Pvt. Lewis Haymond Kirby

Parents: James Kirby & Lula Darlington-Kirby

Hometown: Patriot, Ohio

Inducted: 

    -U. S. Army

        - 28 January 1941 - Camp Atterbury, Columbus, Indiana

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty:

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

           - Battle of the Points - 27 January 1942 - 13 February 1942

               -  Agloloma and Anyasas Rivers Area

                   - tanks sent in attacked and disengaged Japanese

                   - according to Capt. Alvin Poweleit, the battalion's surgeon, the tanks did a great deal of damage 

            - Battle of Tuol Pocket - 23 January - 17 February 1942

            - Japanese trapped behind Filipino-American lines

                - B Company & C Company tanks were sent into pocket to wipeout the resistance 

                - Filipino soldiers rode on tanks and dropped grenades into Japanese foxholes

                - tanks also would park with one track over foxhole and spin by applying power to one track

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1942

        - Tankers stripped their uniforms of anything indicating they were members of the tank battalions 

            - rumored that the Japanese were looking for them because of what they had done during the Battles of the

             Points and Pockets 

               - battalion members were asked by the Japanese if they were tankers

               - many told the Japanese they were cooks 

        - 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

        - Bilibid Prison

    Japan: 

        - Omine Machi

            - Work: coal mine

Hell Ship:

    - Canadian Inventor

        - Sailed: Manila - 4 July 1944

        - Returned: 5 July 1944

            - returned due to boiler problems 

        - Sailed: 16 July 1944 

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 23 July 1944 

        - Sailed 4 August 1944

        - Arrived: Keelung, Formosa - 4 August 1944 

            - remained at Keelung for additional boiler repairs

        - Sailed: 17 August 1944

            - additional boiler problems near Naha, Okinawa

            - stayed for six days before sailing for Moji, Japan

        - Arrived: Moji - 1 September 1944

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 17 September 1947

Married/Divorced

Children: 4 daughters

Died:

    - 5 March 1972 - Gallipolis, Ohio

Buried:

    - Pine Street Cemetery - Gallipolis, Ohio 

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