Pvt. Raymond A. Lorenz


Born: 25 February 1919 - Okeene, Oklahoma

Parents: Manuel & Amelia Lorenz

Siblings: 3 sisters, 2 brothers

Home: Deep Creek, Major County, Oklahoma 

Occupation: truck driver - state highway department

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 24 February 1941 - Camp Chaffee - Fort Smith, Arkansas

Training: 

    - Ft. Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units:

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

        - volunteered to replace a National Guardsman released from federal service 

Overseas Duty:

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements:

    - Battle of Luzon

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942

 - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942

            - B Company's tanks guarded one of the few beaches, on the East Coast of Bataan, where the

              Japanese could land troops.  One night, they were involved in a firefight with Japanese landing

              barges.

              When morning came, not one Japanese soldier had been landed.

        - 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

                - tank spun and its stationary track burrowed into ground 

 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

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

    - Japan: 

       - Fukuoka #23

            - Work: coal mining

Hell Ship: 

    - Nissyo Maru  

        - Sailed: Manila - 17 July 1944

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 27 July 1944

        - Sailed: Takao, Formosa - 28 July 1944

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 3 August 1944

Liberated: September 1945

Promoted: Staff Sergeant

Reenlisted: 24 February 1946

Military Career:

    - U. S. Army - 10 years

    - U. S. Air Force - 11 years

Retired: 30 April 1961

Rank: Technical Sergeant

Married: Imogene

Children: 3 daughters, 2 sons

Died: 8 September 1990 - Vacaville, California


 

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