Cpl. Matthew Baxter Braun

Parents: Andrew & Mabel Braun

Siblings: 2 brothers, 2 sisters

Home: 206 North Madison Street - Rome, New York

Occupation: annealing - brass mill

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 27 March 1941 - Albany, New York

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon 

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

Prisoner of War: 

   -  9 April 1942

       - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march from 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 camp 

            - 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

    - Japan: 

       - Tokyo #12-B (Mitsushima)

            - POWs worked on construction of a dam

       - Tokyo #16-B (Kanose)

            - Work: Carbide Mill - POWs produced carbide rods

Hell Ship:

    - Nagato Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 7 November 1942

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 11 November 1942

        - Sailed: 14 November 1942

        - Arrived: Pescadores Islands - 14 November 1942

        - Sailed: 18 November 1942

        - Arrived: Kelung Island - 18 November 1942

        - Sailed: 20 November 1942

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 24 November 1942

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 11 February 1945

Married: 4 July 1953 - Marie Cuglar

Children: 2 daughters, 1 son

Occupation: electrician

Died:

    - 29 June 2010 - East Syracuse, New York

Buried:

    - White Chapel Memory Gardens - DeWitt, New York 

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