{"id":5208,"date":"2016-11-11T17:46:48","date_gmt":"2016-11-11T17:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/?p=5208"},"modified":"2023-10-23T14:39:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-23T18:39:40","slug":"frederick_elkes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.archivingwheeling.org\/blog\/frederick_elkes","title":{"rendered":"From South Wheeling to the South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>October 24, 1944. 5 o\u2019clock p.m. South China Sea.\n

\"Arisan<\/a>
Arisan Maru. Public domain image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nearly 7,000-ton Japanese freighter, Arisan Maru<\/em>, is churning toward Formosa. Packed in the stifling heat of the ship\u2019s holds are 1,782 mostly American and some Allied war prisoners of the Empire of Japan. The men are destined for forced labor camps.<\/p>\n

Seeing only an unmarked enemy vessel, a U.S. Navy submarine, the USS Shark,\u00a0<\/em>fires three torpedoes. Direct hit. Split in two, the Arisan Maru<\/em>\u00a0slips beneath the waves in less than two hours. While most of the POWs escape the sinking ship, they are left to die on the open sea. The Japanese navy attempts no rescue. Only nine men survive. It is the largest loss of life at sea in American history.<\/p>\n

Among the dead is 42 year-old Private First Class Frederick William Elkes, a 17-year veteran of the U.S. Army Air Force, 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group. Stationed in the Philippines, the South Wheeling boy who grew up on McColloch Street, was captured during the fall of Bataan.<\/p>\n

\n

Freddie Elkes<\/h2>\n
\"Frederick<\/a>
Frederick W. Elkes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Frederick<\/a>
Frederick W. Elkes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We know a little more about the life and death of Frederick \u201cFreddie\u201d Elkes thanks to a collection donated by his relatives<\/a> to the Ohio County Public Library Archives. The collection contains letters sent home by Freddie, primarily to his father, hardware store owner Michael Elkes, during Freddie\u2019s years while stationed in the Philippines; letters from the U.S. War Department regarding Freddie\u2019s capture by Japanese Imperial forces after the fall of Bataan and subsequent status as a prisoner of war; censored postcards sent to his father while Freddie was a POW; an assortment of small photographs of Freddie with military planes and a few of his friends; and finally, the heartbreaking letters from the War Department notifying Michael that his son had been lost at sea.<\/p>\n

Frederick William Elkes was born in Wheeling on June 24, 1902 to Michael Joseph Elkes, \u00a0and Della Bowman, who later divorced. He had a sister named Hazel. Freddie joined the US Army in 1927 and reenlisted three times. By July 1935, he was stationed as a mechanic at Nichols Field at Rizal, Philippine Islands, with the 28th Service Squadron of the Army Air Corps.<\/p>\n