Sgt. John Elmer Hobbs Jr.

Parents: John E. Hobbs Sr. & Ethel Wieneke-Hobbs

Siblings: 2 sisters

Hometown: Shadyside, Ohio

Education: Shadyside High School

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army 

        - 23 January 1941 - Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio

Training: 

    - Ft. Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

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

       -  Davao, Mindanao

            - 11 November 1942 - 6 June 1944

                - runway construction

        - Bilibid Prison

    Japan:

        - Nomachi

Hell Ship:

    Erie Maru

        Sailed: 28 October 1942

            Note: ship stopped Iloilo and Cebu, Mindanao

        Arrived: Lasang, Mindanao - 11 November 1942

     Yashu Maru

         Sailed: Davao - 6 June 1944

         Arrived: Cebu, Mindanao - 12 June 1944

            - POWs transferred to Teiryu Maru

     Teiryu Maru 

         Sailed: Cebu - 21 June 1944

         Arrived: Manila - 24 June 1944

     Noto Maru

        Sailed: Manila - 27 August 1944

        Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 30 August 1944

        Sailed: Takao - 30 August 1944

        Arrived: Moji, Japan - 9 September 1944

            Work: Laborer - laborer quarry and chemical factory

Liberated: 14 September 1945

Married:

Children: 2 daughters, 1 son

Resided: Shadyside, Ohio

Died:

    - 21 December 1971 - Memorial Lawns Cemetery - Wabash, Indiana

Return to HQ Company