Samuel E. Goldy

Sergeant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Serial: 12010733
Signal Corps

Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: October 31, 1948
Buried at: Cedar Grove Cemetery
Market Street
Gloucester City, New Jersey

Awards: Distinguished Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal

453 North Broadway, Gloucester City, New Jersey

Sergeant Samuel E. Goldy was the son of Samuel B. and Martha Goldy. Born in New Jersey on May 27, 1922, he grew up in Gloucester City NJ, where his parents owned a home at 453 North Broadway, the corner of Broadway and Sherman Street. The elder Goldy worked as a crane operator in a machine shop in 1930. Samuel Goldy was a June 1940 graduate of Gloucester High School, a member of Cloud Lodge 10 F&AM, and American Legion Post 135 in Gloucester City.

Sergeant Goldy enlisted in the United States Army Air Force May 7, 1941, and served as a radio technician. When the Philippines fell in May of 1942, he was taken prisoner. Sergeant Goldy was one of the 510 American POWs rescued in the raid on the notorious Cabanatuan Prison Camp by the 6th Ranger Battalion on January 29, 1945.

Samuel Goldy was interviewed by an American film crew concerning his feelings regarding his liberation from the Japanese prison camp:

Rangers come in that night and it was about as happy a sight I’d ever seen in my life. For three years we didn’t have — we couldn’t do anything without someone telling us what to do and now at last we can do what we want when we want to.

I’ll be sure glad to get back to the United States where I’ll be a free American again, and get myself a milkshake.

He was evacuated back to the United States, but was terribly ill from the three years and eight months spent as a prisoner of the Japanese. Sergeant Goldy passed away on Sunday, October 31, 1948 at the Veterans Hospital in Castle Point NY.

Sergeant Goldy was returned to New Jersey. His funeral was held at the Parker Funeral Home at 423 Cumberland Street in Gloucester City, and he was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Gloucester City NJ. Sergeant Goldy was survived by his parents and an older sister, Mrs. Martha Rabould, of Gloucester City.

Samuel Goldy died as a result of maltreatment while a prisoner of the Japanese on December 7, 1944 in the Philippines. Several other Camden County men met similar fates while prisoners. The following outline describes what happened to Samuel Goldy and his comrades, the Defenders of Bataan.

(The purpose of this “Outline of Events” is to provide an overall picture into the plight suffered by the Defenders of Bataan. It is not meant to provide detailed, all-inclusive, information.)

1. On Dec. 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. The American Pacific Naval Fleet suffered heavy losses in lives and ships. The Fleet was incapacitated and could not, in that state, defend American interest in the Pacific Rim and in Asia.

2. Only eight hours later, on Dec. 8, 1941 (due to the difference in time zones), Japan launched an aerial attack on Philippines. Most of the American Air Force, in the Philippines, was destroyed, while the planes were on the ground.

3. A few days later, Japanese forces, led by Lt. Gen. Masaharu Homma, landed on the Philippines. The Japanese landings were in Northern Luzon and in the Southern Mindanao Islands.

4. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Commander of the Filipino-American forces decided to meet the Japanese at their points of landing. This course of action deviated from the original War Plan, devised prior to WW II, which called for the American forces to withdraw into the Bataan Peninsula in case of attack.

5. Inexperienced troops failed to stop the Japanese at these points of landing. MacArthur had to revert back to the original plan, withdrawing the Filipino-American forces into the Bataan Peninsula. By January 2, 1942, the Northern Luzon forces were in-place for the defense of Bataan.

6. Their mission, in the baseball vernacular, was to “lay down a bunt.” They were to stall the Japanese advancement, by forcing them to use much of their troops and resources in the capturing of the Philippines, for as long as possible. This would buy the necessary time needed to rebuild the American Pacific Fleet, which at the time had been crippled, by the Pearl Harbor attack and the bombing of the American Air Bases, in the Philippines.

7. The Filipino-American Defense of Bataan was hampered by many factors: a) A shortage of food, ammunition, medicine, and attendant materials. b) Most of the ammunition was old and corroded. The AA shells lacked proper fuses, as did many of the 155mm artillery shells. c) Tanks, Trucks, and other vehicles were in short supply, as was the gasoline needed to power these items of warfare. d) Poorly trained Filipino troops, most of who never fired a weapon, were thrown into frontline combat against highly trained Japanese veterans. Americans from non-combatant outfits, such as air corpsmen and in some instances even civilians, were formed into provisional infantry units.

8. The Defenders of Bataan continued to hold their ground, without reinforcements and without being re-supplied. Disease, malnutrition, fatigue, and a lack of basic supplies took their toll.

9. On March 11, 1942, Gen. MacArthur was ordered to Australia. Gen. Wainwright took his place in Corregidor, as Commander of the Philippine forces, and Gen. King took Wainwright’s place, as Commander of the Fil-American forces in Bataan.

10. 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, due to malnutrition, disease, a lack of ammunition and basic supplies, and fatigue. On April 3, 1942, the Japanese launched their all out final offensive to take Bataan.

11. On April 9, 1942, Gen. King surrendered his forces on Bataan, after the Japanese had broken through the Fil-American last main line of resistance.

12. The Japanese assembled their captive Fil-American soldiers in the various sectors in Bataan, but mainly at Mariveles, the southern most tip of the Peninsula. Although American trucks were available to transport the prisoners, the Japanese decided to march the Defenders of Bataan to their destinations. This march came to be known as the “Death March.

13. The “Death March” was really a series of marches, which lasted from five to nine days. The distance a captive had to march was determined by where on the trail the captive began the march.

14. The basic trail of the “Death March” was as follows: a 55-mile march from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pangpanga. At San Fernando, the prisoners were placed into train-cars, made for cargo, and railed to Capas, Tarlac, a distance of around 24 miles. Dozens died standing up in the railroad cars, as the cars were so cramped that there was no room for the dead to fall. They were, then, marched another six miles to their final destination, Camp O’Donnell.

15. Several thousand men died on the “Death March.” Many died, because they were not in any physical condition to undertake such a march. Once on the march, they were not given any food or water. Japanese soldiers killed many of them through various means. Also, POWs were repeatedly beaten and treated inhumanely, as they marched.

16. Approximately 1,600 Americans died in the first forty days in Camp O’Donnell. Almost 20,000 Filipinos died in their first four months of captivity, in the same camp. The healthier prisoners took turns burying their comrades into mass graves, just as they, themselves, would be buried, days or weeks later.

17. Camp O’Donnell did not have the sanitation sub-structure or water supply necessary to hold such a large amount of men. Many died from diseases they had since Bataan. Many caught new diseases, while at the Camp. There was little medicine available to the prisoners. Their inadequate diets also contributed to the high death rate. Diseases such as dysentery, from a lack of safe drinking water, and Beri-Beri, from malnutrition were common to the POWs. The Japanese soldiers continued to murder and mis-treat their captives.

18. Due to the high death rate in Camp O’Donnell, the Japanese transferred all Americans to Cabanatuan, north of Camp O’Donnell, on June 6, 1942, leaving behind five hundred as caretakers and for funeral details. They in-turn were sent to Cabanatuan on July 5, 1942. The Filipino prisoners were paroled, beginning in July, 1942.

19. Cabanatuan was the camp in which the men from Corregidor were first united with the men from Bataan. No Americans from Corregidor ever made the “Death March” or were imprisoned in Camp O’Donnell. Not having suffered the extreme depravations and conditions endured by the men from Bataan, the prisoners from Corregidor were, overall, much healthier.

20. Cabanatuan, for most prisoners, ended up being a temporary camp. The Japanese had a policy (which was a direct violation of the Geneva Convention) that prisoners were to be used as a source of labor. They sent most of the prisoners, from Cabanatuan, to various other camps in the Philippines, China, Japan, and Korea, where they were used as slave labor. Some worked in mines, others in farms, others in factories, and others unloading ships in Port Areas, for the remainder of the war.

21. Left behind, in Cabanatuan, were approximately 511 officers and the prisoners too sick to move. Towards the end of the war, most of the men who stayed behind were placed on ships and sent to other camps, in Japan, Korea, and China. The Japanese did not mark these ships, to note that there were prisoners on board. They were bombed and torpedoed by American planes and submarines. Most of these men died, by drowning at sea.

22. Most prisoners who left Cabanatuan in 1942 were sent to the other countries mentioned, in ships appropriately called “Hell Ships.” These “Hell Ships” sailed from Manila to their various destinations in Japan, Korea, or China. As mentioned earlier, the Japanese did not mark these ships as being prison ships, so they were targets for American planes and submarines. Thousands of Americans, who were passengers on these ships, met their deaths by drowning at sea.

23. The conditions on these ships are indescribable and far worse than the conditions endured in the “Death March” and Camp O’Donnell.

24. For the remaining three years of their captivity, the Defenders of Bataan were spread throughout the various slave labor camps in Japan, Korea, China, and the Philippines, until each camp was individually liberated, in 1945. These prisoners endured the whims of their brutal captors, with similar conditions and mis-treatment as those experienced in the “Death March” and Camp O’Donnell, and the uncertainty of when, if ever, their captivity would end.

25. Coming from the warm tropical climate of the Philippines, the men sent to Japan, Korea, and China had to adjust to the sub-freezing temperatures of Northern Asia, without the proper personal equipment and indoor heating to survive such cold temperatures. In Manchuria, China, the POWs who died in the winter were placed in an unheated shack for their bodies to freeze, because the ground was so frozen and hard that they could not be buried until the spring.

26. After they were released, these men were sent to various military hospitals for physical examinations. Many of their ailments, due to malnutrition, went undiagnosed. Many of the systemic fevers they had contracted went undiagnosed. More importantly, the psychological scars they suffered were never recognized.

The following is a transcript of Issue No. 58 of the Army-Navy Screen Magazine, a pictorial report from all fronts produced for the armed forces by the Army Information Branch, Army Pictorial Service, Air Forces, and Navy Department.

The Story of Cpl. Jolley

Announcer: It was a great day in San Francisco. Whistles blowing. Bands playing. People waiting — waiting for their ship to come in.

On this ship, more people, waiting — for a sight they thought they’d never see. Here’s one of them, Corporal Alfred Jolley, U.S. Army Medical Corps. When he first saw Frisco he was excited, and he had a right to be. But let him tell you.

Cpl. Alfred Jolley: That’s right. That’s me up there in the picture. Only look — we don’t call it Frisco. It’s SAN Francisco. And it’s home.

Boy, oh boy, after three years in a Jap prison camp, home sure looks good — and in a way it looks different. All those warships, planes going places. And that must be a new shipyard. Yeah, when we pulled into San Francisco Bay, there was plenty to shout about, and there was plenty of shouting, cheering. But it takes more than that to get the Japs out of your system.

And I couldn’t help thinking of a different day, three years before. There was shouting and cheering there too — but in a different language.

It was April ‘42 and the Japs were mopping up on Bataan. They had it all over us in arms, in numbers — they kept pounding with everything they had. Their planes were always overhead.

Then one day, when I was out on an ambulance detail, Jap dive-bombers went after the ammunition truck near us. It exploded sky-high. When the smoke cleared, no more ambulance for us. No more left arm for Jolley.

Three days later, they had Bataan, and I was a prisoner in the old Bilibid jail in Manila. From there, we saw the Japs punishing Corregidor.

Announcer: Sergeant Walter Ring of San Roc, Luzon, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania:

Sergeant Ring: How do you do, folks. After being rescued from the concentration camp by guerrillas and American troops, made me very happy to meet my son Louis at the gate, at the hospital, to meet me. And to make me much happier, I met my son Sam just a few moments later, which was a guerrilla in the mountains, just came over here by surprise.

I have been in the Philippines for over 20 years. Married over here, fought on Bataan, the plains of Pampanga, have been captured on Bataan, April the 9th, 1942, and been in a concentration camp til January the 30th, 1945. It’s been a long time since I have seen my family, I am very happy to be back with them again.

Announcer: After a period of rest and rehabilitation, the rescued men are returned to rear echelons before their transfer back to the States. After the successful completion of the rescue, General MacArthur stated, “No incident of the Philippine campaign has given me greater satisfaction.

Decorations were awarded to all members of the commando party.