GISNER, ROBERT J. Dec 10, 1944 age 25 POW Luzon

ROBERT JAMES GISNER  b June 27, 1917 Schenectady, NY d. Dec 10, 1942

Prisoner of War Central Luzon, Philippines

Torpedoman’s Mate 2c Navy USS Canopus AS 9

Buried Manila American Cemetery, Wall of the Missing, Philippines

15750 Rockdale

Parents: Isaac Leroy & Laura

Siblings: Walter, James Leroy

His family came to Detroit from New York State, the most common migration pattern for Michigan back in the 1830s. Isaac was a die worker. They lived in the house at 15750 Rockdale since the 1920s , and yes there is a boarded up house behind the overgrowth in the photo.



Robert attended Redford but his younger brother James is the one who shows up in photos playing the trombone in the band in 1940. Already in Aug 1935 Robert enlisted in the Navy. When the attack at Pearl Harbor happened he already completed a tour and immediately re-enlisted then was sent to the Philippines.



Navy Muster Roll

He served abroad the USS Canopus, a submarine support vessel. On Dec 7, 1941 the Canopus lay at Cavite Navy Yard as a tender to Submarine Squadron 20. In the days that followed the men worked day and night to repair ships damaged in the daily air raids in addition to keeping her brood of submarines at sea. With the Army falling back on Manila, Canopus sailed to Marveles Bay at the tip of Bataan on Christmas Day. Dec 29 she received her first direct bomb hit. A 500 pound armor piercing bomb penetrated all deck and exploded on the propeller shaft house. Six sailor were killed mostly from scalding and fires in the engine rooms and magazines. The men were buried at seas at the tip of Bataan. On Jan 1, 1942 she received a second direct bomb hit. This time a fragmentation bomb exploded near the top of the towering smokestack resulting in substantial damage to the ship and injuries to 16 men of the gun crews. The crew continued to care for the small craft and sent her men into battle in the improvised naval battalion which fought on Bataan.



USS Canopus AS 9

Disguised as a bombed out, listing, abandoned hulk, smoke pots were placed around the ship giving the appearance of an abandoned hulk by day while at night the ship hummed with activity. Her crew worked at a fevered pace repairing the smaller ships left behind and keeping the submarines in action.

Upon the surrender of Bataan on the night of April 8 the Canopus was ordered scuttled in Marveles Bay to deny her use to the enemy. She was backed off into deep water under her own power and then was laid to rest by her own men. Her crew were evacuated to Corregidor on Feb 12, 1942 and served with the Marines. Nearly all the crewmen were captured at the fall of Corregidor and spent the rest of the war in Japanese POW camps.

Robert went ashore April 10, 1942. He died as a POW from Beriberi Dec 10, 1942. He received a Purple Heart.

Earl Anderson was a crewman on the Canopus and a POW. He gave a vivid account of his experiences in a memoir: http://as9.larryshomeport.com/html/anderson.html