Story of Becoming a POW in the Phillippines at start of WW2

 

 

Standing For Her

By Mickey Bennett Sieracki

 

Mary Catherine Connor sadly stood at attention, watching the Japanese flag slowly rise to the top of the flagpole in front of the American High Commissioner’s Office in Manila. It was early January 1942, and her peaceful life had turned into a nightmare that wouldn’t end for three long years. Just that past September she had finished a business school course and had started work as a stenographer in the High Commissioner’s Office. She was busy with her new career and enjoying life in Manila with family and friends. But all that changed on December 7^th.

 

A family friend had been listening to his radio and rushed over to the Connor home to tell them of an attack on Pearl Harbor. Disbelief and shock were soon followed by grim reality the next day as the Japanese bombed Clark Air Force base, north of Manila, and hit the oil reserves in the Pasig depots. Black clouds hid the sky and the family knew the way of life they had known was coming to an end. The next few weeks passed in a blur of news reports and radio, until finally the shocking news that General MacArthur was leaving. On December 26^th he declared Manila an open city. The hope was to spare the city and its residents from total devastation, but the bombing continued for the next few days.[1]

 

As people considered what the coming of the Japanese would mean, there were those who reflected at the horror that had occurred just 4 years previously in Nanking. Mary’s family had all read of the atrocities committed against the civilian residents of Nanking, the rapes, murders and torture of men, women and children by the Japanese troops.[2] Mary’s mother, looking at her three teenaged daughters could not bear the thought of what might happen to them. The High Commissioner’s office had confirmed there would be no evacuations of American civilians, so she considered her options. Near their home was a small drugstore, the Botica Batallones. A discreet phone call brought a delivery of 5 vials of cyanide. They would not have to endure long if the fury of the Japanese was unleashed again.[3]

 

But Mary and her sisters were young, and the blood of Basque, Irish, and English adventurers and soldiers ran strong in their veins. They would survive. Faced with this determination and courage, her mother began new preparations. She began gathering supplies: sleeping mats, toilet paper, two cans of oatmeal per person, one pack of prunes and sugar per individual, and more. A shelter was set up under one side of the house. Pails of water were filled for personal use and, if necessary, to put out fires. Then they waited.[4]

 

On January 2^nd the Japanese marched into Manila in six man squads: one carried a rifle, another rode a bicycle, another carried as much rice as one man could. The others carried souvenirs from their march to the city. Shortly thereafter, Mary Catherine and her fellow employees from the High Commissioner’s office were ordered to report to the office. Civilians, in general, and the rest of her family were advised to congregate in hotels and clubs as it was believed there was safety in numbers. So, here she was, watching the Japanese flag go up, not knowing what the future would hold, separated from her family. At least she knew the American flag had not been desecrated. Only the day before, Mr. Claude Buss and four others from the Office had secretly burned the flag and buried it on the grounds.[5]

 

When the flag-raising ceremony was over, the staff was held on the premises for about 36 hours, and then moved to a private home where they were held for some months. It was a fairly large home and easily accommodated most of the staff. Father Kelly from the nearby Malate Church said Mass every Sunday for the Catholics in the group, and Bishop Binstead of the Episcopalian Church held services for the Protestants. He and his wife were also incarcerated in the house.[6] [7]

 

Almost immediately, Mary fell ill with acute appendicitis. She was fortunate that early on, the staff prisoners were treated well. She was sent to a local hospital and operated on. During her convalescence she heard of the fall of Bataan, and within days a terrified Mary watched from the hospital as the surviving American soldiers were marched through Manila to their destination in Cabanatuan. One of the mud-splattered soldiers stumbling by the house was her Uncle William, but she never knew it. The condition of the soldiers was so grim they were unrecognizable.[8]

 

The weeks dragged by. Word got through sporadically to the staff about events on the outside. Mary was able to get a letter through to her brother in the U.S. letting him know they were all safe, though she was separated from the rest of the family. Her parents and sisters had been taken in early February to the University of Santo Tomas, which had been set up as a huge internment camp. Santo Tomas was a large urban campus, easily secured, with many buildings suitable for housing the thousands of civilian prisoners of war. The university, founded in 1611, was one of the most revered landmarks in Manila.[9]

In late October the staff were given the choice of joining the American consular group at another residence in Pasay City, or going into the Santo Tomas internment camp. Some, including Bishop Binstead, ended up at the Los Baños camp outside of Manila. The thought of being with her parents and sisters, and with a larger group of people was comforting, and Mary quickly chose to join them. The joy she felt on seeing her parents and sisters again was indescribable. Come what may, at least they were together. At the beginning of the Occupation, the Santo Tomas camp was organized by a committee of internees who made rules, kept order, and assigned all internees to jobs. Mary worked as a stenographer initially, and then went on to teach in the camp elementary school.[10] Mary, along with others in the camp, tried very hard to maintain some sort of normal routine for the hundreds of children in the camp. Adults gave up their own rations to ensure the children got enough to eat.

 

When Mary first entered Santo Tomas, her father escorted her through the camp showing her where everything was, stopping to greet old acquaintances from pre-war days. As they were moving around the complex, they came across a group of men chatting on the steps of one of the buildings. Her father introduced her to one of them, a businessman he had known slightly before the War. It was Henry Bennett, a Manila stockbroker. He would come to be the most important person in Mary’s life.

 

Henry had come out to Manila in 1935 with the U.S. Army and had decided to remain in Manila after his tour of duty was over. He had fallen in love with the City, and saw more opportunities there than he could ever hope for back in his hometown in Iowa. He tried several ventures and finally had begun to see some success in his stockbrokerage business when the war broke out. He was immediately called back to active duty. His uniforms hadn’t been delivered yet when the City fell, and under the impression he was a civilian, the Japanese assigned him to Santo Tomas along with the rest of the civilian POW’s.  It didn’t take long for these two to realize they had met their life’s mate. Hours were spent talking about their lives, their hopes, and their future. However, the grim reality was that they weren’t sure they would have a future. Strict separation of the sexes was in place in Santo Tomas. There were separate dorms for the men, and women. The harshest of punishments were promised for women in camp who got pregnant. Needless to say they certainly forbade all marriages. Henry and Mary desperately wanted to get married.

 

Henry turned to one of his close friends in the camp, a Dominican priest, who agreed to help the couple, even at the risk of severe punishment. A secret wedding ceremony was held in 1943. Shortly after that the Japanese finally agreed to marriages in camp. Henry and Mary went through the formal process in order to allay any suspicions of the secret marriage, and on May 31, 1944 a formal marriage ceremony was held, the first in the camp.[11] This couple, whose marriage was to last until Henry’s death in 1981, was finally together as husband and wife. Perhaps their joy at finding each other during the most traumatic time of their lives helped them survive during the following year. As the tides of war began to turn against the Japanese, they became increasingly hostile to the prisoners in Santo Tomas. They gradually cut all the food rations, till eventually people had to survive on approximately 1000 calories of food or less a day.[12] Disease became prevalent, and the death rate began to climb. Who can say what might have happened if the war had not ended when it did? For several days in January 1945 heavy bombing could be heard over Manila from American planes. Finally in early February American planes flew over Santo Tomas and something fell from one of the planes – the pilot’s goggles. Written on them – “Roll out the barrel”. [13]  [14]

 

Mary and her new husband were free at last – ready to begin a new life. Their world for three years had been the confines of Santo Tomas. They all suffered from a host of illnesses: beriberi, severe malnutrition, fatigue, and anxiety. Henry had contracted tuberculosis as well as hepatitis.  Mary had gone from a healthy 140 lbs down to 90.[15] The average loss of weight in the camp was 51 pounds for men and 32 pounds for women.[16] Catching up on three years worth of news began – some happy, much heartbreaking.  Henry’s father had died during the internment years; Mary’s beloved grandparents in New York had both died, not knowing what had happened to their son’s family. Mary’s cousin Betty and her mother were found dead outside their home in Manila, victims of the final bombing of Manila. Next to their bodies was a dead Japanese soldier with a grenade clutched in his hand. There were some happy surprises. Her brother had gotten married in the States. Mary’s Uncle William appeared one day walking up to them in Santo Tomas – he had just been released from a slave labor camp in Manchuria, where he had been sent after surviving the Bataan Death March and the initial camp at Cabanatuan. At first they did not recognize him. Everyone thought he had died during the Death March along with his cousin. [17] [18]

 

The surviving internees and their civilian population had stood the test of fire – and literally so. The great city of Manila was put to the torch in the course of its liberation by the American forces. As the Japanese retreated, they went on a killing rampage. Corpses floated in the Pasig River and lay unburied in the rubble of the streets of the city. The destruction was so complete streets could hardly be recognized. In churches and chapels and in their own courtyards the dead lay stacked like cordwood. All places of refuge became the halls and fields of death as the Japanese threw grenades and burned buildings. In a swimming pool in one area there was no longer water – it was filled with bodies. In an ironic and tragic note, as the Japanese forces withdrew from places where their own wounded lay, their General came and issued grenades to those soldiers who could not walk to ensure them a merciful death, for the buildings were going to be fired.

 

In February 1945 Mary Connor Bennett again found herself standing at attention in a courtyard. But this time it was to watch the American flag raised. The courtyard was filled with a ragged mass of emaciated people. All focused their eyes with tears streaming from them on the American flag. The crowd’s voices lifted in a heartfelt rendition of “God Bless America”.[19] This time Mary and her fellow internees had a future to look forward to, hope for a new life with her family, husband and friends. [20]

 

In January of 2008, Mary Connor Bennett sat in a wheelchair in an assisted living facility in Roseville, MN listening to an afternoon musical program. Her eyes were dimmed by age, her mind robbed of its brilliance and memory by advancing Alzheimer’s. The program ended with “God Bless America”. The song brought back one of those rare flashes of memory and Mary struggled to rise from her wheelchair. The staff rushed over, worrying that she would fall, and assured her she could relax and sit down. But she continued to struggle to stand. She looked at them and clearly said, “I will stand for this song till the day I die.” A hush came over the group as one by one the other elderly residents joined her and rose to their feet. [21]

 

On March 6, 2008, Mary Connor Bennett took leave of her three daughters at her bedside and joined her beloved husband forever. We stand for her now.[22]

 

The Battle of Manila (February 3, 1945 – March 3, 1945) was a major battle of the Philippine campaign of 1944-45 during World War II that was fought by the American and Filipino forces against the Empire of Japan in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Morton, Louis, The US Army in WWII, The War in the Pacific, The Fall of the Philippines, Chapter XIV

[2] CNN World News, December 13, 1997 “Chinese City Remembers the Japanese ‘Rape of Nanjing.’”

[3] Personal Recollections of Frances Connor O’Keefe as related to her niece, Mickey Bennett Sieracki

[4] Personal Recollections of Mary Catherine Bennett as related to her daughter, Mickey Bennett Sieracki

[5] Dialogue, A publication of the Thomas Jefferson Information Center (TJIC), Public Affairs Section, U.S. Embassy, Manila, Volume 2, No. 2, April 2001

[6] Shiels, Margo, Bends in the Road, 1999

[7] Personal Recollections of Mary Catherine Bennett as related to her daughter, Mickey Bennett Sieracki

[8] Personal Recollections of Mary Catherine Bennett as related to her daughter, Mickey Bennett Sieracki

[9] History of the University of Santo Tomas,  UST website, http://www.ust.edu.ph

[10] The Liberation Bulletin of Philipine Internment Camp No. I at Santo Tomas University, Manila, Philippines, February 3, 1945

[11] Stevens, Frederic H., Santo Tomas Internment Camp, p. 441

[12] The Liberation Bulletin of Philipine Internment Camp No. I at Santo Tomas University, Manila, Philippines, February 3, 1945

[13] Ralph DioGuardi, Roll Out The Barrel…The Tanks Are Coming: The Liberation of the Santo Tomas Internment Camp, A Merriam Press Original Publication, Military Monograph MM20

[14] Stevens, Frederic H., Santo Tomas Internment Camp, p. 482

[15] Letter from Mary Catherine Bennett to her sister-in-law Thelma Bennett Grundl, 1945

[16] The Liberation Bulletin of Philipine Internment Camp No. I at Santo Tomas University, Manila, Philippines, February 3, 1945

[17] North, Oliver, War Stories II, Heroism in the Pacific, page 51.

[18] Doll, John G., The Battling Bastards of Bataan”, A Merriam Press Original Publication, Military Monograph MM36

[19] Stevens, Frederic H., Santo Tomas Internment Camp, p. 363

[20] Interview with Mary Catherine Bennett by her daughter, Mickey Bennett Sieracki, 2000

[21] Story related to the family by the staff of Sunrise Assisted Living in Roseville, MN

[22] Obituary, Mary C. Bennett, St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 7, 2008



Battle of St. Vith - World War II (Excellent film of the start of the Battle of the Bulge

Enjoying serving Veterans

Three Christmas Musical Celebrations with Wounded Veterans

First of 3 Christmas musical events that Victoria and I enjoyed accompanying these wonderful wounded VETS. SERVICE IS JOY!

  The Veteran on the left is PFC Finney, the decorated medic from WW2's worst battle Okinawa. He could have been the medic that was the subject of the current movie HACKSAW RIDGE. He did not want to kill, so they made a medic out of him. Unlike the movie's hero, Finney did carry a gun, and said he would have used it if he had to, but never had the time. He received a purple heart and a Bronze Star. After the war, he went to Northwestern on a GI bill and University of Chicago Grad. School. Then he worked on civil rights legislation writing the Equal Opportunity Act. Finney is very proud of working with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. One of the first times I met him, he told me sometimes he did not want to open his eyes, because he felt transcendental bliss

15 y o killed in Vietnam

15-Year-Old Marine Youngest American Killed in Vietnam War

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

11 hrs · 

Today we honor Dan Bullock on what would have been his birthday.

15-Year-Old Marine Youngest American Killed in Vietnam War

Dan Bullock is a name everyone should know, but many do not.

VVMF.WORDPRESS.COM

Giving myself the rest I have earned! DVD is ready to order!

I have been working really hard lately getting out the DVD on IN THEIR WORDS, THE WISDOM OF WW2 VETERANS

 

 

 

After almost a year of work and decades of experience

Just burning a disc on combat veterans (WW2 in this one), that I have working on for months now. I think it will be an eye-opener for those who confuse normal grief with PTSD?

 

So tragically true for so many veterans! A graphic reminder of why I do the work I do!

I wish my head could forget the things my eyes have seen - PTSD in First Responders.

The Gods were not happy with me.  I had handed in my notice with my previous Fire Department after going through a nasty divorce and becoming a single father of…

jamesgeering.com

Hitler Youth in Combat

Copyright © 1999 The History (very grateful to the HistoryPlace.com

 



A recruitment drive began, drawing principally on 17-year-old volunteers, but younger members 16 and under eagerly joined. During July and August 1943, some 10,000 recruits arrived at the training camp in Beverloo, Belgium.

To fill out the HJ Division with enough experienced soldiers and officers, Waffen-SS survivors from the Russian Front, including members of the elite Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, were brought in. Fifty officers from the Wehrmacht, who were former Hitler Youth leaders, were also reassigned to the division. The remaining shortage of squad and section leaders was filled with Hitler Youth members who had demonstrated leadership aptitude during HJ paramilitary training exercises. The division was placed under of the command of 34-year-old Major General Fritz Witt, who had also been a Hitler Youth, dating back before 1933.

Among his young troops, morale was high. Traditional, stiff German codes of conduct between officers and soldiers were replaced by more informal relationships in which young soldiers were often given the reasons behind orders. Unnecessary drills, such as goose-step marching were eliminated. Lessons learned on the Russian Front were applied during training to emphasize realistic battlefield conditions, including the use of live ammunition.

Northern Belgium early 1944--Members of the SS-Division Hitlerjugend stand in front of their Panzer IV tanks ready for the arrival of Field Marshal Rundstedt. Below: A young machine-gunner totes an MG-42 at Caen in northern France shortly after D-Day.

By the spring of 1944, training was complete. The HJ Panzer Division, now fully trained and equipped, conducted divisional maneuvers observed by General Heinz Guderian and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, both of whom admired the enthusiasm and expressed their high approval of the proficiency achieved by the young troops in such a short time. The division was then transferred to Hasselt, Belgium, in anticipation of D-Day, the Allied invasion of northern France. A few days before the invasion, SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler visited the division.

On D-Day, June 6th, 1944, the HJ Division was one of three Panzer divisions held in reserve by Hitler as the Allies stormed the beaches at Normandy beginning at dawn. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the HJ Division was released and sent to Caen, located not far inland from Sword and Juno beaches on which British and Canadian troops had landed. The division soon came under heavy strafing attacks from Allied fighter bombers, which delayed arrival there until 10 p.m.

The HJ were off to face an enemy that now had overwhelming air superiority and would soon have nearly unlimited artillery support. The Allies, for their part, were about to have their first encounter with Hitler's fanatical boy-soldiers.

The shocking fanaticism and reckless bravery of the Hitler Youth in battle astounded the British and Canadians who fought them. They sprang like wolves against tanks. If they were encircled or outnumbered, they fought-on until there were no survivors. Young boys, years away from their first shave, had to be shot dead by Allied soldiers, old enough, in some cases, to be their fathers. The "fearless, cruel, domineering" youth Hitler had wanted had now come of age and arrived on the battlefield with utter contempt for danger and little regard for their own lives. This soon resulted in the near destruction of the entire division.

By the end of its first month in battle, 60 percent of the HJ Division was knocked out of action, with 20 percent killed and the rest wounded and missing. Divisional Commander Witt was killed by a direct hit on his headquarters from a British warship. Command then passed to Kurt Meyer, nicknamed 'Panzermeyer,' who at age 33, became the youngest divisional commander in the entire German armed forces.

After Caen fell to the British, the HJ Division was withdrawn from the Normandy Front. The once confident fresh-faced Nazi youths were now exhausted and filthy, a sight which "presented a picture of deep human misery" as described by Meyer.

In August, the Germans mounted a big counter-offensive toward Avranches, but were pushed back from the north by the British and Canadians, and by the Americans from the west, into the area around Falaise. Twenty four German divisions were trapped inside the Falaise Pocket with a narrow 20 mile gap existing as the sole avenue of escape. The HJ Division was sent to keep the northern edge of this gap open.

However, Allied air superiority and massive artillery barrages smashed the HJ as well as the Germans trapped inside the pocket. Over 5,000 armored vehicles were destroyed, with 50,000 Germans captured, while 20,000 managed to escape, including the tattered remnants of the HJ.

By September 1944, the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend numbered only 600 surviving young soldiers, with no tanks and no ammunition. Over 9,000 had been lost in Normandy and Falaise. The division continued to exist in name only for the duration of the war, as even younger (and still eager) volunteers were brought in along with a hodgepodge of conscripts. The division participated in the failed Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Offensive) and was then sent to Hungary where it participated in the failed attempt to recapture Budapest. On May 8, 1945, numbering just 455 soldiers and one tank, the 12th SS-Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered to the American 7th Army.

Volkssturm - The Final Defense

On the German home front, HJ boys clean up the rubble after yet another air raid. Below: Decorated HJ flak helpers are seen during a war rally held amid Germany's declining fortunes. Below: The last reserves--ever younger--learn how to fire anti-tank Panzerfausts to stop the Russians. Below: Near the end--April 20th, 1945--the Führer with Hitler Youths outside his Berlin bunker.

Hitler's own generals tried to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, to end Nazi Germany's all-out commitment to a war that was now clearly lost. But the assassination attempt failed. Hitler took revenge by purging the General Staff of anyone deemed suspicious or exhibiting defeatist behavior. Nearly 200 officers and others were killed, in some cases, slowly hanged from meat hooks.
Germany under Hitler would now fight-on to the very last, utilizing every available human and material resource. In September, Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann proclaimed: "As the sixth year of war begins, Adolf Hitler's youth stands prepared to fight resolutely and with dedication for the freedom of their lives and their future. We say to them: You must decide whether you want to be the last of an unworthy race despised by future generations, or whether you want to be part of a new time, marvelous beyond all imagination."
With the Waffen-SS and regular army now depleted of men, Hitler ordered Hitler Youth boys as young as fifteen to be trained as replacements and sent to the Russian Front. Everyone, both young and old, would be thrown into the final fight to stop the onslaught of "Bolshevik hordes" from the East and "Anglo-American gangsters" from the West.
On September 25, 1944, anticipating the invasion of the German Fatherland, the Volkssturm (People's Army) was formed under the overall command of Heinrich Himmler. Every available male aged 16 to 60 was conscripted into this new army and trained to use the Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Objections to using even younger boys were ignored.
In the Ruhr area of Germany, HJ boys practiced guerilla warfare against invading U.S. troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the tanks had passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up, shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with furious air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area.If the boys happened to get cornered by American patrols, they often battled until the last boy was killed rather than surrender. And the boys kept getting younger. American troops reported capturing armed 8-year-olds at Aachen in Western Germany and knocking out artillery units operated entirely by boys aged twelve and under. Girls were also used now, operating the 88mm anti-aircraft guns alongside the boys.

In February 1945, project Werewolf began, training German children as spies and saboteurs, intending to send them behind Allied lines with explosives and arsenic. But the project came to nothing as most of these would-be saboteurs were quickly captured or killed by the Allies as they advanced into the Reich.
The Russians by now were roaring toward Berlin, capitol of Nazi Germany, where Hitler had chosen to make his last stand. On April 23rd, battalions made up entirely of Hitler Youths were formed to hold the Pichelsdorf bridges by the Havel River. These bridges in Berlin were supposed to be used by General Wenck's relief army coming from the south. That army, unknown to the boys, had already been destroyed and now existed on paper only. It was one of several phantom armies being commanded by Hitler to save encircled Berlin.
At the Pichelsdorf bridges, 5,000 boys, wearing man-sized uniforms several sizes too big and helmets that flopped around on their heads, stood by with rifles and Panzerfausts, ready to oppose the Russian Army. Within five days of battle, 4,500 had been killed or wounded. In other parts of Berlin, HJ boys met similar fates. Many committed suicide rather than be taken alive by the Russians.
All over the city, every able-bodied male was pressed into the desperate final struggle. Anyone fleeing or refusing to go to the front lines was shot or hanged on the spot by SS executioners roaming the streets hunting for deserters.
In his last public appearance, just ten days before his death, Adolf Hitler ventured out of his Berlin bunker on his 56th birthday into the Chancellery garden to decorate twelve-year-old Hitler Youths with Iron Crosses for their heroism in the defense of Berlin. The extraordinary event was captured on film and remains one of the most enduring images chronicling the collapse of Hitler's thousand-year Reich, as the tottering, senile-looking Führer is seen congratulating little boys staring at him with worshipful admiration. They were then sent back out into the streets to continue the hopeless fight.
On April 30, 1945, as the Russians advanced to within a few hundred yards of his bunker, Hitler committed suicide. The next day, Hitler Youth Leader Artur Axmann, who had been commanding an HJ battalion in Berlin, abandoned his boys and fled to the Alps. In Vienna, Baldur von Schirach abandoned HJ units fighting to defend that city.
The war ended with Germany's unconditional surrender on May 7, 1945. However, it was soon realized that this defeat was unlike any other in history. In addition to his war of military conquest, Hitler had also waged a war against defenseless civilians. The events of that war, revealed in the coming months during the Nuremberg trials, would stun the world, and even resulted in a new term to describe the systematic killing of an entire race of people – genocide.

Copyright © 1999 The History 

ATTACK Cargo Ship

USS Titania part of 5 invasions, yes 5 in WW2 

OCT	1941				Keel Date: 25 OCT 1941 at Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Kearny NJ
FEB	1942				Launch Date: 28 FEB 1942
MAY	1942				Commissioned: 27 MAY 1942
NOV	1942	-	NOV	1942	North African Landing
DEC	1942	-			Shellback Initiation - 30 DEC 1942 - Pacific Ocean
FEB	1943	-	JUN	1944	Solomon Island Campaign
JUL	1944	-	JUL	1944	Guam Invasion
OCT	1944	-	NOV	1944	Philippines Invasion Leyte Gulf
DEC	1944	-	JUN	1945	Philippine Borneo New Guinea Support
APR	1948	-	APR	1948	Sailed from Guam MI to San Ftancisco CA. I was a passenger.
JAN	1951	-	JAN	1956	West Pac-Viet Nam
JUL	1955				Decommissioned: 19 JUL 1955

AKA-13 GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

Class: Arcturus-class attack cargo ship

Named for: Titania

Complement: 266 Officers and Enlisted

Displacement: 13910 tons

Length: 459 feet 2 inches

Beam: 63 feet

Flank Speed: 16 Knots

Final Disposition: Sold for scrap 10 July 1974