After more than two years of internment on the United States territory of Guam, the German cruiser SMS Cormoran II was scuttled by its crew in Apra Harbor on 7 April 1917 to prevent it becoming a spoil of war between the US and Germany.
The SMS Cormoran II Crew – Prisoners of War Read Post »
The partial list presented here that researcher James Oelke-Farley compiled for Guampedia, indicates only 108 crew members. The list was cross-checked with message traffic from the US State Department and prison records. However, Oelke-Farley explains that when the men arrived in the US they often were no longer referred to by the ship upon which they served as crew members (the crew of the SMS Geier which had been interned in Honolulu was combined with the Comoran’s crew on the way to the prisoner of war camp in Fort Douglas, Utah) but rather simply as “POWs” or “German Navy,” which has made an exact identification of every man difficult.
SMS Cormoran II: Partial Crew List Read Post »
By 1920, after the end of World War I, the men of the SMS Cormoran II who had been taken as prisoners of war by the United States were returned to their home country of Germany. The experience of being interned In Guam and then in US POW camps bonded these men together in a significant and personal way. Even though they went their separate ways back to their families the men of the Cormoran met yearly for over 40 years to remember, share stories, mourn lost comrades and stay in touch.
Cormoran-Südseefahrer: SMS Cormoran Crew Annual Meetings Read Post »
Adalbert Zuckschwerdt (1874 – 1945) was the captain of the German raider SMS Cormoran and its successor SMS Cormoran II which sailed to Guam from Tsingtao (Qingdao), China in 1914 in the early months of World War I. For more than two years, Zuckschwerdt and his crew remained in Guam until the United States entered the conflict in April 1917, and the SMS Cormoran II was scuttled by the Germans in Apra Harbor.
Captain Adalbert Zuckschwerdt Read Post »
US Naval Captain William John Maxwell (1859 – 1934) was Governor of Guam from 28 March 1914 – 29 April 1916. Maxwell relieved Acting Governor Alfred Walton Hinds and continued previous Naval Government infrastructure projects. In addition, he reorganized government agencies, established financial institutions, petitioned the US Navy Department for Guam’s US citizenship and to open the port for commercial use.
Governor William John Maxwell Read Post »
The German cruiser Cormoran II, intentionally scuttled by its own captain during World War I, sits on the bottom of Guam’s Apra Harbor. The shipwreck, which was added to the
The Journey of SMS Cormoran II Read Post »
Nearly 500 Americans from Guam taken to camps in Japan. After Guam was captured by the Japanese 10 December 1941, the Americans who remained behind were taken prisoner–477 military personnel (including five female nurses, one civilian woman and her newborn daughter) and 100 civilian men, including businessmen and the American Catholic priests, as well as the Spanish Catholic Bishop, Miguel Olano. According to official records nineteen of them died while they were prisoners. All of them suffered from malnutrition and exposure.
WWII: Prisoners of War Sent to Japan Read Post »
Hid in Guam jungles. Shoichi Yokoi (1915 – 1997) was a sergeant in the Imperial Japanese Army, stationed on Guam during the Japanese Occupation of the island during World War II (December 1941- July 1944).
WWII: Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi, Last Straggler on Guam Read Post »
Guam is attacked. In the early morning of 8 December 1941, Japanese war planes flew to Guam from Saipan and bombed the island. In Sumai, the Standard Oil tanks caught fire from strafing and bombing. The Marine Barracks, the Cable Station and the Pan American facilities, also in Sumai, and the Navy landing docks in Piti suffered damage. The USS Penguin came under heavy attack and sank off Orote Point after being scuttled by the crew. While a few crew were injured they all made it ashore in rafts. Later on, the skipper died at the hospital.
WWII: Oral War Histories of the CHamoru People Read Post »
Pan Am employees become Wake Island Defenders. Before the outbreak of World War II, 45 Chamorro men were employed by Pan American Airways at the company’s facilities in Wake Island, one of the stops on the Pan Am Clipper transPacific air service initiated in 1935. Guam was also a stop. The men worked as kitchen helpers, hotel service attendants, and laborers. But the peaceful life on Wake was shattered 8 December 1941, when Japanese aircraft bombed the island, killing five men from Guam and wounding five others.
WWII: 45 CHamorus Caught in Wake Invasion Read Post »
