Tec 5 William C. P. Brown


Born: 1918 - Pennsylvania
Parents: George F. & Sarah Brown
Siblings: 2 brothers, 1 sister
Home: 205 Bane Street - Newton Falls, Ohio
Education: 2 years of high school
Occupation: Inspector - Steel Mill
Residence: Summit County, Ohio

    - U. S. Army
        27 March 1941 - Cleveland, Ohio
Training: 
    - Fort Knox, Kentucky
    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

 

Units: 

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

        - assigned to unit at Camp Polk 

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

        - went to Philippines as a private

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 

    Note: It was reported that Brown had died south of San Fernando on Death March.

 POW Camps:

   - 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 

       - Brown went out on bridge building detail to get out of camp

    - Bridge Building Detail

        - Calumpeit, Bulacan, Philippine Islands 

Died: 

     - 25 June 1942 - Bridge Building Detail: 

             - dysentery & malaria

Buried:

    - Calumpit, Philippine Islands 

Reburied:

    - 13 April 1950 

    - Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery

    - Section:  79   Site:  42-44 


 

 

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