Question: The 34th Pursuit Squadron of the United States Air Force was among the 60,000-80,000 prisoners of war who were involved the Bataan Death March during what war?

The Battle of Bataan (7 January – 9 April 1942) represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II.  In January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor.  The commander-in-chief of all Filipino and American forces in the islands, General Douglas MacArthur, consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the Japanese invaders.  By this time, the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia.  The Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region.  Despite a lack of supplies, Filipino and American forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward.  As the combined Filipino and American forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prevented immediate victory across the Pacific.  The surrender at Bataan, with 76,000 soldiers surrendering in the Philippines altogether, was the largest in American and Filipino military histories, and was the largest United States surrender since the American Civil War's Battle of Harper's Ferry.  Soon afterwards, Filipino and American prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March. <SEP> Maj. Gen. George G. Finch became the Senior Leader of the US Air National Guard; (Chief of the Air Division National Guard Bureau) (1948-1950) In June 1953 it was reported that Gen. Mark W. Clark would retire and be replaced by Maj. Gen George G. Finch on the UN command delegation to the Korean armistice talks George G. Finch, born April 11, 1902 in Dade City, Florida, is considered one of the pioneers in United States aviation history.  He began his military career during World War 1, enlisting in the Aviation Section of the Army's Signal Corps in 1918.  He remained in the Reserve Corps after the war, and in 1926, became Commander, 27th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group.  In 1940, Georgia Governor Ed Rivers commissioned him to form the first flying unit of the Georgia Air National Guard.  The unit was mobilized into the U.S. Army in September, 1941, with Major Finch as commander.  After World War II, he was a leading critic of efforts to eliminate the air arm of the National Guard during peacetime.  General Finch gained the respect and admiration of Air National Guardsmen throughout the nation with his steadfast support and successful efforts to preserve the Air Guard.  He became the first Chief of the Air Force Division of the National Guard Bureau in 1948.  Under his leadership, the Air National Guard built to combat readiness and was among the first components called into service after the outbreak of the Korean War.  As a result of General Finch's vision and perseverance, 45,000 highly trained officers and airmen of 22 wings and 65 squadrons gave the Air Force the strength it needed in the early, critical phases of the Communist drive down the Korean peninsula.General Finch served as the senior Air Force member of the United Nations negotiating team at the peace talks at Panmunjom, Korea, and received the Legion of Merit for outstanding service in 1955; General Finch assumed command of Fourteenth Air Force, Robins AFB, Georgia, becoming the nation's first Air National Guardsman to head a numbered air force.  General Finch had a career of "firsts" including the US Army's first night landing with a single, five-million-candlepower floodlight in 1927.  He also established and endowed the General John P. McConnell Award at the United States Air Force Academy.  Considered by many as the father of the strong, independent Air National Guard existing today, General Finch retired in 1957.  No man has had greater impact on the Air Force Reserve and National Guard than has General George G. Finch.A graduate of the University of Georgia and a member of the Georgia Bar, General Finch was enshrined in the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame May 18, 1996. <SEP>  It was wiped out in the Battle of the Philippines (1941–42).  The survivors fought as infantry during Battle of Bataan and after their surrender, were subjected to the Bataan Death March, although some did escape to Australia. The 34th Pursuit Squadron is an inactive United States Air Force unit.  The unit was never remanned or equipped.  It was carried as an active unit until 2 April 1946. <SEP>  The transfer began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II.  The total distance marched from Mariveles to San Fernando and from the Capas Train Station to Camp O'Donnell is variously reported by differing sources as between 60 and .  Differing sources also report widely differing prisoner of war casualties prior to reaching Camp O'Donnell: from 5,000 to 18,000 Filipino deaths and 500 to 650 American deaths during the march.  The march was characterized by severe physical abuse and wanton killings, and was later judged by an Allied military commission to be a Japanese war crime. The Bataan Death March (Filipino: "Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan"; Japanese: バターン死の行進, Hepburn: "Batān Shi no Kōshin") was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war from Saysain Point, Bagac, Bataan and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell, Capas, Tarlac, via San Fernando, Pampanga, where the prisoners were loaded onto trains.