Pvt. Edward F. Plodzien

Parents: Martin Plodzien & Agnes Zachara-Plodzien

Siblings: 2 sisters

Hometown: 1320 West Julian Street, Chicago, Illinois

Siblings: 2 sisters

Occupation: tannery - mill hand

Enlisted: Illinois National Guard

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 25 November 1940 - Maywood, Illinois

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

            - 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
            - POWs walked last ten miles to Camp O'Donnell

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

        - Las Pinas September 1943 - 1944

            - Work: built runways

                - appeared he was returned to Cabanatuan due to illness 

    Japan:

         - Fukuoka #8

Hell Ship:

    - Nissyo Maru

        - Sailed: 17 July 1944

        - Arrived: Takao, Formosa - 20 July 1944

        - Sailed: 28 July 1944

        - Arrived: Moji, Japan - 3 August 1944

Liberated: September 1945

Married: Estelle Romanek

   - 11 April 1953 - Cook County, Illinois

Died: 25 September 1966

Buried: Rosehill Cemetery - Chicago, Illinois

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