Valor Friday

Captain Willibald Bianchi

A few months back I highlighted the valor of US Army Captain Willibald Bianchi. At the time it was announced he was returning home after 80 years of being missing after being killed in World War II. He’s finally being laid to rest in his home state of Minnesota tomorrow, if you’re near New Ulm.

Bianchi was a young infantry officer taking part in the ill-fated, but steadfast defense of the Philippines after the Japanese invasion there on 8 December 1941 (because they’re on the other side of the date-line, this was just a few hours after the attack at Pearl Harbor).

On 3 February 1942 he earned the Medal of Honor. This was after almost two months of a hard fighting, slow retreat, the American and Philippine Scouts men defending the island had endured weeks of little food, dwindling supplies, minimal medical help, and no hope of relief. Still they fought on. While valor was a very common trait exhibited by the men fighting to keep the islands free, Bianchi’s was above and beyond that of the others.

When a platoon of another rifle company was ordered to move up and eliminate two enemy machine gun nests, Bianchi volunteered to lead them. Leading an element of this platoon, Bianchi was wounded early in the engagement. Shot twice through the left hand, he didn’t return to the rear. He pressed on. He discarded his rifle and carried on with just his pistol, fighting quite literally single-handed.

He attacked a machine gun nest, and he personally dispatched the crew with grenades. He was then shot twice by another machine gun, both times in the chest. He didn’t let that stop him. Channeling his inner Teddy Roosevelt (who famously gave a long speech after being shot in the chest, from memory as he’d been shot through the pages of the speech) he fought on.

Jumping atop a nearby American tank, Bianchi manned the armored vehicle’s anti-aircraft gun on the tank’s topside. He poured fire into the enemy position until he was wounded a third (or does that count as fifth?) time. He finally took a break after this third serious wound, which knocked him completely off the tank.

Bianchi’s Medal of Honor was authorized by War Department General Order No. 11 of 5 March 1942, but the word had surely not gotten to him yet. He recovered, and returned to duty. Just in time for General Wainwright to surrender all Allied forces in the Philippines in April.

Bianchi would be one of the many thousands taken prisoner by the Japanese. He’d survive the Bataan Death March, and more than two years as a prisoner of war. After the brutal treatment as a prisoner, he was part of the group of PWs that the Japanese repeatedly moved closer and closer to the Home Islands as the Japanese steadily lost the war.

Bianchi survived the December 1944 sinking of the hell ship ?ryoku Maru. The ships were not marked as carrying PWs, so were often fired upon by Allied airmen, who were obviously unaware of the ships’ cargoes. They were called hell ships because of the deplorable conditions within, that saw the prisoners packed in like sardines with little in the way of fresh air, food, or water.

After surviving one sinking, Bianchi was aboard another hell ship, Enoura Maru docked in Takao, Formosa (now known as Kaohsiung, Taiwan) when it was attacked by Allied airmen on 6 January 1945. The ship was disabled and nearly destroyed, killing about 400 Allied PWs. A few days later the ship would be declared sunk by another Army Air Force raid (though she would actually remain somewhat afloat until scrapped after the war).

Here’s a recent article from Military.com that has a few more details about Bianchi.

Welcome home, and enjoy your eternal rest, Captain Bianchi.

Category: Army, Historical, Medal of Honor, No Longer Missing, Valor, We Remember