Pvt. Leon Warren Campbell
Born: 21 May 1919 - Pennsylvania
Parents: Wilber & Ceola Campbell
Siblings: 3 sisters
Hometown: Kane, Pennsylvania
Residence: Deerfield State Route 6 - Sheffield, Pennsylvania
Occupation: Civilian Conservation Corps
    - living in Marion County, Indiana
Inducted:
    - U.S. Army
        - 11 February 1941 - Fort Benjamin Harrison - Lawrence, Indiana
Training:
    - Ft. Knox, Kentucky
Units:
    - 19th Ordnance Battalion
    - 17th Ordnance Company
        - company created from A Company of 19th Ordnance
        - trained alongside the 192nd Tank Battalion at Ft. Knox
Overseas Duty:
    - Philippine Islands
        - serviced tanks of Provisional Tank Group
        - machinist
Engagements:
    - Battle of Luzon
       - 8 December 1942 - 6 January 1942
    - Battle of Bataan
       - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942
Prisoner of War
    - 9 April 1942
        - Death March
            - POWs started march at Mariveles on the southern tip of Bataan
            - ran past Japanese artillery firing on Corregidor
                - American artillery returned fire
            - San Fernando - POWs packed into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                - Japanese packed 100 POWs into each boxcar
                - POWs who died remained standing
            - Capas - POWs leave boxcars - dead fall out of cars
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell
POW Camps:
    - Philippines:
        - Camp O'Donnell
            - unfinished Filipino Army training base
            - Japanese put it into use as a POW camp
            - one water spigot for the entire camp
            - as many as fifty POWs died each day
        - Cabanatuan
            - 5 October 1942 - POWs left Cabanatuan for Manila
            - housed in warehouse on Pier 7
    - Mukden, Manchuria
        - POWs worked in machine shop or at lumber mill
Hell Ship:
    - Tottori Maru
        - Boarded: 7 October 1942
            - 1961 POWs put on ship
                - 500 in forward hold
                - 1461 in rear hold
        - Sailed: 8 October 1942
            - 9 October 1942 - two torpedoes fired by an American submarine pass ship
            - ship misses mine laid by submarine
        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 12 October 1942
        - Sailed: 16 October 1942
            - returned to Takao, Formosa
        - Sailed: 18 October 1942
        - Arrived: Pescadores Islands - same day
            - remained anchored off islands for nine days
            - two POWs died - buried at sea
        - Sailed: 27 October 1942
        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - same day
            - 28 October 1942 - POWs taken ashote and showered with salt water
        - Sailed: 30 October 1942
        - Arrived: Makau, Pescadores Islands - same day
        - Sailed: 31 October 1942
        - Arrived: Fusan, Korea - 7 November 1942
        - Disembark: 8 November 1942
            - sick POWs left behind at Fusan
                - those who died were cremated
                - ashes sent to Mukden in small white wooden boxes
         - Arrived: Mukden Manchuria - 11 November 1942
Died:
    - 4 July 2011 - Rochester, Minnesota

 

 

 


Return to 17th Ordnance