Sgt. John Miklo


Born: 15 February 1917 - Port Clinton, Ohio

Mother: Andrew Miklo & Lena Cipka-Miklo

Siblings: 3 sisters, 1 brother

Home: 1309 East Third Street - Port Clinton, Ohio

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army

        - 25 November 1940 - Port Clinton, Ohio

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 Pockets

                - 23 January 1942 - 17 February 1942 

Prisoner of War:

    - 9 April 1942

        - 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

Camps:  

    - 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

    - Las Pinas Work Detail

        - POWs built runways with picks and shovels 

    - Bilibid - 22 September 1944 - December 1944

Work Detail:

    - Bridge Building Detail -April 1942 - September 1942

        - John assigned to Manila where he drove a supply truck

Hell Ship:

- Oryoku Maru

        - Boarded: 13 December 1944

            -1619 POWs boarded onto ship

        - Sailed: 14 December 1944

            - ship attacked by American planes

                - bullets from planes ricochet into holds hitting POWs  

            - attack continued the next day

        - Sunk: 15 December 1944

            - Japanese abandoned ship

            - planes stop attack when they saw the large number of men climbing out of the ship's

              holds

            - Japanese fire at POWs as they swam ashore

Died: 15 December 1944

              - sinking of Oryoku Maru - Subic Bay, Philippine Islands

Memorial:

    - Tablets of the Missing - American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands 


 

 

 

 

 

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