Pvt. Paul H. Bruce

Parents: Clomer L. Bruce & Mamie E. Hendrix-Bruce

Siblings: 2 sisters, 2 brothers

Hometown: Gladewater, Texas

Education:

    - Gladewater High School

    - Texas A&M College

        - not known if he completed college 

Inducted:

    - 11 March 1941 - Houston, Texas

Basic Training:

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky 

Units:

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion 

Overseas Duty: 

    Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon 

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march at southern tip of Bataan

               - POWs ran past Japanese artillery firing on Corregidor

               - American artillery on Corregidor returned fire

            - San Fernando -POWs put into small wooden boxcars used to haul sugarcane

               - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men

               -  Japanese packed 100 POWs into each boxcar

               - POWs who died remained standing

            - Capas - POWs left boxcars - dead POWs fell to the floor

            - POWs walked the last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell 

POW Camps: 

    - Philippine Islands: 

        - Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino Army training base 

            - Japanese put camp into use as POW camp

            - one water spigot for the entire camp

            - as many as fifty POWs died each day 

            - POWs went out on work details to get out of camp 

        - Cabanatuan

            - burial detail 

            - POWs sent to Bilibid Prison on 6 October 1942

    - Manchuria: 

         Hoton Camp

Hell Ship: 

    - Tottori Maru

        - 1961 POWs put on ship

            - 500 in front hold and 1461 in rear hold

            - 5 October 1942 – POWs left Cabanatuan for Manila

            -  housed in warehouse on Pier 7

            - 7 October 1942 – POWs boarded onto Tottori Maru

        - Sailed: Manila – 8 October 1942

            - Note:  9 October 1942 - American submarine fired two

                         torpedoes at ship

                         - ship passes a mine laid by an American submarine

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 12 October 1942

        - Sailed: 16 October 1942

                        -  returned to Takao

        - Sailed: 18 October 1942

        - Arrived: Pescadores Islands

            - anchored off the Pescadores Islands – same day

                        -  remained anchored for several days

            - two POWs died – buried at sea

        - Sailed: 27 October 1942

        - Arrived: Takao - 27 October 1942

            - 28 October 1942 – POWs taken ashore and bathed

        - Sailed: 30 October 1942

        - Arrived: 30 October 1942 - Makou, Pescadores Islands

        - Sailed:  31 October 1942

            - ship rode out a typhoon for five days

        - Arrived: Fusan, Korea - 7 November 1942

            - 8 November 1942 – POWs disembarked ship

            - sick POWs left behind at Fusan

            - those who recovered came to Mukden at later date

            - white boxes contained the ashes of POWs who died

        - 11 November 1942 – arrived Mukden, Manchuria

Liberated: 18 August 1945 - Russian Army

    - 29 August 1945 - American Recovery Team enters camp

    - POWs taken by train to Darien, China

    - taken by ship to Okinawa

Discharged: 9 March 1946

Died: 8 June 1972 - Dallas, Texas

Buried:

    - Gladewater Memorial Park - Gladewater, Texas

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