Parents: Louis & Emma Hardtke

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Siblings: 6 brothers, 4 sisters

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 3 April 1941

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units: 

    - 192nd Tank Battalion

        - assigned to halftrack crew

        - the halftracks were used for reconnaissance 

Overseas Duty: 

    - Philippine Islands

Engagements: 

    - Battle of Luzon

    - Battle of Bataan

Prisoner of War: 

    9 April 1942

        - Death March

            - Mariveles - POWs start march at 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 base 

            - 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 

Died:

    - 4 May 1942 - dysentery & malaria

        - Approximate time of death - 12:15 A.M.

Buried:

    - 1 November 1948 - Camp Butler National Cemetery - Springfield, Illinois

        - Plot: 3  Grave: 559  Section: C

Photo:  Pvt. George Hardtke can be seen in back right of halftrack