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Post by chadhill on Nov 30, 2010 13:49:46 GMT 8
I've learned that the hospital bed photo above is of Hospital # 2. This was one of the "ambulances" used to bring wounded and sick soldiers to the hospitals: This photo is of the "admitting office" for Hospital # 2, where new patients where dropped off.
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Post by dmether on Jan 21, 2011 14:35:06 GMT 8
I have a copy of a dispostiton from a Ernest J. Chavez, 20842697, who was in the 515th Provisional Coast Artillery.
He states that he was captured on 9 April 1942, along with 300 other Americans, they were made to sit down in front of 5 heavy artillery guns while the Japanese shelled Corregidor. When Corregidor returned fire they Americans ran for cover. He was suprised to have not been shot by the Japanese, who then gathered them up in trucks and drove them to O'Donnell.
He wasn't the first to get to O'Donnell, but at least he missed the Death March. He ended up in Japan
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Post by okla on Jan 21, 2011 23:56:55 GMT 8
Hey Dmether...Have you, perchance, ever heard or read of the American captive who was said to have made the "Bataan Death March" two different times??? According to this yarn this soldier marched out with one of the original POW groups shortly after the surrender. After arrival in San Fernando he was among a small group who drove captured vehicles back to Mariveles, then was promptly put back into another group headed north on foot, arriving back in San Fernando and subsequent shipment to O'Donnell. I can't remember which book dealing with the Death March/POWs/etc contained this story, but it was presented as actually happening. The book also described how different groups experienced varying methods of movement to the Prison Pens. Some marched all the way on foot, others marched to Balanga and thence to San Fernando by truck and some, more fortunate, actually made the whole trip out of Bataan entirely by truck. I guess it could be described as "the luck of the draw". My niece (in law) had a grandfather (31st Infantry US) who was in one of the hospitals at the time of the capitulation. He was removed to either Cabanatuan or Bilibid by vehicle in May or June 1942. His family never did get the story straight, but were positive that he didn't participate in the "Death March". Unfortunately this fellow was deceased when his grand daughter married my nephew or I would have "picked" his brain until he probably would have hated the sight of me. Cheers.
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Post by dmether on Jan 22, 2011 10:06:58 GMT 8
Haven't heard that story although it wouldn't suprise me. I have heard that American's made the march in different ways, both riding trucks and walking. I've been to the National Archives twice and scanned in a couple hundred pages of dispositions from the survivors, heading back next month for 7 weeks; 6 hours a day 6 days a week, of research. Going to get as much scanned as possible from the American POW files. Worst case I came across is three GI's on the march were forced to bury another American that was more dead than alive. So they put a hankerchief over his face and covered him with dirt. A few minutes later he came running up to them on the road. The two guys who "buried" him saw him later in the camps, so he probably survived. Another was William (Billie) White. He was pulled out of an open grave, off a pile of dead American and Filipino corpses, he survived the war. (Thats his picture). Even the guys who were lucky enough to ride a truck could get in trouble. There is an instance where a group of GI's were in a stopped truck, a Japanese soldier walked up and stabbed one of them in the back with a bayonet, just a random act of violence, killing the American. Attachments:
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Post by okla on Jan 23, 2011 6:37:07 GMT 8
Hey Dmether....I even heard a story (from another Death March survivor I served with) telling of a Japanese Officer literally beating one of the guards to death who had fallen by the wayside from the heat,etc. The ex-POW said that if the guard wasn't dead he was the "next thing to it" It appears that some of the Emperor's troops suffered along with the Fil/American captives. The behavior of the Japanese conquerors will always puzzle me since these are the same folks who can perform the tea "ceremony" with such delicate taste,etc. Cheers
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Post by dmether on Jan 23, 2011 12:12:18 GMT 8
Haven't heard that before but doesn't suprise me. I have one dispostion where an American killed a Japanese guard, it's from Tec 5 Lewis A. Moore who says "On the morning of the second day of the march a Japanese guard grabbed me to search me in the brush. He had a bayonet and ordered me to my knees. I took his bayonet from him, stabbed him in the stomach, and then cut off his head."
The date of the dispostion is 16 Nov 1944. He's listed as having survived the 7 Sept 44 sinking of the Shinyo Maru, however I'm not sure of that.
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