Williams

Born: 17 January 1917 - Daykin, Nebraska

Parents: Grover C. Williams & Flora Mary Callison-Williams

Home:

- Twin Falls County, Idaho

Occupation: farmhand

Inducted:

- U. S. Army

- 24 March 1941 - Salt Lake City

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

Prisoner of War:

- 9 April 1942

- 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

- Work Detail

- Cabanatuan

Died:

- 24 October 1942 - dysentery & malaria

- Approximate time of death - 6:00 AM

Buried:

- Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery

Reburied: American Military Cemetery - Manila, Philippine Islands

Note: Pfc. Howard R. Williams is erroneously buried as a member of the 17th Bomb Group. NARA records

confirm that he was a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion