June 14, 1944 Receiving patients.
June 15, 1944 Not too busy, but lots of patients - 200 today.
June 16, 1944
... Owi [is] about 2x3 miles large. It is much quieter here and the area will be O.K. But golly the patients! This morning we had over 500 having received 200 yesterday and some today. Most are medical [fevers and such, not surgical] but there are still a lot of casualties. The Portables, and 116th Med. Reg. [the Medical Regiment with the 41st Infantry Division] are fixing up a lot before sending them to us. The Mokmer Strip is capable of receiving planes but the Japs can still shell it so it is no good. Our troops are meeting stiff resistance and taking heavy losses, even after 3 weeks of steady fighting. They are at the edge of the 2nd airfield. A small fighter strip is being built behind us [on Owi]. We heard the glorious news that B 29's bombed Japan in a real raid. Maybe we won't have such a tough time now. Jap reinforcements have been intercepted and driven off, 3 times. If they landed in real force, we'd be in real danger.
One of my patients told me that in taking some Jap pill boxes they had to use the "Eichleberger [sic] Method" [referring Gen. Robert Eichelberger, hard-hitting head of I Corps] - bayonets and grenades. The men are becoming terribly tired. Gen'l Fuller of the 41st asked to be relieved and I Corps and Eickleberger [sic] took over. [Actually, according to Robert Ross Smith in U.S. Army in World War II: War in the Pacific: The Approach to the Philippines, (which has a play-by-play description of the whole Biak situation) Gens. MacArthur and Krueger were not happy with the way Gen. Fuller was handling the Biak attack, and sent Gen. Eichelberger to replace him, a difficult situation for Eichelberger since he was friends with Fuller from West Point; Gen. Fuller sent a letter to his men saying it was his failure, not theirs, and left.]
In the first 3 weeks we admitted 2000 patients!
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| Japanese bunkers in the cliffs over the beach road on Biak |
We no longer have black out except during alerts, and we are only 4 miles [across the water] from a pocket of Japs in cliffs along the beach road where they still fire at vehicles using it. We even had a movie this evening. We have alerts every night but no bombings.
I had 2nd class mail from February with magazines and a box of cigars from the Rowlands [Gene's aunt and uncle]. Fine!
The terror of constant bombardment has receded, so Gene doesn't need to calm his nerves by writing. The drudgery of heavy work operating and caring for patients in the wards continues. Gene was presumably too tired to make more than brief entries for two weeks.
June 18, 1944 No more blackout here.
June 26, 1944 Japs bombed the strip [on Owi].
June 27, 1944 Steak, to celebrate anniversary [of leaving the U.S.].
June 28, 1944 Biak and Owi - over 2500 patients in a month.
June 29, 1944 1 bottle of Jap beer to celebrate 1 yr Overseas [technically a year earlier he was on the high seas].
July 1, 1944
Here it is D+32, and the fight goes on! 2 days ago the 34th ran into a trap and were plastered with mortar fire, giving about 30 casualties for us. A graves registration fellow [bodies of many American soldiers were registered and buried, then after the war, dug up and taken home] said there were 753 already buried (reports conflict - another said between 4 and 500) and more missing. The airstrips are in use but patrols are constantly running into trouble. They sent in to us 5 wounded Japs found in a cave, half starved. It cost 4 of our boys to get them out - t'ain't worth it. Of course it was the 34th Regiment that did it. They'll learn in time not to take prisoners. [To the Japanese, becoming a prisoner was very shameful.]
Our place is nicely set up. Sparky [Adams], George [Christie], Hiram [Armstrong] and I are in the so-called nurses area [the nurses hadn't arrived because it wasn't yet, and maybe would never be, deemed safe]. Some night we're apt to look under our beds and find a nurse! Previously on Owi I lived in a tent on the beach, then back of surgery - a foxhole had to be dug at each place!
We celebrated our anniversary of 1 yr from the States with steak, and 1 bottle each of Jap beer a few days later, ice cold, it was, and tasted fine. Yesterday I received a package mailed Mar. 22. Mail is better, but still slow.
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| Lt. Joe Davis watching Sgt. Ahern sort the Owi mail |
The airports are certainly busy. 3 or 4 nights ago Japs dropped some bombs across the island from us but did not damage. The Mokmer strip got it about a week ago, with some casualties. We still have alerts, since the moon is waxing, but seldom hear a plane. They are probably dropping supplies to their men. On June 10, 200 Jap reinforcements were landed from barges on the NW corner of the island.
3000 patients in 5 weeks.
2July '44
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
The Nat'l Geographic is catching up with me. A lot of us enjoy it.
Several natives (men) are just going down the road, and what an assortment of clothes. One has a gee-string [a narrow strip of cloth held up by a waistband] and army garrison cap. The other a pair of white GI shorts and undershirt. They've been trading - small gnarled root bracelets and shells. I want to trade for a comb. At Finschhafen there were some nice ones of bamboo with long teeth. I drew a crude picture. "No got" was the answer. [Gene ended up getting a root bracelet]. These natives are so much more primitive and poor than those I've seen elsewhere. Their canoes lack the elaborate and artistic carvings that I saw in Hollandia. Contrary to the usual idea of the abundance of food on a tropical isle, these natives are hard-put to get enough to eat, and reflect it physically. They all (anywhere) prefer to receive "kai-kai" [K rations] such as crackers and canned goods, in trade. We've had several in the hospital that were wounded in booby traps or investigating grenades.
The message on the picture postcard was purely facetious - it's what all travelers or vacationers write! [Perhaps it said "Wish you were here!"] I enjoyed the booklet of jokes (which I received a few days ago) of World War I. Humor scarcely varies.
I'm doing fine. Things are quieter, but some fighting still continues. No more bombs have landed near us!
Love, Eugene
July 3, 1944 2 years [since Gene registered at Fitzsimmons] [I'm now] on Owi, Schouten Islands, NEI [Netherland East Indies].
July 5, 1944
A Lt. from the 205 FA Bn [field artillery battalion] told us what a bad time they had of it about May 30th when it looked as though the Japs were going to break thru the 162.
July 6, 1944 Mokmer strip bombed.
July 7, 1944
2 Jap planes bombed the airstrip near us [on Owi], with 10 casualties. Night before they bombed Mokmer.
July 14, 1944 My footlocker arrived (after 3 months). Now I have film!
July 21, 1944 Bed roll arrived - canvas partly rotted.
July 24, 1944 Scrub typhus cases pouring in [a month and a half after "setting up in a nice area"]
July 25, 1944 5 nurses arrive. We moved to beach area. More foxholes to dig! Air raid. No damage.
Now the nurses' area will actually be for the nurses! The following article in the Denver Post reported on the the arrival of the Colorado nurses.
Colorado Nurses on Owi Island
Owi Islands, July 25 (delayed) - (A.P.) Five khaki garbed young nurses bundled up their knitting and stepped off a transport plane at this advanced base today.
They were the first feminine contingent to be based in the Schouten Islands, 800 miles from the Philippines and are closest of all the nursing corps to the islands where a number of their corps fell in the defense of Bataan.
Three hours after they arrived Japanese airmen staged a raid but their bombs dropped harmlessly in the sea.
In the group were First Lt. Leona Cote, Chicopee, Mass., and Second Lts. Louise Huston, Denver, Colo., Judith Ann Hughs, Grand Junction, Colo., Verna Loomis, Colorado Springs, Colo., and Francis Brown, Cambridge, Mass.
"We've been overseas 13 months," Lt. Huston said, "and we're not the least bit nervous in the service."
Since the fighting was still going on, surgeon's were still needed, even though they were swamped with scrub typhus cases. And nursing care was definitely needed!
July 29, 1944 I have 2 wards and am on surgery.
August 1, 1944 for 4 weeks straight we've averaged 113 admissions daily.
