Pvt. Leon A. Elliott

Parents: Athans Eliopoulos & Antigone Xonoulos-Eliopoulos

Siblings: 2 sisters, 4 brothers

Home: Watsonville, California

Education:

    - Watsonville High School

        - Class of 1936

             - played football 

Residence: 318 Church Street, Salinas, California

Occupation:

    - apprentice cabinet maker

Enlisted:

     - California National Guard

Inducted:

    - U.S. Army

        - 10 February 1941 - Salinas Army Airfield

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

        - motorcycle messenger 

        - member halftrack crew

            - manned a machinegun 

Units: 

    - 194th Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

            - halftrack ambushed by Japanese while attempting to contact two Filipino

               Divisions

            - fought way through and successfully completed mission 

    - Battle of Bataan

         - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march at southern tip of Bataan
            - POWs ran past Japanese artillery firing at Corregidor
                - Americans on Corregidor returned fire
            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                - 100 POWs packed into each car
                - POWs who died remained standing
            - Capas - dead fell to floor as living left boxcars
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell    

POW Camps:

    - Philippine Islands:

        - Camp O'Donnell

            - unfinished Filipino training base
            - Japanese put camp into use as POW Camp
            - only one water spigot for entire camp
            - as many as 50 POWs died each day
            - Japanese opened new POW camp to lower death rate   

        - Cabanatuan #1

    - Manchuria

        - Hoten Camp

            - POWs worked in machine shop and lumber mill

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

        - 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

Recovery:

    - sent to Fitzsimmons VA Hospital - Denver, Colorado

        - suffered from tuberculosis

           - treated for tuberculosis until 1956 

        - met future wife while patient

Married:

    - 6 October 1946

Wife: Sylvia Bedrick

Children: 2 sons

Medals:

    - Purple Heart 

    - Silver Star

    - POW Medal

     - 3 Presidential Unit Citations 

Education:

    - El Camino Junior College

    - University of California Los Angeles

        - electrical engineer

Occupation:

    - outside field engineer - General Telephone 

     - retired - 1982 

Lived:

    - Salinas, California

    - Santa Monica, California 

Died:

    - 7 May 2010 - Santa Maria, California

Buried:

    - Queen of Heaven Cemetery - Salinas, California

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