Harold J. Shrode

(1906-1992) served as a Private in Corregidor. POW from 1942-45.

October 23, 1941

FDR’s Thanksgiving Day. Don’t seem like Thanksgiving without being at home.

War is close. We are going to get new identification tags. We call them dog tags because we have them around our necks. Had a

We had to keep on the phone at all times of the night. Don’t get much sleep. War is very close now. Slept till noon

Manila was heavily bombed for one hour this afternoon. Planes were too high for our guns. 20,000 feet. Getting bad here now. Looks bad. Paratroops

Lots of marines here now. No raid today. A barge sank on the shore and the boys found some scotch on it. Some were tight.

February 28, 1942

Another quiet day except for some artillery fire toward Manila. We do not know but little about what is going on. The folks at home

Little air activity. Short on food. Very hot and dry. Lots of the men on Corregidor have dysentery and scurvy. Officers won’t let us play

Colonel Chase in Malinta Tunnel said not to fire at one plane as it disturbed a General’s family. not true

Raids today and last night as usual. Enemy did not shell us today. I put all my money in the Quartermaster. Very hot.

Raids on Corregidor let up some today. Heavy artillery fire on Bataan. The navy coast patrol gave our battery some pies for our good shooting.

The fall of Bataan. Hot.

The fall of Corregidor. Was due to go out when they told Captain Shank about the fall of the Rock.