infection. The soldiers went to sleep on the beach in their sleeping bags when they began to hear humming and scratching. When they turned on a flashlight they found their sleeping bags were covered with beetles and other bugs. They quickly moved to another area that wasn't infested.

On November 26th, the 192nd Tank Battalion arrived in the Philippines. The members of the company once again found themselves on the docks unloading the 192nd's tanks. It appears the battalion's half-tracks and motorcycles were already waiting for them in the Philippines. Since it was Thanksgiving Day, the men, with the maintenance section of the 192nd, had Thanksgiving dinner prepared for them by the ship's cooks. Most of the 192nd boarded busses that took them to the train station and rode a train to Ft. Stotsenburg. The battalion brought with it a great deal of radio equipment to set up a radio school to train radiomen for the Philippine Army. The battalion also had many ham radio operators. Within hours after arriving at Ft. Stotsenburg, the battalion set up a communications tent that was in contact with ham radio operators in the United States. The communications monitoring station in Manila went crazy attempting to figure out where all these new radio messages were coming from. When they were informed it was the 192nd, they gave the 192nd frequencies to use. Men sent messages home to their families. 

With the arrival of the 192nd, the Provisional Tank Group was activated on November 27th. The tank group contained the two tank battalions and the 17th Ordnance Company which joined the tank group on the 29th. Military documents written after the war show the tank group was scheduled to be composed of three light tank battalions and two medium tank battalions. The exact makeup of the First Tank Group in the US. Col. James R. N. Weaver who had been put in charge of the 192nd in San Francisco, was appointed head of the tank group and promoted to brigadier general.

Gen. Weaver on December 2nd ordered the tank group to full alert. According to Capt. Alvin Poweleit, 192nd, Weaver appeared to be the only officer on the base interested in protecting his unit. On December 3rd the tank group officers had a meeting with Gen Weaver on German tank tactics. Many believed that they should be learning how the Japanese used tanks. That evening when they met Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, they concluded that he had no idea how to use tanks and would have thrown them away in battle. It was said they were glad Weaver was their commanding officer. That night the airfield was in complete black-out and searchlights scanned the sky for enemy planes. All leaves were canceled on December 6th. The next day Weaver visited every tank company of the tank group.

Although official reports of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor were sent to the military command in the Philippines at 2:30 am, For the tankers, it was the men manning the radios in the 192nd communications tent who were the first to learn of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 8th at 7:00 a.m. Gen. Weaver, Maj. Miller, Major Wickord, and Capt. Richard Kadel, 17th Ordnance, read the messages of the attack. Kadel left the tent and informed the officers of the 17th about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. All the members of the tank crews were ordered to their tanks which were joined by the battalions' half-tracks at their assigned positions at Clark Field.

It appears that the first members of the company heard that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor at 4:30 am. Other sources state that some members of the company were in the mess hall having breakfast when they heard of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on the radio. They ate breakfast and then went to their trucks and other vehicles. Other enlisted members of the company were putting down stones for sidewalks when they were told of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The company moved to a bamboo thicket about two miles from their barracks and set up its trucks. The thicket had been selected weeks earlier. The two tank battalions sent their tanks and half-tracks to assigned positions around the airfield. Some members of the company were with the 192nd working on sighting the main guns, machine guns and side arms. All but six of the tanks were done. Later that morning the alert was canceled and the company was ordered back to Clark Field. The company's cooks had just finished preparing lunch so they remained in the thicket. The members of the company watched as B-17s were loaded with bombs but remained on the ground because they could not get the order to bomb Taiwan. They had received permission to fly there but not to bomb. Those men with the tank battalions were told to take lunch and to finish their work afterward.

It was just after noon and the men were listening to Tokyo Rose who announced that Clark Field had been bombed. They got a good laugh out of it since they hadn't seen an enemy plane all morning, but before the broadcast ended that had changed. At 12:45 p.m., 54 planes approached the airfield from the northwest. Men commented that the planes must be American Navy planes until someone saw Red Dots on the wings. They then saw what looked like “raindrops” falling from the planes and when bombs began exploding on the runways the men knew the planes were Japanese. It was stated that the men came out of their barracks and stood watching the attack in amazement

When the bombs exploded, debris went flying in every direction. Black smoke covered the airfield from the burning planes and fuel dumps. Most of the hangers were damaged to some extent and the non-commissioned officers club had been partially destroyed. One member of the 192nd, Robert Brooks, D Co., was killed during the attack while other men were wounded to various degrees.

No sooner had the first wave finished bombing and were returning to Formosa than another wave arrived. The second wave, which was fighters, came from the east and was followed by a third wave of fighters. The Zeros that followed strafed the airfield and banked and turned over the thicket the company was located in to strafe the airfield again. The members of the company were ordered not to fire because some of the machines they had to manufacture tank parts were the only ones of their type in the Philippines.

The Japanese fighters sounded like angry bees to the company members, with the tankers, as they strafed the airfield. The men watched as American pilots attempted to get their planes off the ground. As they roared down the runway, Japanese fighters strafed the planes causing them to swerve, crash, and burn. Those that did get airborne were barely off the ground when they were hit. The planes exploded and crashed to the ground tumbling down the runways. Only four planes made it off the ground. One of the planes had a Japanese Zero on its tail firing at it as it got into the air.

The Coast Artillery had trained with the latest anti-aircraft guns while in the States, but the decision was made to send them to the Philippines with older guns. They also had proximity fuses for the shells and had to use an obsolete method to cut the fuses. This meant that most of their shells exploded harmlessly in the air.

The Zeros doing a figure eight strafed the airfield and headed toward and turned around behind Mount Arayat. One tanker stated that the planes were so low that a man with a shotgun could have shot a plane down. It was also stated that the tankers could see the scarfs of the pilots flapping in the wind as they looked for targets to strafe. Having seen what the Japanese were doing, the half-tracks were ordered to the base's golf course which was at the opposite end of the runways. There they waited for the Zeros to complete their flight pattern. The first six planes that came down the length of the runways were hit by fire from the half-tracks. As they flew over the golf course, flames and smoke were seen trailing behind them. When the other Japanese pilots saw what happened, they pulled up to about 3,000 feet before dropping their small incendiary bombs and leaving. The planes never strafed the airfield again.

It is known that after the attack, tank group doctors and medics treated the wounded of the tank group and then treated anyone who needed medical care. In all likelihood, Max and his medics provided medical treatment to anyone who needed it. This they would do repeatedly for the next four months.

During this time men walked around Clark Field to view the damage. As they walked, they saw there were hundreds of dead. Some of the dead were pilots who had been caught asleep, because they had flown night missions, in their tents during the first attack. Others were pilots who had been killed attempting to get to their planes. The tanks were still at the southern end of the airfield when a second air raid took place on the 10th. This time the bombs fell among the tanks of the battalion at the southern end of the airfield wounding some men.

The men worked building makeshift runways away from Clark Field and digging a pit to put radio equipment for the airfield underground. While digging the pit, men stated they would never work in the pit. Seven or ten P-40s flew to the airfield and landed. All but one were later destroyed on the ground. The one plane that did get airborne was never seen again. When the airfield was attacked, all the men working in the radio pit were buried alive.

C Company, 192nd, was ordered to the area of Mount Arayat on December 9th. Reports had been received that the Japanese had landed paratroopers in the area. No paratroopers were found, but it was possible that the pilots of damaged Japanese planes may have jumped from them. That night, they heard bombers fly at 3:00 a.m. on their way to bomb Nichols Field. The tank group was still bivouacked among the trees when a second air raid took place on the 10th. This time the bombs fell among the tanks of the battalion at the southern end of the airfield wounding some men.

On December 12th, B Co., 192nd was sent to the Barrio of Dau to guard a highway and railroad against sabotage. The other companies of the 192nd remained at Clark Field until December 14th, when they moved to a dry stream bed. Around December 15th, after the Provisional Tank Group Headquarters was moved to Manila, Major Maynard Snell, a 192nd staff officer, stopped at Ft. Stotsenburg where anything that could be used by the Japanese was being destroyed. He stopped the destruction long enough to get five-gallon cans with high-octane fuel and small arms ammunition put onto trucks to be used by the tanks and infantry. On the 17th, members of the company were sent to Manila to pick up the spare tanks parts that had been warehoused there.

The Japanese landed at three locations on the Luzon coast. The first was Lingayen Gulf, the second was Legaspi on the southeastern coast, and the third was Atimonan Bay. The tanks of the 192nd were ordered to the Lingayen Gulf. While the 194th was ordered to meet the Japanese in southern Luzon. Crews from the ordnance company went with to perform repairs on the tanks.

The first tank battle took place at Lingayen Gulf and involved a platoon of tanks from B Co., 192nd. One tank was knocked out and its crew, including the platoon's commanding officer were captured. The other tanks were damaged and reported lost, but they were all repaired by 17th Ordnance and put back into service.

The Japanese advance from Lingayen was fast and the tank group lost 20 of 21 tanks when the engineers destroyed a bridge ahead of time. The company's commander had the crews disable the tanks but he could not bring himself to destroy them. The Japanese repaired the tanks and used them. The one tank that wasn't lost was saved by the tank commander who, with his handgun pointed at the head of his driver, found a place to ford the river.

From the Lingayen Gulf, the tanks were sent to the Urdaneta area, they were at Santo Tomas near Cabanatuan on December 27th, and at San Isidro south of Cabanatuan on December 28th and 29th. Every move the tanks made, 17th Ordnance moved with them. The tanks were next at Culo and Hermosa and the half-tracks kept throwing their rubber tracks and members of 17th Ordnance assigned to each tank battalion had to re-track them in dangerous situations. The tanks bivouacked south of the Pilar-Bagac Road and about two kilometers from the East Coast Road in mid-January. It had almost been one month since the tank crews had a rest and the tanks had long overdue maintenance work done on them by 17th Ordnance. Most of the tank tracks had worn down to bare metal and the radial engines were long past their 400-hour overhauls.

In January, food rations for the soldiers were caught in half. This resulted in illnesses spreading among them. The soldiers were hungry and began to eat everything they could get their hands on to eat. The Carabao were tough but if they were cooked long enough they could be eaten. They also began to eat horse meat provided by the 26th U.S. Cavalry. During this time the soldiers ate monkeys, snakes, lizards, horses, and mules

The tank battalions were sent to cover the junctions of the Back Road and East Road with the Abucay-Hacienda Road on January 25th. While holding the position, the 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, fought its way to the position at 3:00 A.M. One platoon of tanks was sent to the front of the column of trucks that were loading the troops. The Japanese had launched a major offensive. The tanks provided heavy fire so that the infantry could withdraw and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese. Members of the company made tank repairs on the front lines. They also found themselves repairing the rifles of 31st Infantry. One night during the attack it was said that one company of the unit had gone through 45,000 rounds of ammunition. The guns were burned up and needed to be replaced. The tanks held their position for six hours after they were supposed to have withdrawn which prevented the Japanese from overrunning the defenders. On the morning of January 27th, a new battle line had been formed and all units were supposed to be beyond it but tanks were still straggling in at noon.

The ordnance company found itself bivouacked among the artillery positions which were the constant targets of Japanese planes. The guns fired both day and night which made sleeping a difficult task. The Japanese would also fly over at night and bomb. It affected the combat troops to the point that some would fire their guns and scream as if they were crazy. The American/Filipino artillery appeared to be far more accurate then that of the Japanese based on the Japanese casualties. In addition, the tanks had the job of protecting light field artillery. The 155-millimeter howitzers that the Army had were used in batteries of six guns. The guns were mobile and could be hooked up to the tanks with a special vehicle and moved to another location. It was recalled that moving them took preparation and setting them up also took preparation. The tankers didn’t like this duty because the guns attracted Japanese fire. Whenever the guns started firing, the Japanese would send up Recon Joe to try to locate them. Shortly after this happened, the dive bombers came in and peppered the hell out of the position. It was quickly learned by the gun crews to shoot and scoot. They would fire a salvo, pack them up, and move the guns before the Japanese could target the guns. If there was a problem with the guns, the 17th was responsible for repairing them.

Later on January 25th, both the 192nd and 194th held a defensive line on the Balanga-Cardre-BaniBani Roads until the withdraw was completed at midnight. They held the position until the night of January 26th/27th, when they dropped back to a new defensive line roughly along the Pilar-Bagac Roads. When ordered to withdraw to the new line, the 192nd found that the bridge at Balanga, that they were supposed to use had been destroyed by enemy fire. To withdraw, they had to use secondary roads to get around the barrio and tanks were still straggling in at noon.

The Japanese had landed troops on Calibobo Point in an attempt to cut the main road between Mariveles and Baguio which was being used to supply the troops there. PT Boat-34 intercepted the landing barges, sunk two barges and scattered the rest. Three hundred Japanese troops landed on Longiskawayan Point and 600 landed on Quinauan Point, but they were cut off. Converted Army Air Corps men and the 45th and 57th Infantry were given the job of dislodging the Japanese. These were crack Japanese troops and the soldiers were having a difficult time clearing them from the points. This was the beginning of the Battle of the Points that lasted from January 22nd to February 13th.

In an attempt to reinforce their troops, the Japanese attempted to land more troops. When it looked like they would succeed, the last three American P-30s appeared and strafed the barges killing many of the troops on them. The Japanese did not make another attempt to reinforce the points.

The decision was made to use tanks. On February 2nd, a platoon of C Company tanks was ordered to Quinauan Point where the Japanese had landed troops. The tanks arrived at about 5:15 P.M. He did a quick reconnaissance of the area, and after meeting with the commanding infantry officer, decided to drive tanks into the edge of the Japanese position and spray the area with machine-gun fire. The progress was slow but steady until a Japanese 37 milometer gun was spotted in front of the lead tank, and the tanks withdrew. It turned out that the gun had been disabled by mortar fire, but the tanks did not know this at the time.

The decision was made to resume the attack the next morning, so the 45th Infantry dug in for the night. The next day, the tank platoon did reconnaissance before pulling into the front line. They repeated the maneuver and sprayed the area with machine gunfire. As they moved forward, members of the 45th Infantry followed the tanks. The troops made progress all day long along the left side of the line. The major problem the tanks had to deal with was tree stumps which they had to avoid so they would not get hung up on them. The stumps also made it hard for the tanks to maneuver. Coordinating the attack with the infantry was difficult, so the decision was made to bring in a radio car so that the tanks and infantry could talk with each other.

Only 3 of 23 tanks were being used and without the support of infantry and the trick during the attack through the jungle was to avoid large trees and clear a way for the infantry to attack. This they did by thrusting into the jungle. They only became aware of enemy positions when they were fired on. The tanks were supposed to have support from mortars but the ammunition was believed to be defective. It was found that the mortars were manned by inexperienced air corpsmen converted to infantry who had no idea that the arming pins on the mortar shells had to be pulled before firing them so the shells landed and did not explode.

On February 4th, at 8:30 A.M. five tanks and the radio car arrived. The tanks were assigned the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, so each tank commander knew which tank was receiving an order. Each tank also received a walkie-talkie, as well as the radio car and infantry commanders. This was done so that the crews could coordinate the attack with the infantry and so that the tanks could be ordered to where they were needed. The Japanese were pushed back almost to the cliffs when the attack was halted for the night. The attack resumed the next morning and the Japanese were pushed to the cliff line where they hid below the edge of the cliff out of view in caves. It was at that time that the tanks were released to return to the 192nd. The Japanese were driven from the cliffs into the sea.

It is known that the company set up its operations in a large ordnance building in Limay, Bataan which had been emptied of all its ordnance. The company remained in the building throughout the Battle of Bataan. Companies A and C, 192nd, were ordered to the west coast of Bataan while B Co. 192nd – which was held in reserve – and 17th Ordnance held the southern shore of Bataan. During the night, they were kept busy with repeated threats both on and offshore. The tank battalions, on their own, took up the job of protecting the airfields at Cabcaban, Bataan, and Mariveles, since Japanese paratroopers were known to be available. The tanks and half-tracks were well hidden in the jungle around the airfields and different plans were in place to be used against Japanese forces.

The Japanese launched an offensive on January 28th and managed to reach the Tuol River along the Orion-Bagac Line. The tanks took part in the Battle of the Pockets in February to wipe out Japanese soldiers who had been trapped behind the main defensive line after a Japanese offensive was stopped and pushed back to the original line of defense. This job was considered so dangerous that the tanks would enter the pocket one at a time to replace a tank in the pocket. Another tank did not enter the pocket until the tank that had been relieved exited the pocket. Doing this job was so stressful that each one of the battalion's tank companies was rotated out and replaced by one that was being held in reserve.

To exterminate the Japanese, two methods were used. The first was to have three Filipino soldiers ride on the back of the tank. As the tank went over a Japanese foxhole, the Filipinos dropped three hand grenades into the foxhole. Since the grenades were from WWI, one out of three usually exploded. The other method used to kill the Japanese was to park a tank with one track over the foxhole. The driver gave the other track power resulting in the tank going around in a circle and grinding its way down into the foxhole. The tankers slept upwind of their tanks so they wouldn’t smell the rotting flesh in the tracks.

While the tanks were doing this job, the Japanese sent soldiers, with cans of gasoline, against the tanks. These Japanese attempted to jump onto the tanks, pour gasoline into the vents on the back of the tanks, and set the tanks on fire. If the tankers could not machine gun the Japanese before they got to a tank, the other tanks would shoot them as they stood on a tank. The tankers did not like to do this because of what it did to the crew inside the tank. When the bullets hit the tank, its rivets would pop and wound the men inside the tank.

What made this job of eliminating the Japanese so hard was that they were had dug “spider holes” among the roots of the trees. Because of this situation, the Americans could not get a good shot at the Japanese. Since the stress on the crews was tremendous, the tanks rotated into the pocket one at a time. A tank entered the pocket and the next tank waited for the tank that had been relieved to exit the pocket before it would enter. This was repeated until all the tanks in the pocket were relieved.

During this time, the men from 17th Ordinance converted over 1,000 rounds of World War I 37 millimeter ammunition from the Philippine Ordnance Depot for use by the tanks. The tanks had been sent to the Philippines with only armor-piercing shells. The company removed the armor piercing projectile and put a pre-determined amount of gun powder into the casing to provide the correct projectile velocity for the smaller WWI projectile. They also cut down the muzzles of guns on tanks which were so damaged that the only way they could be used was with a shorter barrel. They often made these repairs with Japanese snipers taking shots at them.

The tankers, from A, B, and C Companies, 192nd, were able to clear the pockets by February 18th. But before this was done, one tank which had gone beyond the American perimeter was disabled and the tank just sat there. When the sun came up the next day, the tank was still sitting there. During the night, its crew had attempted to escape the tank, and the Japanese seemed to have expected this move. It appears that most of the crew was killed with grenades as they attempted to escape through the turret. One man apparently was still alive when the Japanese filled the crew compartment with dirt and was buried alive inside the tank. When the Japanese had been wiped out, 17th Ordnance helped with the recovery of the tank and the tank on its side to remove the dirt and recover the bodies of the crew. The tank was put back into use after repairs were made.

By the end of February, the company's HQ moved from the ordnance building to a bamboo thicket about 3.1 miles further south. One reason was that the building was too easy a target as the Japanese artillery got closer. During one shelling the ammunition dump near the building was hit. They set up their new HQ near Little Baguio. Since it had been used by other units, including a field hospital, it had running water and electricity when they arrived. As time went on, only the hospital had running water and electricity.

The camp was located just north of a zig-zag trail along the slopes of Mt. Mariveles an extinct volcano. The camp was surrounded by a dense jungle which protected the site from Japanese planes. This was the company's last bivouac. The company reported to the Ordnance Department in Washington that the suspensions systems of the tanks were failing. It was determined that the problem was the volute spring suspension system were freezing up because of corrosion which was caused by exposure to salt water. This resulted in an immediate redesign of all track vehicles using the suspension system.

To make things worse, the soldiers’ rations were cut in half again on March 1, 1942, with rice becoming the main part of every meal. This meant that they only ate two meals a day. The Japanese also were dropping surrender leaflets with a scantily clad blond on them. They would have been more successful at getting the Americans to surrender if the picture had been a hamburger since the men were so hungry that they most likely would have surrendered for a good meal. The cooks for 17th Ordnance were given seven cans of salmon each day, Each soldier received a portion of salmon and a moldy rice gruel twice a day. If they were lucky they got monkey to eat. A coffee was made from unroasted native beans.

The Japanese ended their assault and waited for reinforcements from Singapore to arrive. The fact was that the same illnesses affecting the defenders were affecting the Japanese. American newspapers talked about the uneasy quiet on the Bataan peninsula. The defenders of Bataan had held out nearly four months at this point. On the March 11th MacArthur left the Philippines. Gen. Masaharu Homma was reported to have said that the Americans were slowly being pushed back. But, he then stated, in what appeared to be frustration, that the American command seemed to be able to predict every attack that he planned and successfully repel it. The soldiers dug in and built up their defenses knowing that an attack was coming. They just didn't know when it would come. By this point, the soldiers knew that there was no help on the way. Many had listened to Secretary of War Harry L. Stimson on short-wave radio. When asked about the Philippines, he said, “There are times when men must die.” The soldiers cursed in response because they knew that the Philippines had already been lost. President Roosevelt had also hinted during his fireside talks that no aid was being sent to them.

The amount of gasoline in March was reduced to 15 gallons a day for all vehicles except the tanks. The amount of fuel for other vehicles would later be dropped to ten gallons a day. The company members also were given beach duty defending a beach facing Manila Bay with heavy machine guns. It was during this time that Gen Wainwright wanted to turn the tanks into pillboxes. Gen Weaver pointed out to Wainwright that they did not have enough tanks to effectively do this, and if they did, they soon would have no tanks. Gen. Weaver suggested to Gen. Wainwright that a platoon of tanks be sent to Corregidor, but Wainwright declined.

By this time, tank parts were rare so the company made tank repairs without the proper parts. They worked on tanks that had their barrels blown off or tanks that had holes going through the barrels. In most cases they shortened the barrels by sawing them off which allowed them to continue to be fired. On March 20th the company inspected the tanks for the last time.

The shelling for the final assault started before the end of March. Everyday the soldiers were shelled by Japanese artillery and bombed by Japanese planes. Just before the final assault started the company members watched as two Japanese bombers were shot down by Corregidor's anti-aircraft guns. Watching this made them feel good.

Having brought in combat-harden troops from Singapore, the Japanese launched a major offensive on April 3rd supported by artillery and aircraft. The artillery barrage started at 10 AM and lasted until noon and each shell seemed to be followed by another that exploded on top of the previous shell. At the same time, wave after wave of Japanese bombers hit the same area dropping incendiary bombs that set the jungle on fire. The defenders had to choose between staying in their foxholes and being burned to death or seeking safety somewhere else. As the fire approached their foxholes those men who chose to attempt to flee were torn to pieces by shrapnel. It was said that arms, legs, and other body parts hung from tree branches. A large section of the defensive line at Mount Samat was wiped out, and the next day a large force of Japanese troops came over Mt. Samat and descended the south face of the volcano. This attack wiped out two divisions of defenders and left a large area of the defensive line open to the Japanese.

A Co., 192nd, was attached to the 194th Tank Battalion and was on beach duty with A Co., 194th. When the breakthrough came, the two tank companies were directly in the path of the advance. When the Japanese attempted to land troops, their smoke screen blew into their troops causing them to withdraw. C Company, 194th, was attached to the 192nd and had only seven tanks left. A counter-attack was launched – on April 6th – by the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts which was supported by tanks. Its objective was to restore the line, but Japanese infiltrators prevented this from happening. Other tanks of C Co., 192nd were supporting the 2nd Battalion, 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, which was moving east on Trail 8 toward Limay. It was about 5:00 A.M. at the junction of Trails 8 and Trail 6 when the battalion was ambushed by a large number of Japanese. The 1st Platoon of C Co., 192nd, was acting as part of the point when the lead tank was knocked out by anti-tank fire and the following tank was forced off the trail. A counter-attack was launched – on April 7th – by the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts which was supported by tanks. Its objective was to restore the line, but Japanese infiltrators prevented this from happening. During this action, one tank was knocked out but the remaining tanks successfully withdrew. C Company, 194th, was attached to the 192nd and had only seven tanks left. The Japanese attacked the line held by American troops on April 8th. It was said that the Japanese made what the Americans called "A Bridge of Death" where the Japanese threw themselves on the barbed wire until there were enough bodies on it so the following troops could walk over it. The defenders were not only defending against a frontal attack, but they also were defending against attacks on their flanks and rear.

It was the evening of April 8th that Gen. Edward P. King decided that further resistance was futile, since approximately 25% of his men were healthy enough to fight, and he estimated they would last one more day. In addition, he had over 6,000 troops who were sick or wounded and 40,000 civilians who he feared would be massacred. His troops were on one-quarter rations, and even at that ration, he had two days of food left. He also believed his troops could fight for one more day. Companies B and D, 192nd, and A Company, 194th, were preparing for a suicide attack on the Japanese in an attempt to stop the advance. At 6:00 P.M. that tank battalion commanders received this order: “You will make plans, to be communicated to company commanders only, and be prepared to destroy within one hour after receipt by radio, or other means, of the word ‘CRASH’, all tanks and combat vehicles, arms, ammunition, gas, and radios: reserving sufficient trucks to close to rear echelons as soon as accomplished.” 

The members of the 17th Ordnance Company were lined up waiting for their nightly assignments as machine gun squad members for the night. It was at that time that they received the news that the lines had broken and that they should evacuate the area. The ammunition dumps were being blown up Capt. Kadel told them to take what they could and head toward Mariveles and kilometer post 188. He told them they should take to the hills and hold out as long as they could since help would arrive in three days.

It appears that it was at this time that Max made the decision that he would try to reach Corregidor which had not surrendered. How he got there is not known. What is known is that after he arrived on the island, he was assigned to the hospital in Malinta Tunnel. How he worked there is not known. At some point he was sent to Ft. Hughes, on Caballo Island. He treated the wounded there until Gen. Jonathan Wainwright ordered all the remaining troops in the Philippines to surrender on May 6, 1942. The Prisoners of War were moved to Corregidor on May 8th.

The Japanese herded them onto an area covered with concrete known as the 92nd Garage - which was the servicing area for seaplanes - that they had been hastily surrounded with barbed wire. The Japanese put the POWs into detachments of 1,000 men with a colonel in charge of each detachment. The POWs were told if they left the area without a guard that they would be shot. The only POWs not to be sent there were the men who were hospitalized in the Malinta Tunnel. The area was said to be approximately 500 feet wide and 1500 feet long and was located between the beach and cliffs along Corregidor’s southern shore.

One of the first things the Japanese did to show the POWs they were in charge was they made the POWs strip off their clothes and pile them up until the pile was about ten feet high. Then they told the POWs they had five minutes to get dressed. Men grabbed whatever clothing they could get their hands on. The POWs were put on a concert tarmac, the Japanese soldiers took whatever they wanted from the POWs. They were not fed for three days. When they were fed, they were fed rice. Each POW was given a number which was painted on the back of his shirt or his pants if he didn’t have a shirt. The Filipino POWs were put on one side of the slab and separated from the Americans by an imaginary line. Open slit trenches were dug for the POWs to use as latrines. The surface of the latrines crawled with life and flies and other insects were everywhere which helped to spread disease. It was also stated that about 90% of the POWs became ill with dysentery, diarrhea, and malaria.

A detail was created to collect wood for the POWs to cook with. Twenty-five of the POWs were on this detail. One day a guard believed that two of the POWs had roamed too far, so he made all the POWs remove their head coverings and sit facing the sun. On a different detail, another POW was severely beaten after a Japanese guard was shocked attempting to start the truck the man drove for the Japanese. Other POWs had short-wired the starter and the guard had received a shock. The POW who was beaten could not work for four days.

The POWs were put to work by the Japanese cleaning up debris on the island and the POWs were used to resume construction of the airfield that was being built on the island. Any ordnance left on the island was collected and the POWs loaded the captured food from Malinta Tunnel on barges that took it to Manila. The POWs supplemented their meals with canned food they found while cleaning the debris or stealing it while it was being loaded onto barges.

One detachment of POWs had the job of collecting the dead and burying them. The Japanese combat soldiers were a lot more respectful to the POWs than those troops who had not been in combat. POWs stated that they watched a Japanese soldier make a cross for the grave of a Marine, place a jug of water in it, and step back and salute. The guards allowed the POWs working on this detail to hunt for food and water.

From May 6th to 12th, the POWs were held in the garage area without any shade and with little water. Finally, the Japanese brought barges to take the POWs to Luzon. It was said that the POWs had to swim out to the barges. POWs stated they were packed into the barges and even when it was apparent no more men would fit, the Japanese still tried to put more on the barges. The POWs were taken to a point off the coast of Luzon on the east side of Manila Bay and made to jump into the water and swim to shore. Once on shore, they were put to work filling in shell craters on a pier. After they finished they were sent to a warehouse.

Around 4:00 one afternoon, they were lined up and put on a work detail. The POWs were put on small boats and taken to an area near Manila. The next day the men were taken to the Wawa Dam over the Marikina River. The POWs worked in the area of the dam repairing roads, moving large rocks, and repairing a dock. As they worked, the Japanese guarding them drank from buckets of water but for three days and nights made no effort to give any water to the POWs. When a new Japanese officer took over, he treated the POWs better. They did this work until the work ended on May 18th when they returned to the warehouse. It was stated they spent a total of 15 to 18 days at the warehouse. They received food and water and then were loaded onto an old ship that looked like it hauled ore. They were taken to Manila, disembarked, and marched ten miles to Bilibid Prison. Anyone who fell out was left behind. During the march, the Americans saw Filipinos flash the “V” for victory. Other Filipinos left tubs of water with cups so they could drink. The Filipinos tried to give them coconuts, cigarettes, and other items, but those who were caught were beaten by the Japanese..

The POWs spent the night at Bilibid Prison in what was called the Outer Compound. Those POWs being held in Bilibid were held in the Inner compound. From May 26th to 28th, the Japanese marched 2,000 POWs a day from Bilibid to the train station in Manila where they boarded freight cars. Each car held 75 to 80 men. In the cars, the POWs were taken to the barrio of Cabanatuan where they lived in an old schoolhouse for the night. The next morning, the POWs formed 100 men detachments and then ordered them to march. The march to the camp was 15 to 20 miles, and the POWs were warned that anyone who fell would be killed. When the first POW fell a guard ran up to him and aimed his rifle at him, but the man got up and ran back into the column. This happened several times until a POW fell and could not get up. The guard aimed his gun at the man, but when he still didn't get up, the guard raised his arm, and in his hand was a red flag. A truck pulled up and the POW was put into it. When the prisoners saw this, it wasn’t very long until many of them were falling out and were not able to get up so they could get a ride to the camp.

The POWs walked almost six miles and passed Cabanatuan #1 - which had not opened - where the men who were captured on Bataan and took part in the death march were held. They next passed Cabanatuan #2 which was about four miles past Camp #1. The camp did not have an adequate water supply and was closed, but it later reopened and housed Naval POWs. They continued to Cabanatuan 3 which was about seven miles from Camp #1 and was where those men captured on Corregidor were taken. The POWs arrived at Camp #3 from May 26th to May 29th in detachments of 1500 to 2,000 men which meant the total number of POWs in the camp was about 6,000 men.

Four POWs walked away from the camp on May 30th. After they escaped, the men realized that they had no place to go, so they attempted to surrender themselves to the Japanese. The Japanese tied them to posts and left them to hang in the sun. They also beat the POWs with boards. The Japanese also showed the men water but would not give them any to drink. The next day, while the POWs were eating dinner, the Japanese marched the men to where the prisoners were eating. They had the men dig their own graves and gave each man a cigarette and water. They also offered blindfolds to the men. All the men took a blindfold except one. That man spat at the Japanese before they shot him. After they were shot, the men fell backward into the graves. When one man who had survived the execution attempted to crawl out of the grave, a Japanese officer shot him with his pistol. He next shot each man to make sure they were dead.

Meals at first consisted of an onion soup without any onions in it. Later, the meals consisted of 16 ounces of rice for each man each day, and 4 ounces of top greens (similar to spinach) were issued. Once a week, one ounce of carabao meat was issued. Two ounces of coconut were issued and this was used with cornstarch and sugar to make a pudding. Also, once per week for one month, one small banana was issued and this was also used for pudding. It appears that during the first month in the camp, the POWs also received 15 limes.

Since the fence around the camp wasn't completed, three POWs walked away from the camp. When they realized they had no place to go they returned. When they did they were beaten and tortured. The next day, while the POWs were eating dinner, the Japanese marched the men to where the prisoners were eating. They had the men dig their own graves and gave each man a cigarette and water. They also offered blindfolds to the men. All the men took a blindfold except one. That man spat at the Japanese before they shot him. After they were shot, the men fell backward into the graves. When one man who had survived the execution attempted to crawl out of the grave, a Japanese officer shot him with his pistol. He next shot each man to make sure they were dead.

The first meal the POWs received was an onion soup that had no onions on it or carrots in it. After the initial meal, the daily meal for the POWs was squash, mongo beans, and greens (which were the tops of native sweet potatoes) for soup, and rice. They also received Carabao meat about once a week. Other sources state a whistle weed soup with rice in it was the main meal. Men in the camp reported that most meals were 1½ cups of rice and a watery soup.

The American officers convinced the Japanese, on June 8th, to allow them to hand out punishments for minor offenses. The POWs organized themselves into administration groups on June 14th. Since the Army had the largest number of POWs, it was divided into Groups I and II while Group III was Naval personnel. An Army major was the adjutant for both Groups I and II and some officers did various jobs under him. Each group had several officers who dealt with the enlisted men.

Filipino guerrillas ambushed a convoy that had POWs in it on June 16th. Four POWs were wounded and one died the next day. The “Blood Brother Rule” was put into effect on June 21st. If one POW escaped, the other nine men in his group would be executed. The Japanese allowed the first church services on June 28th. The next day, the POWs organized a morale program. The POWs played volleyball, basketball, softball, ping pong, and created singing groups, and a band. 

The first church services were held in the camp on June 28th. To improve morale among the POWs, on June 29th, the officers organized activities for the men. Softball teams, basketball teams, volleyball teams, and ping-pong teams were formed as well as singalong groups to provide entertainment. The POWs were joined by 151 civilians in the camp on July 6th. The Japanese handed out a limited number of shoes, shirts, trousers, and blankets on July 17th. It is not known how it was determined who would receive any of the clothing.

POWs during this time were sent out on details and returned to the camp. On July 14th, 100 POWs were sent to Manila. Twenty-six sick POWs were transferred to Camp 1 on July 20th. Three Hundred Sixty POWs left the camp, on July 24th, for Palawan Island. Another group of 150 men was sent there on July 30th. Dysentery was a real problem in the camp and to slow the spread of dysentery, a program was started to catch flies on August 17th. Any POW who turned in a full milk can of flies received two biscuits and a few cigarettes. They also dug deep latrines, which were 18 feet deep, to slow the spread of disease.

On September 1st, 198 POWs were transferred to the Manila detail which was followed by another 120 men on September 8th. Also on that date, 120 returned to the camp from the Field Labor Detail. Another detachment of 198 men on September 1st was sent to Manila. One hundred POWs left the camp on an unnamed work detail on September 23rd, followed by another 100 POWs the next day. Another 32 men were sent to the detail at Manila on September 28th followed by 119 POWs the next day.

On October 4th, the Japanese gave physicals to 374 POWs whom they referred to as “producers” and were to be sent to another part of the empire. (The term producer meant the POWs had training in areas that the Japanese wanted to exploit.) Many of these POWs were experienced machinists. On October 5, 1942, another 676 POWs were transferred to Manila. They marched to Camp 1 and were joined by 123 men from that camp. From available information, it appears that a total of 1700 POWs were sent to Manila. The Japanese intended to give each man  2 bananas, 2 egg sandwiches, 5 biscuits, 2 rice balls, and 1 roll. The only problem was they did not have enough to go around. The POWs were taken to Manila to be sent to Japan.

The POWs remaining in the camp reorganized the POWs still there and created Group I made up of Army personnel and Group II made up of Navy personnel. It was at this time that the Japanese began the transfer of sick POWs to Camp 1 with 20 men being sent to the hospital there on October 14th and another 10 men being transferred there the next day. On October 21st, 322 POWs, from Group I, were sent to Camp 1 followed by another 15 sick POWs on October 23rd. Another 297 POWs were sent to Manila to the work detail there on October 26th. The POWs still at Camp 3 on October 27th received word that they were all going to be sent to Camp 1. The 74 sick POWs in the camp were sent to the hospital at Camp 1 on October 28th. On October 29th, 1,126 POWs boarded trucks and rode to Camp 1. The next day, the remaining 775 POWs were taken by truck to the camp. Camp 3 officially went out of existence on October 30, 1942.

With the closure of Cabanatuan #3, the POWs found themselves in Cabanatuan #1 which originally opened for the POWs who had been captured on Bataan. Cabanatuan #2 was reopened because the Naval officers did not want to be under the command of the Army.

The POWs were allowed to run the camp since they were afraid of the diseases spreading in the camp. The Japanese only entered if they had an issue they wanted to deal with. To prevent escapes, the POWs set up a detail that patrolled the fence of the camp. The reason this was done was that those who did escape and were caught were tortured before being executed, while the other POWs were made to watch. It is believed that no POW successfully escaped from the camp.

The barracks in the camp were built to house 50 POWs, but most had between 60 to 120 POWs in them. The POWs slept on double-deck bamboo shelves nine feet wide and eight feet long, without mattresses, bedding, or mosquito netting. Many developed sores and became ill. The POWs were assigned to barracks which meant that the members of their group lived together and went out on work details together since the Japanese had instituted the “Blood Brothers” rule. If one man escaped the other nine men in his group would be executed. POWs caught trying to escape were beaten. Those who did escape and were caught were tortured before being executed. It is not known if any POW successfully escaped from the camp. He was assigned to Barracks 5, Group 2. It was said that the Japanese guards would attempt to get the POWs assigned to guard the inside of the fence to come outside the perimeter of the fence. If the man did, he was shot and the guards told their commanding officer that the POWs were “trying to escape.”

Rice was the main food given to the POWs fed to them as “lugow” which meant “wet rice.”  The rice smelled and appeared to have been swept up off the floor. The other problem was that the men assigned to be cooks had no idea of how to prepare the rice since they had no experience in cooking it. During their time in the camp, they received few vegetables and almost no fruit. Once in a while, the POWs received corn to serve to the prisoners. From the corn, the cooks would make hominy. The prisoners were so hungry that some men would eat the corn cobs. This resulted in many men being taken to the hospital to have the cobs removed because they would not pass through the men’s bowels. Sometimes they received bread, and if they received fish it was rotten and covered with maggots.

To supplement their diets, the men would search for grasshoppers, rats, and dogs to eat. The POWs assigned to handing out the food used a sardine can to ensure that each man received the same amount. They were closely watched by their fellow prisoners who wanted to make sure that everyone received the same portion and that no one received extra rice.

In the camp, the prisoners continued to die, but at a slower rate. The camp hospital consisted of 30 wards that could hold 40 men each, but it was more common for them to have 100 men in them. Each man had approximately an area of 2 feet by 6 feet to lie in. The sickest POWs were put in “Zero Ward,” which was called this because it was missed by the Japanese when they counted barracks. There were two rolls of wooden platforms around the perimeter of the building. The sickest POWs were put on the lower platform which had holes cut into it so they could relieve themselves. The platform was covered in feces which was made worse by the excrement from the higher platform dripping down onto it. Most of those who entered the ward died. When a POW died, the POWs stripped him of his clothing, and the man was buried naked. The dead man’s clothing was washed in boiling water and given to a prisoner in need of clothing. The Japanese put a fence up around the building to protect themselves and would not go into the area.

When he arrived at Cabanatuan#1, he went to work on the hospital side of the camp. It is known that he remained in the camp for nearly two years.

In May, his parents received a letter from the War Department.

Dear Mrs. B. Bernstein:

        According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee of Captain Max M. Bernstein, O,402,776, who, according to the latest information available, was serving in the  Philippine Islands at the time of the final surrender. 

        I deeply regret that it is impossible for me to give you more information than is contained in this letter.  In the last days before the surrender of Bataan, there were casualties which were not reported to the War Department.  Conceivably the same is true of the surrender of Corregidor and possibly other islands of the Philippines.  The Japanese Government has indicated its intention of conforming to the terms of the Geneva Convention with respect to the interchange of information regarding prisoners of war.  At some future date, this Government will receive through Geneva a list of persons who have been taken prisoners of war.  Until that time the War Department cannot give you positive information. 

        The War Department will consider the persons serving in the Philippine Islands as “missing in action” from the date of surrender of Corregidor, May 7, 1942, until definite information to the contrary is received.  It is to be hoped that the Japanese Government will communicate a list of prisoners of war at an early date.  At that time you will be notified by this office in the event that his name is contained in the list of prisoners of war.  In the case of persons known to have been present in the Philippines and who are not reported to be prisoners of war by the Japanese Government, the War Department will continue to carry them as “missing in action” in the absence of information to the contrary, until twelve months have expired.  At the expiration of twelve months and in the absence of other information the War Department is authorized to make a final determination.

Recent legislation makes provision to continue the pay and allowances of persons carried in a “missing” status for a period not to exceed twelve months;  to continue, for the duration of the war, the pay and allowances of persons known to have been captured by the enemy; to continue allotments made by missing personnel for a period of twelve months and allotments or increase allotments made by persons by the enemy during the time they are so held;  to make new allotments or increase allotments to certain dependents defined in Public Law 490, 77th Congress.  The latter dependents generally include the legal wife, dependent children under twenty-one years of age, and dependent mother, or such dependents as having been designated in official records.  Eligible dependents who can establish a need for financial assistance and are eligible to receive this assistance the amount allotted will be deducted from pay which would otherwise accrue to the credit of the missing individual.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Very truly yours
                                                                                                                                                                                           (signed)
                                                                                                                                                                                    J.  A.  ULIO
                                                                                                                                                                                   Major General
                                                                                                                                                                                   The Adjutant General

The POWs formed detachments of 100 men each, on June 1st, and were marched to Capas. There, they were put in steel boxcars with two Japanese guards. At Calumpit, the train was switched onto another line which took it to Cabanatuan. The POWs disembarked and were taken to a schoolyard where they were fed cooked rice and onion soup. From there, they were marched to Cabanatuan Camp #1 which had been the headquarters of the 91st Philippine Army Division and was known as Camp Pangatian. The transfer of the healthier POWs to the camp was completed on June 4th.

The camp was three camps. Cabanatuan #1 housed most of the POWs who had been captured on Bataan and held at Camp O’Donnell. Cabanatuan #2 was two miles from Camp 1 and was closed because it lacked an adequate water supply. It was later reopened and held Naval POWs. Cabanatuan #3 was eight miles from Camp 1 and six miles from Camp 2. It housed most of the POWs from Corregidor and was closed on October 30th and the POWs were sent to Camp 1. Once in the camp, the POWs were allowed to run the camp. The Japanese only entered if they had an issue they wanted to deal with. To prevent escapes, the POWs set up a detail that patrolled the fence of the camp. The reason this was done was that those who did escape and were caught were tortured before they were executed while the other POWs were made to watch. It is believed that no POW successfully escaped from the camp.

The barracks in the camp were built to house 50 POWs, but most had between 60 to 120 POWs in them. It appears that the tankers initially lived with their own barracks. The POWs slept on double-deck bamboo shelves nine feet wide and eight feet long, without mattresses, bedding, or mosquito netting. Many developed sores and became ill. The POWs were assigned to barracks which meant that the members of their group lived together and went out on work details together since the Japanese had instituted the “Blood Brothers” rule. If one man escaped the other nine men in his group would be executed. POWs caught trying to escape were beaten. Those who did escape and were caught were tortured before being executed. It is not known if any POW successfully escaped from the camp. It was said that the Japanese guards would attempt to get the POWs assigned to guard the inside of the fence to come outside the perimeter of the fence. If the man did, he was shot and the guards told their commanding officer that the POW was “trying to escape.”

Rice was the main food given to the POWs fed to them as “lugow” which meant “wet rice.”  The rice smelled and appeared to have been swept up off the floor. The other problem was that the men assigned to be cooks had no idea of how to prepare the rice since they had no experience in cooking it. During their time in the camp, they received few vegetables and almost no fruit. Once in a while, the POWs received corn to serve to the prisoners. From the corn, the cooks would make hominy. The prisoners were so hungry that some men would eat the corn cobs. This resulted in many men being taken to the hospital to have the cobs removed because they would not pass through the men’s bowels. Sometimes they received bread, and if they received fish it was rotten and covered with maggots.

To supplement their diets, the men would search for grasshoppers, rats, and dogs to eat. The POWs assigned to handing out the food used a sardine can to ensure that each man received the same amount. They were closely watched by their fellow prisoners who wanted to make sure that everyone received the same portion and that no one received extra rice.

The enlisted POWs were sent out on work details to cut wood for the POW kitchens. Other POWs worked in rice paddies. Each morning, as the POWs stood at attention and roll call was taken, the Japanese guards hit them across their heads. While working in the fields, the favorite punishment given to the men in the rice paddies was to have their faces pushed into the mud and stepped on by a guard to drive their faces deeper into the mud. A typical day on any detail lasted from 7:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Returning from a detail the POWs bought or were given, medicine, food, and tobacco, which they somehow managed to get into the camp even though they were searched when they returned.

The burial detail was one the hardest details to work. The cemetery was in a swamp area less than a half-mile from the camp. The prisoners were divided into work crews. The first crew would dig the graves. The second crew would carry the dead in shoulder litters to the graves. A chaplain would conduct a service at the grave. Phil and the other prisoners would salute the man as he was lowered into the grave. Since the water table was high, the body would be held down while the POWs covered it with dirt. The next, just like Camp O'Donnell, the dead were often sitting up in the graves or dug up by wild dogs.

Six POWs were executed on June 26th by the Japanese after they had left the camp to buy food and were caught returning to camp. The POWs were tied to posts in a manner that they could not stand up or sit down. No one was allowed to give them food or water and they were not permitted to give them hats to protect them from the sun. The men were left tied to the posts for 48 hours when their ropes were cut. Four of the POWs were executed on the duty side of the camp and the other two were executed on the hospital side of the camp.

In the camp, the prisoners continued to die, but at a slower rate on the hospital side. The hospital was described as being horrible and beyond description. There was no water for washing and barely enough to drink. There were no blankets or any other coverings for the sick. The camp hospital consisted of 30 wards that could hold 40 men each, but it was more common for them to have 100 men in them. Each man had approximately an area of 2 feet by 6 feet to lie in. The POWs were sent to the hospital side of the camp not for treatment but to isolate them from the healthier POWs. The sickest POWs were put in “Zero Ward,” which was called this because it was missed by the Japanese when they counted barracks. There were two rolls of wooden platforms around the perimeter of the building. The sickest POWs were put on the lower platform which had holes cut into it so they could relieve themselves. The platform was covered in feces which was made worse by the excrement from the higher platform dripping down onto it. Most of those who entered the ward died. When a POW died, the POWs stripped him of his clothing, and the man was buried naked. The dead man’s clothing was washed in boiling water and given to a prisoner in need of clothing. The Japanese put a fence up around the building to protect themselves and would not go into the area.

During June, the first cases of diphtheria appeared in the camp, and by July, it had spread throughout the camp. The Japanese finally gave the American medical staff antibiotics to treat the POWs, but before it took effect, 130 POWs had died from the disease by August. For those POWs with tuberculosis who were in the hospital, their rations were reduced to 240 grams of rice, camote (made from camote peelings), and powdered dried fish. In addition, the POW doctors were given four twelve-ounce cans of milk for every 39 patients with malaria.

The medicine given to the POWs had to be divided between Cabanatuan and Bilibid. Cabanatuan received 50 percent of the medicine and Bilibid 50 percent. But when the large POW detachment was sent to Davao, Bilibid received only 30 percent and Davao 20 percent. By doing this division, medicine that would do the POWs good was divided into small quantities resulting in them having no real medical value.

The POWs had the job of burying the dead. To do this, they worked in teams of four men that carried a litter of four to six dead men to the cemetery where they were buried in graves containing 15 to 20 bodies. The water table was high so when the bodies were put into the graves, POWs held them down with poles until they were covered with dirt. The next day when the burials continued, the dead were often found sitting up in their graves or dug up by wild dogs.

A POW was recaptured on September 17th who had escaped on August 7th was recaptured. He was placed in solitary confinement and during his time there, he was beaten over the head with an iron bar by a Japanese sergeant. The camp commandant, Col. Mori, would parade him around the camp and use the man as an example as he lectured the POWs. The man wore a sign that read, “Example of an Escaped Prisoner.”

Three POWs were recaptured on Sept. 21st who had escaped on Sept.12th were brought back to the camp. Their feet were tied together and their hands were crossed behind their backs and tied with ropes. A long rope was tied around their wrists and they were suspended from a rafter with their toes barely touching the ground causing their arms to bear all the weight of their bodies. They were subjected to severe beatings by the Japanese guards while hanging from the rafter. The punishment lasted three days. They were cut from the rafter and they were tied hand and foot and placed in the cooler for 30 days on a diet was rice and water.  One of the three POWs was severely beaten by a Japanese lieutenant but was later released.

On Sept. 29th, the Japanese executed three POWs after they were stopped by American security guards while attempting to escape. The American guards were there to prevent escapes so that the other POWs in their ten-man group would not be executed. During the event, the noise made the Japanese aware of the situation and they came to the area and beat the three men who had tried to escape. One so badly that his jaw was broken. After two and a half hours, the three were tied to posts by the main gate, and their clothes were torn off them. They also were beaten on and off for the next 48 hours. Anyone passing them was expected to urinate on them. After three days they were cut down, thrown into a truck, driven to a clearing in sight of the camp, and shot.

The Japanese announced to the POWs in the camp that on October 14th the daily food ration for each POW would be 550 grams of rice, 100 grams of meat, 330 grams of vegetables, 20 grams of fat, 20 grams of sugar, 15 grams of salt, and 1 gram of tea. In reality, the POWs noted that the meals were wet rice and rice coffee for breakfast, Pechi green soup and rice for lunch, and Mongo bean soup, Carabao meat, and rice for dinner.

The work day started an hour before dawn when the POWs were awakened. They then lined up and bongo (roll call) was taken. The POWs quickly learned to count off quickly in Japanese because the POWs who were slow to respond were hit with a heavy rod. A half-hour before dawn was breakfast, and at dawn, they went to work. Those working on details near the camp returned to the camp for lunch, a tin of rice, at 11:30 AM and then returned to work. The typical workday lasted 10 hours.  

The POWs were organized in groups on November 11th. Group I was made up of all the enlisted men who had been captured on Bataan. Group II was the POWs who had come from Camp 3, and Group III was composed of all Naval and Marine personnel from both Camps 1 and 3 and any civilians in the camp. It was also at this time that an attempt was made to stop the spread of disease. The POWs dug deep drainage ditches, and sump holes for only water, and the garbage began to be buried, and the grass in the camp was cut. Fr. Antonio Bruddenbrucke, a German Catholic priest, came to the camp – assisted by Mrs. Escoda – with packages from friends and relatives in Manila on November 12th. There was also medicine and books for the POWs.

One hundred POWs worked on Sunday, November 15th digging latrines and sump holes. Since Sunday was a day off, Lt. Col. Curtis Beecher, USMC, made sure each man received 5 cigarettes. On November 16th, Pvt. Peter Laniauskas was shot trying to escape. Two other POWs were tried by the Japanese for being involved in the escape attempt. One man received 20 days in solitary confinement and the other 30 days. Pvt. Donald K. Russell, on November 20th, was caught trying to reenter the camp at 12:30 A.M. He had left the camp at 8:30 P.M. and secured a bag of canned food by claiming he was a guerrilla. He was executed in the camp cemetery at 12;30 P.M. on November 21st. The Japanese gave out a large amount of old clothing – that came from Manila – to the POWs on November 22nd. On November 23rd, the Japanese wanted to start a farm and needed 750 POWs to do the initial work on it. It was noted that there were only 603 POWs healthy enough to work.

Two POWs in December attempted to escape and were caught. They were tied to the gate of the camp hospital and left there for the day. Each time a guard passed the men, they picked up a stick and beat them. The Japanese were going to shoot them at 4:00 pm that day, but an American doctor, Lt. Col. Craig, convinced the Japanese not to shoot them. The two men were put in the guard house for six months. Fr. Bruddenbrucke returned on December 10th without proper authorization from the authorities in Manila so he was turned away.  He had brought a truckload of medicine and food for the POWs. It was estimated by the POWs that he spent $300.00 for fuel to make the trip. A POW Pvt. Art Self was beaten so badly on December 12th, that he died. Fr. Bruddenbrucke returned on December 24th with two truckloads of presents for the men and a gift bag for each. This time he was allowed into the camp. The next day, Christmas, the POWs received 2½ Red Cross boxes. In each box was milk in some form, corn beef, fish, stew beef, sugar, meat and vegetable, tea, and chocolate. The POWs also received bulk corn beef, sugar, meat and vegetables, stew, raisins, dried fruit, and cocoa which they believed would last them three months. The POWs also were given four days off from work.

Each month on the eighth, the Japanese read the Japanese declaration of war on the United States to the POWs. This usually got them wound up and the POWs knew that the number of beatings they received would increase. On January 11th, the POWs watched and heard the explosions as Japanese dive bombers bombed and strafed something about 30 kilometers away. They later heard a barrio was attacked killing 102 men, women, and children and wounding 60. On the 13th, the commissary supplies ended. According to the Japanese, this was because guerrillas had burned down half of Cabanatuan which included the warehouse where the supplies were stored. The Japanese issued toilet kits to the POWs on January 14th that had to be shared by four POWs. On January 18th, the same area was bombed again by the Japanese. The Japanese issued Red Cross Boxes to the POWs on January 24th which had to be shared by two POWs. Twelve hundred POWs left the camp on a work detail on January 27th. 

The Japanese installed a radio in the hospital so the POWs could hear their version of the war. During February they heard that the Russians were driving the Germans from Russia but Japan would continue to fight on its own. They also heard the Allies were winning the European War and that there had been a battle in the Marshall Islands between the Japanese and Americans.

Multiple work details left the camp each day and returned each evening. Some details were small while others had 1,255 to 1,450 POWs on them. Men who worked near the camp came back at about 11:30 AM for a tin of rice and then returned to work again to finish out a 10-hour day. After they had supper, there wasn't much for the POWs to do. The Red Cross had sent books, but the Japanese censors took them away a few days after they arrived. The POWs received Christmas telegrams on February 7th. The POWs watched the Marx Brothers' movie “Room Service” on the 11th and many Japanese propaganda news clips. It was recorded on February 12th that there had not been a death in the camp in eight days. Three POWs died the next day. The Japanese also ordered that the POWs turn in all radios to them, but it is not known if they received any. POWs who did not have blankets were issued blankets by the Japanese on February 22nd. A program was started by the POWs to stop the spread of dysentery. For every full milk can of flies, the POWs turned in, they received cigarettes in return. It was noted that on March 3rd, 12 million flies had been turned in and 320 rats had been turned in.

A large POW detachment also started work to beautify the camp cemetery, on April 1st. Two POWs, PFC Holland Stobach and Pvt. Ernest O. Kelly escaped while working on the water detail outside the camp on the 6th. They had an hour’s start on the Japanese and it appears they were successful at evading the guards. The only punishment given to the other POWs was the show they expected to see was canceled. On the 11th, the workday changed for the POWs. Revelle was at 5:30 A.M. with breakfast now at 6:00 until 7:00 when they left for work and worked until 10:30 A.M. when they returned to the camp for lunch at noon. They returned to work and worked from 1:00 P.M. until 6:00 P.M. Dinner was at 6:30. Roll call was taken at 7:00 P.M. and again at 9:00 P.M. Pvt. John B. Trujillo who was one of the POWs assigned to guard against escapes attempted to escape but was caught. At 9:00 A.M. he was taken to the schoolyard in the barrio of Cabanatuan and executed.

On April 27, 1943, his parents learned he was a POW.

B BERNSTEIN
           4845 NORTH AVERS AVENUE
                              CHICAGO ILLINOIS

REPORT JUST RECEIVED THROUGH THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS STATES THAT YOUR SON CAPTAIN MAX M BERNSTEIN IS A PRISONER OF WAR OF THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS LETTER OF INFORMATION FOLLOWS FROM THE PROVOST
“ULIO THE ADJUTANT GENERAL.

Within days of receiving the first message, his parents received the following letter.

Dear Mrs. Bernstein:

                      Report has been received that your son, Captain Max Bernstein, Medical Corps, is now a prisoner of war to the Japanese Government in the Philippine Islands. This is to confirm my telegram of April 27, 1943.

                      The Provost Marshall General, Prisoner of War Information Bureau, Washington, D. C., will furnish you the address to which mail may be sent. Any future correspondence in connection with his status as a prisoner of war should be addressed to that office.

                                                                                                                                                                                    Very truly yours
                                                                                                                                                                                           (signed)
                                                                                                                                                                                    J.  A.  ULIO
                                                                                                                                                                                   Major General
                                                                                                                                                                                   The Adjutant General

Another letter followed.

    The Provost Marshal General directs me to inform you that you may communicate with your son, postage free, by following the inclosed instructions:

    It is suggested that you address him as follows:

         Capt. Max M. Bernstein, U.S. Army
         Interned in the Philippine Islands
         C/O Japanese Red Cross, Tokyo, Japan
         Via New York, New York

    Packages cannot be sent to the Orient at this time. When transportation facilities are available a package permit will be issued you.

    Further information will be forwarded you as soon as it is received.

                                                                                                                                                Sincerely
                                                                                                                                                    (signed)
                                                                                                                                               HOWARD F. BRESEE
                                                                                                                                               Colonel, CMP
                                                                                                                                               Chief Information Bureau

The Japanese allowed the POWs, on May 30th, to hold a memorial service to honor the nearly 2,600 men who had died. (This number is the total number of deaths at both Camp O’Donnell and Cabanatuan.) At 9:00 AM, the POWs marched to the camp cemetery which was slightly over a half-mile from the camp. The services were conducted by Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant chaplains. The Japanese camp commandant presented a wreath. The POWs choir sang several hymns, the POWs were called to attention, and taps were blown as they saluted.

The POWs organized shows for the other prisoners as a way to break the monotony of camp life. During his time in the camp, there was an incident with the camp band at Cabanatuan. The band always tried to learn new songs to play for the POWs. One of the songs the band learned to play was “Paper Moon.” The only problem was that the song had not become popular until after the soldiers had become POWs. When the Japanese realized this, they knew the POWs had a radio hidden in the camp. The Japanese searched the camp vigorously to find the radio and tortured many men, but they never did find the radio.

Another POW, Conley, escaped from the garden detail on July 11, 1943, and was captured in a barrio. At about 11:00 PM, there was a lot of noise in the camp. The next morning, at the camp morgue, POWs described what they saw. Conley’s jaw had been crushed as was the top of his skull, his teeth had all been knocked out with a rifle butt, his left leg had been crushed, and he had been bayoneted in the eyes and scrotum. From a guard tower, a drunk Japanese guard shot 2nd Lt. Robert Huffcutt while he was working in his garden. After shooting him from the tower he went into the garden and shot him a second time. The guard claimed Huffcutt had tried to escape although he was nowhere near the camp fence.

Also during July, the names of 500 POWs were posted, and on July 21st, the POWs were issued new shoes, a suit of “Philippine Blues” and were 2 cans of corn beef and 3 cans of milk. They were informed they would be taking a 21-day trip.  The detachment left the camp that night. As it turned out, when they arrived in Manila, they were used in the Japanese propaganda film The Dawn of Freedom to show how cruel the Americans were to the Filipinos. After this, they were sent to Japan on the Clyde Maru.

Any POW who was healthy worked on the airfield detail or on the farm detail which had started in November 1942. The POWs had breakfast a half hour before dawn and at dawn, the men went to work. The detail was under the command of “Big Speedo” who spoke very little English. When he wanted the POWs to work faster, he told the POWs “speedo.” Although he was known to have a temper, but overall, the POWs thought he was fair. Another guard was “Little Speedo” who was smaller and also used “speedo” when he wanted the POWs to work faster. He punished the POWs by making them kneel on stones. The second in command was a guard the POWs called “Donald Duck” because he talked constantly and was described as being unpredictable and would beat POWs at a whim. He knew the POWs called him Donald Duck and they told him that Donald Duck was a big American movie star. One day, he saw a Donald Duck cartoon while in Manila and came looking for the POWs who used the name. The POWs stated they stayed out of his way for days.

Each morning, after arriving at the farm, the POWs went into a tool shed to get their tools. As they left the shed, the guards hit them on their heads. This was considered the most abusive of the work details with the POWs receiving the worst beatings. The POWs cleared the area that they called "the farm" and planted camotes, cassava, taro, sesame, and various greens. The Japanese used most of the food for themselves. When the POWs arrived at the farm, they would enter a shed. As they came out, it was common for them to be hit over the heads by the guards. Although the Japanese told the POWs what they grew would supplement their meals, they took most of what was grown for themselves. The POWs ate the tender tips of the sweet potato plants which angered the Japanese since it stopped the plants' growth. “Smiley” was a Korean guard who always had a smile on his face but could not be trusted. He was the meanest of the guards and beat men up for no reason with the club. Any prisoner who he believed was not working hard enough got knocked over with it. Another guard, “Smiling Sam” would tell the POWs he was taking a break and then turned his back to them. While he was on his break, they could rest or steal food. Before he ended his break he warned them that his break was over and when he turned around, they were all working.

From a guard tower, a drunk Japanese guard shot 2nd Lt. Robert Huffcutt while he was working in his garden. After shooting him from the tower he went into the garden and shot him a second time. The guard claimed Huffcutt had tried to escape although he was nowhere near the camp fence.

Another POW, Conley, escaped from the garden detail on July 11th and was captured in a barrio. At about 11:00 PM, there was a lot of noise in the camp. The next morning, at the camp morgue, POWs described what they saw. Conley’s jaw had been crushed as was the top of his skull, his teeth had all been knocked out with a rifle butt, his left leg had been crushed, and he had been bayoneted in the eyes and scrotum. Also in July, the names of 500 POWs were posted on the list of POWs being sent to Bilibid Prison. On July 22nd, the POWs were issued new shoes, a suit of “Philippine Blues” and were 2 cans of corn beef, and 3 cans of milk. They were informed they would be taking a 21-day trip. On July 15th, 25 to 30 trucks arrived at the camp to transport POWs to Manila. The trucks with the POWs left at 8:00 P.M. and arrived at Bilibid Prison at 2:00 A.M. The only food the POWs received was rotten sweet potatoes. As it turned out, when they arrived in Manila, they were used in The Dawn of Freedom, a Japanese propaganda film, to show how cruel the Americans were to the Filipinos. After this, they were sent to Japan on the Clyde Maru.

In August, the rainy season had started, and all the extra food was long gone. The Japanese planned to move the hospital to the same area as the healthy POWs to reduce the size of the camp so they could reduce the number of guards. On September 22nd, the hospital was moved. The POWs also were ordered to stop cooking their food. For the sick, this was bad news since meals for them were being cooked individually. The POWs adopted a system where a group placed an order for food 24 hours before they wanted the food. The supplies were debited from that group’s supplies.

Some sources state it was in September 1943 while others state it was in January 1944 that a new detail was sent out to work at Cabanatuan Airfield which had been the home of a Philippine Army Air Corps unit and had been known as Maniquis Airfield. The airfield was seven miles southeast of the camp and the POWs marched to it and from it each day. It was reported that 1,500 POWs were used on the detail in the construction of runways and revetments. Those POWs working on the airfield dug dirt and moved it to where the Japanese wanted it with wheelbarrows and small mining cars. The POWs worked at the airfield until March 1944 when the detail ended. A guard the POWs called “Air Raid” was in charge of the detail. It was said that the POWs had to watch him but that he was usually fair.

The Japanese continued to discipline the POWs. Those POWs who were too sick to work were made to stand in the sun for hours with their arms stretched out straight in front of them or above their heads holding heavy objects. Another common punishment was for the POWs to squat for 2 to 3 hours with pick handles placed between their thighs and calves to cut off circulation. Both on the work details and in the camp the POWs continued to be beaten with holes, rifle butts, 2x4s, and bamboo whips. The most vicious guard when it came to the beatings was called “Clark Gable” by the POWs.

An order was issued on October 3rd that all good khaki garments, hats, rifle belts, and field bags they had must be turned over to the Japanese. The next day, the Japanese sent 1300 POWs to Bongabong in captured U.S. trucks. On one of the front bumpers of a 6 by 6 truck were the markings “Hq 192nd.” The POWs were back in the camp by 8:00 P.M. and to the surprise of the other POWs, their possessions were returned to them. It turned out that the Japanese were still shooting the movie, and the POWs were used as extras in the movie. Also during the month, the POWs noted that the food they were growing on the camp farm was being sent to Manila. On October 18th, 103 telegrams were brought to the camp but only 21 men present in the camp received them. It appeared that other men were out on work details. Four days later, 175 telegrams arrived at the camp, but only 65 were distributed. It was noted that some had been received in Tokyo that same month.

During this time, the death rate in the camp dropped after the Japanese issued Red Cross packages to the POWs. Another thing that helped lower the death rate was that the POWs were allowed to have gardens to grow vegetables. This occurred because the ranking American officer, Lt. Col. Curtis Beecher, USMC., had been friends with the Japanese camp commander when they were both stationed in Shanghai.

The POWs noticed a change in the running of the camp on November 7th. There was only one detachment of guards and only Americans were cooking for the Japanese. The Japanese supply warehouse was broken into and sugar and milk were found to be missing. The POW punishment was that they would not receive their meat ration that day. Later in the day, the order was changed and the POWs received the meat ration. The Japanese explanation was, “We know the Americans did not steal the foods.”

The POWs received on December 7, 1943, ½ a pound of sugar, 2 cans of soluble coffee, 2 chocolate emergency rations, 1 pound of prunes, and a ½ pound of cheese. The items were perishable goods that came from the Red Cross Christmas boxes sent to the camp. That night they received a Japanese “news sheet” that told of the terrible American losses in the southwest Pacific. According to the sheet, the U.S. had lost most of its navy. It also stated that the U.S. lost 5 carriers, 2 cruisers, and a battleship in the Gilberts, and 37 ships were lost at Bougainville. On the 11th, they received more coffee, two cans of cheese, two chocolate bars, and two boxes of raisins.

On Christmas Eve the Japanese gave each man an unopened Red Cross box. Inside the POWs found cigarettes which usually were missing from the boxes. From 9:00 P.M. until midnight on Christmas Eve, carolers were all over the camp. Christmas started with midnight mass for the Catholics with Protestant services at 5:30 A.M. Bango was at 7:00 A.M. instead of 6:30. The Japanese also handed out to each man an unopened Red Cross box. In total, POWs stated they received four Red Cross boxes.

One of the changes that took place in January 1944 was that the POWs on the work details were no longer beaten. The farm detail where the POWs received the worst beatings was considered the best detail to be on. The POWs received in January another Red Cross box around the 19th. Inside were 3 cans of beef, 4 cans of butter, 1 spam, 1 purity loaf, 1 salmon, 1 Pate, 1 canned milk, and jam. In addition, the POWs received packs of cigarettes. Those who received ¼ of sugar on December 7th received ½ a pound of cocoa in January.

During February, the rumor spread among the POWs that the Marshall Islands and Gilbert Islands had been retaken. They also heard that the Marianas Islands had been bombed and that there had been a sea Battle in the Java Sea. Another rumor stated that the Filipino food ration had been cut to 120 grams of rice a day and that no one was allowed to leave Manila. 

When they arrived in the camp in June 1942, the POWs set up an underground mail network with Filipinos who served as couriers that started operations when they arrived at the camp. Those POWs involved had code names so if the mail was intercepted they would be hard to identify. It appears that for almost two years the mail flowed into and out of the camp regularly. The Japanese discovered underground mail on May 1, 1944, and the 23 POWs believed to be involved in the network were taken by the Kempi Tai to Manila. For one week, the POWs were tortured before 10 of the POWs, all officers, were later returned to the camp but segregated from the other POWs for a month. They sat on benches during the day and slept on the ground at night. The abuse also continued. It is known that Fr. Buddenbroucke who had brought food and medicine to the POWs was executed for smuggling messages. On June 15th, the Japanese announced that 1,000 POWs would be sent to Japan.

A list was posted with the names of POWs leaving the Philippines, and his name was on it. On August 13, 1944, the 1.034 POWs went to the Port Area of Manila. Many of these men came from Cabanatuan while others came from Bilibid Prison. According to some POWs, they were taken by barges to the Noto Maru on August 15, 1944. This was the last ship to sail for Japan that was not attacked by American submarines. The POWs boarded the ship. It was stated it was extremely hot outside. Next, they were sent down into one of its holds almost 1,000 square feet, and extremely hot. Another company of POWs arrived by barge and put into the ship's hold. The companies had as many as 200 men in them. Five companies of POWs were placed in the hold totaling 1,058 men. With each company put into the hold, the POWs got closer to the hatch. According to men who were on the ship they boarded and disembarked the ship two more times. Some men believed this happened because American submarines had been seen in the area and the ships could not sail. The last time they boarded the ship was on August 25th, and after they were in the hold, the Japanese removed the ladder trapping the POWs. As the hatch was closed, the Japanese guard said in perfect English, "Make yourself comfortable." The POWs sat in positions that took up as little space as possible.

The ship also carried Japanese troops and civilians. The civilians were being evacuated from the Philippines. The ship moved on August 27th, but it dropped anchor and spent the night in Subic Bay until three other ships were ready to sail. The ship finally sailed as part of a convoy of ten to fifteen ships on August 28th, but for the POWs in the hold, it was always night. The light that did enter the hold through the hatch did not penetrate the darkness.

A large barrow cut half length-wise below the hatch was supposed to serve as the latrine but it was almost impossible to get to it. To get to the tub, the POWs had to crawl over other men. When the man was finished, he found someone else had taken his place. Many men could not get to the tub, so the floor was soon covered with human waste. When the half-barrow was hoisted out of the hold, human feces fell on the men below in the hold. The smell coming out of the hold was so bad that the Japanese covered the hatch which made the hold get hotter and made the smell worse. The POWs stated that the heat was so bad that men passed out and fell into the excrement that covered the floor. It was said that the POWs willed themselves not to pass out because it was certain death if they did. The dead were piled under the hatch and pulled out with ropes.

The POWs were fed boiled barley once a day and given water once or twice a day. A POW was lucky if he received a tablespoon of water. As the ship made its way to Japan men died of sickness and starvation. With each death, there was more room in the ship’s hold. The dead were hoisted from the hold by rope and thrown into the sea. The suction of the ship’s propellers pulled the bodies into them and resulted in the bodies being cut up.

On its trip to Formosa, depth charges were dropped since American submarines were believed to be in the area of the ships. The ship arrived at Takao on August 30th. While it was docked, the smell from the hold was so bad that the POWs who could walk were brought up on deck, taken ashore, and hosed down with salt water. The Japanese also washed down the hold to clean out the waste on the floor. After the POWs went back into the hold, the temperature dried the water off but left them with a layer of salt on their skin. The second day at Takao American B-17 attacked. The POWs in the ship's hold could not hear the planes as they approached. They became aware of the attack when the first bombs exploded. The attack lasted about 45 minutes but the planes failed to hit any of the ships.

During the trip, men died of sickness and starvation. With each death, there was more room in the ship's hold. The bodies of the dead were hosted out of the hold by ropes and dumped in the sea. The suction of the ship's propellers pulled the bodies into them and resulted in the bodies being cut up.

The convoy came under attack from American submarines one night at 3:00 a.m. The POWs chanted for the subs to sink the ship. The POWs did not know it, but they were under attack by a wolf pack made up of the USS Crevale, USS Angler, and USS Flasher. At least two torpedoes were fired at the ship, but since they ran deep, the torpedoes went under the ship. The prisoners heard a bang under the ship and they assumed that it was a torpedo from an American submarine. It is known that several other ships in the convoy were sunk. One POW said, "That is an eerie feeling. Here, it's an American sub firing at you. You're below the waterline." They also heard an explosion and saw a flash go over the hatch when a tanker was hit. After this happened the Japanese covered the hatch.

The surviving ships arrived in Moji, Japan on September 4th, and the POWs were given a piece of colored wood as they left the ship. The POWs were put into two groups by the color of the piece of wood. Each detachment went to a different camp. Their smell was so bad, that the Japanese civilians held their noses as the POWs passed.

The POWs next were put on a ferry to cross the Bay of Kobe. They left the ferry and marched to the train station. As they boarded the train, they noticed that there was a large number of Japanese civilians who appeared to be maimed. The men then were boarded onto a silver streamliner. It was nice inside, but there was no air conditioning. They were ordered not to touch the curtains and to leave them down. The POWs peeked out the windows and learned why. The Japanese city had suffered a great amount of damage from American bombers.

During the trip to the camp, the POWs received the best meal they had in years. When the train arrived at Takaoka, a mall coastal city on the edge of Honshu that faced the Sea of Japan, they disembarked. From there, they marched to Tokyo 1-D which was later known as Nagoya 6-B. It was September 6, 1944. The camp was built for 300 POWs and located near the Nomachi Smelting Plant which violated the Geneva Convention since it was in a war materials manufacturing area. When the Americans got to the camp, it appeared that the barracks had been built in a hurry. The one barracks building in the camp was divided between American and British POWs. This was done to keep order and to prevent problems with camp records.

In the barracks were two tiers of platforms. The POWs climbed ladders to reach the upper tier. Six POWs slept on a platform that was 7 feet long by 18 feet wide with each prisoner having a sleeping area of three feet and a straw mattress for each POW to sleep on. Each man received four to six blankets and four coal-burning stoves, two in each half of the barracks, provided what little heat they had. There were 24 toilet spaces, cold water showers, and a large bathing tub filled with heated water. Clothing for the POWs consisted of what they already had when they arrived at the camp, Japanese army uniforms, and some clothing from the Red Cross.

In front of the prisoners' barracks, there was an area for calisthenics. There was also a zigzag trench that was supposedly an air raid shelter. The entire compound was surrounded by an eight-foot wooden fence.

When the Americans arrived, the Japanese commanding officer addressed the prisoners. He had only one arm having lost one fighting the Chinese. He spoke decent English and informed them that the harder they worked, the better they would get along. He also informed them that those who could not work would receive reduced rations. The 150 British prisoners who joined the Americans in the camp in early 1945 had been captured in Hong Kong. The biggest problem the two groups of prisoners had with each other was language. As for behavior and discipline, the British were no better or worse than the Americans.

In the camp, Max was one of the POW medical officer. It was his job to try to treat the sick and injured. When he arrived he had the job of opening the camp hospital with three medics. The following came from the post-war report on the camp hospital. “It was a wooden structure and was heated only by charcoal burners, No medical help was supplied by the Army except that a civilian doctor, Hiraki (Kei) Yoshino made weekly visits to the infirmary to assist Capt. Bernstein. Only one examination was made by Dr. Yoshino to all of the prisoners and that was in October of 1944 when there were 150 prisoners at the camp. All other examinations by Dr. Yoshino were limited to person confined to bed or the infirmary. The only immunization given the prisoners was a typhoid inoculation in March 1945. The Army furnished very few medical supplies and the majority of supplies was obtained through the Nomachi Factory and the two Red Cross shipments.

There was an average of from 4 to 6 persons in the infirmary every day. Others were confined to their beds however, and there is reason to believe that many who should have been in bed were sent to work. Of the 13 prisoners who died between September 1944 and September 1945, nine of then died of pneumonia in the winter of 1944. Two prisoners died as a result of malaria, one died of beriberi and another died of concussion from being hit on the head while at work. Dr. Yoshino’s opinion of the reason for so many pneumonia deaths was the change in climate from the Philippines and the fact that the buildings did not offer adequate protection from the cold. He also said that the type of diet could have caused some of the sickness.
Records concerning the medical history of the prisoners were apparently kept only by Captain Bernstein and the Army. Investigation disclosed no further information in this regard.”

The POWs worked 12-hour workdays with most of the POWs working during the day shift and a small detachment working at night. Those working at the Nomachi Smelting Company walked about 400 yards to the camp, while those working at Hokkai Dneka Smelter marched for five minutes before boarding a boat for a five-minute ride. The POWs, in most cases, were used as laborers at the smelters and mixed iron, coke, and lime before throwing them into a furnace. Others load the mixture into carts and pushed it to the furnaces before throwing it into the furnaces. No protective clothing was provided to the POWs so blisters and burns were common.

In addition, the POWs stirred the mixture so that it would melt faster and puddle it when it was ready. Other POWs worked in the machine shop and operated cranes.

The attitude of the Japanese civilians at the plants varied. Some of the civilians were very friendly while others were hostile. The son of the owner of the manganese works liked associating with the POWs because he could speak English. Those who abused the POWs often had the men stand in front of the blast furnace, at attention, which resulted in the men developing blisters. As they stood at attention, they were hit in their heads. They were frequently slapped, punched, and hit with 2-foot long by 2-inch wide sticks the civilian guards carried.

Air raid shelters were provided, but it appeared they were not large enough to hold all the POWs. The third detail of POWs worked at a quarry where 20% of the POWs assigned to the job died due to accidents. Officers were not required to work.

Every two weeks the prisoners would change shifts. When this happened there was an eighteen-hour-long swing shift. Since the ore was heavy and the heat tremendous, the POWs worked thirty minutes on and thirty minutes off. From September 8, 1944, until September 1, 1945, the POWs were forced to work without a day off.

The Japanese used collective punishment when they believed a POW had violated a rule. The food rations of the POWs were cut in half or they did not receive fuel for the stoves in the barracks. On one occasion, the Japanese denied fuel to the POWs for seven days.

The prisoners knew that the war was not going well for Japan. When they were working in the plant, they watched how tightly the food was rationed to the civilians. The foreman gave each worker the same amount of rice. The workers made sure that the kernels that fell on the floor were picked up and put in their baskets. The rats and mice also felt the food shortage. The rats had started to kill the mice for food.

One of the benefits of working in the plant was that there was always enough hot and cold water. The hot water was the result of the furnaces. The prisoners at the plant introduced the Japanese to taking showers. A couple of POWs who worked in the machine shop got permission to make a showerhead. The Japanese liked it so much that they had one made.

While working in the plant, the Americans and the British were not allowed to be mixed in the work details. They worked in the same areas but never together.

The camp had a small wooden building with six beds that served as a hospital and no more than six POWs were allowed to be sick at a time. The camp doctor, Capt. Max Bernstein, who had been a member of the 17th Ordnance Company of the Provisional Tank Group, was the camp doctor. He was assisted by three medics, and once a week, a Japanese doctor came to the camp to provide assistance. The Japanese Army provided no medical supplies for the POWs, but the two companies did, and additional medical supplies were received from the Red Cross. Most of the POWs who died in the camp died from pneumonia.

Being that the Japanese had a quota of POWs they needed to work on the details each day, those suffering from diarrhea or dysentery were not considered sick. At one point most of the POWs had diarrhea and still had to work. Those who were too sick to work were beaten with shovels, sticks, rocks, and anything else that was nearby, to get them to do work that they were too sick to do. They also had their meal rations reduced. The camp doctor, Capt. Bernstein treated the sick with very few medical supplies.

The British did not tolerate stealing within their ranks. If a British soldier was caught stealing, the punishment was harsh. Those who were victimized formed a ring around the thief. They were allowed to hit the man until he could not stand or his face was a bloody mess. The thief was then carried on a stretcher to the camp hospital.

When an American was caught stealing from another POW, the ranking American officer, 1st. Lt. George Sense knocked him down on his rear. Many of the POWs believed that this was the right thing to do because it sent the right message. The only stealing that was tolerated was stealing from the Japanese.

By November 1944, snow was everywhere, and the Japanese put markers about five feet tall on the buildings and on posts along the roads. One morning, the POWs went to work in a foot of snow. It snowed every few days until there were about four feet of snow on the ground. They had no boots and their shoes were three years old, so many of the POWs worked in the snow without shoes.

The Japanese denied the POWs food, clothing, shoes, and other items sent to the camp by the Red Cross. Instead of giving these things to the POWs, the Japanese pilfered the items for their own use. The guards were seen wearing shoes sent by the Red Cross for the POWs. The POWs knew of the air raids because the Japanese workers brought newspapers to the mill that the POWs brought into camp and figured out what was happening.

When Christmas, 1944, approached, the POWs hoped that they would have the day off. They hoped that the Japanese would also allow them to have decorations inside their barracks. There also was a rumor that they would receive Red Cross parcels for Christmas. As it turned out, parcels were delivered and each was shared by two men.

A few days before Christmas, the Japanese brought ornaments into every barracks. The ornaments looked just like the ones back home. As it turned out they were the same. These ornaments were supposed to have been shipped to the United States when the war started.

On Christmas, both the Americans and British POWs sang carols together. They also learned that the Japanese had received the Red Cross parcels months earlier, but had held them back to have something to give the prisoners on Christmas. The prisoners needed the food inside the parcels, but what they needed, even more, was what the packages represented. To them, the parcels meant that they had not been forgotten back home.

Men would wear out from being overworked and underfed. Then pneumonia took over and the men died in a couple of days. Their bodies would be put in a four-by-four-foot by two-foot box. It had handles that allowed it to be carried. A Buddhist priest from the village walked ahead of the procession in his white and gold robes. When the remains were returned to the camp, they were in a four-by-four-inch by twelve-inch box. The man's name and serial number were on the box. The box was kept by the camp commandant in his office.

Being that the Japanese had a quota of POWs they needed to work on the details each day, those suffering from diarrhea or dysentery were not considered sick. At one point, most of the POWs had dysentery and were too sick to work. The sick were beaten with shovels, sticks, shovels, and anything else available to get them to do work. They also had their meal rations reduced.

Collective punishment was a common occurrence in the camp. When one POW broke a camp rule, all the POWs were punished. On one occasion, for 7 days, the POWs were denied coal, in the middle of winter, because someone had broken a rule. 

The first time the POWs saw American planes pass over the camp, the POWs cheered in spite of the Japanese trying to silence them by hitting them with their sabers. By June 1945, the air raids were getting closer. Sometimes at night, the plant would be blacked out and the POWs were returned to their barracks. Occasionally, they had an air raid drill where the POWs went into the zigzag trench. As the war went on, as the prisoners marched to the mill, they saw teenage boys being trained by army officers. They knew that it was for the expected invasion of Japan. The boys also used sticks for rifle practice. In June the POWs were moved to the Nomachi plant.

On August 15th, the POWs knew something was going on when the Japanese held a meeting. They also seemed not to care if the POWs did any work, so the POWs took it easy. On August 17th and 18th, the POWs were told they did not have to work. One change that took place was that of the attitude of the guards toward the prisoners. A POW, Jimmy Lujan, hit a supervisor at the mill. Instead of being punished, he was transferred to another job. The POWs believed this was a sign that the civilians knew that the end of the war was near or over. One morning the POWs went to work as usual but were given new jobs. They were told that the blast furnaces were going to be dismantled. They also saw the Japanese women in the mill talking and weeping. All the POWs knew was something serious had happened. A few days later, a Japanese officer came to the camp and spoke with the ranking American officer. The Japanese officer told him that the war was over and that the POWs would not be going to work. He also said that the POWs would remain in the camp until the Americans came for them. One immediate change was that the POWs received more food. The guards were still at the gate, but now their role was to protect the prisoners. They also saluted the Americans. Food was dropped into the camp by B-29s in 55-gallon drums. The former POWs wanted to go home but were nervous about the future.

One night, a U. S. Navy pilot appeared in the camp. He contacted the ranking officers and informed them of how and when they would leave the camp. He also told them about the atomic bomb and that none of the prisoners should leave the camp alone. The former prisoners did leave the camp to go to a nearby river where they swam and lay in the grass as free men. The Swiss Red Cross arrived at the camp on September 5th and began to make arrangements for the POWs to leave the camp. Later in the day, the POWs were taken to the train station and put on trains. Once on the train, they were given three days of k-rations for the trip. The POWs ate the rations the first night on the train, and when they got to Tokyo, most of the POWs were sick from overeating.

Food was dropped into the camp by B-29s in 55-gallon drums. The former POWs wanted to go home but were nervous about the future. One morning the Red Cross showed up at the camp gate and inspected the camp. All the men knew that they were fortunate to be alive. They also received the order that they would be leaving Takaoka by train on September 1, 1945. The POWs arrived at the train depot and a train took them to Yokohama. There they disembarked the train near the docks and saw GIs who looked healthy and strong. They were processed and cleaned up on the USS Rescue, on September 7th, and taken to Manila by a destroyer. The former POWs could not believe how young the sailors looked on the ship. When they arrived in Manila, they were taken to a tent city and processing center. The Americans had a yellow color to their skin. The reason for this is that they were taking atabrine to prevent Malaria. It was at this processing center that the former POWs received new shoes and uniforms which in the cases of some men was the first time in three and a half years that they were given new shoes and uniforms.

Available records indicated that Max was flown to the United States and landed at Hamilton Field north of San Francisco. From there he went to Letterman General Hospital. He was also promoted to Major and transferred to a hospital closer to home. It is not known when he was discharged from the Army.

Max married Nadine Vernelle Wagor on February 28, 1950, and the couple became the parents of two sons. He taught medicine at the University of Illinois Hospital, in Chicago, and later was the Chief of Staff at Edgewater Hospital, Chicago. Max and his wife resided in Palatine, Illinois. Max M. Bernstein passed away on January 13, 1992.

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