27th Bombardment Group, USAAC, National POW Museum, Andersonville NHS, Andersonville GA
N 32° 11.835 W 084° 07.632
16S E 770818 N 3565918
A plaque at the courtyard POW memorial at the National POW Museum, Andersonville NHS, Andersonville GA recalls heroism and sacrifice of the 27th Bombardment Group, US Army Air Corps, who surviving members were forced onto the Bataan Death March
Waymark Code: WMWHYK
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2017
Views: 0
The National POW museum is a fascinating place to visit, to learn about the nuances of who is and isn't a POW, the development of the moral imperatives of caring for prisoners which eventually found expression in the Geneva Convention. There are also many rooms of exhibits chronicling the places and experiences of people who served their country as prisoners of war.
As you leave the museum, you enter a courtyard with an arresting statue of a staggering starving POW, on an island creted by a small fountain that winds through he memorial like the Providence Spring did at Andersonville.
Along the walls are separate plaques dedicated to specific units with significant number of prisoners of war. This plaque is located on the western wall of the memorial, and reads as follows:
"27TH BOMBARDMENT GROUP
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR CORPS
[logo]
1225 airmen of the 27th Bombardment Group (L) left Savannah, Georgia and arrived in Manila, Philippine Islands on 20 November 1941. Their dive bombers did not arrive in time to stem the Japanese attack which began on 8 December 1941.
When US forces were ordered to evacuate Manila and its airfields, these airmen went into the baton Peninsula and formed the 2nd Provisional Air Corps Regiment, Infantry. They fought gallantly as infantryman while holding a front line sector.
Those who survived the bitter battle were ordered to surrender on 9 April 1942. They were then subjected to the horrors of the "Bataan Death march", followed by 3 and one half years of brutal treatment as prisoners, and to the ultimate bestiality of the "Hell Ships" from which so few survived.
In honor and memory of those who made the supreme sacrifice and to help restore the human dignity which was so cruelly stolen from them this plaque is respectfully dedicated.
May they rest in peace with God."
Type of Resource: Plaque
Other from above - Please Specify: 27th Bomber Group USAAC / 2nd Provisional Air Corps Regiment, Infantry
Date if Relevant: 04/09/1942
Relevant Position in Armed Forces:
US Army Air Corps
US Army Infantry
Nationality: American
Relevant Website: [Web Link]
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