This Military Service Page was created/owned by
CWO3 Manuel (Manny) Vizinho
to remember
Marine PFC Melvin Eugene Bender.
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Casualty Info
Home Town Streeter
Last Address Streeter
Casualty Date Dec 17, 1943
Cause KIA-Killed in Action
Reason Illness, Disease
Location Japan
Conflict World War II
Location of Interment Manila American Cemetery - Taguig City, Philippines
Philippine Islands Campaign (1941-42)/Battle of Bataan
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
May / 1942
Description The Battle of Bataan represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. The capture of the Philippine Islands was crucial to Japan's effort to control the Southwest Pacific, seize the resource-rich Dutch East Indies, and protect its Southeast Asia flank. It was the largest surrender in American and Filipino military history, and was the largest United States surrender since the Civil War's Battle of Harper's Ferry. Ultimately, more than 60,000 Filipino and 15,000 American prisoners of war were forced into the infamous Bataan Death March.
After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur fulfilled a promise to return to overseeing the The Campaign for the Liberation of the Philippines. As part of the campaign, the Battle for the Recapture of Bataan (31 January to 21 February 1945) by US Forces and Philippine guerillas avenged the surrender of the defunct United States Armed Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) to invading Japanese forces.
