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| PFC Bobbie Compton served at Fort Drum in the Philippines until captured by the Japanese to become a POW. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64775823 https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/americas-concrete-battleship-defended-manila-bay-until-the-very-end |
Bobbie B. Compton never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
Bobbie was born on April 21, 1920 in Shelby County, Texas. His parents Melvin and Emma were born in Alabama. Bobbie had two older brothers, an older sister, and a younger sister. His father was a farmer. At some point the family moved to Dona Ana, New Mexico. In 1940, Bobbie was living at home with his parents and working as a hired hand.
He enlisted in the US Army in September 1940 at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas and served as a Private First Class in Battery E of the 59th Coastal Artillery Corps. The 59th CA was a harbor defense regiment based on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines, the largest of four fortified islands protecting the mouth of Manila Bay. Battery E was located at Fort Drum, the most unusual of the harbor defenses. Military engineers had cut away the entire top of El Fraile Island down to the water-line and used the island as a foundation to build a reinforced concrete "battleship", 350 ft long and 144 ft wide, with exterior walls of concrete and steel 25–36 ft thick. The top deck of this concrete battleship had 20 ft thick walls. Equipped with four 14-inch guns in armored turrets facing seaward, a secondary battery of four casemated 6-inch guns, and two anti-aircraft guns, the fort with its 200-man garrison was considered impregnable to attack.
The Japanese began saturation bombing and artillery fire against Corregidor on 29 December 1941. Over the next several months the 59th suffered incessant Japanese aerial, naval and artillery bombardment, however the garrison repelled several Japanese landing attempts and exacted a fearsome toll of enemy lives. The 20-ft thick reinforced concrete roof enabled Fort Drum to withstand the concentrated and frequent pounding it received from the Japanese, no US personnel in Fort Drum were killed during the siege and only five were injured.
On 5 May 1942 the Japanese finally established a beachhead on Corregidor. Although the beachhead was contained using personnel from the 59th as infantry, the water supply was reduced to three days rations and General Wainwright made the difficult decision to surrender the island at 1200 hours on 6 May 1942. Fort Drum surrendered to Japanese forces shortly thereafter.
PFC Compton was one of 11,000 American and Filipino defenders who became Japanese prisoners of war. He died 14 July 1944 in Hoten POW Camp, Mukden, Manchuria.
Bobbie B. Compton was initially buried in the POW camp in China and was later reinterred in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii.
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This profile was written by Bob Fuerst. "I’m a NASA engineer, B-17 Flying Fortress enthusiast, and amateur genealogist so this kind of research is an ideal outlet for me. But more than anything, it’s a way to express my sincere appreciation for The Greatest Generation and the sacrifices that they made, especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice. They should never be forgotten and I’m grateful to Don for allowing me to play a small part in honoring them."
Last year on this date I profiled Raymond Earnest of the 9th Infantry Division. You can read about Raymond here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
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WW2 Fallen 100 is supported by
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“Where Every Day is Memorial Day”
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