Everett R. Bancroft Jr.

Service # 18046451

Entered Service From: Colorado

Rank: Private First Class, U.S. Army

Unit: Medical Department

Date of Death: 14 December 1944, executed by the Japanese in what became known as the Palawan Massacre, at Prison Camp 10A, near Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines

Buried: Manila American Cemetery – Plot A, Row 2, Grave 18

Awards: Purple Heart

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Everett Richard Bancroft, Jr. was born 24 August 1916 in Canon City, Colorado to Everett Richard Bancroft and Marianna (Bierbauer) Bancroft. His father was city clerk and city manager of Canon City.

His mother died in childbirth in 1918

1920 United States Federal Census (05 January 1920): Canon City, Fremont County, Colorado (sheet 3A, family 85, 806 Rudd Ave) – Everett R. Bancroft (3 Colorado).

His father remarried Laura Aebersold in 1922.

1930 United States Federal Census (16 April 1930): Canon City (Ward 2), Fremont County, Colorado (sheet 6A, family 151, 806 Rudd Avenue) – Richard Bancroft (13 Colorado).

Dick enrolled in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Everett Richard Bancroft, Jr. (24, 24 August 1916, Canon City, Colorado), a resident of 806 Rudd Avenue, Canon City, Fremont County, Colorado, signed up for his World War II Draft Registration Card (Serial No. 1694, Order No. 1177) on 16 October 1940 at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado for Local Board No. 26, Canon City, Fremont County, Colorado. He was a student at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. Everett listed his father, Everett R. Bancroft, as the person who would always know his address. He was described as 5' 9" in height, 135 lbs., with a dark complexion, brown hair and brown eyes.

Everett graduated from the University of Colorado in 1939 and received his license in 1940. Dick worked in drugstores in Denver and Fairplay, Colorado, before returning to the University to work on a graduate degree.

Everett R. Bancroft Jr (1916 Colorado) enlisted as a Private (S/N 18046451) in the U.S. Army Medical Department on 01 October 1941 in Colorado. His enlistment was for the Philippine Department. Everett was single, had completed 4 years of college and was working as a pharmacist.

He was sent to the Philippine Islands, arriving in Manila on 27 November 1941, on one of the the last ships to enter Manila Bay before the war broke out. Dick was assigned as a pharmacist to Detachment Medical Department.

"HAWAII BOMBED–WAR!" On 07 December 1941 Japan attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. Ten hours later, 08 December 1941 (Manila time), Japan attacked the Philippines. The series of raids caught most US planes on the ground, destroying the 19th Bomb Group's B-17s at Clark Field and practically wiping out the P-35 and P-40 pursuit fighter squadrons based at Clark, Nichols, Del Carmen, and Iba Fields. In less than 24 hours, the first day of WWII in the Pacific, the US lost much of its fleet at Pearl Harbor and the heart of MacArthur's Air Force in the Philippines.

Japanese forces (14th Army under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma) began a full-scale invasion of Luzon on 22 December. In response, General Douglas MacArthur activated War Plan Orange. This plan called for the withdrawal of American and Philippine forces to the Bataan Peninsula, where they could await reinforcements from Hawaii and the U.S.... reinforcements that never came.

By Christmas Day, his unit had moved to Bataan. On 09 January 1942, the battle for Bataan began. Dick served in the Provisional Air Corps Regiment, 1st Battalion Aide Station.

He would have been a very busy man as dengue fever, malaria, scurvy, beriberi and dysentery began to take its toll on many of the soldiers. But I'm sure it would have been very frustrating work, as Inadequate amounts of medicine available only amplified the severity of what would have been very treatable afflictions. The average American soldier lost 15-25 pounds and malaria was as high as 35 percent among front line units. During the first week of March 1942, soldiers were issued quarter rations. It was becoming apparent that supplies and support were not going to come. Ammunition was in short supply. Around the latter part of March, Gen. King and his staff assessed the fighting capabilities of his forces, in view of an impending major assault planned by Gen. Homma. Gen. King and his staff determined the Fil-American forces, in Bataan, could only fight at 30% of their efficiency.

On Good Friday, 03 April 1942, General Homma, with the addition of fresh troops, began an all-out offensive on Bataan. By the evening of 08 April, the situation was clearly hopeless. With ammunition, rations and supplies practically exhausted and most of his best units destroyed, Major General Edward P. King, commander of the forces on Bataan, was convinced his troops could not physically resist any more and decided to surrender to prevent further loss of life. On 09 April 1942, Maj. Gen. King surrendered the Luzon Force to the Japanese.

PFC Everett R. Bancroft along with 75,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war captured by the Japanese, were subjected to the infamous Bataan Death March. Dick was in the initial stages of the Death March until he was sent off to one of the hospitals along the way. He eventually was taken to Cabanatuan POW Camp No. 1, Nueva Province, Luzon, Philippines 15-121.

In August 1942, Everett was among 346 POW's that were sent to the island of Palawan as part of a work detail. They were interned in the old Philippine Constabulary barracks, referred to as Palawan's Prison Camp 10A, or Palawan Barracks. They would spend the next two years clearing and then building a 8-inch-thick concrete runway using only hand tools, wheelbarrows and two small cement mixers. The prisoners also build revetments for Japanese planes. The POWs suffered frequent beatings and mistreatment from their Japanese guards, food was the barest minimum, and disease and injuries went untreated.

On 22 September 1944, half of the prisoners were sent back to Manila (Everett was not one of them). By mid-October 1944, the airstrip and nearby harbor came under allied attack. Their arrival verified the rumors that an American invasion force was approaching the Philippines. The prisoners were forced to dig bomb shelters within the prison compound, consisting of trenches 5 feet deep and 4 feet wide. Three were large, Shelter A held 50 men, Shelter B held 35, and Shelter C held up to 30. There were also several smaller 2–3 man shelters. The shelters were roofed with logs and dirt and were located on the beach side of the camp. While not totally bombproof, they did offer a significant level of protection.

In December 1944, as American forces drew nearer, the Japanese Captain Nagayoshi Kojima nicknamed "the Weasel" by the POWs), assigned to defend the airfield, sought advice "as to action to take regarding the POWs at the time of enemy landing." He was sent the following message "At the time of the enemy landing...dispose of them at the appropriate time."

The Massacre

On 14 December 1944 Japanese aircraft reported the presence of an American convoy, which was actually headed for Mindoro, but which the Japanese thought was destined for Palawan. In order to prevent the rescue of prisoners of war by the advancing Allies, an air raid warning was sounded to get the prisoners into the shelter trenches.

From a 2015 interview with Rufus W. Smith, Palawan Massacre survivor.

Smith: "Well, the work had been for some time—ever since the second raid, when they bombed the heck out of it and tore it up—consisting of going out and filling up bomb craters, or trying to. The morning of December 14, it started out about normal for that time. Everybody went out on the detail and went about their daily routine until probably 10:30 or 11:00. [The Japanese] broke up all the work details and brought everybody back into camp under the pretense that the large American airplanes were on the way in, and so we were going to have to get in."

The 150 POW's (including Bancroft) entered the air raid shelters. He went in shelter "C" which was located on the edge of a cliff. The Japanese then doused the entrances of the shelters with gasoline and lit them on fire. Prisoners that managed to escape the burning shelters were "shot, bayoneted, knocked down where they couldn't do any damage and left there to suffer until they died." About two dozen prisoners managed to escape through a side opening in one of the shelters.

Smith: I told him (USMC PFC Glenn W. "Mac" McDole), "You better keep your head down! You'll get it shot off! There's a machine gun sitting up at the head of the stairs!" He did anyway and they opened up on him. Then he hollered to me to pull the sand bag out of that wall. In digging our trench, we'd got a hunk of coral, knocked it away, and we shoved it over to the side, dug the hole and put the dirt in a sand bag, and then covered over it with brush and everything. I thought, well, it'd make a good escape hatch; and it worked out that way. Then we were told to get that sand bag out and get through it and get down on the beach! They weren't doing it. They didn't believe us. About this time, one of the medics, named Bancroft, jumped in with us there. He was afire — burning — and he started screaming and telling us what was going on. About that time they threw a torch in on us, but they forgot to throw any gasoline in. So me and McDole helped the men back—there were nine of us at that time in this little hole—we helped them one at a time go through. They jammed that hole. He said he was the last one out, and I know I was the last one out. Anyway, we left out through that hole. Nine of us got down on the beach. He and I made it back. The others were killed on the beach.

"... Everett Bancroft tried to flee out the main entrance past the Japanese guards. He made it only a few steps before he was doused with gasoline and lit on fire. He jumped back into Shelter C, trying to smother his burning clothes, screaming in pain, and warning everyone that they were about to be murdered..." Source: As Good As Dead: The Daring Escape of American POWs From a Japanese Death Camp by Stephen L. Moore (Penguin Random House 2016), page 167.

From his book, Last Man Out: Glenn McDole, USMC, Survivor of the Palawan Massacre in World War II by Bob Wilbanks (2004 McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, Jefferson, North Carolina), page 117: "A bucket of gas had been thrown into the bunker entrance, soaking Navy Corpsman Everett Bancroft, Jr., of Canon City, Colorado...When the torch was thrown into the shelter Bancroft burst into flames and fell to the floor..."

139 prisoners (including Bancroft) were killed in the Palawan Massacre, only 11 men escaped the slaughter.

Afterwards Japanese soldiers tossed grenades as well as sticks of dynamite into the shelters to make it appear as though the victims had perished in an air raid, with the shelters receiving several direct hits from American bombs.

From the diary entry of a Japanese sergeant major:

"December 15 – Due to the sudden change of situation, 150 prisoners of war were executed. Although they were prisoners of war, they truly died a pitiful death. The prisoners who worked in the repair shop really worked hard. From today on I will not hear the familiar greeting, 'Good morning, sergeant major.'

January 9 – After a long absence, I visited the motor vehicle repair shop. Today, the shop is a lonely place. The prisoners of war who were assisting in repair work are now just white bones on the beach washed by the waves. Furthermore, there are numerous corpses in the nearby garage and the smell is unbearable. It gives me the creeps."

While there were no civilian witnesses to the massacre of the unarmed prisoners at Palawan, after the war several Filipinos reported to American authorities that the Japanese officers from Captain Nagayoshi Kojima's command and personnel from the kempeitai held a celebration to commemorate the event the same night that it occurred. Civilians who questioned the absence of the prisoners were given divergent replies – in some instances they were told that the POWs were all killed in American air raids, in other instances that the prisoners had been transferred to another camp.

"After Palawan was liberated by the 186th Infantry Regiment of the 41st Division, the men of the Army's 601st Quartermaster Company, under Major Charles Simms, excavated the burned and destroyed dugouts to properly inter the dead Americans. The unit reported 79 individual burials during March 1945 and many more partial burials. Its report stated: "26 skeletons, some still with flesh on the bones, were found piled four and five high in one excavation. The skulls of these skeletons either had bullet holes or had been crushed by some blunt instrument." These were the dead from the compound thrown into the shelters by the Japanese after the massacre. The report also stated: "Most of the bodies were found [in the shelters] huddled together at a spot furthest away from the entrance. This would indicate that they were trying to get as far away from the fire as possible." Source: American Prisoners of War: Massacre at Palawan by V. Dennis Wrynn (https://www.historynet.com/american-prisoners-of-war-massacre-at-palawan/#:~:text=After%20Palawan%20was%20liberated%20by,properly%20inter%20the%20dead%20Americans.)

PFC Everett R. Bancroft was one of the remains recovered. He was brought to 7740 USAF Cemetery, Leyte #1, Palo, Leyte, Philippine Islands – Grave 5817 (D-D 8718). In the autumn of 1947 his remains (along with 8,568 other American soldiers) were disinterred and brought to the American Graves Registration Service Manila Mausoleum. From there, according to the wishes of his next of kin (father, Mr. Everett R. Bancroft Sr), Private First Class Everett Richard Bancroft, Jr. was buried in his final resting place "side by side with *comrades who also gave their lives for their country" in 7701 Fort William McKinley Military Cemetery (now known as the Manila American Cemetery) – Plot A, Row 2, Grave 18.

*16,859 graves of our military dead are found in the Manila American Cemetery. Another 36,286 names are inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing.

Three of those killed in the Palawan Massacre are buried in the Manila American Cemetery – PFC Everett R. Bancroft, PFC Peter T. Rigas and PFC Raymond L. Seagraves

Another three are listed on Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery and Memorial – CPL Dane H. Hamric, PFC Donald J. Martyn and S2c Charles H. Smith. Their bodies were never recovered or they were unable to be identified.

He also has a memorial marker in the family plot in the Lakeside Cemetery in Cañon City.

In 1952, the remains of 123 of the Palawan victims were transferred to the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery near St. Louis, Missouri. Their remains could not be identified individually, so they were all buried in a mass grave, honored today by the few who remember. There is also a marker for all the 139 men killed in the massacre.