Raleigh V. Colwell (1923 Oregon), a resident of Pierce County, Washington enlisted as a Private (S/N 19017777) in the U.S. Army Ordnance Department on 23 May 1941 in Seattle, Washington. His enlistment was for the Philippine Department. Raleigh was single, he had completed Grammar school and had been working as "Semiskilled chauffeurs and drivers, bus, taxi, truck, and tractor." He was described as 71 inches tall (5'9") and weighed 148 lbs.
With the possibility of war looming he was sent to the Philippines and assigned to Company B, 31st Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. They became part of the Bataan Defense Force when war with Japan broke out on 08 December 1941.
"On 6 January 1942 at 1600 hours the Japanese 1st Formosa Infantry of the 48th Division supported by a tank company and 3 battalions of artillery hit Company B, 31st Infantry with full force. Badly shaken, Company B was forced back 800 yards where they stood at and fought. Colonel Steel, the regimental commander, ordered the 3d Battalion to seize the gap created by Company B as Company C, on the left of Company B, stood and assumed the force of the Japanese attack. l.t . Col. Brady, commanding the 3d Battalion, moved Companies I and L into the attack. Company I hit the enemy in the nose and failed but Company L pressed on and restored the line within 30 minutes from the time it jumped off. At Layac, the 31st paid a dear price for the time needed to successfully withdraw all defending forces to Bataan for their final battles.
The 31st had stopped the Japanese regiment cold, and the 48th Division was withdrawn and replaced by General Nara's 6,500-man 65th Brigade. The 31st withdrew through the Abucay defensive line and reverted to reserve for a bit.
From then on the 31st Infantry was in some of the fiercest fighting with the Japanese Fourteenth Army on Bataan in places like Layac Junction, Abucay and Orion-Bagac. By the middle of March, fifty percent of the regiment was sick with malaria or dysentery. They continued to fight on in places like Mount Samat, San Vicente and the Alangan River but were repeatedly forced to withdraw against the relenting Japanese forces.
By the evening of April 8, the situation was clearly hopeless. With ammunition, rations and supplies practically exhausted and most of his best units destroyed, General Edward P. King surrendered the Luzon Force the next morning, 09 April 1942. Private Raleigh V. Colwell became a POW of the Japanese. Practically all members of the 31st Infantry entered captivity malnourished and sick. He is included in the Bataan Roster of the 31st Infantry Regiment, (United States), Philippine Division from Karl Lowe.
He, along with 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. Private Colwell was sent to Camp O'Donnell prison camp.
When the Fil-American soldiers began the Death March they were in terrible physical condition. For 6 to 9 days (depending on their starting point) they were forced to walk the roughly sixty-five miles to San Fernando, enduring abuse by Japanese guards and seeing the deaths of thousands of fellow soldiers. At San Fernando, the Japanese stuffed about 100 men into steel-sided boxcars for the twenty-five-mile trip to Capas. The scorching hot boxcars were packed so tight that the men could not even sit down. When the train arrived at Capas the POW's were offloaded and marched the final nine miles to Camp O'Donnell. The first dehydrated, famished prisoners entered O'Donnell on 11 April 1942, with the last group entering on 04 June 1942.
Private Raleigh V. Colwell (S/N 19017777) died on 02 June 1942 from *dysentery in the Japanese POW Camp (#4) O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. He was one of 42 POW's to die that day. The 1134th prisoner to die in Camp O'Donnell in less than two months.
*"Due to an order from Japanese Headquarters, the causes of death could not include starvation and malnutrition but in a very high percentage of these cases starvation and malnutrition were the causes of death." Source: Major Robert E. Conn, Jr., Graves Registration Officer. He complied the list of deaths from Camp O'Donnell.
He was buried in a common grave in the prison camp cemetery with nine other men - Plot L, Row 7, Grave 2. After the war his remains were brought to 7747 USAF Cemetery, Manila #2, Philippine Islands – Block 3, Row 14, Grave 1695 (D-D 4558). The deceased in Manila #2 (over 11,000 American soldiers) rested there until their removal to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum in the summer of 1948. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (father, Mr. Ernest Colwell), Raleigh V. Colwell was buried in his final resting place in the 7701 Ft. McKinley Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot C, Row 1, Grave 42.
He was one of 69 men from his company (B) that died in captivity. In all 1155 men from the 31st Infantry Regiment died in captivity, roughly half of the regiment's strength on the day the war began.
With the possibility of war looming he was sent to the Philippines and assigned to Company B, 31st Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. They became part of the Bataan Defense Force when war with Japan broke out on 08 December 1941.
"On 6 January 1942 at 1600 hours the Japanese 1st Formosa Infantry of the 48th Division supported by a tank company and 3 battalions of artillery hit Company B, 31st Infantry with full force. Badly shaken, Company B was forced back 800 yards where they stood at and fought. Colonel Steel, the regimental commander, ordered the 3d Battalion to seize the gap created by Company B as Company C, on the left of Company B, stood and assumed the force of the Japanese attack. l.t . Col. Brady, commanding the 3d Battalion, moved Companies I and L into the attack. Company I hit the enemy in the nose and failed but Company L pressed on and restored the line within 30 minutes from the time it jumped off. At Layac, the 31st paid a dear price for the time needed to successfully withdraw all defending forces to Bataan for their final battles.
The 31st had stopped the Japanese regiment cold, and the 48th Division was withdrawn and replaced by General Nara's 6,500-man 65th Brigade. The 31st withdrew through the Abucay defensive line and reverted to reserve for a bit.
From then on the 31st Infantry was in some of the fiercest fighting with the Japanese Fourteenth Army on Bataan in places like Layac Junction, Abucay and Orion-Bagac. By the middle of March, fifty percent of the regiment was sick with malaria or dysentery. They continued to fight on in places like Mount Samat, San Vicente and the Alangan River but were repeatedly forced to withdraw against the relenting Japanese forces.
By the evening of April 8, the situation was clearly hopeless. With ammunition, rations and supplies practically exhausted and most of his best units destroyed, General Edward P. King surrendered the Luzon Force the next morning, 09 April 1942. Private Raleigh V. Colwell became a POW of the Japanese. Practically all members of the 31st Infantry entered captivity malnourished and sick. He is included in the Bataan Roster of the 31st Infantry Regiment, (United States), Philippine Division from Karl Lowe.
He, along with 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. Private Colwell was sent to Camp O'Donnell prison camp.
When the Fil-American soldiers began the Death March they were in terrible physical condition. For 6 to 9 days (depending on their starting point) they were forced to walk the roughly sixty-five miles to San Fernando, enduring abuse by Japanese guards and seeing the deaths of thousands of fellow soldiers. At San Fernando, the Japanese stuffed about 100 men into steel-sided boxcars for the twenty-five-mile trip to Capas. The scorching hot boxcars were packed so tight that the men could not even sit down. When the train arrived at Capas the POW's were offloaded and marched the final nine miles to Camp O'Donnell. The first dehydrated, famished prisoners entered O'Donnell on 11 April 1942, with the last group entering on 04 June 1942.
Private Raleigh V. Colwell (S/N 19017777) died on 02 June 1942 from *dysentery in the Japanese POW Camp (#4) O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. He was one of 42 POW's to die that day. The 1134th prisoner to die in Camp O'Donnell in less than two months.
*"Due to an order from Japanese Headquarters, the causes of death could not include starvation and malnutrition but in a very high percentage of these cases starvation and malnutrition were the causes of death." Source: Major Robert E. Conn, Jr., Graves Registration Officer. He complied the list of deaths from Camp O'Donnell.
He was buried in a common grave in the prison camp cemetery with nine other men - Plot L, Row 7, Grave 2. After the war his remains were brought to 7747 USAF Cemetery, Manila #2, Philippine Islands – Block 3, Row 14, Grave 1695 (D-D 4558). The deceased in Manila #2 (over 11,000 American soldiers) rested there until their removal to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum in the summer of 1948. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (father, Mr. Ernest Colwell), Raleigh V. Colwell was buried in his final resting place in the 7701 Ft. McKinley Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot C, Row 1, Grave 42.
He was one of 69 men from his company (B) that died in captivity. In all 1155 men from the 31st Infantry Regiment died in captivity, roughly half of the regiment's strength on the day the war began.
Raleigh V. Colwell (1923 Oregon), a resident of Pierce County, Washington enlisted as a Private (S/N 19017777) in the U.S. Army Ordnance Department on 23 May 1941 in Seattle, Washington. His enlistment was for the Philippine Department. Raleigh was single, he had completed Grammar school and had been working as "Semiskilled chauffeurs and drivers, bus, taxi, truck, and tractor." He was described as 71 inches tall (5'9") and weighed 148 lbs.
With the possibility of war looming he was sent to the Philippines and assigned to Company B, 31st Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. They became part of the Bataan Defense Force when war with Japan broke out on 08 December 1941.
"On 6 January 1942 at 1600 hours the Japanese 1st Formosa Infantry of the 48th Division supported by a tank company and 3 battalions of artillery hit Company B, 31st Infantry with full force. Badly shaken, Company B was forced back 800 yards where they stood at and fought. Colonel Steel, the regimental commander, ordered the 3d Battalion to seize the gap created by Company B as Company C, on the left of Company B, stood and assumed the force of the Japanese attack. l.t . Col. Brady, commanding the 3d Battalion, moved Companies I and L into the attack. Company I hit the enemy in the nose and failed but Company L pressed on and restored the line within 30 minutes from the time it jumped off. At Layac, the 31st paid a dear price for the time needed to successfully withdraw all defending forces to Bataan for their final battles.
The 31st had stopped the Japanese regiment cold, and the 48th Division was withdrawn and replaced by General Nara's 6,500-man 65th Brigade. The 31st withdrew through the Abucay defensive line and reverted to reserve for a bit.
From then on the 31st Infantry was in some of the fiercest fighting with the Japanese Fourteenth Army on Bataan in places like Layac Junction, Abucay and Orion-Bagac. By the middle of March, fifty percent of the regiment was sick with malaria or dysentery. They continued to fight on in places like Mount Samat, San Vicente and the Alangan River but were repeatedly forced to withdraw against the relenting Japanese forces.
By the evening of April 8, the situation was clearly hopeless. With ammunition, rations and supplies practically exhausted and most of his best units destroyed, General Edward P. King surrendered the Luzon Force the next morning, 09 April 1942. Private Raleigh V. Colwell became a POW of the Japanese. Practically all members of the 31st Infantry entered captivity malnourished and sick. He is included in the Bataan Roster of the 31st Infantry Regiment, (United States), Philippine Division from Karl Lowe.
He, along with 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. Private Colwell was sent to Camp O'Donnell prison camp.
When the Fil-American soldiers began the Death March they were in terrible physical condition. For 6 to 9 days (depending on their starting point) they were forced to walk the roughly sixty-five miles to San Fernando, enduring abuse by Japanese guards and seeing the deaths of thousands of fellow soldiers. At San Fernando, the Japanese stuffed about 100 men into steel-sided boxcars for the twenty-five-mile trip to Capas. The scorching hot boxcars were packed so tight that the men could not even sit down. When the train arrived at Capas the POW's were offloaded and marched the final nine miles to Camp O'Donnell. The first dehydrated, famished prisoners entered O'Donnell on 11 April 1942, with the last group entering on 04 June 1942.
Private Raleigh V. Colwell (S/N 19017777) died on 02 June 1942 from *dysentery in the Japanese POW Camp (#4) O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. He was one of 42 POW's to die that day. The 1134th prisoner to die in Camp O'Donnell in less than two months.
*"Due to an order from Japanese Headquarters, the causes of death could not include starvation and malnutrition but in a very high percentage of these cases starvation and malnutrition were the causes of death." Source: Major Robert E. Conn, Jr., Graves Registration Officer. He complied the list of deaths from Camp O'Donnell.
He was buried in a common grave in the prison camp cemetery with nine other men - Plot L, Row 7, Grave 2. After the war his remains were brought to 7747 USAF Cemetery, Manila #2, Philippine Islands – Block 3, Row 14, Grave 1695 (D-D 4558). The deceased in Manila #2 (over 11,000 American soldiers) rested there until their removal to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum in the summer of 1948. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (father, Mr. Ernest Colwell), Raleigh V. Colwell was buried in his final resting place in the 7701 Ft. McKinley Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot C, Row 1, Grave 42.
He was one of 69 men from his company (B) that died in captivity. In all 1155 men from the 31st Infantry Regiment died in captivity, roughly half of the regiment's strength on the day the war began.
With the possibility of war looming he was sent to the Philippines and assigned to Company B, 31st Infantry Regiment, U.S. Army. They became part of the Bataan Defense Force when war with Japan broke out on 08 December 1941.
"On 6 January 1942 at 1600 hours the Japanese 1st Formosa Infantry of the 48th Division supported by a tank company and 3 battalions of artillery hit Company B, 31st Infantry with full force. Badly shaken, Company B was forced back 800 yards where they stood at and fought. Colonel Steel, the regimental commander, ordered the 3d Battalion to seize the gap created by Company B as Company C, on the left of Company B, stood and assumed the force of the Japanese attack. l.t . Col. Brady, commanding the 3d Battalion, moved Companies I and L into the attack. Company I hit the enemy in the nose and failed but Company L pressed on and restored the line within 30 minutes from the time it jumped off. At Layac, the 31st paid a dear price for the time needed to successfully withdraw all defending forces to Bataan for their final battles.
The 31st had stopped the Japanese regiment cold, and the 48th Division was withdrawn and replaced by General Nara's 6,500-man 65th Brigade. The 31st withdrew through the Abucay defensive line and reverted to reserve for a bit.
From then on the 31st Infantry was in some of the fiercest fighting with the Japanese Fourteenth Army on Bataan in places like Layac Junction, Abucay and Orion-Bagac. By the middle of March, fifty percent of the regiment was sick with malaria or dysentery. They continued to fight on in places like Mount Samat, San Vicente and the Alangan River but were repeatedly forced to withdraw against the relenting Japanese forces.
By the evening of April 8, the situation was clearly hopeless. With ammunition, rations and supplies practically exhausted and most of his best units destroyed, General Edward P. King surrendered the Luzon Force the next morning, 09 April 1942. Private Raleigh V. Colwell became a POW of the Japanese. Practically all members of the 31st Infantry entered captivity malnourished and sick. He is included in the Bataan Roster of the 31st Infantry Regiment, (United States), Philippine Division from Karl Lowe.
He, along with 76,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. Private Colwell was sent to Camp O'Donnell prison camp.
When the Fil-American soldiers began the Death March they were in terrible physical condition. For 6 to 9 days (depending on their starting point) they were forced to walk the roughly sixty-five miles to San Fernando, enduring abuse by Japanese guards and seeing the deaths of thousands of fellow soldiers. At San Fernando, the Japanese stuffed about 100 men into steel-sided boxcars for the twenty-five-mile trip to Capas. The scorching hot boxcars were packed so tight that the men could not even sit down. When the train arrived at Capas the POW's were offloaded and marched the final nine miles to Camp O'Donnell. The first dehydrated, famished prisoners entered O'Donnell on 11 April 1942, with the last group entering on 04 June 1942.
Private Raleigh V. Colwell (S/N 19017777) died on 02 June 1942 from *dysentery in the Japanese POW Camp (#4) O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, Philippines. He was one of 42 POW's to die that day. The 1134th prisoner to die in Camp O'Donnell in less than two months.
*"Due to an order from Japanese Headquarters, the causes of death could not include starvation and malnutrition but in a very high percentage of these cases starvation and malnutrition were the causes of death." Source: Major Robert E. Conn, Jr., Graves Registration Officer. He complied the list of deaths from Camp O'Donnell.
He was buried in a common grave in the prison camp cemetery with nine other men - Plot L, Row 7, Grave 2. After the war his remains were brought to 7747 USAF Cemetery, Manila #2, Philippine Islands – Block 3, Row 14, Grave 1695 (D-D 4558). The deceased in Manila #2 (over 11,000 American soldiers) rested there until their removal to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum in the summer of 1948. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (father, Mr. Ernest Colwell), Raleigh V. Colwell was buried in his final resting place in the 7701 Ft. McKinley Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot C, Row 1, Grave 42.
He was one of 69 men from his company (B) that died in captivity. In all 1155 men from the 31st Infantry Regiment died in captivity, roughly half of the regiment's strength on the day the war began.
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