University of Wisconsin - Extension

In a gripping portrayal of patriotism and personal sacrifice, five former Janesville POWs discuss their WWII ordeal that included the Bataan Death March, a two-and-a- half-year imprisonment at the hands of the Japanese and eventual return to their Midwestern families and jobs in a new program premiering on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT).

In the Hands of the Enemy will air at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2.

The film is narrated by actor Brian Dennehy and tells the story of the 99 part-time National Guard tank company soldiers who were called up from the Janesville Company to travel to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines just prior to Pearl Harbor. Of that number, only 35 returned.

"They were a team," says Ervin "Doc" Sartell Jr., a retired U.S. army member who comments on the company during the documentary. "They had

faith in each other and trusted each other and that makes a good unit."

That sentiment seemed to be what carried the group through its travails beginning with the largest army in U.S. ever to surrender - the 25,000 who gave up the Philippines to Japan just about four months after the attack at Pearl Harbor.

The documentary will be followed at 8:30 p.m. by an American Experience presentation of "War Letters."

War Letters features newly discovered personal correspondence, rare archival footage and home movies, spanning three centuries. The documentary sprang from author Andrew Carroll's best-selling book, "War Letters: Extraordinary Correspondence from American Wars."

The one-hour film transcends the subject of war by exploring the love, passion, pain, horror and hope of the men and women who fought and those who waited at home.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Wisconsin Public Television is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls, WHLA-TV/La Crosse and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.