#20. Why 2 Machinegun Nests Couldn’t Stop Lt. Willibald Bianchi

Episode 20 – Willibald Bianchi – Episode Outline

Episode Hook/Story Intro
[Narrator] Lt. Bill Bianchi, a 27-year-old officer with dark hair and a friendly, yet secretive smile, stepped quietly, his rifle raised, through the dense undergrowth and vines that covered the Bataan jungle floor and concealed him from the enemy. Between the foliage and the dense bamboo thickets, he could see only about 10 yards in front of him, and that was particularly detrimental, since he was leading a platoon of infantry men toward a hidden Japanese machinegun nest.
With such limited visibility, he had to rely on his other senses, such as the sounds of the machinegun bullets speeding through the air and foliage.
Suddenly two of those bullets hit their mark, striking the young lieutenant in his left hand. Ignoring the wounds, and refusing to seek medical aide, Bianchi tossed his rifle aside and pulled out his pistol, which he could shoot with just his right hand.
He waived his platoon forward toward the machinegun nest, which had spotted—and was now concentrating fire—on them. Grabbing a grenade, Bianchi pulled the pin and tossed it into the nest. The explosion silenced it.
He then directed his platoon toward a second machinegun nest. A second fire fight ensued, and Bianchi was, again, struck by two bullets – this time in his chest. And again, he refused to draw back. But the barrage of bullets coming from the nest grew fiercer and Bianchi searched around his position, desperately seeking a way to destroy it.
Then he spotted an American tank. Despite his bleeding wounds, he jumped up on the tank and took control of its anti-aircraft gun. He fired on the nest, the anti-aircraft ammunition destroying it.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bullet fired from close range struck Bianchi. The impact threw him off the tank. He landed, hard, on the ground.
And this time, he didn’t get back up.

This is Left Behind.

Podcast Welcome
Welcome to “Left Behind,” a podcast about the people left behind when the US surrendered The Philippines in the early days of WW2.
I’m Anastasia Harman, and I tell you the stories of WW2 servicemen and women, civilians, guerillas, and others captured by Japanese forces in The Philippines. My great-grandfather Alma Salm was one of the POWs, and his memoir inspired me to tell stories of his fellow captives.
This episode is the fourth and final episode in our series about the 3 Congressional Medal of Honor awardees during the Battle of Bataan. In this episode, I’m focusing on Minnesota native Willibald Bianchi.
If you haven’t had a chance to listen to the other recipients’ stories, I highly recommend listening to episodes 16-18 as well. They aren’t “required listening” for this episode – but there is a reason each man received America’s highest award for combat valor, and their stories are worth the listen.
I also want to share two podcast updates.
First, Left Behind now has a Facebook page. You can find it at Left Behind Podcast on Facebook. I’ll publish pictures of the people I highlight in each episode, as well as new-episode announcement, news articles that have to do with WW2, and do some live videos. I hope you’ll check it out.
Second, school’s out for summer. (Cue Alice Cooper.) With school out, my 3 awesome, noisy, messy kids are at home. All day. Everyday. Which means my time has become more limited – because as great as my home studio is, it’s no match for three active elementary school kids who like to argue with each other over…everything. I get up at 5:30 am to record – and even then there’s no guarantee I won’t be interrupted by someone looking for food. Because, for some reason, mom is the only person who can help with food.
But I digress…
For the next couple of months, I’ll be releasing a new episode every other week. This episode airs June 12, 2023. The next episode will air on June 26 and so on through late August.
And now, with that housekeeping info out of the way,
Let’s jump into the life and times of Bill Bianchi.

POW’s Life Story
Before the War
[Narrator] Willibald Charles Bianchi, or Bill as he was called, was born in the rural town of New Ulm in southwestern Minnesota. His parents, Joseph and Carolina Bianchi, were both first-generation German Americans. Joseph’s parents emigrated from Germany in the 1850s and 60s and settled near New Ulm, Minnesota. The majority of New Ulm residents, in fact, had German heritage. The town was settled in 1854 by German immigrants to the United States.
Young Willibald was raised on the family’s dairy and poultry farm with his 4 sisters – 1 older and 3 younger than him. The farm did well enough that by 1930 the Bianchi family had a live-in housekeeper and a hired man. And their home and property were worth $39,000.
This property value really caught my eye – because it’s way more than I usually see for home values in 1930. (BTW, this information came from the 1930 US census. Where you too, could find the value of your family’s US home or rent.)
Anyway, I usually see single-family home values in the $5,000 range (give or take a thousand or so). So, a $39,000 value intrigued me. I went back to double and triple check that I read and recorded the right amount. I did.
From what I’ve been able to find, the median US home value in 1930 was about $4,500. (That amount fell a good 35% by the late 1930s because of the Great Depression.) The median US home price in 2022 was around $428,000. So, adjusting the Bianchi’s 1930 home value for today, I think we’re looking at their rural property being valued around $3.5 million today. (That’s just some quick figuring by me; I couldn’t find a good comparison or reference online.)
Regardless, it seems the Bianchi’s had a rather large farm and dairy operation.
In interesting contrast, the Bianchi farm was right next to the Brown County Home for the Poor. Poor houses/farms were precursors to welfare and social security and often became home to the area’s paupers and disabled. Opened in 1907, the Brown County Poor Farm included a 2-story brick building and residents helped produce milk, eggs, beef, pork, and chickens and worked in the gardens. It closed around 1965.
In 1932, when Bill was 17, his father, Joseph, died. With his father’s passing, the teenager had to fill his father’s void on the farm. And, considering the property’s value, that void was rather large.
However, sometime in the later 1930s, Willibald moved with his mother and sisters into New Ulm town proper. But whatever affluence they may have had doesn’t seem to have come with them. In the late 1930s, his mother worked at a pastry bakery and his sisters as sales ladies for a cosmetic company and a dress shop. Bill himself worked as a Print Shop janitor. His mother recalled:
[Carrie] “[He] worked his way through South Dakota State Agricultural College. He was graduated in 1940 with a lieutenant’s commission in the ROTC.”
[Narrator] After graduation, Bill spent time at a training camp in the United States. I don’t know for certain where this camp was, but a letter Bill wrote to an Army friend in summer 1941 makes me wonder if it was in Florida:
[Bianchi] “That nurse we met in Daytona, Miss Elise Morrison, writes to me every once in a while.”
[Narrator] The timing of that letter makes me think Daytona could have been where training was. Just a guess though. In spring 1941, he was ordered to The Philippines. He sent a postcard to his family enroute to the island nation:
[Bianchi] “Dear Aunt & Uncle, Traveling 1st Class aboard this ship for Manila, P.I. Having a grand trip so far. Stopping two days in Hawaii. Say hello to Aunt Lizzy for me. Hope everybody is well. Willibald.”
[Narrator] In fall 1941, Bianchi was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and became commanding officer of Company D in the Philippine Scouts 45th Infantry. As you likely know from previous episodes, the Philippine Scouts were highly trained US Army units made up primarily of enlisted Filipino servicemen with American officers.
Shortly after Bianchi’s promotion, WW2 began.

During the War
[Narrator] Lt. Bianchi and the 45th withdrew to the Bataan peninsula in late December 1941 with the rest of US forces on Luzon, which is The Philippines largest island. US forces initially established a front line near the coastal town of Abucay, where 1st Medal of Honor recipient Alexander Nininger was killed in action. (I highlighted his story in Episode 16.) However, by late January 1942, US military leaders deemed the Abucay line indefensible and abandoned it.
Thus American and Filipino forces withdrew south to form the new Orion-Bagac Line. This line stretched from the town of Bagac on the western side of Bataan eastward to the town of Orion on the eastern side. It was just over 10 miles long and basically cut across the peninsula’s middle like a belt. It also reduced the area of Bataan held by US forces by almost 50%.
General Douglas MacArthur declared this would be the last stand, there would be no retreat from this new line. He wrote to the officials back in Washington, DC:
[MacArthur] “With [the new line’s] occupation, all maneuvering possibilities will cease. I intend to fight it out to complete destruction."
[Narrator] That’s my not-so-great MacArthur impersonation. He tended to draw out his words from the clips I’ve found, like this one from his farewell address to US congress in 1950:
[Insert audio clip of Old Soldiers Never die, starting around 3:00 in this YouTube Video: MacArthur - Bing video)

[Narrator] Within 4 days of the withdrawal, most American and Filipino troops were in their places along this new Bagac-Orion Line. It was a heavily forested jungle region, with dense undergrowth. Temperatures averaged 95 degrees, even in the shade, with high humidity. However, when the sun set, the temperature dropped significantly and the hot, sweating men spent the nights shivering in their blankets.
The retreat to the Orion-Bagac line had been hasty, and many units lacked equipment to quickly “dig in” to their new positions. Some servicemen had to dig foxholes with their mess kits. Adding to the difficulties, the front line ascended up and then down the rugged saddle ridge that connected two Bataan mountains.
Bianchi and the 45th Infantry were on the western side of the line. However, the US generals decided the 45th would be one of 3 reserve units held at the rear of the line.
General Masaharu Homma, who was over all Japanese forces in The Philippines, ordered his forces to attack fast, before the Americans could completely regroup on the new line. Following orders, Japanese troops attacked the western side of the American line beginning on January 26. Their attack came so quickly that US forces were still stringing wire when the Japanese began firing. The Japanese probed the American line, searching for a weak spot where they could break through. They finally found that spot on the night of January 28-29.
That night, a couple thousand Japanese soldiers broke through the American line, moving through the gap and advancing into the thick, confusing jungle terrain. Visibility in this area was limited to 10-15 yards. But instead of creating a tactical advantage for the Japanese, the line break-through created a chaotic situation for them. Japanese troops were unable to contact their superiors on the Japanese side of the line. And American leaders didn’t realize just how many Japanese troops got through the line.
The American line quickly fortified itself – leaving those 2,000 or so Japanese trapped in 3 defensive areas (known as pockets) about a mile behind the front.
But, on the first day after the breach, an American Colonel sent 2 companies to clear out the area, thinking that only a relatively few Japanese had gotten through the line and were basically blocking a trail. The ferocity of the Japanese counterattack disabused him of the notion, and he realized the full size of the Japanese forces. Thus, the 45th Infantry 1st Battalion, including Bianchi, was called out of reserve to fight against these pockets. And fighting had to be hand to hand because Artillery was useless in the dense jungle.
For days, the Japanese in the pockets resisted US attempts to root them out. But Japanese soldiers had a bigger problem – they did not have access to supplies. Food and ammunition were running low. Japanese leaders tried dropping parachutes of supplies inside the pockets – but most fell into grateful American and Filipino hands.
Still, the Japanese in the pockets fought on fearlessly. By the fifth day of fighting, the American and Filipino forces had not been able to reduce the pockets. So, they called in a 4-tank unit on February 2, that would be supported by a platoon of Philippine Scouts from the 45th Infantry. That day, the tanks and infantry cut through a portion of the Big Pocket but made little overall gains and lost one tank.
The next day, February 3, a platoon of 45th Infantry Scouts was assigned to destroy two machine gun nests in the Big Pocket. Lt. Willibald Bianchi wasn’t assigned to that platoon but volunteered to lead part of it. The sources aren’t clear whether they had tanks with them.
Of Bianchi’s actions that day, Gen. MacArthur said:
[MacArthur] “When the rifle platoon of another company was ordered to wipe out two strong enemy machine-gun nests, Lieutenant Bianchi voluntarily and of his own initiative, advanced with the platoon, leading part of his men.”
[Narrator] Early in the conflict, two bullets hit Bianchi’s left hand, preventing him from using his rifle (which required two hands to fire). Not missing a beat, the young Lieutenant.
[Newspaper] “threw away his rifle, drew his pistol which he could handle with one hand, and continued to lead his platoon.”
[Narrator] a newspaper later reported.
The platoon sought out an active machinegun nest, which fired on them as they approached. Grabbing a grenade, Bianchi pulled the pin and tossed it into the nest, silencing it. He then directed his platoon toward another machinegun nest, which they fired upon. During this gun fight, Bianchi was wounded by two bullets to the chest. However, he kept on fighting.

Meanwhile, the tank supporting them was “unable to lower the muzzle of its 37-mm gun sufficiently” and was “having difficulty reducing the other machine gun nearby.” (Alternatively, another source says the tank was disabled, having hit a landmine the previous day.) Either way, there was a tank near Lt. Bianchi. So, despite the wounds in his left hand and his chest, Bianchi climbed on top of the tank and fired its anti-aircraft gun at the machinegun nest, which he silenced.
He continued firing into enemy positions until a bullet fired from close range struck him, knocking him completely off the tank.
This time, the wound was serious, and he didn’t get back up.

But the battle continued raging around the wounded Lieutenant. For 2 weeks, US forces continued fighting Japanese forces trapped in the three pockets. They were called the Little Pocket, the Big Pocket, and the Upper Pocket – thus ensuring that the battles at this locations became known collectively as the Battle of the Pockets. I put a map of the pocket areas on Facebook, the link is in the show description.
The US forces started with the “Little Pocket,” where they trained their tanks and ammunition in a constant barrage. After a week of this never-ending onslaught, the Japanese in Little Pocket were running low on food and ammunition.
In a last, desperate attempt for freedom, the Japanese leaders led their remaining troops through a small opening in the otherwise tight Filipino lines around the pocket on the night of February 9. They had escaped the Little Pocket. The Japanese troops headed north toward the front line, only to be caught in a crossfire with American and Filipino forces. Instead of surrendering, the hopelessly outnumbered and trapped Japanese opened fire, and were completely annihilated.
I’ve mentioned this before, but the Japanese military code at the time forbade surrender. Many units, including this one, fought to near or total annihilation.
The Little Pocket eradicated; US forces put all their attention on the Big Pocket. However, by this time, the Japanese General in charge at the Big Pocket had been ordered to fight his way north and past the American line. So the hungry, exhausted Japanese unit pushed their way north and east into a small, narrow area, where American/Filipino fire from both sides of the pocket would be in danger of hitting each other.
It was also an area where the American-Filipino line was weakest, because of the thick, dense, steep jungle. The starving Japanese – who had been eating horse flesh and tree sap – were worn out by the 2 weeks of jungle fighting. With them were more than 100 wounded men who had to be carried out
But other than their wounded, the retreating Japanese were traveling light, leaving behind horses and mules, 300 dead Japanese soldiers, 150 graves, weapons and ammunition. They eventually made it past the American line and to safety – after a horrendously difficult 4-day march.
For the US side, two pockets were down. And they had 1 to go.
The US forces turned attention to the Upper Pocket, which was surrounded by jumbled mazes of dense bamboo thickets, vines, creepers, and other dense undergrowth that prevented the American tanks from breaking through. War historian Louis Morton wrote:
[Morton] “The tankers would have been impotent had it not been for the aid of the Igorot troops [of the Philippine Army]. Hoisted to the top of the tanks where they were exposed to the fire of the enemy, these courageous tribesmen from north Luzon chopped away the entangling foliage with their bolos and served as eyes for the American tankers. From their position atop the tanks, they fired at the enemy with pistols while guiding the drivers with sticks.”
[Narrator] And, within several more days, the Upper Pocket had been cleared of enemy forces.
By the end of the Battle of the Pockets, the Japanese 20th Infantry had been nearly eradicated. They started the Bataan Campaign in early January 1942 with nearly 2,700 men. Between the Battle of the Points (which I covered in episodes 13 and 14), the Battle of the Pockets, and other skirmishes, by mid-February they were down to maybe 650 men. That’s just 25% of their original fighting force; the rest were lost in the first 6 weeks of Bataan fighting.
That’s just incredibly horrendous.
But despite the gains Filipino and American forces had with the pockets, the Battle for Bataan was not going well. As I explained earlier, they’d just had to withdraw halfway down the Bataan peninsula and surrender 50% of the land they’d held. Plus, food, ammunition, and medication were dwindling. Since the outbreak of war, MacArthur and other American leaders in The Philippines had promised their troops that reinforcements from the United States were on their way.
But the attack at Pearl Harbor had destroyed the fleet that would have brought reinforcements. And the Japanese had set up a naval blockade around The Philippine Islands. As February continued, it became increasingly obvious that help wasn’t coming. A February 12, 1942, CBS News broadcast stated:

[Narrator] Well, back in New Ulm, Minnesota, Bianchi’s mother soon received word of her son’s actions on February 3.
[Carrie] “He’s always been a fighter,”
[Narrator] she told a local newspaper. A few weeks after those actions, Lt. Willibald Bianchi was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was the third (and last) serviceman fighting on Bataan to receive the high honor. The medal’s citation reads:
[Citation] “For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy... 1st Lt. Bianchi, voluntarily and of his own initiative, advanced with the platoon leading part of the men. When wounded early in the action by two bullets through the left hand, he did not stop for first aid but discarded his rifle and began firing a pistol. He located a machine-gun nest and personally silenced it with grenades. When wounded the second time by two machine-gun bullets through the chest muscles, 1st Lt. Bianchi climbed to the top of an American tank, manned its antiaircraft machine gun, and fired into strongly held enemy position until knocked completely off the tank by a third severe wound.”
[Narrator] The Medal of Honor citation was presented in March 1942 to Bianchi himself, who was recovering at a Bataan Battlefield Hospital. Later that same month, Bianchi returned to active duty and rejoined his unit in the battlefields, just weeks before Bataan fell to Japanese forces. Bianchi was now a Prisoner of War and was forced onto the nearly 70-mile Bataan Death March.
For the next 9 months, Lt Bill Bianchi was considered Missing in Action, and it wasn’t until December 1942 that his mother got official word from the War Department that her son was a POW. It would be another 10 months until she received word directly from Bill himself. It came as a postcard form letter telling the family that he was imprisoned at the Cabanatuan POW Camp #1 in the central part of Luzon Island. He sent his love to his grandparents and sisters and stated that he was in excellent condition.
Many families received form letters similar to this postcard. You see, these, highly censored, letters were fill in the blank cards. POWs could circle or underline their responses regarding the following:
1. My health is – excellent, good, fair, poor
2. I am – injured, sick in hospital, under treatment, not under treatment
3. I am – improving, not improving, better, well.
On nearly all of these postcards that I’ve seen, the POWs reported that they were in “excellent health.” These reports were, in pretty much every case, inaccurate at best. The information was “Completely false” in most cases. I look at these form letters as Japanese leadership trying to show the world how well POWs were being treated.
The reality of the POW’s situation at Cabanatuan was…bad. POWs at this camp suffered from starvation and related diseases. They were worked like animals and beaten for minor infractions, like buying food from local residents. Thousands of POWs died at Cabanatuan.

But Bianchi’s mother could very well have believed that her son was in excellent condition. You see, New Ulm, Minnesota, became the site of a camp for German POWs. US officials turned a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp located on the Cottonwood River into a camp to house German POWs. The location is today known as Cottonwood River State Park.
The camp housed about 160 German POWs, most of them former Luftwaffe (German air force) men. They used the CCC barracks for the mess hall, clubhouse, and housing. The camp also boasted a sports field and a furniture workshop.
POWs worked at a nearby cannery, at brick and tile factories, at a poultry-processing plant, and at local farms as farmhands. When not working, they swam and fished in the Cottonwood Lake.
The New Ulm residents, who you’ll remember were mainly of German heritage, were friendly with the POWs. Many residents of the New Ulm community spoke German, so they could easily converse with the POWs and ask questions about friends and family still in Germany. Town residents would slip the food to the POWs, share ice cream and beer during factory breaks, and have the farmhands to family dinners.
Young women sometimes came to the camp fences to flirt with the POWs, most of whom were around 18-25 years old.
Security seems to have been somewhat lax at the camp. The POWs could leave camp for work assignments. And, while they weren’t supposed to leave at other times, unapproved, unsupervised out-of-camp excursion did happen. In one documented case, a New Ulm couple picked up a POW they were friendly with, took him to church, and then had him over for Sunday dinner. When they dropped him off that evening at the camp gate, the American guards with surprised and annoyed. The couple was fined, but, rumors say, these out-of-prison sojourns were common occurrences. It was just this couple’s unfortunate luck that they were caught.

Well, back in The Philippines, after nearly 2.5 years at Cabanatuan, Bianchi received word in October 1944 that he and another 1,600 POWs would be transferred to a work camp in Japan’s mainland. A couple days before departing Cabanatuan, Bianchi wrote an uncensored letter to his mother, and gave it to a friend remaining at camp.
[Bianchi] “Dear Mother:
“I am writing this letter in case the bearer, Capt. Hans Hornbostle, has the opportunity to send it to you. We, the American prisoners here at Cabanatuan will leave for Japan in a day or so; if we ever get there remains in God’s hands. I am going to Confession and Communion just in case.
“We sure had a rugged time so far and we all expect it to get worse before the end. Nearly all of us have become fatalists after going though what we have, but we are not complaining. You have to excuse this writing, but for two years I couldn’t write at all. I was wounded in my right arm among other places—my ulnar nerve was severed—it’s coming back slowly.
“I received one box and one letter from you; the letter had 25 pictures in it. A flight of American planes flew over the 21st of Sept.—sure put us in good spirits.
“The food here has been very scarce—very little meat, most of the time none at all. No flour, grease, or medicine. Thousands have died. I used to be in charge of a burial detail; we buried as high as forty a day.
“I am nearly out of ink, so will close hoping this letter will find you healthy and happy.
You can use my back pay and insurance, to make yourself happy and secure in your old age—in case I don’t return.
Your son, Willibald Bianchi”
[Narrator] A few days later, Bianchi and the majority of the other Cabanatuan POWs boarded trucks for Manila. After spending several weeks at a prison in the city, more than 1,600 American POWs were loaded on to a Japanese transport ship named the Oryoku Maru, which sailed from Manila in Mid-December.
An American plane bombed and sunk the unmarked ship on December 15, just off the Philippines coast. Most of the POWs, including Bianchi, were able to swim to shore. The Japanese then put the POWs on 2 transport ships, which sailed to Takao, Formosa (in present-day Taiwan). In Formosa, all the POWs were transferred to the ship Enoura Maru. And they waited in the ship’s hold – with little food, poor ventilation, and horribly unsanitary conditions – for two weeks.
And then another US plane, not knowing what was in the cargo holds of the unmarked Japanese ship, dropped a 1,000-pound bomb on the ship. Bianchi was among the approximately 300-500 POWs killed instantly.
He was nearly 30 years old.

After the War & Legacy
[Narrator] After the war’s end, the US Army Quartermaster General’s Office began investigating what happened to the remains of the men killed in the Enoura Maru bombing.
A 1949 letter to Bianchi’s mother explained:
[Letter] “During one of the attacks by American bombers, in Takao Harbor, approximately three hundred prisoners of war were killed. Two days later the Japanese had the remains of the dead loaded on barges and taken ashore at Takao, where they were interred in mass graves.”
[Narrator] This 1949 letter says around 300 POW’s were interred in the mass grave; other sources say there were 483 bodies recovered from the Enoura Maru wreck were interred there. After the war, in 1946, US Army Quartermaster General representatives exhumed the mass grave. The letter to Mrs. Bianchi continued:
[Letter] “These graves have since been located, and the remains disinterred and taken to the US Army Mausoleum, Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaii, by our American Graves Registration Services.”
[Narrator] But--and this is morbid--the remains were so intermixed that none of the individual remains—including Bianchi’s—could not be positively identified. (Except for perhaps a few individuals; the documents I’ve seen disagree on the number).
They know that Bianchi was interred in the mass grave at Takao because survivors of the Enoura Maru testified that he was. A picture of the mass gravesite was printed in several US newspapers in 1946 and included this caption:
[Newspaper] “A mass grave for 483 Americans on a Formosan beach brought back tragic memories for Maj. Robert Conn, one of the survivors of the Jap “hell ship” Enoura Maru. Conn said he turned over to the war department information positively identifying two Minnesota men buried in the grave. Including Lt. Willibald C Bianchi, New Ulm, Congressional Medal of honor winner.”
[Narrator] So this officer indicated that he was an eyewitness to Bianchi’s burial in this grave.
In 1949, the Army Quartermaster General’s office determined that Bianchi’s remains could not be identified. They ordered that a letter should be written to Bianchi’s mother explaining the findings and that
[Report] “The letter written should contain all facts possible, AND SHOULD NOT BE A SHORT TAPE LETTER. The deceased is a conspicuous hero in his small town.”
[Narrator] That letter was written on September 21, 1949. It read, in part:
[Letter] “Dear Mrs. Bianchi:
“The Department of the Army desires that you be informed of the final determination of the investigation in the case of your son.
“The circumstances surrounding the death of your son have been thoroughly reviewed and, although it has not been possible to prove physically the identification of your son, and as it is not possible to establish individual identity of most of these remains, they will be interred in a United State Military Cemetery overseas where they will be perpetually cared for.
”Realizing the extent of your grief and anxiety, it is not easy to express condolence to you who gave your loved one under circumstances so difficult that there is no grave at which to pay homage. May the knowledge of your son’s honorable service to his country be a source of sustaining comfort to you.”

Thus Willibald Bianchi’s remains are considered non-recoverable and his official status is Missing in Action.
The remains from the mass grave were eventually interred in 20 communal graves at the National Cemetery of the Pacific (commonly known as Punchbowl) in Honolulu, Hawaii. So that is most likely where Bianchi’s remains rest today. (I say “most likely” because there is always a chance that he was never in the mass grave despite the testimony of survivors.)
In 1976, Punchbowl erected a cenotaph (that’s a memorial grave marker placed on a grave containing no body) in his honor. His name also appears on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery.

Another investigation regarding Bianchi was going on at the same time as those into his remains. In 1948, Mrs. Carrie Bianchi wrote to the Quartermaster General’s office regarding her son’s POW diary:
[Carrie] “My son Capt. Willibald Bianchi was in Prison Camp No. 1 – Cabanatuan. As I understand, he wrote a diary. He was in charge of the galley there. Col. Johnson told my daughter that he was with my son as prisoners and when they were transported to Japan or rather before they left for Japan on a prison ship Bill buried a diary in a can. If there would be any chance that this diary might have been found…it would mean so much to me to receive something of Bill.”
[Narrator] She included a rough, hand-drawn diagram of the supposed burial location as well as a handwriting sample of Bill’s.
I don’t know which of Bill’s 3 sisters heard the diary information, but I do know that his younger sister Jermayne was a Lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps during WW2. She spent two years in the Pacific, with at least part of her time being in The Philippines. I suspect she served in there during the later years of the war, when the US had retaken the island nation. So, I wonder if she’s the one who heard the diary burial information.
The Quartermaster General’s Office attempted to locate Bill’s diary but were unable to do so. In a letter to Carrie, they stated:
[Letter] “A further effort to locate the diary was considered impracticable in view of the fact that the “map” which you furnished is inadequate on which to attempt a search, as the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War camp has been completely destroyed, and the area formerly occupied by the camps has been entirely covered by a dense growth of native cogon grass.”
[Narrator] Tragic.

In May 1946, more than 4 years after Lt. Bianchi first received the Medal of Honor citation and nearly 1.5 years after his death, Capt. Willibald Bianchi’s Medal of Honor was presented posthumously to his mother at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
Today Bianchi’s Medal of Honor is located at the Brown County Historical Society Museum in his hometown of New Ulm, Minnesota.
All 3 of Bill Bianchi’s sisters married and lived until the early 2000s. Through them, Bill has more than 14 nieces and nephews, and upwards of 19 more distant nephews and nieces.

Back on Bataan, Willibald Bianchi spent more than a month at a Bataan battlefield hospital recovering from the bullet wound that knocked him off the tank. He was released in March 1942, and as it turns out – that release may have saved his life.
Because around Easter 1942, Japanese air forces – disregarding the hospital’s giant red cross that was visible from the air – bombed the mostly open-air hospital. The attack decimated the hospital and killed many patients.
But while the bombs dropped – a miracle occurred. A miracle for which a Catholic chaplain would be nominated for sainthood.

More on that next time.
This is Left Behind.

Outro
Thanks for listening! You can find pictures, maps, and sources about Willibald Bianchi’s story on the Left Behind Podcast Facebook page and on my website; the links are in the show description.
If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts. Spreading the word about this podcast lets me continue sharing these amazing stories.
Left Behind is researched, written, and produced by me, Anastasia Harman.
- Voice overs by: Tyler Harman
- Dramatizations are based on historical research, although some creative liberty is taken with dialogue.
I’ll be back next time with a Catholic priest who, on a whim, joined the US Army as it retreated from Bataan.

Sources
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William C Bianchi entry, “Web: U.S., Congressional Medal of Honor Society Recipients, 1839-2012,” database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, Utah, 2019m original data: Congressional Medal of Honor Society Recipients, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, USA: Congressional Medal of Honor Society, accessed 23 April 2023
Willibald Charles Bianchi, 12 March 1915, “Web: Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2015, original data: Minnesota Birth Certificates Index. Minnesota Historical Society. http://people.mnhs.org/bci/, accessed 23 April 2023
New Ulm, Minnesota - Wikipedia
Flandrau State Park - Wikipedia
Joseph Bianchi family, New Ulm, Brown, Minnesota, “1920 Census | 1920 US Federal Census Records,” Database online: Ancestry.com, Lehi, UT, 2010, original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920 (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C, accessed 23 April 2023.
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History of the Brown County Minnesota Poor Farm 1870 to 1965: A precursor for public housing projects: Portner, Angeline Meidl, Ubl, Elroy, Hofmeister, Harry, Hofmeister, Gary, Bianchi, Willibald, Hofmeister, Alfons, Wieland, Chuck, Wieland, Linda: 9798715723260: Amazon.com: Books, accessed 23 April 2023.
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[1] Willibald C Bianchi entry, “U.S., Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945,” database online: Ancestry.com, Provo, Utah, 2007, original data: United States, Army, Quartermaster General’s Office, Rosters of World War II Dead (all services), Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army, accessed 23 April 2023.
Capt Willibald Charles Bianchi, Find a Grave Memorial, accessed 23 April 2023.
“Two State Soldiers Buried in Mass Grave on Formosa,” Star Tribune, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 13 Apr 1946, Page 2, at Newspapers.com; Never Forgotten ::THE ENOURA MARU HELLSHIP MEMORIAL SAGA (powtaiwan.org); Willibald Bill C Bianchi, Hell Ship Enoura Maru | Heritage Bn. (proboards.com)
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