On November 25, 1940, the
Maywood Tank Company was called to federal duty
as B Company, 192nd Tank Battalion. It was
at this time that "Dick," as he was called by
his friends, was promoted to 1st Sergeant.
This made him the "Top Kick" or highest ranking
enlisted man in B Company.
2nd Lt.
Richard E. Danca was born on October 23, 1918,
to Joseph and Sarah Danca in River Forest,
Illinois. He was known as "Emmanuel" to
his family and friends. With his brother
and sister, he grew up at 26 Lathrop Avenue in
Forest Park, Illinois, and attended grade school
there. He was a graduate of Proviso
Township High School as a member of the Class of
1935.
On February 13, 1935, Richard
joined the Illinois National Guard while he was
a senior in high school. He was honorably
discharged as a private later that year.
He reenlisted and was discharged again in
1938. Richard again reenlisted in the
National Guard. During his time in the
National Guard, he worked as a company clerk,
truck driver and mechanic.
Richard married Elenore Drexler
on March 11, 1940. His family resided at
815 Marengo Avenue in Forest Park. He
worked for the U. S. Post Office as a postal
clerk at Hines Veterans Administration
Hospital. He was also a good father to his
infant son, Richard, who was born at Fort Knox,
while Danca was training there. He was a
devoted husband to his wife.
With the
creation of Headquarters Company in January of
1941, B Company was in desperate need of
officers. To fill the vacancies, Richard,
along with Matthew MacDowell and Ed Winger, was
promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.
Each of these new officers went to a service
school to help them learn the skills of
administering a tank company. Richard was
given command of the first tank platoon of the B
Company.
After
training at Fort Knox, Kentucky was completed,
Richard went with the 192nd to take part in
maneuvers in Louisiana. It was after these
maneuvers that the battalion was called together
at Camp Polk and informed that they were being
shipped overseas.
The decision for this move
- which had been made on August 15, 1941 -
was the result of an event that took place in
the summer of 1941. 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 an Japanese
occupied island which was hundred of miles
away. The island 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 - 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.
The
battalion's men and equipment were loaded onto
trains and headed west to San Francisco.
On the train, Capt. Donald Hanes called his
platoon commanders together to select combat
numbers for their tanks. Richard being
third in seniority picked third. These
numbers were to painted on the tanks after they
arrived in the Philippine Islands.
The
battalion traveled west by train, over
different routes, to Ft. Mason in
San Francisco. Arriving there,
they were taken by the ferry, the U.S.A.T.
General Frank M. Coxe, to Ft.
McDowell on Angel Island in San
Francisco Bay. At Ft. McDowell,
they were given physicals and inoculated
by the battalion's medical
detachment. Those men found
to have a minor medical condition were
held back and scheduled to rejoin the
battalion at a later date, while other
men were simply replaced.
The 192nd was boarded onto
the U.S.A.T. Hugh L. Scott and sailed on
Monday, October 27. During this part of
the trip, many tankers had seasickness, but once
they recovered they spent much of the time
training in breaking down machine guns, cleaning
weapons, and doing KP. The ship
arrived at Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sunday, November
2 and had a two day layover, so the soldiers
were given shore leave so they could see the
island.
On Wednesday, November 5, the
ship sailed for Guam but took a southerly route
away from the main shipping lanes. It was
at this time it was joined by, the heavy
cruiser, the U.S.S. Louisville and,
another transport, the S.S. Calvin Coolidge.
Sunday night, November 9, the soldiers went to
bed and when they awoke the next morning, it was
Tuesday, November 11. During the night,
while they slept, the ships had crossed the
International Dateline. On Saturday,
November 15, smoke from an unknown ship was seen
on the horizon. The Louisville revved up
its engines, its bow came out of the water, and
it shot off in the direction of the smoke.
It turned out the smoke was from a ship that
belonged to a friendly country.
When they arrived at Guam on
Sunday, November 16, the ships took on water,
bananas, coconuts, and vegetables before sailing
for Manila the next day. At one point, the
ships passed an island at night and did so in
total blackout. This for many of the
soldiers was a sign that they were being sent
into harm's way. The ships entered Manila
Bay, at 8:00 A.M., on Thursday, November 20, and
docked at Pier 7 later that morning. At
3:00 P.M., most of the soldiers were taken by
bus to Ft. Stotsenburg. Those who drove
trucks drove them to the fort, while the
maintenance section remained behind at the pier
to unload the tanks.
At the fort, they were greeted by
Gen. Edward
King, who
apologized
that they had
to live in
tents along
the main road
between the
fort and Clark
Airfield.
He made sure
that they all
received
Thanksgiving
Dinner before
he went to
have his
own.
Ironically,
November 20
was the date
that the
National Guard
members of the
battalion had
expected to be
released from
federal
service.
For
the next
seventeen days
the tankers
worked to
remove
cosmoline from
their
weapons.
The grease was
put on the
weapons to
protect them
from rust
while at
sea.
They also
loaded
ammunition
belts and did
tank
maintenance.
On December 1, the tanks were ordered
to the
perimeter of
Clark Field to
guard against
paratroopers.
Two crew
members had to
be with their
tank at all
times.
The morning of
December 8,
1941, the
tankers were
ordered to the
perimeter of
Clark
Airfield.
They had
received word
of the
Japanese
attack on
Clark
Airfield.
As they sat in
their tanks
and
half-tracks
they watched
as American
planes filled
the sky.
At noon, the
planes landed
and the pilots
went to
lunch.
At 12:45, the
tankers
watched as
planes
approached the
airfield from
the
north.
When bombs
began
exploding on
the runways,
they knew the
planes were
Japanese.
At 12:45 in the afternoon on
December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, the soldiers lived
through the Japanese attack on Clark
Airfield. That morning, they had been
awakened to the news that the Japanese had
bombed Pearl Harbor just hours earlier.
The tankers were eating lunch when planes
approached the airfield from the north. At
first, they thought the planes were
American. They then saw what looked like
rain drops falling from the planes. It was
only when bombs began exploding on the runways
that the tankers knew the planes were
Japanese. The company remained at Clark
Field for the next two weeks.
The
tank battalion received orders on
December 21 that it was to proceed north
to Lingayen Gulf. Because of
logistics problems, the B and C
Companies soon ran low on gas.
When they reached Rosario, there was
only enough for one tank platoon, from B
Company, to proceed north to support the
26th Cavalry.
On December 23 and
24, the battalion was in the area of
Urdaneta. The bridge they
were going to use to cross the Agno
River was destroyed and the tankers made
an end run to get south of river.
As they did this, they ran into Japanese
resistance early in the evening.
They successfully crossed at the river
in the Bayambang Province.
On December 25, the
tanks of the battalion held the southern
bank of the Agno River from Carmen to
Tayung, with the tanks of the 194th
holding the line on the
Carmen-Alcala-Bautista Road. The tanks
held the position until 5:30 in the
morning on December 27.
The tankers were fell
back toward Santo Tomas near Cabanatuan
on December 27th, and December were at
San Isidro south of Cabanatuan on
December 28 and 29. While there,
the bridge over the Pampanga River was
destroyed, they were able find a
crossing over the river. On
January 5, Richard was wounded in an
engagement with the Japanese. His
wife received this news in a telegram
the week of January 18th.
During the
withdraw into the peninsula, the company crossed
over the last bridge which was mined and about
to be blown. The 192nd held its position
so that the 194th Tank Battalion could leap frog
past it and then cover the 192nd's withdraw. The
192nd was the last American unit to enter
Bataan.
Over the next several months,
the battalion fought battle after battle with
tanks that were not designed for jungle
warfare. The
tank battalions, on January 28, were
given the job of protecting the
beaches. The 192nd was assigned
the coast line from Paden Point to Limay
along Bataan's east coast. The
Japanese later admitted that the tanks
guarding the beaches prevented them from
attempting landings.
B Company also
took part in the Battle of the
Pockets to wipe out Japanese
soldiers who had been trapped
behind the main defensive
line. 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 a
tank exited the pocket.
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 to use to kill the
Japanese was to park a tank with
one track over the
foxhole. The driver gave
the other track power resulting
with the tank spinning around
and grinding its way down into
the foxhole. The tankers
slept upwind of their tanks from
the tanks because of the smell.
The last news that Richard's
family received from him was in a letter dated
February, 1942. They did not receive the
letter until August 1942.
On April 9,
1942, Richard became a Prisoner of War when the
defenders of Bataan were surrendered to the
Japanese. The tankers destroyed their
tanks before making their way to
Mariveles. It was from there that Richard
began the Death March.
From Mariveles at the southern tip of Bataan, the
POWs made their way to San Fernando. At one
point, they had to run past Japanese artillery that
was firing at Corregidor. Corregidor returned
fire. At San Fernando, they were held in a
bullpen that were covered in human waste. How
long he remained there is not known.
The POWs were organized into detachments of 100 men
and marched to the train station where they were
boarded onto small wooden boxcars used to haul
sugarcane. Each car could hold forty men or
eight horses and known as "Forty or Eights.
The Japanese packed 100 POWs into each car and
closed the doors. Those who died remained
standing since they could not fall to the floor of
the car. At Capas, the POWs disembarked the
boxcars and walked the last miles to Camp O'Donnell.
Camp O'Donnell was an unfinished Filipino Army
Training Base that the Japanese pressed into use as
a POW camp on April 1, 1942. When they arrived
at the camp, the Japanese confiscated any extra
clothing that the POWs had and refused to return it
to them. They searched the POWs and if a man
was found to have Japanese money on them, they were
taken to the guardhouse. Over the next several
days, gunshots were heard to the southeast of the
camp. These POWs had been executed for
looting.
There was only one water faucet
in the camp, and the prisoners stood in line from
two to eight hours waiting for a drink. The
Japanese guards at the faucet would turn it off for
no reason and the next man in line would stand as
long as four hours waiting for it to be turned on
again. This situation improved when a second
faucet was added.
There was no water for washing
clothes, so the POWs would throw out their clothing
when it had been soiled. In addition, water
for cooking had to be carried three miles from a
river to the camp and mess kits could not be
washed. The slit trenches in the camp were
inadequate and were soon overflowing since most of
the POWs had dysentery. The result was that
flies were everywhere in the camp including the POW
kitchens and in the food.
The camp hospital had no soap,
water, or disinfectant. When the ranking
American doctor at the camp wrote a letter to the
camp commandant, Capt. Yohio Tsuneyoshi, asking for
medical supplies, he was told never to write another
letter.
The Archbishop of Manila sent a
truckload of medical supplies to the camp, the
Japanese commandant refused to allow the truck into
the camp. When the Japanese Red Cross sent
medical supplies the camp the Japanese took 95% of
the supplies for their own use.
The POWs in the camp hospital lay
on the floor elbow to elbow and only one of the six
medic assigned to care for 50 sick POWs was healthy
enough to care for them. When a representative
of the Philippine Red Cross stated they could supply
a 150 bed hospital for the camp, he was slapped in
the face by a Japanese lieutenant.
Each morning, the bodies of the
dead were found all over the camp and were carried
to the hospital and placed underneath it. The
bodies lay there for two or three days before they
were buried in the camp cemetery by other POWs who
were suffering from dysentery and/or malaria.
To clean the ground under the hospital, the ground
was scraped and lime was spread over it. The
bodies of the dead were placed in the area, and the
area they had been laying was scrapped and lime was
spread over it.
Work details were sent out on a
daily basis. Each day, the American doctors
gave a list of names to the Japanese of the POWs who
were healthier enough to work. If the quota of
POWs needed to work could not be met, the Japanese
put those POWs who were sick, but could walk, to
work. The death rate among the POWs reached 50
men dying a day. The Japanese finally
acknowledge that they had to do something, so the
opened a new POW camp at Cabanatuan.
On June 1, 1942, the POWs formed
detachments of 100 men each and were marched to
Capas. There, the 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 which had been the
headquarters of the 91st Philippine Army Division
and was formerly known at Camp Panagaian.
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 POWs
were sent out on work details to cut wood for the
POW kitchens. Meals on a daily basis consisted
of 16 ounces of cooked rice, 4 ounces of vegetable
oil, and sweet potato or corn. The POWs were
forced to work in the fields from 7:00 in the
morning until 5:00 in the evening. Most of the
food they grew went to the Japanese not them.Other
POWs worked in rice paddies.
The POW barracks were built to
house 50 POWs, but most held between 60 and 120
men. The POWs slept on bamboo slats without
mattresses, covers, or mosquito netting. The
result was many became ill.
Each morning, the POWs lined up for
roll call. While they stood at attention, it
wasn't uncommon for them to be hit over the tops of
their heads. In addition, one guard frequently
kicked them in their shins with his hobnailed boots.
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.
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. 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 camp hospital was composed of
30 wards. The ward for the sickest POWs was
known as "Zero Ward," which got its name because it
had been missed when the wards were counted.
The name soon meant the place where those who were
extremely ill went to die. Each ward had two
tiers of bunks and could hold 45 men but often had
as many as 100 men in each. Each man had a two
foot wide by six foot long area to lie in. The
sickest men slept on the bottom tier since the
platforms had holes cut in them so the sick could
relieve themselves without having to leave the tier.
As a POW,
Lt. Richard Danca was held at Camp O'Donnell and
Cabanatuan. At Cabanatuan, he was assigned
to Barracks #29 which was an officers
barracks. He was then sent to Bilibid
Prison for transport to Japan. Sometime
during these imprisonments, he developed an
infection which resulted in his developing blood
poisoning.
It was on
the Hell Ship, Nagato Maru, that 2nd Lt.
Richard E. Danca died. According to Ben
Morin, Richard was sick and not doing well. His
date of death was November 13, 1942. It is
known that he died after the ship had docked at
Tokao, Formosa.
According to
other members of B Company, Richard's body
was taken ashore and cremated. His ashes
were returned to the ship and given to Lt. Col.
Ted Wickord. After the ship's arrival in
Japan, the Japanese authorities took Richard's
ashes after the POWs arrived at Umeda POW Camp.
At the end of the war, no one knew what had
happened to his remains. His wife,
Elenore, learned of his death on September 2,
1943.
Since
the final resting place of 2nd Lt. Richard E.
Danca is unknown, his name appears on the Tablets
of the Missing at the American Military
Cemetery outside of Manila.
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