Bertie COUNTY NC Smithwick - WW II - Newspaper Clippings Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by katiesue1@email.msn.com Suzan Speropolous http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/bertie.htm World War II Newspaper clippings Some articles that I found on my father while at the library in Windsor a couple of months ago. His picture appears on page 57 of the scrapbook. Bertie Ledger Advance; Friday; June 12, 1942 Rudolph (Dewey) Smithwick who was supposedly in the fortress at Corregidor when that post fell to the Japs. Smithwick is the son of of Mrs. J.E. Barnacascle and brother of Mrs. Charlie Thomas, both of Windsor. He has been in the army for two year. (with picture) Bertie Ledger Advance; Friday, March 5, 1943 Windsor Soldier is Jap Prisoner Official word was received Thursday by Mrs. Odessa Barnacascle of Windsor that her son, Rudolph (Dewey) Smithwick, who had been listed as "missing in action" since last May, was a prisoner of war held by the Japanese government somewhere in the Phillipines. Smithwick was in the Army two years before the outbreak of the war and was stationed at Corregidor when the Japs attacked the Phillipines. According to the latest information he was taken prisoner at the fall of this fortress. The last word received by his mother was on December 26, 1941. She was notified that he was missing in May. Bertie Ledger Advance; Friday, September 21, 1945 No Word of the Status of Three Jap Prisoners Windsor - No word has been received here by the Red Cross concerning the fate of three Bertie county men who were Japanese prisoners of war, according to Mrs. Elizabeth Pugh, Red Cross home service officer. The three men, known to have been taken prisoner by the Japs in the Phillipines early in the war are Pritchard R. Hoggard, coxswain, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wright Hoggard, Colerain, Route 1; Pvt. Due Smithwick, son of Mrs. Odessa Barnacasel, Windsor; Grady Lee Hoggard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Hoggard, Aulander. Capt. William Taylor Lineberry, formerly of Colerain, a medical officer, whose wife has been residing in Ahoskie, has been released and is already back to the United States, according to information his wife received in a wire from him this week. Mrs. Lineberry expects to meet her husband in New York this week on his return. Information concerning the other men has been meager since their capture and no contact has been made with them in several months, according to the Red Cross here. It was not known at what Japanese camp they were being held or whether they have as yet been liberated. However, messages of greeting to them were forwarded from here by their parents through the Red Cross immediately following the Japanese surrender. Their parents are still awaiting answer from these messages or for official information through the War Department of the fate of these men. Bertie Ledger Advance, no date Barnacasel has been Liberated Williamston - After forty months as a Japanese prisoner, Pvt. Due Barnacasel (Smithwick) was liberated on September 13 and is now on his way back to the United States, according to a telegram received Wednesday by his mother, Mrs. Odessa Barnacasel, formerly of Windsor, who now resides here. This was the first word received from Barnacasel (Smithwick) in many months, during which his mother and relatives had no news concerning his whereabouts or how he was faring. He entered the service from Bertie county. With Barnacasel's liberation and safety, there remains only one other Bertie county prisoner held by the Japanese who has not yet been heard from or accounted for. He is Pritchard R. Hoggard, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wright R. Hoggard of Colerain. Bertie Ledger Advance; November 23, 1945 Due Smithwick is now in hospital Swannanoa - Cpl. Due Smithwick, son of Mrs. Adessa Barnacastle of Windsor, and hero of Corregidor, has been admitted to Moore General Hospital here for treatment. Smithwick entered the service May 18, 1940 and servied at Fort Mills, Corregidor from November 1, 1940 until the surrender to the Japanese. He wears the Purple Heart for battle wounds, the Presedential Unit Citation and two oakleaf clusters, the Asiatic Pacific ribbon and four battle stars, the Pre- Pearl Harbor Defense ribbon, the Phillipine Defense ribbon and the Victory Medal. Before induction Smithwick was employed by the Day Lite Bakery Company in Rocky Mount. Bertie Ledger Advance; December 21, 1945 Pfc. Smithwick Coming Home Pearl Harbor, T.H. - Pfc. George D. Smithwick, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Smithwick of Windsor, is on his way home aboard the USS Miataka. The Miataka, which left Saipan December 1, is scheduled to arrive in San Pedro about December 22. As soon as he arrives, Pfc. Smithwick will go to a separation center to receive his honorable discharge.