Sickness, Death and Skulls (40)

August 3, 1944
     [Sparky] Adams, [Hiram] Armstrong and [Arnold] Niemeyer made major.
     The nurses arrived about 10 days ago.  That is, five of them.  The first night there was a raid with the 90's [heavy artillery] driving the planes off but not until there were a few casualties near the strip.  The nurses certainly brought us luck!

Gene in front of his tent on Owi

     Sunday night, July 30 I was O.D. [officer of the day: oversees matters for the hospital].  All was quiet until about 9 P.M. when the old 3 red balls went shooting up [signal flares?].  We heard the planes, and saw one go in for a run over the field with his lights on to confuse our gunners.  But they fired anyway.  We had 1 dead and 1 wounded from a tree burst [an artillery shell hits a tree and it explodes] from a 90 [mm shell] down the beach.  By the strip they caught it.  A bomb hit a tent and rolled into a foxhole with 6 men in it.  The fellow who claimed to be on top said he didn't know why he wasn't killed, for most of those under him were.  Was I busy getting beds.  When it was all over, we had 11 dead (3 died after coming in) and 5 wounded including a Capt. MC [medical corpsman or medic] with a brain wound.  It looks now as though he might make it.
     The 20's, 40's as well as 90's were all shooting.  The first time for a while that a plane has been that low.
     The B-24 Liberators are certainly swarming in and out [of] here all the time.  The strip is very busy and crowded.  ...
     My footlocker came about 2 weeks ago, everything in fair shape.  A week ago my bed roll which had part of the heavy canvas cover rotted as well as some things inside.  My air mattress is O.K.!
     We've been having a big run on scrub typhus in the last month, with over 600 cases to date.  There has been only 1 death but some are awful darn sick [see the description of scrub typhus in post # 37:"I Can't Fully Tell Beth"].  I have 2 like that.  This is borne (according to Lt. Col. Phillips of the Public Health lab for Rcky. Mtn. Spotted Fever in Montana - he's a darn good chess player!  He's been to N. Africa, Italy, India and the SWPA [South West Pacific Area] on the typhus problem) this brand is borne by a small wood mite found in damp and uncleared areas.  A few of our personnel have it - 8 or 10.  Me, I no longer walk in the woods!  Our census is crowding 900, even though we evacuate 60 or more daily.  For 4 weeks straight we average 113 admissions daily.  We have to keep the typhus patients until fever free.
     I've done 2 hernias, 3 appendectomies and a pilonidal cyst [in WWII it was often called "jeep seat" because men exposed to prolonged rides over bumpy roads often developed it due to pressure on the tail bone which could cause ingrown hairs which would then get infected in susceptible individuals], as well as more wounds and fractures.  I have 3 wards and average about 80 patients besides being on surgery.
     [Capt. Ward] Fenton left us while we were at Hollandia, and [Capt. Alton] Hansen left from here (health!).  We are 6 M.C. short.  Major Schwatel of the 33rd Division - home in Chicago - was helping us for a while and observing but he was called back.  ...

August 6, 1944
     [Max] Vinicor and I went to the Mokmer drome of Biak.  A Piper Cub took each of us over.  My pilot obligingly flew along the cliff on Biak, over the ridge that had been so heavily shelled, over the next valley, back over the west cave, for me to take pictures. 

Destroyed Japanese pill box on Biak

     Then Max and I walked across the drome to the first low ridge - low (50 or 60 feet) but a steep coral ridge.  On top were 2 pill boxes with roofs 4 feet thick, for machine guns.  In the back of one lay a heap of mixed bones and clothes, including 2 skulls.  Inside the pill box were 2 more clothed skeletons and various rubbish.  At the next, there was more of the same.  I took pictures, using Super XX [black and white film from Kodak] for the day was cloudy.  There were parts of a mountain gun scattered around, shell cases and shells.  I took 3 cases.  Then we went west of the drome and had lunch (such as it was) with Lt. Wenz of the 242 Boat Co. [part of an Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment in the Navy].  Then I rode down along the coast past the cliffs to the 41st Div. Hq. and back to Stone Jetty.  The cliffs are several hundred feet high, overhanging in places with stalactites and stalagmites.  From the base a large creek runs out of the cliff.  I saw a group of native women, children and men.  The women wore sarongs.  When we first got here they wore only skimpy gee-strings.

Natives of Biak carrying loads along the road

August 8, 1944
     [Maj. Merril] Michels left - trichophytus [a fungal infection that can cause red, scaly patches and hair to break off].  [Maj. Arnie] Niemeyer (or Grice) chief of surgery.

August 11, 1944
     Up to May '44 in all theaters of war, the army had had 1350 cases of [scrub] typhus.  In the past 6 weeks we've had 850!
     Air raid this evening.  They bombed the strip, destroyed a P-38 and wounded 1 or 2 men.  Supposedly the P-61 night fighters shot down one Jap bomber.  The Japs made about 4 or 5 passes.  The AA [anti-aircraft] fire did no good.  Air temperatures run about 80 or 82 on cloudy days, up to 90 or a bit above on hot days.  If the wind blows, it is pleasant.  Otherwise it is very sultry.  Some evenings when the breeze stops it is very uncomfortable.  Mornings it is 79 or 80, but a person feels as though he needs a blanket at night.  I do.  Sunrise is about 7 and sunset about 7 (really is 6 + 6 sun time).  They keep us on the same time as Finsch. even though we are in the next zone.  The time of sunrise and sunset varies but little year round.

17 Aug. '44
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     Today I received your V mail, Jack, and your card, John, from the Y camp a few days ago.  Jack, you certainly can compress volumes of events into a few sentences.  I hope you've enjoyed Colorado.
     Beth is keeping me supplied with film!  In fact, I think I have enough to last until the end of the war!  She packs it so very well, that I've had no trouble with moisture as have had some men.  I've taken quite a lot, so that now I'm running out of subjects.
     My tent mate George brought back a Springer spaniel puppy he found wandering around the area!  Dogs are quite scarce here - not like the packs in Australia.  You'd have laughed at 3 of us tonight poking around an airplane dump and picking up things that "might come in handy".
     They are still cleaning out Japs in the caves across on the other island [Biak].  In fact, they were shelling a place yesterday where about a week before I'd taken pictures of a cliff.  Thank goodness the European affair is nearing its end.  We hear lots of things from air men here, about what is going on.  I'm very busy, but getting along O.K.
     Love, Eugene

August 21, 1944 [Gene and Beth's 7th wedding anniversary, and the third he has spent in the army]  Prickly heat on my body and arms.  Crud on the scrotum!