2nd Lt. Earl Walter Hill

Parents: John Hill & Lillian Paavola-Hill

Siblings: 1 sister

Home: 424 First Street - Stambaugh, Michigan

Enlisted: Joined ROTC while college student

Unit:

    - 19th Ordnance Company

        - A Company reorganized as: 17th Ordnance Company

Training:

    - Ft. Knox, Kentucky

Overseas Duty:

    - Ft. Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War:

    - 9 April 1941

        - Death March

            - started march at Mariveles at southern tip of Bataan

            - POWs run past Japanese artillery firing on Corregidor 

            - San Fernando - POWs put into small wooden boxcars

                - boxcars could hold eight horses or forty men

                - 100 POWs put into each car - those who died remained standing

            - POWs leave boxcars at Capas - dead fall out of cars

            - POWs walk last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell 

POW Camps:

    - Philippine Islands:

        - Camp O'Donnell

        - Cabanatuan

            - held in camp until selected for transport to Japan

Hell Ship:

    - Oryoku Maru
        - Boarded: 13 December 1944
            - approximately 700 POWs put in aft hold
            - approximately 600 POWs put in forward hold
            - approximately 300 POWs put in amidships hold
        - Sailed: Manila - 14 December 1944 - 3:00 A.M.
            - 8:00 A.M. ship strafed by American planes from U.S.S. Hornet
            - ricochets wound POWs in hold
            - 8 to 10 POWs suffocate in forward hold from heat
            - 30 POWs suffocate in aft hold from heat
            - some POWs go crazy from thirst - drink urine
            - that evening American planes return and continue attack
        - Sunk: 15 December 1944
            - Japanese abandon ship
            - POWs left in holds
            - 9:30 A.M. - POWs told to abandon ship
            - Japanese fire upon POWs with machine guns as the POWs swim to shore
            - POWs held on tennis courts and later taken to
        - 20 December 1944 - POWs taken to San Fernando, Pampanga
        - 23 December 1944 - Sickest POWs taken into mountains by truck
            - taken to cemetery where a 15 foot by 15 foot grave had been dug
            - POWs bayoneted or decapitated
        - 24 December 1944 - remaining POWs taken by train to San Fernando, La Union
        - 25 December 1944 - boarded onto Enoura Maru and Brazil Maru

Died: 15 December 1944 - Sinking of Oryoku Maru

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