THE TERRIBLE ESCAPE OF WILLIAM DYESS FROM THE JAPANESE PRISONERS OF WAR CAMP.

The Terrible Escape Of , William Dyess From The Japanese Prisoners Of War Camp.

On this day in 1943, William Dyess was able to escape from a Japanese prisoner of war camp in the Philippines along with nine other men, and to make his way through the jungle and to a ship that transported him to Australia. Once free, Dyess would be able to reveal to the world the atrocities of the Bataan Death March that had taken place after U.S. and Philippine forces surrendered on April 9, 1942.

When the Bataan Peninsula fell to the Japanese, Dyess, as commanding officer, refused to abandon those of his squadron who could not be evacuated. He gave his airplane to another fighter pilot for last bombing run on April 9. Dyess also supervised the evacuation of Philippine Army Colonel Carlos Romulo, a close friend of General Douglas MacArthur, who would survive the war and would later serve as President of the United Nations General Assembly.

Dyess was captured by the Japanese on April 9, 1942, north of Mariveles, Bataan, and the next morning, he and the others who surrendered at Bataan began the infamous Bataan Death March. He was imprisoned at Camp O'Donnell and then, from June to 26 October 1942, at Cabanatuan. There, his men and he were routinely denied the rights of prisoners of war.

Dyess and others were transported by ship, the Erie Maru, to the Davao Penal Colony on Mindanao, arriving November 7. After two months of planning and preparation, Dyess, along with 9 other American POWs, including Major Jack Hawkins, Austin Shofner, and Samuel Grashio, and two Filipino convicts escaped from Davao on April 4, 1943. It was the only large-scale escape of Allied POWs from the Japanese in the Pacific Theater during World War II.

Dyess and his group spent several weeks evading pursuit, then joined a group of guerrillas for several months. The group decided to split up, with seven joining organized guerrilla forces in northern Mindanao. Dyess and two others were evacuated by the U.S. Navy submarine Trout to Australia in July 1943.

Upon reaching the United States in August, he was thoroughly debriefed on his experiences as a POW by high-ranking military brass.

He was ordered to recuperate, in September 1943, at the Ashford General Hospital in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. From his hospital bed, Dyess worked with Chicago Tribune writer Charles Leavelle to tell the story of the atrocities and brutality his fellow POWs and he had experienced and witnessed while in Japanese captivity. The U.S.

government, however, refused to release Dyess' story for publication on the grounds that it would infuriate the Japanese and risk the death of remaining American prisoners. The Tribune had to wait another four and a half months for the Secretary of War to grant release of the story.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Dyess was assigned to fly P-38 Lightnings in preparation for a return to combat. On December 22, 1943, his aircraft, P-38G-10-LO Lightning, 42-13441, of the 337th Fighter Squadron, 329d Fighter Group, lost an engine caused by a fire on take-off from Grand Central Airport.

Dyess had a chance to abandon his troubled aircraft, but was flying over a heavily populated area and did not want to be responsible for any civilian casualties. He remained in his stricken P-38 and died while guiding it onto a vacant lot.

He is buried in Albany Cemetery in Albany, Texas.

Almost one month after his death, the Chicago Tribune finally received permission from government censorship offices to release the deceased aviator's story on January 28, 1944.

The story ran in serial form for several weeks and was picked up by over 100 American newspapers. According to Leavelle, it was the biggest story of the war since Pearl Harbor. Published in book form in 1944, The Dyess Story (later retitled Bataan Death March) became a bestseller.

Comments

THE TERRIBLE STORY OF PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DESMOND T. DOSS OF LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA....

12th October 1945. Private First Class Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, is presented the Medal of Honor for outstanding bravery as a combat medic, the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the nation’s highest military award. When called on by his country to fight in World War II, Doss, a dedicated pacifist, registered as a conscientious objector. Eventually sent to the Pacific theater of war as a medical corpsman, Doss voluntarily put his life in the utmost peril during the bloody Battle for Okinawa, saving dozens of lives well beyond the call of duty. During World War II, over 70,000 men were designated conscientious objectors, mostly men whose religious beliefs made them opposed to war. Some refused to serve, but 25,000 joined the US armed forces in noncombat roles such as medics and chaplains. Desmond T. Doss of Lynchburg, Virginia, was one of those men, though he personally shunned the title of conscientious objector. Doss, born in 1919, was raised wit...

The Heroic Story Of Lieutenant Colonel Jay Zeamer, Jr. of Carlisle, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions During WWII.

The Heroic Story Of Lieutenant Colonel Jay Zeamer, Jr. of Carlisle, Honoring Him For His Extraordinary Actions During WWII. U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel Jay Zeamer, Jr. of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions on June 16, 1943, over Buka area, Solomon Islands. In October 1939, Zeamer applied for the Army Air Corps flight training program and was accepted in December. His entrance to the program was deferred until after graduating from M.I.T. in June 1940 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering, specializing in Structural Engineering. Zeamer began elementary flight school training as a flying cadet in the Chicago School of Aeronautics, Glenview, Illinois, where his leadership skills earned him the position of Captain of Cadets of Class 41-B. In March 1941, he received his wings and a commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps after graduating from basic and advanced flight school at Maxwell Field, Alabama. On June 16...

The Terrible Story Of Richard Earl Bush of Glasgow, The Hero We Must Honor.

The Terrible Story Of Richard Earl Bush of Glasgow, The Hero We Must Honor. Richard Earl Bush of Glasgow, Kentucky, a U.S. Marine Corps master gunnery sergeant, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his extraordinary actions in Okinawa on April 16, 1945. Bush enlisted in the USMC in 1942. He served with the Marine Corps Raiders in the Pacific, and while with the Raiders, he was promoted to corporal. On April 16, 1945, Cpl. Bush was serving in the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 6th Marine Division. Cpl. Bush led his men in a charge against an enemy stronghold. During the assault, he placed himself on a thrown enemy grenade, absorbing the force of the explosion and saving the lives of his fellow Marines and corpsmen. In World War II, twenty-seven Marines similarly used their bodies against thrown enemy grenades in order to save their comrades’ lives. Bush was one of four who survived. He lost several fingers and sight in one eye. In the years following the war, Bush worked f...

The Japanese WWII Soldier Who Refused to Surrender for 27 Years

Unable to bear the shame of being captured as a prisoner of war, Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungles of Guam until January 1972 When Japanese sergeant Shoichi Yokoi returned to his home country after almost three decades in hiding, his initial reaction was one of contrition: “It is with much embarrassment that I return.” Then 56, Yokoi had spent the past 27 years eking out a meager existence in the jungles of Guam, where he’d fled to evade capture following American forces’ seizure of the island in August 1944. According to historian Robert Rogers, Yokoi was one of around 5,000 Japanese soldiers who refused to surrender to the Allies after the Battle of Guam, preferring life on the lam to the shame of being detained as a prisoner of war. Though the Allies captured or killed the majority of these holdouts within a few months, some 130 remained in hiding by the end of World War II in September 1945. Yokoi, who only rejoined society after being overpowered by two local fishermen in Janu...

Why Anna Maria Von Stockhausen’s corpse, strapped to keep her coming back from the dead.

Why Anna Maria Von Stockhausen’s corpse, strapped to keep her coming back from the dead. This is the corpse of Anna Maria von Stockhausen. After death she was strapped down to keep her in her grave. According to folklore, Stockhausen was a witch who resurrected herself 5 times. She was accused of being a witch during the Middle ages and Black Plague. This folklore about Anna was that she was killed about 6 times. She was first hanged and later clawed herself out of the grave. The town people captured her in a nearby town and quickly drowned her in a lake, by tying her to a plank. The townspeople said they checked her several times after dragging her lifeless body out of the water. View more graphics content below View more below:

The Terrible Death Of "Sergeant James Ward" The First New Zealand Airman to be Honored with the Victoria Cross

The Terrible Death Of "Sergeant James Ward" The First New Zealand Airman to be Honored with the Victoria Cross. Sergeant James Allan Ward of Whanganui, New Zealand serving with the No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF, was the first New Zealander to be honored with the Victoria Cross. He is pictureed standing in the cockpit of his Vickers Wellington Mark IC, L7818 'AA-V', at Feltwell, Norfolk. (Source: IWM) ⭐Sergeant James Allen's Victoria Cross Citation reads as follows: "On the night of 7 July 1941, Sergeant Ward was second pilot of a Wellington bomber returning from an attack on Munster. While flying over the Zuider Zee at 13,000 feet his aircraft was attacked from beneath by a German ME110, which secured hits with cannon-shell and incendiary bullets. The rear gunner was wounded in the foot but delivered a burst of fire sending the enemy fighter down, apparently out of control. Fire then broke out in the Wellington's near-starboard engine and, fed by pe...

The terrible Story of Robert Charles Burke and how he was killed in action charging enemy positions on May 17, 1968,

Robert Charles Burke: he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in Chicago, March 17, 1967. Burke was discharged to enlist in the regular Marine Corps on May 16, 1967. Upon completion of recruit training with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, on July 20, 1967, Burke was transferred to the Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California. He completed individual combat training with Company Q, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment, in August 1967, and was promoted to private first class on September 1, 1967. From September 1967 until January 1968, he was a student with the Motor Transport School, Student Company, Schools Battalion. This was followed by duty as a motor vehicle mechanic with Headquarters and Service Company, 5th Military Police Battalion, 5th Marine Division, Camp Pendleton. In February 1968, Burke was sent to the Republic of Vietnam where he was assigned to Company I, ...

Honoring the Service of Hospital Corpsman Jack W. Snyder of the US Navy: Recipient of 10 Battle Stars.

🇺🇲 WWII uncovered: Honoring the Service of Hospital Corpsman Jack W. Snyder of the US Navy: Recipient of 10 Battle Stars. Jack W. Snyder, of Cincinnati Ohio, enlisted with the US Navy on November 12 1942. He was 16 years old. According to the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library History Project: "Petty Officer Third Class Jack W. Snyder enlisted in the Navy at the height of WWII and served onboard the USS Harris APA-2 as a corpsman on multiple operations in the North Africa campaign as a part of the Southern Attack Force, before shifting over to the Pacific seeing action in Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, Palau Islands, Philippines, and Okinawa campaigns. By the end of the war, Harris received ten battle stars for World War II service." Jack returned to Ohio after the war and received his degree from the University of Cincinnati. After graduation he reenlisted and served as a 1st Lieutenant in the Air Force from 1957 to 1963. Jack spent his career teaching physic...

The Most Horrifying Forms of 3 Executions in History

What was the unusual execution method used in history? Stoning, also known as lapidation, is a method of execution that involves pelting the condemned individual with stones until death occurs. It has been practiced in various societies throughout history and is often associated with religious or cultural beliefs. Stoning as a form of punishment is primarily intended to instill fear and act as a deterrent. In stoning, the condemned person is typically buried up to their chest or neck in a pit or shallow hole to restrict movement. The crowd or a group of executioners then proceeds to throw stones at the individual until they are killed. The stones used in stoning are typically of a specific size and weight, ensuring that the punishment is prolonged and painful rather than immediately lethal. The severity and execution of stoning can vary between different cultures and regions. It is important to note that stoning is often linked to moral or religious offenses, such as adultery or bla...

Honoring Gene Autry "Cowboy Entertainer" For His Services During WWII .

🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Gene Autry: Cowboy, Entertainer and Proud World War II Veteran "When World War II broke out, Gene Autry was determined to join the armed forces and do his part. On July 26, 1942, during a live broadcast of his radio show Melody Ranch and at the Pentagon's request, he was inducted into the Army Air Forces as a Technical Sergeant. Already a private pilot, Gene set out to earn his wings as a Flight Officer. After basic training at the Santa Ana Air Force Base, and serving at Luke Field, Thunderbird Field, and Phoenix Airport, he was eventually accepted for flight training at Love Field in Dallas." "A week after Gene was sworn into the military, the Gene Autry Melody Ranch radio show became the Sergeant Gene Autry radio show on August 2, 1942. The program was part of Gene’s regular duties in the Army Air Forces and still had his music, comedy, and action in a dramatic story but now with a military theme. The songs were patriotic, the comedy based on...

Search This Blog