Adrian Marks

Adrian Marks and his crew in front of the seaplane they called Dumbo

Adrian Marks in front of his plane

Jim Tribby and Adrian Marks

            We have already mentioned two Ladoga war heroes earlier.  Jim Tribby was a survivor of the Bataan Death March and Adrian Marks was a hero of the USS Indianapolis tragedy when he landed his PBY on waves reaching 12 feet to rescue the sailors who had been aboard the ill-fated ship.  The USS Indianapolis had delivered the first operational atomic bomb to the Island of Tinian and was returning to its base when it was struck by two torpedoes launched by a Japanese submarine.  Of the 1,196 men aboard, about 900 made it into the water in the twelve minutes before the ship sank.  It was five days before help arrived in the person of Lt. Adrian Marks of Ladoga, Indiana.  Marks landed a seaplane that was never supposed to land on rough seas on the dangerous waters.  When the plane hit the waves, it bounced fifteen feet into the air.  Marks skillfully maneuvered his plane around picking up the nearly dead men who had survived five days in shark-infested waters.  When the fuselage was full, the rescuers tied the remaining survivors to the wings of the Dumbo. In all, Marks and his men rescued 56 sailors and stayed until the destroyer Cecil J. Doyle arrived on the scene to take on all who survived the ordeal.   His PBY was so badly damaged that it could not take off and was destroyed by the captain of the Doyle.  Adrian Marks was awarded the prestigious Air Medal for his bravery.

            When WW II was over, Jim Tribby walked into Edwin Barnard’s Home Comfort  Shop and paid him the $50.00 that he owed him before he went to war.  That was the type of man Jim Tribby was.  If you had asked him about himself, he would have said that he was just a survivor.  Jim Tribby was a survivor, a survivor of the infamous Bataan Death March.  He had entered the war weighing about 220 pounds and returned weighing 97 pounds.   There were 78,000 American and Filipino soldiers who surrendered on April, 9, 1942.  They were taken captive by representatives of a Japanese culture that taught that a soldier must die before he surrenders.  Therefore a soldier who surrendered had no more rights than a dog.  He was no more than an animal.  So the prisoners were treated as animals.  They were bayoneted, beaten with the butts of rifles and shot when they fell out of line.  Only about 60,000 survived the march.  Many of those who did survive died at the rate of about 400 a day at Camp O’Donnell.  As U.S. forces pulled closer to the Philippines at the end of the war, the Japanese decided to ship the American prisoners to Japan and Manchuria to be used as slave laborers in factories and coal mines.  They were crammed so closely into the cargo holds of ships that many of them suffocated and died standing up.

Tribby had become a hero to Edwin’s youngest son, Harley, and shared some of the atrocities that he and his comrades had endured on the 80 mile march from Bataan and Corregidor to Camp O’Donnell in Balanga the capitol of Bataan.  Tribby himself had had bamboo shoots driven under his fingernails and set on fire.  Once, for stealing sugar, his captors had put glass in his socks and made him squat down for hours.

            He told Harley that the Japanese held roll call every morning.  If there was an empty place in the ranks that meant that a prisoner had escaped.  At that point the guards shot the man on each side of the vacant spot.  Tribby finally escaped with another comrade by jumping into a river and swimming away.  His Japanese captors were herding their captives into a large open arena.  He knew that they were all going to be shot. 

 

Tribby and Marks--Epilogue

            Two of Ladoga’s most celebrated sons were involved in two of the most horrific yet heroic episodes in WW II.  Ironically, one occurred with days of the beginning of the war and the other within days of the end of the war.  Much has been written of both episodes.  The following is a timeline of the events, first of the Bataan Death March and Jim Tribby’s heroism and the second of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the bravery of Adrian Marks.  The Bataan Death March has been called the most brutal event in American history and the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, the worst disaster in Naval history.

            First the Bataan Death March:

·         December 7, 1941—Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.  353 Japanese fighters, bombers, and torpedo planes sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four others.  They sank or damaged three cruisers and three destroyers and killed 2,402 Americans

·         April 9, 1942—After a three month battle against overwhelming odds, with no hope of reinforcements, either of men or supplies, the Battling Bastards of Bataan surrendered and began the 70 mile march to the capitol city of Bataan, Batagna.

·         April 12, 1942—70,000American and Filipino troops were alive when the march began.

·         April 18, 1942—After six days and some 79-90 miles, about 54,000 reach Camp O’Donnell.7,000 to 10,000 died on the way.  They rest escaped into the jungle.

·         April 9, 1945—The second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.  40 percent of the city and 79,000 people are destroyed.  After two years as a POW, Jim Tribby becomes the sergeant-of-arms for the liberated prisoners.  He said,” You can’t forget, nor can you forgive.  You can only cling to the moment.  Only about five minutes after the A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese made a complete turn-around in their treatment.  We couldn’t see, hear of feel the bomb, but we knew something had happened.  Within minutes we saw American aircraft.

·         April 3, 1946—the Japanese Commander of the invasion forces in the Philippines, Lt. General Homma Masharu was executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The timeline of the 2^nd episode, the sinking of the USS Indianapolis:

·         July 16, 1945—The ship leaves San Francisco Bay for Tinian, a small Island in the Western Pacific with parts for the world’s second and third atomic bombs.

·         July 26, 19Arrives at Tinian with uranium 235 and other components for the bomb.

·         July 28, 1945—Leaves Guam headed for Leyte in the Philippines.

·         July 30, 1945—The ship is hit by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine.  300 of the 1196 men go down with the ship.  Nearly 900 are thrown or jump into the cold, shark-infested water of the Pacific.

·         August 2, 1945—After four days in the water, many are dead from injuries, exposure and shark attacks.  At 11:25 AM, Navy pilot Lt. Wilbur Gwinn spots an oil slick and sees men in the water.  Hours later, Adrian Marks, against all orders and protocol lands his Catalina seaplane called a Dumbo and begins to rescue survivors.  After the hold of the plane is filled, they tie the men to the wings with cords from parachutes.

·         August 3, 1945—the rescue continues through the night.  Most men who will be rescued have been found.  They had been spread out over several miles of open sea.  Captain McVay is one of the last to be rescued.

·         August 6,1945—At 2:45 AM, the B29 bomber Enola Gay, drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing 60,000 people and destroying four square miles of the city.  The code name of the first bomb is “Little Boy.”

·         August 8, 1945—The search for survivors of the USS Indianapolis is    discontinued.  Of the 1196 men on board, only 316 survive.  56 are rescued by Adrian Marks and his crew.  After all are safe on board, Marks requests that the captain of the Doyle destroy the Dumbo.

·         August 9, 1945—The second bomb is dropped on Nagasaki.  40 percent of the city is destroyed and 70,000 people are killed.  The second bomb is carried by the  bomber Bockscar and is named “Fat Boy.”

·         August 18, 1945—The war in the Pacific ended just as it had begun, with a surprise attack by Japanese warplanes.  Just after 2 PM, U.S. Army Sergeant Anthony J. Marchione bled to death in the clear, bright sky above Tokyo..  He died like so many others of America’s best, quietly cradled in the arms of a buddy.  He died after the Japanese had accepted the Allied terms of surrender.  He was the last American killed in air combat in WW II.

·         September 2, 1945—Japan officially surrenders.