Pvt. Marion John Polakowski was born on October 6, 1918, in Hamtramck, Michigan, to John Polakowski and Angeline Siezkow-Polakowski, who were Polish immigrants. He was known as “Mike” to his family and friends. With his sister and three brothers, he grew up at 2658 Trowbridge Avenue in Hamtramck. He attended Hamtramck High School and worked as a die maker’s helper at the Ford Motor Company’s plant in Dearborn, Michigan. When the Selective Service Act became law on October 16, 1940, he registered for the daft and named his father as his contact person. It appears that he enlisted in the Army in late 1940 and was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky, for basic training. He was also assigned to the 19th Ordnance Battalion at that time.
The soldiers were housed in wooden barracks surrounded by trees on two sides. The men were assigned weapons and issued a pistol, and possibly a machine gun or submachine gun. Basic training was six weeks long and each week something else was covered. The soldiers did the physical conditioning, but each week they also trained to master a skill. During week one, the soldiers did infantry drilling. Week two, they did manual of arms and marching to music. They learned how to fire a machine gun during week three, while week four covered the 45 caliber handgun. The Garrand rifle was the focus of week five, and week sick had the soldiers training in gas masks, pitching tents, and hiking.
After the basic training was completed, the men attended different schools for vehicle training such as tank maintenance, truck maintenance, scout car maintenance, motorcycle maintenance, and carpentry. The battalion’s machine shops, welding shops, and kitchens were all on trucks. It is known the members of the battalion often trained on the tanks of the 192nd Tank Battalion.
The Army actively sought men for ordnance units who had at least two or more years of high school instruction or experience as automobile mechanics, welders, machinists, typists, bookkeepers or electricians. After basic training was completed, the men attended different schools for vehicle training such as tank maintenance, truck maintenance, scout car maintenance, motorcycle maintenance, and carpentry. The battalion’s machine shops, welding shops, and kitchens were all on trucks. It is known the members of the battalion often trained on the tanks of the 192nd Tank Battalion.
While taking part in the maneuvers in Arkansas, A Company of the 19th Ordnance Battalion received orders to return to Ft. Knox. Once there, the company was inactivated and activated the next day, August 17, 1941, as the 17th Ordnance Company and received orders to go overseas. It is known that men were released transferred from units if their enlistments would end while their unit was overseas, so he may have joined the company as a replacement from another company of the battalion. The reason the 17th Ordnance Company was created appears to be tied to the First Tank Group, and there are at least two stories of how the tank battalions of the tank group ended up in the Philippines.
The reason the 17th Ordnance Company was created appears to be tied to the creation of the First Tank Group, and 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 sometime 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 Formosa (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 this 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. The tank group was mentioned in newspaper columns from January 1941. Available information suggests that the tank group had been selected to be sent to the Philippines early in 1941, and the Army was waiting for Congress to extend the National Guard tank companies time in the regular Army. This was done on August 13, 1941. The tank 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.
It is known that the military presence in the Philippines was being built up at the time, so in all likelihood, the entire tank group had been scheduled to be sent to the Philippines. The buoys being spotted by the pilot may have sped up the transfer of the tank battalions to the Philippines with only the 192nd and 194th reaching the islands. The 193rd Tank Battalion was on its way to the Philippines when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the battalion was held there. One of the medium tank battalions, most likely the 191st was on standby orders for the Philippines while the 70th never received orders for the Philippines because the war with Japan had started. With the start of the Pacific War, the 191st's orders were cancelled. It is possible that the 19th Ordnance Battalion was part of the tank group, but nothing has been found to confirm this. The creation of the 17th Ordnance Company allowed the tanks of the two battalions, in the Philippines, to receive support without sending the entire battalion to the Philippines.
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.
After the attack, much of the time was spent loading bullets by hand from rifle cartridges into machine gun belts since they had gone through most of their ordnance during the attack. That night, since they did not have any foxholes, the men used an old latrine pit for cover since it was safer in the pit than in their tents. The entire night they were bitten by mosquitoes. Without knowing it, they had slept their last night on a cot or bed, and from this point on, the men slept in blankets on the ground.
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 the 10th, the 192nd's half-tracks were in the battalion's area watching the airfield. A formation of Japanese bombers bombed the area. As the crews sat in the half-tracks a 500 bomb exploded about 500 feet from them. The bombs fell in a straight line toward the half-tracks. One bomb fell 25 feet from the half-tracks and then eighteen feet in front of the half-tracks. The final bomb fell about 250 feet behind the half-tracks. The shriek of the bombs falling scared the hell out of the men. T/4 Frank Goldstein radioed HQ and told them about the unexploded bombs. A bomb disposal squad was sent to the area. Later, a jeep pulled up and an officer and enlisted man marked where the sixteen unexploded bombs were located. The crew could see the smoke rising from the fuses of the unexploded bombs. Another jeep and a bulldozer arrived and dirt was pushed over the bombs. The half-track's crew radioed the battalion's HQ and told them they were moving to the old tank park away from the bombs.
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 was at 10:00 P.M. that the decision was made to send a jeep – under a white flag – behind enemy lines to negotiate terms of surrender. The problem soon became that no white cloth could be found. Phil Parish, a truck driver for A Co., 192nd, realized that he had bedding buried in the back of his truck and searched for it. The bedding became the “white flags” that were flown on the jeeps. At 11:00 P.M. the company was told it had 30 minutes to evacuate the ordnance building before the ammunition dumps on both sides of the building were destroyed. At 11:40 P.M., the ammunition dumps went up in flames. At midnight Companies B and D, 192nd, and A Company, 194th, received an order from Gen. Weaver to stand down. At 2:oo A.M. April 9, Gen. King sent a jeep under a white flag carrying Colonel Everett C. Williams, Col. James V. Collier, and Major Marshall Hurt to meet with the Japanese commander about terms of surrender. (The driver was from the tank group.) Shortly after daylight Collier and Hunt returned with word of the appointment. It was at about 6:45 A.M. that tank battalion commanders received the order “crash.” The tank crews destroyed their tanks by cutting the gas lines and throwing torches into the tanks. Within minutes, the ammunition inside the tanks began exploding.
As Gen. King left to negotiate the surrender, he went through the area held by B Company and spoke to the men from the company and men from 17th Ordnance. He said to them, “Boys. I’m going to get us the best deal I can. When you get home, don’t ever let anyone say to you, you surrendered. I was the one who surrendered.” Gen. King with his two aides, Maj. Wade R. Cothran and Captain Achille C. Tisdelle Jr. got into a jeep carrying a large white flag. They were followed by another jeep – also flying another large white flag – with Col. Collier and Maj. Hurt in it. As the jeeps made their way north, they were strafed. and small bombs were dropped by a Japanese plane. The drivers of both jeeps managed to avoid the bullets. The strafing ended when a Japanese reconnaissance plane ordered the fighter pilot to stop strafing.
After Gen. King left, the company members made their way south in their trucks, they heard the ammunition dumps at Little Baguio being destroyed. The explosions continued for hours and the night sky glowed red from the fires. The tunnels at the Mariveles Naval Base next went up. A large ammo dump ahead of them was blown which resulted in the road being blocked so they went up a side trail and reached the airfield which was packed with every sort of vehicle.
The men continued south on foot and made it to kilometer 185 where they were stopped by military police. They were told that they couldn't go further since a large ammunition dump at kilometer 188 was about to destroyed. It was right after this they learned that Bataan had been surrendered. They made their way back to the airfield and watched Japanese planes strafe vehicles flying white flags.
About 10:00 A.M. the jeeps reached Lamao where they were received by a Japanese Major General who informed King that he reported his coming to negotiate a surrender and that an officer from Japanese command would arrive to do the negotiations. The Japanese officer also told him that his troops would not attack for thirty minutes while King decided what he would do. No Japanese officer had arrived from their headquarters and the Japanese attack had resumed. King sent Col. Collier and Maj. Hunt back to his command with instructions that any unit in line with the Japanese advance should fly white flags.
Shortly after this was done a Japanese colonel and interpreter arrived. King was told the officer was Homma’s Chief of Staff and he had come to discuss King’s surrender. King attempted to get insurances from the Japanese that his men would be treated as prisoners of war, but the Japanese officer – through his interpreter – accused him of declining to surrender unconditionally. At one point King stated he had enough trucks and gasoline to carry his troops out of Bataan. He was told that the Japanese would handle the movement of the prisoners. The two men talked back and forth until the colonel said through the interpreter, “The Imperial Japanese Army are not barbarians.” King found no choice but to accept him at his word.
Unknown to Gen. King, an order attributed to Gen. Masaharu Homma – but in all likelihood from one of his subordinates – had been given. It stated, “Every troop which fought against our army on Bataan should be wiped out thoroughly, whether he surrendered or not, and any American captive who is unable to continue marching all the way to the concentration camp should be put to death in the area of 200 meters off the road.”
When the Japanese arrived at the airfield, the first thing the they did was to have the Americans line up. They then proceeded to take what they wanted from the Prisoners of War. It was not unusual for a man to loose a finger because the ring he was wearing would not come off his finger. At the same time, the Japanese would not take a man's wedding ring. After the first shakedown was over, the POWs formed detachments of 100 men and then ordered to march. They would call it "the march" and American newspapers later dubbed it "the Bataan Death March,"
All the POWs knew was that they were being moved north. They had no idea of how long this would take place or where they were going. One Japanese officer had said to them before they started the march, "This will separate the men from the boys." The first five miles were uphill which was made more difficult since many of them were sick and all had been underfed for months. It was stated by men that they didn't just start the march and proceed north. They were stopped - in some cases marched back south on the road they had just come north on - and then marched north again. They also were given what they called "the sun treatment" where they were left sitting in the sun without cover.
The march was made harder by the Japanese guards who were assigned a certain distance to march - five or six miles - and made the POWs move at a faster pace so that they could complete their distance as fast as possible. Those who could not keep up and fell were bayoneted because the guards did not want to stop for them. When the guards were replaced, the POWs again found themselves moving at a fast pace because they also wanted to complete their assigned portion of the march as fast as possible. At one point they ran past Japanese artillery that was firing at Corregidor with Corregidor returning fire. Shells began landing among the POWs who had no place to hide and some of the POWs were killed by incoming shells. Corregidor did destroy three of the four guns.
The heat on the march was intolerable, and those who begged for water were beaten by the guards with their rifle butts because they had asked. Those who were exhausted or suffering from dysentery and dropped to the side of the road were shot or clubbed to death. Food on the march was minimal when it was given to the prisoners, each would receive a pint of boiled rice. The Filipino people seeing the condition of the prisoners attempted to aid them by passing food to the Americans. If the Filipinos were caught doing this, they were beheaded. The further north they marched the more bloated dead bodies they saw. The ditches along the road were filled with water, but many also had dead bodies in them. The POWs’ thirst got so bad they drank the water. Many men would later die from dysentery.
Members of the company stated that the Japanese marched them in the morning and then marched them into a rice paddy and had them get together as close as possible. They were then ordered to sit, but since they were so close together, all they could do was squat. The Japanese left the POWs in the paddy in the sun. They had no hats to cover their heads because they had been taken away from them. When it was decided it was time to move on there were a good number of POWs who didn't get up because they had died.
During the march, they received no water and little food. The further north they marched the more bodies they saw along the road. As they passed artesian wells, any man who attempted to get water was shot at or bayoneted., but they were allowed to take dirty water from ditches along the road. Some had bodies in them. Many of those who did later died of dysentery.
During the march, the Americans were seldom allowed to stop. Men stated that they were not fed until the fifth day or sixth day, but that they weren't sure which it was since the days blurred together. Those who stopped or dropped out were bayoneted. For the men, hearing other men who had fallen to the ground begging for help and not being able to stop to help them was one of the hardest things they experienced on the march. The POWs who continued to march and those who had fallen both knew that to do so meant death for both men.
The lack of food and water was also a major issue for the POWs. Water cost many POWs their lives. The POWs were amazed by the courage of the Filipino people who openly defied the Japanese by giving food and water to the POWs. It was said that every 200 or 300 yards were artesian wells, but the POWs were not allowed to drink from them. As men became more desperate, they would run to the wells only to find that the Japanese had sent advance teams ahead who shot or bayoneted those attempting to get water from them. The further north they marched the more bloated dead bodies they saw. The ditches along the road were filled with water, but many also had dead bodies in them. The POWs’ thirst got so bad they drank the water and many of these men would later die from dysentery.
As the POWs made their way north, the Filipinos filled containers with water and placed them along the road. The POWs could not stop but many were able to scoop water into their canteens. By doing this the Filipinos saved a great many lives. The POWs also could see them flashing the “V” for victory sign under their folder arms. Other Filipinos in the barrios would take rice and form baseball size balls with it and throw it to the POWs. Members of the company witnessed a Japanese soldier walk up to a Filipino holding a baby in his hands when a guard walked up to him and fired his rifle under the baby's chin.
The column of POWs was often stopped and pushed off the road and made to sit in the sun for hours. While they sat there, the guards would shake them down and take any possession they had that the guards liked. When they were ordered to move again, it was not unusual for the Japanese to ride past them in trucks and entertain themselves by swinging at the POWs with their guns or with bamboo poles. It was said when they reached Balanga, they received a mess kit of rice, while men without a mess kit received a handful of rice.
When they were north of Hermosa, the POWs reached the pavement which made the march easier. They received an hour break, but any POW who attempted to lay down was jabbed with a bayonet. After the break, they marched through Layac and Lubao. At this time, a heavy shower took place and many of the men opened their mouths to get water. The guards allowed the POWs to lie on the road. The rain revived many of the POWs and gave them the strength to complete the march.
At San Fernando, the POWs were put in a schoolyard surrounded by barbed wire and guards who patrolled the perimeter. There was just enough room to sit down. In one corner was a slit trench that was the washroom for the POWs. The surface of it moved from the maggots. It is not known how long he was held in the bullpen but it is known they received a cup of rice, a teaspoon of of salt to make the rice taste better, and water. It appears they remained there for a few days. During their time there, three Americans were buried; two of the three men were still alive. One of these men tried to crawl out of the grave and was hit in the head with a shovel and then buried.
At some point, the POWs were ordered to form detachments of 100 men and were taken to the train station. There they were packed into small wooden boxcars used to haul sugarcane. The cars were known as “forty or eights” since they could hold forty men or eight horses. Since each detachment had 100 POWs in it, the Japanese put 100 POWs into each boxcar. The POWs - at gunpoint - were packed in so tightly that those who died remained standing since there was no room for them to fall to the floors of the cars. After about four and a half hours later, at Capas, the POWs disembarked and the dead fell to the floors of the cars. When the prisoners got off the train, there were Japanese offering them money to buy food. The POWs had no idea why they were doing this. From Capas, the POWs walked the last miles to Camp O’Donnell which was an unfinished Filipino training base that the Japanese pressed into use as a POW camp on April 1, 1942, because the Japanese believed the camp could hold 15,000 to 20,000 POWs. The POWs were held in two camps with the Americans held on one side of the road while the Filipinos were held on the other side of the road.
At Camp O'Donnell, the POWs were taken into a large field where they were counted and searched and all extra clothing that they had was taken from them and not returned. Blankets, knives, and matches were taken from them. If a man was found to have Japanese money or other items on them, they were taken to the guardhouse. Finally, the camp commandant came out, stood on the back of a flatbed truck, and told them that they were enemies of Japan and would always be Japan’s enemies. He also told them that they were captives and not prisoners of war and would be treated accordingly. After the speech, the prisoners were allowed to go to their barracks. Over the next several days, gunshots were heard to the southeast of the camp as the POWs who had Japanese items on them were executed for looting.
Each unit was assigned its own barracks with the 192nd, 194th, and 17th Ordnance in the same area. There was not enough housing for the POWs and most slept under buildings or on the ground. The barracks were designed for 40 men and those who did sleep in one slept in one with as many 80 to 120 men. Most of the POWs slept on the ground under the barracks. There was no netting to protect the men from malaria-carrying mosquitos as they slept, so many men soon became ill with malaria. The ranking American officer was slapped after asking for building materials to repair the buildings.
The POWs received three meals, mainly rice, a day. For breakfast, they were fed a half cup of soupy rice and occasionally some type of coffee. Lunch each day was half of a mess kit of steamed rice and a half cup of sweet potato soup. Some men said it was slop and made men violently ill. They received the same meal for dinner. All meals were served outside regardless of the weather. Men stated that other men would push the food away and not eat and were gradually starving themselves. When they realized that they were dying they tried to eat but had completely lost their appetites for any food. By May 1st, the food had improved a little with the issuing of a little wheat flour, some native beans, and a small issue of coconut oil. About once every ten days, 3 or 4 small calves were brought into the camp. When the meat was given out, there was only enough for one-fourth of the POWs to receive a piece that was an inch square. A native potato, the camote, was given to the POWs, but most were rotten and thrown out. The POWs had to post guards to prevent other POWs from eating them. The camp had a Black Market and POWs who had money could buy a small can of fish from the guards for $5.00.
One of the biggest problems with the food was the cooks - regardless of unit - pilfered extra food for themselves. It was reported that some of the cooks looked healthier than the average POW. The cooks even sold the food to other POWs. When the cooks were replaced in an attempt to deal with the problem, the new cooks soon were doing the same thing.
There was only one water faucet in the camp, and the prisoners stood in line for 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 by the POWs who came up with the pipe, dug the trench, and ran the waterline. Just like the first faucet, the Japanese turned off the water when they wanted water to bathe, but unlike the first water line, the POWs had the ability to turn on the water again without the Japanese knowing it.
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, but the Japanese commandant refused to allow the truck into the camp. When the Philippine Red Cross sent medical supplies to the camp the Japanese took 95% of the supplies for their use. When a second truck was sent to the camp by the Red Cross, it was turned away.
The POWs in the camp hospital lay on the floor elbow to elbow and only one medic – out of the six medics 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.
The Manila Society – which was a branch of the Philippine Red Cross – collected a great quantity of clothing, medicines, powdered milk, marmalade, and oatmeal and delivered it to the Red Cross which was under Japanese control. They were told they could help make juices and packages of sweet coconut for the POWs and did so. When they were finished, the Japanese stated that it was too good for the Americans and that the packages would be given to their soldiers.
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 bodies were moved to one side, the ground was scraped and lime was spread over it. The bodies were placed in the cleaned area, and the area they had lain was scraped and lime was spread over it. At one point, 80 bodies lay under the hospital awaiting burial.
The dead were carried to the cemetery in litters and placed in a grave with four other POWs. It was not unusual for a POW working this detail to die and be put into the grave with the other dead. Before they were buried, the dead were stripped of their clothing, which was boiled in hot water and then given to another POW who needed clothing.
When the POWs returned to the cemetery in the morning to dig graves for the men who had died during the night, they found the arms and legs of the dead sticking out of the ground and wild dogs pulling on them. The men would chase off the dogs, knock the arms and legs down, and rebury them.
A Japanese clerk, Mr. Nishimura, was in charge of giving work details assignments to the POWs. It was stated he was the camp interpreter and a member of the diplomatic corps. 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. When these men returned to the camp many died. The death rate among the POWs reached 50 men dying a day.
Documents from after the war state that some of the Japanese assigned to the camp had drug problems which may have contributed to the abusive treatment of the POWs. POWs stated that they noticed that at times the guards had glassy eyes and seemed that their speech was slurred. It also was stated that the Japanese government ordered those soldiers caught abusing drugs be executed. The document also stated that the Japanese government went to great lengths to cover the problem up.
The Japanese acknowledged they needed to do something to lower the death rate, so they opened a new camp at Cabanatuan. The only POWs left at Camp O’Donnell were those too ill to be moved. Many of the men died in the camp. The Japanese also had the Filipinos sign a document stating they would not take up arms against them and then they released the Filipinos from the camp.
In May, his family received a letter from the War Department.
Dear Mrs. A. Polakowski:
According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee if Private Marion J. Polakowski, 36,103,901, 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. 1200 POWs left the camp on a work detail on January 27th. On January 30th, his parents learned he was a POW.
REPORT JUST RECEIVED THROUGH THE INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS STATES THAT YOUR SON PRIVATE MARION J POLAKOWSKI 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 mother received the following letter.
Dear Mrs. Polakowski:
Report has been received that your son, Private Marion J. Polakowski, 36,103,901, Infantry, is now a prisoner of war to the Japanese Government in the Philippine Islands. This is to confirm my telegram of January 30, 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.
Dear Mrs. Polakowski:
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:
Pvt. Marion J. Polakowski, 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 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.
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.
In early September the names of 500 POWs being sent to Japan were posted. The POWs were taken to the Port Area of Manila on September 18th. There, they boarded the Koho Maru which was also known as the Coral Maru. (After the war, the ship was misidentified as the Taga Maru.) The POWs boarded the ship twelve at a time and stood on deck to be counted. When this was done, they went into the ship's hold that had no air circulation. A.L. recalled climbing down a steel ladder into the hold. Within hours, the hold smelled of urine and feces. In the rear hold of the ship were 500 Japanese troops returning home. While the ship sat in port, tin ingots were loaded onto the ship. The ship moved into the bay and dropped anchor.
The ship finally sailed as part of a convoy, on September 20th, for Takao, Formosa. During this part of the trip, the POWs were allowed on deck to use latrines. The ship went through a storm that caused it to roll from side to side and the waves went over the deck. To the POWs' amazement, it did not sink it. Some POWs went mad and began screaming, but there was little that could be done for them. If a friend was near, he knocked his friend out. Because of the storm, the POWs could not go on deck to relieve themselves, so buckets were placed in the corners of the hold. They soon overflowed. Most of the POWs were too sick to even reach the buckets. Most of the freshwater supply - which was in tied barrows on deck - was washed overboard, so the Japanese cut the amount of water given to the POWs. After this was done, many of the POWs did not urinate since they sweated out what little water they received to drink. Those POWs who died had a rope tied around their chests and under their arms. They were pulled out of the hold and the bodies were thrown into the ocean.
The convoy came under attack by an American submarine. One POW had been a member of a submarine crew and said, "Here comes a fish." The POWs waited for the impact but the torpedo passed under the ship since it was high in the water. They then heard a large explosion when the torpedo hit a ship sitting lower in the water. The ship arrived at Moji, Japan, on October 5th. The POWs were allowed on the ship's deck while the tin was unloaded. This was the first sunlight they had seen in weeks. As the POWs left the ship they were given a chip of wood with a color on it that determined which POW camp they were sent by train.
The ship arrived at Moji, Japan, on October 5. The POWs were allowed on deck while the tin was unloaded. This was the first sunlight they had seen in weeks. As the POWs left the ship they were given a chip of wood with a color on it that determined which POW camp they were sent to.
The POWs rode a train to Hirohata #12-B (also known as Osaka 12-B) arriving there on October 6th. When they arrived at Osaka 12-B, also known as Hirohata, on October 6th, the POWs were made to stand at attention and wait for the camp commandant to speak. He got up on a high platform and was described as being a short man. He shouted, “Si Kin” to the POWs and none of them had any idea what he was saying. The interpreter told them that they had been ordered to bow deeply. Even after being told this, they just stood there. The commander shouted the command again, and, once again, the POWs just stood there. The camp commander shouted at the interpreter who told the POWs that if they didn’t bow, they would be beaten. The POWs knew he meant what he had said and this time when he shouted the order, the majority bowed. To be true to his word, those who hadn’t bowed were beaten into unconsciousness. During his speech, they were told that Japan aimed to inflict on its prisoners as much pain as humanly possible.
Nine months after the POWs arrived, the camp was moved. The entire camp was less than two acres in area and located about two miles from the north coast of the Inland Sea on the island of Honshu. The camp covered a 200-foot by 400-foot area and was surrounded by a 12-foot wooden fence that was topped with bamboo pointed bamboo spears and barbed wire. The POWs were housed in two 50-foot by 100-foot barracks that were not insulated and had numerous windows. Along the sides of the barracks were two tiers of wooden platforms where the POWs slept on straw mattresses. The lower platform was 16 inches above the floor. Each POW had a rice bag pillow the size of a loaf of bread and two blankets which were inadequate in the winter. Each barracks housed 240 POWs but there was room for ten more men. The latrines were two buildings that were 25 feet wide by 50 feet long.
The POWs’ meals were prepared 20 feet by 40 feet building that was the kitchen. The food was prepared in 13 cauldrons by ten POWs who worked as cooks Rice and a watery soup were the main meal. There was no mess hall, so the POWs ate in the barracks on tables in the aisles. Red Cross food was never issued to POWs. When the Americans arrived in the camp, the issued food had to be divided between the Australians, British, and Americans, and the amount they received was not increased. Sometimes the POWs ate silkworms. Because of their diet, many of the POWs began losing their sight due to vitamin deficiencies in their diet, so the Japanese added a fish head soup that stunk so bad that the POWs held their noses. When it was eaten it restored their sight. The guards also stole food assigned to the POWs and canned meat and fruit, cigarettes, and other items from the POWs’ Red Cross packages. They also stole the Red Cross clothing and shoes sent for the POWs. The POWs recalled seeing the Japanese wearing items that were sent for the POWs by the Red Cross.
The camp commandant was seldom in the camp because he had other duties that kept him away. This left the camp to be run by enlisted Army personnel. The guards had no training in running a camp and abuse was frequent. One Japanese private liked to pretend that the POWs had been miscounted and make them go outside in the cold during the night to be counted again. He sometimes did this two or three times in one night. Beatings took place at night behind the camp kitchen after the commanding officer left for the night. One POW was beaten senseless because he had taken his hat and made shoes from it. Making the POWs kneel appears to have been a common practice in the camp. On one occasion, 40 POWs were made to kneel for eight hours, while on another occasion, every POW in the camp, during mustard, was made to kneel for five hours. Another sixteen POWs – who were accused of stealing rice – were lined up, with their hands behind their heads, and each was slapped in the face with a large, double-up, belt. One guard drilled the POWs and beat them if they missed a step even though the orders were being given in Japanese.
Thirty POWs worked at the camp doing camp maintenance while the other 400 POWs worked at the Japan Iron Works Company and were marched to and from the Seitetsu Mill regardless of the weather. The POWs loaded pig iron on ships and trains and unloaded ore. The American POWs wondered why the British would run to certain cars when unloading coke at the mill. They discovered it was because the cars with steel doors at the bottom emptied quickly so the POWs finished quickly. The cars with wooden doors would take longer to unload and it made the Americans look like they were slacking off. They quickly learned to run to the cars with steel doors. They also worked in the machine shops, worked at the blast furnaces, and cleaned the slag in the furnaces. From the furnaces came 3 feet wide by 10 feet long pieces of steel that were squeezed between two rollers to make steel plates. When the rollers wore out, the POWs had the job of changing them using an overhead crane that they rode above the furnaces.
Their workday was 7:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. When they arrived at the mill, the guards gave full authority over the POWs to the civilian workers who wore red armbands to show they were “honchos” and had authority over the POWs. These bosses would use any excuse to beat the POWs. The POWs described the guards as thieves who would loot the ships that were being unloaded and then blame the POWs. One day while the POWs were working in the mill, the ground began to shake, so they ran to the exits to get out of the building. Outside they watched as the chimneys swayed back and forth. When the shaking stopped the POWs looked at the railyard and the tracks looked like strings of spaghetti. Railcars were lying on their sides all over the yard. This was the worst earthquake the area had had in decades.
All of the guards carried clubs that they constantly used on the POWs. They also made the POWs hold a shovel of pig iron bar above their heads until they passed out from exhaustion. POWs who did not salute properly, pick up a cigarette butt or did something else wrong were beaten. POWs who were reported as “bad workers,” no matter if they were sick or not, were beaten no matter how weak or sick they were. When the beatings started, other honchos came running with sticks and clubs and joined in the beating. After the beatings, the POWs were thrown into tubs of water – for extended periods of time – even with temperatures below freezing. The POWs had their faces pushed underwater in troughs and hit in the back of the head with clubs when they attempted to pull their faces out of the water. The guards also would force water, under pressure, up the noses of the POWs. One guard drilled the POWs and beat them if they missed a step even though the orders were being given in Japanese. The Japanese also made the POWs hit other POWs to punish them by threatening to beat them worse than the man being hit. The longer the war went on, the more frequent the beatings became as the POWs grew weaker.
Making the POWs kneel appears to have been a common practice in the camp. 40 POWs were made to kneel for eight hours, while on another occasion, every POW in the camp, during mustard, was made to kneel for five hours. Another sixteen POWs – who were accused of stealing rice – were lined up, with their hands behind their heads, and each was slapped in the face with a large, double-up, belt. If someone was caught with stolen food when the POWs returned to the camp, all the POWs were punished. The Japanese woke the POWs in the middle of the night and sometimes and ran them around.
One night, the Japanese had a huge water tank and the POWs had to jump into the tank and jump out on the other side while naked. Afterward, they stood at attention. If it was summertime and there were lots of mosquitoes, when a POW twitched, he was slapped on the side of his head. The Japanese were determined that they were going to punish all the POWs because of one or two POWs.
On one occasion a POW called “Fink” – because he smiled at the Japanese and they liked him – stole jellybeans from the guards. When they got back to the camp, the POWs were searched, except for Fink since the Japanese trusted him. When nothing was found, they made all the POWs stand outside all night holding buckets of water above their heads while mosquitoes bit them. If a POW dropped his bucket, he was beaten with a rifle. The next morning the POWs were sent to work without breakfast. Ironically, after this, the guards treated the POWs as good soldiers for not telling on the man.
POWs were severely beaten and slapped for not working hard enough or for not understanding what the guard wanted them to do at the mill. Many of the POWs were beaten so badly that they passed out. One day while the POWs were working in the mill, the ground began to shake, so they ran to the exits to get out of the building. Outside they watched as the chimneys swayed back and forth. When the shaking stopped the POWs looked at the railyard and the tracks looked like strings of spaghetti. Railcars were lying on their sides all over the yard. This was the worst earthquake the area had had in decades.
Red Cross medical supplies were seldom issued to POWs. The American POW doctor was in charge of the hospital but his diagnosis was overruled by a Japanese corpsman who ordered POWs with fevers to work. Even when this was done, the camp hospital was always filled with 50 POWs who were too ill to work. Many of these POWs had fevers over 100 degrees and those with beriberi also had diarrhea and went to work even though most could barely stand. This was done because the company wanted as many workers as possible. If the sick POWs who were forced to work asked to rest, they were beaten. If they asked for permission to go to the toilet twice during the morning, they were beaten. They were also beaten during the trip to or from the docks for going to the side of the road to urinate.
Each evening when the POWs returned from work, there were always six men who had to be carried back to the camp because they were too weak to stand. The guards went to the washroom whenever they wanted. The medics who could have helped in the hospital were required to work at the steel mill in violation of the Geneva Convention. The sick POWs who were allowed to stay in the camp were harassed by the guards who hoped that by making their time in the hospital so bad, they would volunteer to work. The POWs who died in the camp were said to have died from starvation and disease.
It was stated that on July 4, 1944, the spirit of the POWs – which had been low – improved when they witnessed the first air raid on Himeiji. It was at this time that the POWs developed an excellent grapevine and it was said that they could follow the progress of US forces in the Pacific. The POWs knew that the war was not going well for Japan because the guards got meaner and hit the POWs for any reason. By this time in the war, the POWs were used to seeing B-29s flying over on their way to bomb Osaka. One day at morning assembly, the POWs found themselves standing in front of a machine gun – manned by three guards – aimed right at them. They were told that if American troops landed in Japan, they would be executed. The POWs developed a plan that if they started firing that all of them would rush the gun. The belief was that the Japanese would not be able to kill them all. The camp was closed on July 16th, and the POWs were sent to Osaka 12-D which was a new location for the camp.
It is known that during his time as a POW, his parents received three POW postcards from him. He also wrote a letter on July 28, 1944, that his parents received after he had been liberated. In it, he said he was well and requested things and food.
The camp was only 50 miles from Hiroshima and they had heard a tremendous explosion. Leaflets also were being dropped telling Japan to surrender. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, some POWs working in the mill stated that one of the bosses entered and said, “Ookii no bakudan,” which was “Big bomb! Big bomb!” From the civilians at the mill, the POWs heard that the US had a bomb that could destroy a city but they did not believe it.
The POWs finally heard that the Japanese issued a cease-fire on August 15th and that same day they learned the war was over from the Korean guards. All medical records were destroyed on August 16th possibly to cover up what was done to the POWs. The POWs woke up one morning and found the camp gates open and the guards had fled. The POWs collected the guns abandoned by the guards. They also saw small American planes flying over the camp. Seeing these planes told them that the Americans were near.
One POW went to the camp commander and asked for the key to the warehouse where the POWs knew food was stored. The commander handed him the key and bowed to the POW. The camp was not located by the occupation forces until August 25th when a pilot of a Grumman F4F Hellcat from the USS Bonhomme Richard spotted it. The pilot flew low over the camp and slowly circled it several times as he did the POWs waved wildly to him. He dropped the POWs a half-full carton of cigarettes and nearly crashed into a rice paddy near the camp because he wasn’t paying attention to his plane’s altitude. Attached to the carton was a note that told them the war was over and that the Americans were coming for them. The POWs cheered, laughed and cried.
The pilot made it back to the carrier and soon other fighter planes from the ship flew over the camp dropping sea bags full of beans and other food to the POWs in the camp. The POWs stated that the bags were loaded with cans of pea soup. It was said the pilots dropped the sea bags flawlessly into a tiny clearing in the middle of the camp. Next, B-29s appeared over the camp and dropped 55-gallon drums of food, clothing, and medicine to the POWs. One chute didn’t open killing a POW, while another drum, full of shoes, went through the roof of the camp’s shoe shop. An American medical team arrived at the camp on August 23rd.
The POWs woke up one morning of September 2nd to find the camp gates wide open and the guards gone. They lined up for roll call as usual, but there were no guards. Unknown to them, September 2nd was the day that Japan signed the formal surrender on the U.S.S. Missouri. Some Marines in the camp found that the Japanese medic from the camp had Red Cross boxes at his house and executed him. From the parachutes, the POWs made an American flag and a British flag and raised them over the camp. General Eichelberger’s 8th Army arrived at the camp on September 9th and the POWs were officially liberated. On the 10th, the former POWs took a two-day train trip to Yokohama. As they entered the city all they saw was the devastation the bombings had done. From the train station, the POWs were marched to an area with tents where they stripped off their clothes and were sprayed with DDT. The clothes that had been dropped on them by the planes were put into drums and burnt. They then took showers and were issued new clothes and shoes.
An American field team liberated the camp on September 4, 1945, but the former POWs remained in the camp until September 10th when they took a two-day train ride to Yokohama. As they entered the city all they saw was the devastation the bombings had done. From the train station, the POWs were marched to an area with tents where they stripped off their clothes and were sprayed with DDT. The clothes that had been dropped to them in the drums were burnt. They took showers and were issued new clothes. They then boarded a hospital ship and received medical examinations. It was at that time that it was determined who would immediately be sent to the United States and who would be returned to the Philippines. Mike was returned to the Philippines and promoted to Staff Sergeant.
Mike returned to the U.S. on the USS Tryon and arrived in San Francisco, California, on October 24, 1945, a little over four years since he had sailed for the Philippines. From the docks, the men were taken by ambulance and trucks to Letterman General Hospital in San Francesco for additional medical treatment. From there, he was transferred to a hospital closer to home.
It is known that at noon on April 9, 1946, Mike took part in a ceremony commemorating the fall of Bataan. The ceremony was held on the steps of the Detroit City Hall. As part of the ceremony, he and other former POWs ate rice and fish which was their daily meal as POWs. Doing this he fulfilled a vow he and others made as POWs.
Mike married Eleanore F. Kusz on August 17, 1946, and they became the parents of two daughters and two sons. He returned to work at the Ford Motor Company as a tool and die maker. He worked at Ford for 40 years until he retired. He was an avid Detroit Tigers fan and loved baseball. Marion J. Polakowski passed away on May 7, 2013, in Royal Oak, Michigan. He was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Detroit Michigan.
