Pvt. James William Durr

Parents: Ernest Durr & Grace Dnuny-Durr

Siblings: 1 brother

Home: Beaumont Road, Mercer County

Occupation: Farmhand

Enlisted: Kentucky National Guard

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army 

        - 25 November 1940 - Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Northern Luzon

        - 8 December 1941 - 6 January 1942 

    - Battle of Bataan

        - 7 January 1942 - 9 April 1942 

Prisoner of War: 

    - 9 April 1941

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs started 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 #1

        - Bilibid Prison

    Japan:

         - Kawasaki

             - Work: shipyard labor

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 5 April 1946

Married:

Residence: 3193 McHenry Avenue - Cincinnati, Ohio

Died: 25 November 1972 - Cincinnati, Ohio

Buried:

    - Cemetery of Spring Grove - Cincinnati, Ohio

        - Section:  139   Lot:  G   Space:  73

Return to D Company