Corporal George Jacob Worrick, Jr.
A tree was planted at Camp Hamilton, California in memory of Corp. George Worrick by his brother, J. Albert, who was also in the service. Both were the sons of George Sr. and Leona Worrick, born in Illinois, as were all their children, but in 1930 were found in Mark Twp, and later in Hicksville at 123 South Main Street.
George Jr. was born on June 24, 1916, and mustered into the Marines on March 4, 1940, as a part of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 4th Division. He was sent out of San Diego on the ship Antares headed for Pearl Harbor as its base.
The ship found itself at the entrance to Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When entering, some Antares soldiers spotted a midget enemy submarine. Because they did not have weapons for this, they notified another ship, the Ward, close by, who then attacked and sunk it. At the same time, they saw and heard explosions in Pearl Harbor and spotted Japanese planes.
The Antares was strafed with machine gun fire and several bombs just missed them, but they turned around and headed back for Honolulu, missing any other damage. Eventually, Worrick's unit headed out again for their destination, Shanghai, China. They were there when war was officially declared and, immediately, they were sent to Manila, Philippines.
They docked in Subic Bay, Philippines., and headed to the island fortress of Corregidor at the mouth of the Manila Bay. The Japanese launched an amphibious assault on the island in May, 1942. Worrick and his fellow Marines were underequipped and outnumbered, and although they fought bravely, the whole unit was forced to surrender on May 6, 1942.
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| The Crescent-News, March 25, 1943 |
Those POWS were all shipped back to the Hoten-Mukden POW Camp in Manchuria. (The Japanese had invaded and won Manchuria in 1931.)
From thehistorycollection.com -
In the course of their imprisonment, Allied POWs were forced to perform labor on behalf of their captors. Employed in mines, shipyards, fields, and factories, these harsh labors exacerbated the conditions of the already malnourished and ill prisoners. Those in Mukden Prison Camp, for example, worked for the Manchurian Tool Company under Mitsubishi, making tools and parts for military aircraft. The most unlucky, however, were sent to work on the Thai-Burma Railway, connecting Bangkok and Rangoon. Constructed between 1942 and 1943, the 415-kilometer railway resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 laborers including, at least, 13,000 Allied prisoners of war.
Known colloquially as the “Death Railway“, more than 60,000 Allied POWs were forced to work from dawn until dusk to expedite the completion of the transportation system. Receiving only one day off in eleven, performing manual labor for an estimated 100 hours per week, these prisoners built bridges, laid track, and cut through mountains until they collapsed from the effort. The prisoners were housed in tiny barracks, measuring just 66 yards long, with 200 POWs to a house, providing each adult man only a two-foot-wide space in which to sleep.
Corporal Worrick was reported dead on January 7, 1943, of either beri-beri and or malnutrition. He lived through the "White Rice" period when each prisoner had 10 oz of rice, 2 oz. of rancid pork daily and 4 oz of fish monthly. Red Cross parcels of food never made it to the prisoners.
The dates of death are confusing as this article noted May 15, while most military records indicated Jan. 7, 1943. Some reports, mostly newspapers, said he died in the Philippines, while official records say Shenyang, Liaoning, China or the Camp.
Corporal Worrick was buried in the National Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii as a Sgt. in the U.S. Marines. He was awarded posthumously the Gold Star and POW Medal.
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| National Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii |
Dianne Kline, Researcher
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