Pvt. Leonard Marvin Hart


Born: 13 July 1915 - Chaney, Oklahoma

Parents: Thomas J. Hart & Nellie A. Taylor-Hart

Siblings: 4 sisters, 4 brothers

Hometown: Otter Township, Harper County, Oklahoma

Education: Luther Hill High School - Luther Hill, Oklahoma

Inducted: 

    - U. S. Army 

        - 17 March 41 - Oklahoma City

Training: 

    - Fort Knox, Kentucky

    - Camp Polk, Louisiana

Units:

    - 753rd Tank Battalion

        - assigned to battalion after basic training 

    - 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

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 #1

    - Japan:

       - Fukuoka #17

           - Work: coal mining

Hell Ship: 

    - Clyde Maru

        - Sailed: Manila - 23 July 43

        - Arrived: Moji - 7 August 43

Liberated: September 1945

Discharged: 28 December 1946

Married: Elaine Winifred Harris

    - 29 March 1947 - Chicago, Illinois

Children: 3 daughters, 1 son

Occupation: Postmaster - Laverne, Oklahoma

Died:

     - 5 March 1983 - Laverne, Oklahoma

Buried:

     - Laverne Memorial Cemetery


 

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