Pvt. Pierce Herring Wade was born on February 4, 1919, in Lexington, Kentucky, to William H. Wade and Estelle E. Carter-Wade. With his half-sister, one sister, and two brothers, he grew up in Hahira, Georgia. He was known as “Panama” to his family and friends. After attending high school for one year, he left school. It is known that sometime in the 1930s, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, but it is not known where he did his basic training. It is known that he was sent to the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 and served as a bugler. In April 1940, he was a member of the 19th Ordnance Battalion and trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
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. In 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 six 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. Wade apparently learned to maintain weapons. 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.”
The men got together and cooked one more good meal with all the food they had, but there wasn’t much to cook. The company rode their trucks up the west coast of Bataan but the trucks were ordered to stop because an ammunition dump was about to be blown up, so they turned the trucks around and headed south. It was at this time that the members of the company were told that they were on their own. At 4:30 that afternoon, Frank Gyovai, Raymond Schletterer, James Boyd, George Mogyorosi, Hayden Lawrence, and Pierce decided to take their chances in the jungle and abandoned the truck..
The men abandoned the truck they were riding in at kilometer 182 and took with them the three sacks of rice they found by pouring the rice into a musette bag. They also took with them a fifty pound sack of flour and medical supplies they found along the road with them. Each man had two pistols and Gyovai also had a rifle which they would use to hunt. They took as much ammunition as they could carry and headed north up the slopes of Mt. Mariveles by following a stream into the dense jungle. They added lard to their possessions by trading some of the flour for it with Filipinos. They spent their first night in the jungle sleeping against tree trunks - so they would not roll downhill - in an area that they cleared away from the stream. An earthquake woke them the next morning.
Their breakfast was rice and a can of C rations they had. They met a Marine who was trying to rejoin his unit and told him of the surrender. They invited him to join them but he chose to continue his search. Minutes later they heard the sound of a Japanese gun from the direction he had gone. After hearing the sound they moved all day without resting, So they did not leave a trail, they walked on the rocks since the stream was now in a gorge. When they reached a waterfall they decided it was time to spend bed down for the night and slept on a huge boulder.
The men began the climb - one at a time - up the cliff and carefully chose their route using the shrubs growing from the rockface. The climb was made harder by the supplies they were carrying. As they climbed rocks fell. It took them three hours to complete the climb. From the top of the cliff, they could see Mariveles and hear the guns of Corregidor firing.
The journey was easier and the tall jungle trees hid them from planes. They also saw surveyor marks on trees and began to follow them. They made their way up to the highest point of the mountain and could see the Zambales Mountain Range from it which was their destination. Wildlife was abundant and they were able to supplement their meals with shrimp from the stream. They ran into some American officers of the 14th Philippine Scout Engineers who let them copy the map they had of the trails and told them what to do so they would know where they were.
The next morning the men, led by two Filipinos, made their way down the mountain's volcanic crater which took them until 6 PM, and after looking for water camped for the night. The next morning they found a stream that led them to the Pantingan River and followed it. They picked up another American and made their way north. They also picked up medicine from an abandoned Filipino field hospital and food from an abandoned Japanese camp along Trail 8.
The next day as they followed the trail they ran across the bodies of an entire company of Filipino soldiers who had been killed by the Japanese. They counted 126 bodies stacked like wood. The soldiers had been slaughtered by Japanese machine guns while they were attempting to eat what was probably their first meal in days. The men left the area and made their way north for the next several days. At one point they has to cross a road being used by the Japanese.
As they continued to make their way north, on several occasions, they made their bivouacs within hundreds of feet of Japanese encampments. Each time, they were able to get out of the area without being discovered. They found a deserted Japanese supply dump where they were able to get food. The one mistake they would later regret was not taking canned powder which turned out to be Vitamin B which curses beriberi. Making their way along the river, they heard voices that turned out to be a Japanese detachment loading gas drums onto a truck. The party, except for Schliterer and Lawrence, planned an attack, wiped out the detachment, and set the gasoline on fire. At another point, while crossing a harvested sugarcane field, they saw Japanese soldiers in the shade of a tree by a truck. They nonchalantly made their way through the field and the Japanese never came after them. They never figured out why since they knew they had to have been seen by them.
In May, his parents received a letter from the War Department after the fall of Corregidor.
Dear Mrs. E. Wade:
According to War Department records, you have been designated as the emergency addressee of Private Pierce H. Wade, 06,394,158, 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
It was at this time that Pierce’s good friend Cactus Boyd’s health was deteriorating from malaria. Boyd needed medicine and Pierce set out to get it for him. He made contact with a Filipino named Jimmy Espino who told Pierce that the only place where he knew that the medicine was available was a Japanese hospital at Caligaman. Pierce returned to their encampment and asked Frank Gyovai to go with him on a little trip.
Gyovai carried a Browning Automatic Rifle and a pistol while Pierce had a Garand rifle. With the help of Espino, they made their way to the hospital. At Samal, they hid in a Catholic church as three Japanese bicycle patrols passed. Jimmy took them to his sister’s house where they were told that the barrio was a dangerous place and Japanese patrols passed every half hour. As men were informed that the Japanese returned to their quarters between 9 and 10 PM and Filipinos took over guard duty. Since most Filipinos, even those working for the Japanese were loyal to the US, the men felt better as they left at midnight for Caligeman.
The plan was for Pierce and Jimmy to enter the hospital and for Frank to stand guard with the BAR since Pierce spoke and understood better than Frank did. While Frank stood guard, the two men made their way to the hospital’s entrance and hid among bushes by the stairs to the front entrance. They took off their shoes and walked into the hospital. It was raining and the thunder and lightning covered the sound of any noise they made. At the point of a gun, the Filipino clerk was told to get them quinine. He told them that they needn’t point the gun at him since he hated the Japanese too. The only quinine they had needed to be dissolved in water, so he also got syringes for them and gave them all the quinine he could find. Jimmy wanted to shoot the clerk saying he knew he was a Japanese sympathizer. Instead, after the clerk sat down, Jimmy hit him in the back of his head with his gun knocking him out. Doing this also gave the man a credible excuse about the quinine being stolen.
The men thought that they had accomplished their mission without being discovered and without listening to see if there were Japanese in the area they crossed the road. As they reached the other side of the road, a Japanese patrol came around a bend. They hid in the shadows but the Japanese had seen them. As they started through the rice paddies, a bullet went past Frank’s head and he took the BAR and fired on the patrol. Pierce also fired on the patrol. The men made their way through the rice paddies and bamboo thickets. The heavy rain also provided safety since the Japanese did not pursue them. After the men with malaria had recovered, what is known is that the six men who went into the jungle did not stay together and were sent to various units. Pierce also learned the 17th Ordnance’s CO, Capt. Richard Kadel had escaped the march and was fighting as a guerrilla.
While Pierce was a guerrilla, he received the rank of 1st Lieutenant and he received the Silver Star for gallantry in action at Caligaman, Bataan, on July 10, 1942. He was often the interpreter for his guerrilla group because he could speak three Filipino dialects. He continued fighting until he was recaptured in 1943 when he was betrayed by a Filipino, Carlos Fajardo, who had been a guerrilla leader until he surrendered. Fajardo then began collaborating with the Japanese and turned in other guerrillas for bounties. Wade was held at the Provincial Jail in Zambales, Philippine Islands. and interrogated and tortured. From there he was sent to Bilibid Prison, Santo Thomas University, and finally Cabanatuan. It was there that he learned that his good friend Sgt. Nevel Adams had died while a POW.
In early July, another list of POWs being transferred from the Philippines was posted. On July 15th, 25 to 30 trucks arrived at the camp and the POWs rode them to Bilibid Prison arriving there at 2:00 in the morning of July 16th. Once there, they were given cursory medical examinations and it was determined who was healthy enough to be sent to Japan.
At 7:00 A.M. on July 17, 1944, POWs from Bilibid Prison were marched to Pier 5 in the Port Area. There, they were joined by POWs who had been on the Port Area Detail. The POWs boarded the Nissyo Maru which appeared to be barely seaworthy to the POWs. Besides the POWs, the ship carried Japanese women and children who were being evacuated from the Philippines. The Japanese attempted to put 1600 POWs in the rear hold of the ship. The POWs removed their shoes and dropped their bags through a hatch into hold number three. They then went down a narrow, wooden stairway that led into the dark hold. There were three sets of wooden tiers that lined the hold. One was 4 feet high and 10 feet wide. The Japanese attempted to put all the POWs into the tiers and even after the tiers filled the guards kept shoving more men into them. Those who could move their arms twirled their shirts above their heads to stir the air. The heat was oppressive and the POWs still on deck could feel it as they entered the hold. The guards beat POWs who refused to go into the hold. Inside the hold, fights broke out among the POWs for space and air.
The POWs passed the unconscious men above their heads forward to the hatch and up the stairs onto the deck. The Japanese brought a machine gun to the hold's hatch and threatened to shoot. This resulted in the prisoners immediately quieting down. POWs fainted and those who fell to the floor were trampled. The POWs passed the unconscious men above their heads forward to the hatch and up the stairs onto the deck. The POWs in the hold panicked and many were heard praying. Others cursed and their screams echoed off the steel walls of the hold. Those lucky enough to have water drank it to prevent their canteens from being stolen.
The guards finally admitted that all the POWs would not fit in the hold, so they opened the number two hold which was just forward of the bridge. About 900 POWs were put into the forward hold. The POWs were moved to it in groups of 50 men and each group was allocated a part of the hold. By the time they finished, this smaller hold was even more crowded than the original hold. Since they were still crowded, no one could lie down. Each man sat on the floor with his knees drawn up in front of him. Another POW would sit between his knees with his head resting on the first man’s chest. This left about 700 men in number three hold which could comfortably hold one hundred men.
The ship was moved to the breakwater and remained outside the breakwater from July 18th until July 23rd while the Japanese attempted to form Convoy H168. Around 9 p.m. that evening, large wooden buckets of steamed rice were lowered into the hold. There was no organized system of distribution, so the sick POWs did not eat. Many POWs could not swallow the rice since their mouths were too dry. They did not receive their first ration of water until 30 hours after entering the hold with each man being allowed one pint of water daily. It was stated that each day they were fed rice and vegetables that had been cooked together and received two canteen cups of water. Some of the POWs dried to get water from the condensation that had formed on the walls of the holds. Still, others continued to drink urine while others cut the throats of men and drank blood.
POWs stated that a typical meal on the ship was one-half cup of brackish water and two-thirds cup of canteen rice. Other POWs stated they were fed each day ¼ cup of potato, barley, greens, and an onion soup, which were cooked together. After four days, the POWs no longer received the soup. They also received one cup of water each day and attempted to catch rain in their mouths.
The POWs' possessions had been thrown below them onto coal in the lower part of the hold. In the possessions of the men was food from their Red Cross boxes. In the evening, POWs would go down to the luggage and raid it in an attempt to find any food hidden in it. The Japanese ended the stealing when those caught raiding the baggage were made to sit on the deck of the ship in the sun with their hands tied behind their backs. They were not fed for three days.
The convoy of 21 ships left Manila on July 24th at 8:00 A.M. and headed north by northeast for Formosa. The ships hugged the coast to avoid submarines, but the subs had a good idea of where the convoy was located. At 2:00 A.M. July 26th, the USS Flasher surfaced, made contact with the convoy, and radioed its position to the two other subs in its wolf-pack. At 3:00 in the morning, there was an explosion, it was stated that the POWs heard a large "Broom" and flames flew over the open hatches of the holds and lit the holds. The Otari Yama Maru, an oil tanker, had been hit by a torpedo from the USS Flasher. As the ship sunk, the POWs said they heard a hissing sound as its hull which was red hot went under. Other torpedoes were fired at the ship, but because the Nissyo Maru was so high in the water, they passed harmlessly under the ship and hit other ships. The POWs felt the hull vibrate from depth charges exploding in the water, and the Japanese could be heard running in every direction on the ship's deck. The POWs realized they could die and began to panic in the holds, so the guards aimed the ship's anti-aircraft guns, that were on the poop deck, into the hold and screamed threats at the POWs unless they quieted down. Maj. John L. Curran, a Catholic chaplain, said, “Now, there’s nothing we can do about this. So let’s go ahead and start praying.“ He led the POWs in prayer. Other reports say that Lt. Col. Stanley Reilly, another Catholic chaplain, somehow managed to climb up a pole that was covered in human feces, and held himself above the men. From this position, he said the Hail Mary to calm them down. According to men on the ship, the wolf pack hunted the convoy for three days.
During this time, the Japanese lowered what were called “benjo buckets” into the holds to be used as toilets. The buckets were lowered into the holds in the morning, but they soon were overflowing, and when they were removed from the holds in the evening, the feces in them fell onto the POWs below. In addition, many of the POWs had dysentery and could not even reach the buckets. The floor was soon covered in human waste as deep as the POWs’ ankles. The POWs finally organized lines to use the buckets since an aisle to reach them was available.
On July 27th, the POWs held a boat drill where the POWs went to lifeboats. They noted that the Japanese were jumpy after the sinking of the tanker. The remaining ships reached Takao, Formosa, that morning and docked at 9:00 a.m. and loaded with food while the POWs remained in the holds with the hatch covers on them. The POWs who were extremely ill were taken off the ship. At 8:00 A.M., on the 28th it sailed as part of a nine-ship convoy. The ship sailed through a storm from July 30th to August 2nd which kept the submarines away. The death of a second POW was recorded on August 2nd, clothing was issued. One POW spotted land on the 3rd and later in the day, land was also seen on the other side of the ship. That night the POWs slept knowing that the ship could not be sunk by an American sub. On August 4th, and the ship arrived at Moji. The entire voyage to Japan took seventeen days because the convoy was attempting to avoid American submarines. At 8:00 in the morning, the POWs were lined up and separated into groups and given a medical inspection by Japanese medical staff. As they disembarked the ship, they were sprayed with a insecticide.
Many of the POWs were taken to a theater and were held in it all day. They were later put into 200 men detachments and taken to the train station on the evening of August 5th. From there they rode trains to the camps they were assigned. Other POWs were marched three blocks to a street car line and then rode a street car to their camp.
As it turn he was in the detachment of POWs who remained in Moji and had been sent by streetcars to what was designated as Fukuoka Base Camp. Everything known about the camp comes from Wade.
As it turned out, he was in the detachment of POWs who remained in Moji and had been sent by streetcars to what was designated as Fukuoka Base Camp also known as Fukuoka #1. When the POWs left the street cars, they were taken into barracks. Their bunks were assigned to them by the guards. When they arrived, they were told that they could drink all the water they wanted. It was stated that for the next several days the POWs drank so much water that the Japanese enforced a quota. Each POW was issued a work suit- made of seaweed that looked like burlap. The men hated the clothing because it scratched their skin and did not fit. Since it was their only clothing, the POWs washed it every Sunday which was their only day off from work.
It was August 6th when the POWs were lined up into work squads and told they would be working in the Yawata Steel Mill which was five miles from the camp. To get to the mill, the POWs rode open air on an electric train. The same train carried the slag away from the mill. As the POWs rode the train, Japanese women and children stood on the bridges and threw rocks at them. The guards thought this was funny until the Japanese sergeant in charge was hit by a rock. After that, there was no more rock throwing.
The mill was said to have spread out over several miles. At the mill, the POWs were assigned to different jobs. some loaded and unloaded mining cars with scrap metal and pushed the cars, which were said to weigh one ton, up to a crusher that was manned by other POWs. From there, the crushed ore went to a blast furnace. What bothered the POWs was that they could read the names of the American and British companies where the metal had come from on the scrap metal.
At the end of the day, the POWs rode the train back to the camp and from 8 to 10 pm stood in line for roll call. If a POW made a mistake when saying his number, the entire barracks remained outside for an extra hour. If more mistakes took place, the men were slapped and hit with a scabbard.
Cigarettes were given to the POWs every two weeks. The amount they received ranged from ten to twenty cigarettes. If a rule was broken by one man in the barracks, none of the POWs received cigarettes. The POWs were allowed to smoke during a fifteen minute period each morning. If a POW was caught smoking at any other time, he was severely beaten and thrown into the guardhouse. During the evening, the POWs were allowed to visit each other, except if a barrack was being punished. It was stated that several POWs who had gone to visit a friend or friends in other barracks were found beaten to a pulp in the darkness. To prevent this from happening the POWs traveled in groups.
The POWs were working at the mill on August 2, 1944, at about 4:15 am when they heard the sound of plane engines. When they looked up, they saw large four-motored bombers fly over the mill. The mill workers had been to the Nakayama Tunnel. To get to the tunnel, the POWs had to cross a railroad bridge, but before they got there, bombs began exploding. It was said that they were pushed down the bridge embankment and locked in a blacksmith shop under the bridge. The POWs watched the bombing from the shop's windows. One bomb fell between the bridge girders and land about three feet from the shed the POWs were in. Luckily for the POWs, the bomb was a dud. A second dud landed about eight feet from the shop. As the POWs watched, one wall of the mill was blown out of the mill. Other bombs hit the railroad tracks throwing them into the air or twisting them in multiple directions. Bricks, glass, and other objects flew through the air. The windows of the blacksmith shop were blown out cutting many of the men in it, while some men were hit and bruised by objects that hit them. It was stated that the Japanese never talked about the air raid. The POWs went back to work and repairs were made to the mill. It was said that the area did not experience another air raid until the Spring of 1945.
As the weather got colder, in November, the POWs were issued another set of clothing. This time it was Japanese Olive Drab which was said to be filled with lice. The lice soon spread to their bedding and work clothing. Boiling the clothing did not get rid of them. The Japanese also told them that for Thanksgiving they would receive Red Cross boxes since a Red Cross ship had arrived in the harbor. On Thanksgiving, the Japanese gave each man a slightly large helping of rice and one eleven pound Red Cross box that was to be shared by eight men. It was said one men became ill because their systems were not used to the richness of the food and died because the Japanese refused to allow him to receive medical treatment.
During this time, the POW food ration was slashed and Christmas 1944 went by without much fanfare. In January 1945, 100 Americans from the Philippines arrived. The POWs in the camp noted that they were extremely bad shape. About one-third of the men were carried into the camp on stretchers. It turned out that they had survived the sinking of the Oryoku Maru and Enoura Maru. Over the next two weeks, twenty of the POWs died. A few weeks alter, those still alive were sent to Manchuria.
The POWs continued to work at the mill. The weather made the work worse. It was stated that they worked in the sleet and snow which resulted in their clothing being wet. This resulted in the number of sick to increase among the POWs. The POW food rations were cut again in February and it was said they received 400 grams of a rice and soy mixture each day.
The POWs got news on the war from newspapers that the Japanese civilians left lying around the mill. In the camp, a POW who could read Japanese told them the war news. In one paper, the POWs learned that the Americans had returned to the Philippines. They also learned the Allies were winning in Europe.
The American planes returned in the spring. The POWs, from the Japanese civilians, learned the planes were called B-29s. The planes were said to be so high in the air that when the Japanese ack-ack guns fired at the planes they never came close to hitting one. It was said that the Japanese fighters sent up to intercept them also could not reach them. Soon, they did not bother to fire at them. The planes did not bomb but appeared to be doing reconnaissance. It was also noted that the mill had not experienced an air raid in months and that when American bombers appeared they did not take cover. When one guard, who had never really abused the POWs came back in a foul mood and beat them, the POWs learned that his entire furlough was spent in air raid shelters and foxholes. In general, the beatings of the POWs increased.
In May, the POWs were working at the mill when B-29s approached the Japanese Naval Base which was located across the bay from the mill. As they watched, a B-29 dove on the a ship bombed it and as it came up shot down a Japanese fighter. The POWs cheered which resulted in the guards beating them with clubs, but they didn't care because they had witnessed how the US had control over the Japanese skies. Many of the POWs were put to work on a detail that dug air riad shelters and smudge pits. The Japanese also tore down all the wooden buildings in the area. When an air raid warning was sounded, the civilians burned barrels of oil to created a smoke screen.
During this time, production had almost stopped since the Japanese ships that carried ore to the mill could not safely make it to Japan. By June 1945, most of the blast furnaces had been shut down. If any metal was being produced it was being made from scrap metal that came from civilian products recovered after the bombings. The beatings also increased at this time. The Japanese civilians also no longer believed the propaganda The Japanese papers also told how their troops had been overwhelmed and that the Japanese people would need to defend their homeland. From the camp the POWs could see the Japanese moving troops south to where they expected the invasion. Air raids took place around the mill, but the mill was never bombed.
In August the POW rations had also been cut again and Capt. John Curran, a Catholic chaplain, went into the Japanese commandants office and demanded that the rations be increased. He was not beaten or punished and the rations were increased. On August 8th, the POWs were at work when around noon American dive bombers appeared and fire bombed the mill. The bombs were tube like with blunted ends and penetrated the metal of the buildings like it was tissue. A large number of civilians were killed along with a few POWs. This ended the POWs working at the mill. so they went to work in the garden kept by the POWs.
It was said that the POWs, on August 14th saw the Japanese camp commander crying as they marched past the window of his office. The next morning the POWs were told they did not have work, but they did not hear if the war was over. On August 17th, the POWs were told they could go swimming in the bay. To get out of their bug infested barracks, they slept on the beach.
It was August 18th, Japanese officials came to the camp and told the POWs that the war was over. They were asked to leave any clothing they did not need for the civilians who had lost their possessions during the air raids. They then made deep bows to the POWs and left the camp. A few days later, B-29s with "PW" on their wings flew low over and circled the camp. They then went off toward the bay. The POWs were disappointed but saw the planes turn around and heading straight toward the camp. The POWs saw that the bomb-bays were open. It was said that even those men who were sick lifted themselves off their straw mats to see the planes.
From the planes came parachutes of different colors with containers of rations. Some broke loose and one went through the roof of the camp kitchen while others fell on the hill behind the camp. The POWs also were said to have raised an American, British and Dutch flags that day made from the parachutes. The POWs stated that the planes returned every third day and resupplied them.
Wade learned that his first sergeant, Gerald Moffett, had been held at Fukuoka #4, which was about 45 minutes away from his camp, so he took the train to see him. When he got to the camp Moffett told him about the bombing of the warehouse he had worked in and that they burned for days. Wade took a bath and received new Army drab greens, socks, and shoes. He stayed in the camp for three weeks before he made his way, with three other men, to the American forces in Kanoya. During the trip, by train, the men were joined by other former POWs. When they reached Kawashima, they stopped at the police station and asked for food which they received. They also were given an armed guard to escort them and take them to the occupation forces. When they reached Kanoya, American Military Police were waiting with trucks that took them to where the American camp was.
The former POWs were fed and could eat all they want. Wade stated he ate a box of hardtack, a half pound of butter, and that he drank a gallon of coffee. They then reported their names and serial numbers and were assigned to bunks. The next morning his first breakfast as a free man was four or five eggs and big stack of pancakes. They next were told that they would be flying to Okinawa on a plane leaving at 10 am. It was at this time he learned about the atomic bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was flown to Okinawa and spent three days there. On September 13th he was flown to Manila on a C-47.
Wade returned to the United States on the U.S.S. Storm King, which stopped in Hawaii on the 11th, and arrived in San Francisco on October 15, 1945. From the docks, ambulances and trucks took the former POWs to Letterman General Hospital. It was during this time he was awarded the Silver Star for the raid on the hospital. His rank was also reduced to Master Sergeant. He remained in the Army and was commissioned as an officer. It is known that held the rank of 1st Lieutenant and he was promoted to Captain.
His first marriage ended in divorce. He then married Francis Wade and they resided in Madison, Florida. He worked as a general contractor. Pierce H. Wade passed away on February 13, 1999, in Lake City, Florida, and was buried at Mount Horeb Church Cemetery, Pinetta, Florida.
