S/Sgt. William M. McAuliffe

    Right after graduating high school, William joined the Wisconsin National Guard's 32nd Tank Company.  In November, 1940, he traveled to Fort Knox, Kentucky, when the company was federalized as A Company, 192nd Tank Battalion.  William was known for his "free spirit" and rose and dropped in rank repeatedly.

    William took part in maneuvers in Louisiana in late summer 1941.  He then learned that the battalion was being sent overseas after these maneuvers.  From Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, the battalion left the United States for the Philippine Islands.

    Arriving in Manila on Thanksgiving Day, 1941, William and the other tankers were sent to Fort Stotsenburg.  Since their barracks were not finished,  the tankers lived in tents along the main road between Clark Field and Ft. Stotsenburg.

    On December 8, 1941, William and the other members of the battalion heard the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  They immediately were sent in their tanks to the perimeter of the airfield.  Around lunchtime, they saw planes that they believed were American above them.  Only when bombs began to explode, did they realize that the planes were Japanese.

    For the next several months, William fought to slow the Japanese conquest of the Philippines.  After the withdrawal into Bataan, William was involved in the Battle of the Pockets.  On February 5, 1942, near kilometer post 214,  while attempting to recover a tank that had been disabled and crew buried alive in the tank.  William was wounded when a landmine exploded beneath his tank.  The shrapnel from the mine penetrated  the lighter armor of the belly of the tank and hit him in the chest, nose and legs.  He was the only member of his tank crew wounded.  He was awarded the Purple Heart.  He would carry a scar on his nose for the rest of his life.

    William was sent to Little Beguio Hospital, where he remained until the surrender on April 9, 1942.  Since he was in the hospital, the Japanese allowed him to ride in a truck to Bilibid Prison.  The prison was used as a hospital, but there was no medicine to treat the sick and wounded.

    After Bilibid, William was sent to Cabanatuan where he was reunited with other members of A Company.  Sgt. Dale Lawton changed the dressing on William's leg daily.  By doing this, he prevented William from developing an infection even though pieces of shrapnel were still in his leg.

    In October, 1942, William was sent back to Bilibid Prison.  On October 26, 1942, he was marched to the dock area of Manila.  There, he was boarded onto the cattle boat, Nagato Maru sailed on November 7, 1942.  The Prisoners of War were packed so tightly in the hold that they could not sit down.  Unlike later ships, the prisoners were fed well.  The Japanese guards also gave the prisoners any food they did not finish.  After a stop at Formosa, the Nagato Maru arrived at Takao, Formosa on November 11, 1942.  It stayed three days before sailing for the Pescadores Islands.  It left the islands on November 18th.

    After leaving the Pescadores Islands, the ship arrived at Kelung Island the same day.  It remained there for two days leaving on November 20th for Moji, Japan.  On the 24th, it arrived in Japan.

    Upon arriving in Japan, the POWs were taken by train from Moji to Kobe.  William and the other POWs were imprisoned at Yodogawa Camp # 3-D.  The POWs at Yodogawa worked in a factory.  The camp was located between Osaka and Kobe on the south bank of the Yodogawa River.  He would remain at this camp from November 26, 1942 until May, 1945.  

    It was at Yodogawa that William received the only Red Cross package he received as a POW.  In the package were vitamin pills.  William ate 500 of these pills in two days.  His reason for doing this was that they were sweet and sweet tasting things were almost none existent in the POW's diet.

    In early May 1945, American bombers attacked the industrial complex where William worked.  The bombings were so bad that the camp was totally destroyed by fire.  What made the attacks worse was that the POW barracks were located in the middle of the industrial area.  On May 18, 1945 the POWs were transferred to Osaka Camp #3-B at Oeyama an island seaport.

    William and the other prisoners unloaded food, coal and coke from ships for a nickel refinery.  The food they unloaded was bound for the Japanese army.  William and the other POWs would steal a couple of pocketfuls of beans everyday. 

    Even at this point in the war the Japanese weighed the prisoners.  To William, this was silly since all the POWs were underweight.  When he was freed, William weighed 104 pounds.

    William was liberated in September of 1945.  He had spent 41 months as a Prisoner of War.  He returned to the United States and sent to May VA Hospital in Galesburg, Illinois.  There, he underwent surgery to remove shrapnel and scar tissue from his leg.  He also had skin grafted onto the leg. 

    William married and raised a family.  He also remained in the army and did a tour of duty in Viet Nam.  He was discharged on May 23, 1966.  William M. McAuliffe passed away on February 8, 1977, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

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