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Glassburn Robert Douglass

Monuments

ISOB Yokohama POWs

 

Name:
Robert Douglass Glassburn
Rank:
Major
Serial Number:
0-018730
Unit:
60th Coast Artillery Regiment
Date of Death:
1945-01-30
State:
Delaware
Cemetery:
British War Cem., Yokohama, Japan (CWGC)
Plot:
AA-COM
Row:
G-URN
Grave:
2
Decoration:
Silver Star with Oak Leaf Cluster
Comments:

Died as a prisoner of war.
From Find a Grave:
Son of Colonel Robert P. Glassburn and Anne Maxwell Moore Glassburn. Husband of Zelda M. Eggleston Glassburn. He served with the Coast Artillery at Fort Mills in the defense of Corregidor. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese and died of wounds, starvation, and exposure while a prisoner at Moji, Kyushu, Japan. He was decorated with a Silver Star. Major William D. Glassburn was held as a POW in the Philippine Islands. In December 1944, he was boarded onto the Oryoku Maru for transport to Japan. The ship sailed on December 13th and came under attack from American planes on December 14th. As evening approached, the attack was called off. The next day the planes returned and continued the attack. When the pilots saw the large number of men climbing from the ship’s holds, they realized the ship was carrying POWs and called off the attack. After the POWs were off the ship, the attack resumed and the ship was sunk by American planes at Subic Bay, Philippine Islands, on December 15, 1944. The surviving POWs were boarded onto the Enoura Maru which sailed on December 27th and reached Takao, Formosa, by the New Year. While docked it was bombed by American planes on January 9, 1945, killing many of the POWs. The surviving POWs were boarded onto the Brazil Maru which sailed on January 13th and reached Japan on January 29, 1945.
Cenotaph: Arlington National Cemetery