Pfc. Clarence E. Roedell


Born: 1921 - Council Bluffs, Iowa

Parents: Henry Roedell & Gladys Parker-Roedell

Siblings: 3 sisters

    - Clarence and his one sister were living with their aunt & uncle in 1930 in Washington State

Home: Whitcomb County, Washington

Inducted:

    - U. S. Army

        - 1941 - Seattle, Washington

Training: 

    - Fort Lewis, Washington

Units: 

    - 194th Tank Battalion

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 Japanesee 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

        -  San Fernando - scrap metal detail

            - POWs tied destroyed cars and trucks together and drove them, to San Fernando, as

              they were being pulled by a functioning vehicle

            - vehicles were sent to Japan to provide scrap metal for Japanese war effort

Died:

    - 12 September 1942 - cerebral malaria & dysentery

            - San Fernando, Philippine Islands

Buried: American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands

    Plot:  C   Row:  16   Grave:  52


 

 

 

 

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