United States of America: A fine and scarce Second World War Fall of the Philippines Manila Sternberg General Hospital staff members Bronze Star Medal and Prisoner of War Medal pair awarded to Staff Sergeant Benjamin B. Grosse, Army Medical Department, United States Army. From a Jewish family, he was born in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, but lived variously in Chicago. Illinois and Grand Haven, Ottawa, Michigan. He enlisted into the United States Army in September 1940 at San Francisco, specifically enlisting for the Philippine Department. He was then sent to work, presumably as an orderly, at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila. When the Philippines fell to the Japanese in May 1942, he was taken prisoner of war, and in November 1942 and held in Camp O’Donnell. He would subsequently report on the beating and killing of a Corporal Juan Bautista at Camp O’Donnell early in September 1942. Grosse was then transported to the Prisoner of War Camp at Cabanatuan in Nueva Province, Luzon in November 1942, until moved to a Camp Bilibid in October 1944, from where he was liberated on 21 February 1945. Awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, he later claimed the Prisoner of War Medal when this came into existence in 1985. He now lies buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
United States of America: Bronze Star Medal, reverse bearing official machine engraved naming: ‘BENJAMIN B GROSSE’, complete with original ribbon and slot brooch pin; Prisoner of War Medal, reverse bearing engraved naming: ‘B.B. GROSSE’, complete with original ribbon and slot brooch pin. The latter has the accompanying piece of paper that came with the medal giving him instructions on how to get the medal named, this also bears privately written notes on his service.
Condition: Good Very Fine.
Benjamin Bernard Grosse was born on 9 August 1918 in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio, the son of Benjamin Bernard Grosse and Barbara Brown. His parents would divorce, and his mother would later marry for a second time and take the surname of Gellick. He was from a Jewish family. By 1920 he was living in his grandparents home in Chicago, Illinois, and by 1930 was living with his mothers sister in Grand Haven, Ottawa, Michigan.
Having gained four years of high school education and worked as a files clerk, he then enlisted into the United States Army on 23 September 1940 at San Francisco, California, and became a Private 1st Class (No.1900033) in the United States Army Medical Department. His terms of enlistment show that he enlisted for the Philippine Department, and was then sent there after basic training in Delaware, being assigned to Sternberg General Hospital or Department Hospital, Manila P, that was a United States Military Hospital in Manila.
The Japanese launched the invasion of the Philippines on 8 December 1941. After the Japanese failure to penetrate the Bataan defensive perimeter in February, the Japanese conducted a 40-day siege. The crucial large natural harbor and port facilities of Manila Bay were denied to the Japanese until May 1942. Throughout 1941, the United States had deployed additional troops in the Philippines to be prepared for potential threats. The number of Army nurses stationed on the islands grew to more than 100. Most of the nurses and medical support staff, including Grosse, worked at Sternberg General Hospital in Manila or seven miles away at Fort McKinley. The Philippines fell to the Japanese on 8 May 1942.
As of 7 May 1942, Grosse was reported as missing in action, and was subsequently confirmed as a prisoner of war of the Japanese. He was held in Prisoner of War Camp at Cabanatuan in Nueva Province, Luzon, Philippines, until moved to a Camp Bilibid in October 1944. Grosse was released from captivity there on 21 February 1945, and promoted to Staff Sergeant.
Grosse would subsequently give reports on his time in captivity, and detailed that he witnessed the beating and killing of a Corporal Juan Bautista at Camp O’Donnell early in September 1942, in addition to the improper conditions in which the prisoners were transported from Capas, Tarlac, at Luzon to Cabanatuan in November 1942. He then reported on the general conditions at Camp Cabanatuan, the bearing of an unknown Army Major in May 1943 by a Japanese camp guard nicknamed ‘Donald Duck’, and then finally the failure to provide the Prisoners of War with sufficient food whilst they were held in Camp Bilibid from October 1944 to February 1945. All surviving prisoners of war of the Japanese subsequently became entitled to the award of the Bronze Star Medal.
On his return from the Pacific to the United States he married Mary Louise Mason in Grand Haven on 11 August 1945, and he latterly lived in Pinellas County, Florida, where he died on 17 March 1992, being buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C.
The United States Prisoner of War Medal was authorised on 8 November 1985 by President Ronald Regan, and was authorised for award to any United States service personal who had been taken prisoner since April 1917. Grosse applied for this medal and received it, and they had it engraved up at this own expense, as the United States Government does not engrave service medals. Grosse is also confirmed as having been awarded the Purple Heart Medal.
