Tec 5 Burl L. Harris

Parents: Alvie L. Harris & Eva B. Kyser-Harris

Siblings: 2 sisters, 2 brothers

Hometown: Liberty, Wisconsin

Occupation: worked on family farm

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 17 October 1940 - Fort Lewis, Washington

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

        - mechanic

Units: 

    - 194th Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

        - D Company was attached to the 194th Tank Battalion but remained under the

          command of the 192nd Tank Battalion 

       - After the war, D Company was listed on Presidential Unit Citations awarded to the

         192nd Tank Battalion 

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - started march at Mariveles at the southern tip of Bataan
            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars
                - each boxcar could hold eight horses or forty men
                    - 100 POWs put into each car
                    - dead remained standing
            - Capas - POWs left boxcars - dead fell to floor
            - POWs walked the 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 - June 1942

            - POWs considered too ill to be moved remained behind at camp

Died:

    - 1 July 1942 - dysentery

Buried:

    - Viola Cemetery - Viola, Wisconsin

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