D-Day + 1, But Where? (28)

The 92nd Evac only stayed in Finschhafen a couple of weeks, then they were sent to the battleground.

April 5, 1944
     Well, it looks like we aren't going to play for peanuts.  Today we were all issued carbines and clips for 60 rounds of ammunition.  They say our forward echelon will land right with the infantry.  We won't wear red cross arm bands.  I'm glad of that for the Japs try to get any men so marked.  I just found out that I'm in the first echelon!  It probably won't be long - 2 or 3 weeks.  Well, I don't want to be a hero, but there's no telling!  If we go in on the first day it certainly won't be a picnic.  We'll be operating in bomb and shell craters.  I'm surely glad Beth doesn't know this and I hope she doesn't suspect it.

Easter services at Finschhafen were well attended

 April 9, 1944 Sunday, Easter
     Rain again this morning.  Everything is muddy and encrusted with it - shoes, pants, floors!  This scarcely seems like an Easter Sunday.  I fear the boil I have starting on my leg won't let me go to church.
     It turned fairly clear and the mud is drying up a bit.  I don't believe they ever have a completely clear day in this country.  Everyone is familiar with his carbine.  All we are waiting for is D day.  Apparently the first echelon (me included) will land D + 1, the second day.  It promises to be exciting, to say the least.  They claim they expect it to be a short action - 2 weeks.  We may stay on as a hospital.  Bets seem to favor Wewak or Rabaul.

April 12, 1944
     Finally boil is clearing up!  We turned in our waterproof bags and clothes in it.  It will land some time after we do.  I bought a heavy duffel bag for £1-0-10.

April 13, 1944
     Sitting and waiting.

April 14, 1944
     Still sitting and waiting.  Me leg is doing fine.
     No doubt it's silly, but I wrote a possible "last note" to Beth and to Mom.  But I always believe in being prepared.  I don't know why, but this comes to mind this morning - Beth introduced me to it - "My heart's in the Highland, chasing the deer.  My heart's in the Highland, my heart is not here." [Robert Burns: "My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer; Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe, My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go."]  Rather, my heart is with Beth.

April 15, 1944
     ...  Things seem to be shaping up.  I heard on the Zero Hour the Japs said the 41st Division which had carried on a previous campaign, were now preparing for another north of Wewak, but would fine them (the Japs) well prepared!  In light of that, our mail censoring seems silly.

April 18, 1944
     The first echelon is to go aboard LST [Landing Ship, Tank] #10 tonight.  Rumor indicates Hollandia - also some island N of Truk [Micronesia].  Time will tell.  Too bad we won't be able to see newspapers and tell what is going on where we will be!  ...

Finschhafen is on the right, Hollandia above, and X marks where Japan was expecting the attack (map from http://olive-drab.com/od_history_ww2_ops_battles_1943newguinea.php)

April 19, 1944
     Didn't go aboard until this morning.  Slept quite uncomfortably on a bare cot, with 1 blanket, last night.  We were called at 0330, breakfast soon after 0400, and then sat around until 0630!  Mud was fairly deep.  We were dressed in field equipment.  They came for us in about 25 jeeps and a few trucks - it looked like a scene in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" where a flock of knights in baby Austins [automobiles] come driving over a hill [a revival of the musical by Rogers and Hart, A Connecticut Yankee came out in 1943].  We went to the beach just beyond where we had landed, and LST's were drawn up on the beach side by side.  We got aboard without too much delay.  I'm quartered in the ward room, which is a combination officers' dining room, lounge, and surgery if necessary.  There is a small OR [operating room] light over one table.  The first thing I did was to shave and wash - nice hot water!  Then I stripped and washed my muddy leggings and shoes and took a shower.  The best I've had in a long time.  We eat like officers - tables, silverware, and dishes - even soup for dinner.  Of course the piece-de-resistance was hash!  The coffee tasted superb!
     This morning I wrote a letter to Beth - my last for ? long?  No mail yesterday and no chance of any for a long time.
     We are going to convoy, 3rd in a line of LST's - 17 in all, and 5 troop ships and 7 destroyers.  It's nice to see the destroyers riding herd over us!  There is a tremendous amount of shipping all around Finsch.
     This afternoon I tried to wash the mosquito repellent (bottle spilled in my pack!) off some rubber bags.  No luck.  We had our first briefing.  We will land about Sunday (D+1) and have a mile over new road to go - walking for us and unknown amounts of small arms fire, mortars, planes and snipers all possible.  Then we dig in.  Fox holes supposed to be about 2 1/2' x 4' x 5', and with a small shovel that will be no cinch!  I brought along leather gloves.

April 20, 1944 Thursday
     Slept on a couple of flat "cushions" from the back of a couch, placed on a table.  No good!  Besides, it was hot.  Phosphorescence last night was beautiful.  I could see the wakes of the ship ahead and behind, though it was an absolutely black night.  This evening we began passing thru the Admiralty Islands, to go around N of them.  The shore was lit up like a Christmas tree.
     General quarters [call to battle stations, in this case for a briefing] sounds at 5 A.M. for the entire crew.  The darn ward room is never empty or quiet until 11 or 12 P.M., so I am disgruntled not having my usual 9 hours of sleep.
     Briefed again.  I have 5 men - Boltarez, Barnes, Boitnut, McCavie and Griffith.  We go ashore after our first vehicle and keep together as a unit for work.  Went over the maps again.  We land in Humbolt Bay, a few miles SE of Hollandia.  I read the special book on data about Hollandia.

From Reports of General MacArthur: the Campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific: Volume 1
Humbolt Bay is circled in pink

The Cyclops Mountains, a 25-mile long chain of 7000-foot-high mountains, follow the coastline and end at Humbolt Bay.  On the south side of the mountains is the Lake Sentani Plain.  The Japanese had built three airfields in 1942 between the Cyclops Mountains and Lake Sentani: Hollandia, Sentani, and Cyclops.  The purpose of the Hollandia attack was to secure the airfields, which were referred to in the British parlance by the Allies as airdromes.  A fascinating account of the dangerous and tragic reconnaissance work carried out before the landing can be found in the chapter "Ferdinand on Hollandia" by Commander E. A. Feldt of the Australian navy in Combat: the War with Japan ed. by Don Congdon (1962).  "Ferdinand" was the code name chosen by the Coastwatchers or intelligence operatives in the south Pacific for their organization because in the children's book,  The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf, Ferdinand did not fight but sat under a tree and smelled the flowers.  The name served to remind the intelligence officers they were just supposed to observe.  General MacArthur planned three simultaneous landings on April 22nd: Tanahmere, Humbolt, and Aitape.  The Allies fooled the Japanese into expecting the attack to be in the Madang-Hansa area (marked with an "X" on the black and white map above.

April 21. 1944 Friday
     Slept on the couch - better!  The sky was brilliant with stars last night.  The Big dipper looked swell.  Clear and beautiful this morning.
     I wonder what Beth is doing.  I know she'll be watching the papers for news of any push over here and figure I'm in it.  How I miss her!

April 22, 1944 Saturday
     "D" Day.  I wonder how the show is going?  We're still too far out to hear the shooting.  Hard rain.  More briefing today.  No one, even myself, is much stimulated by the thought of landing.  Certainly no one has any premonition or worries about it.

Coconuts, Rain, More Rain, and Critters (27)

Starting with Gene's letters from New Guinea, Beth copied the non-personal part to share with her family and other wives of 92nd Evac doctors.  I never found the originals, so I don't know what salutation or closing Gene used in writing Beth, so to distinguish them from his journal entries, I'm using "Beloved" and "All my love, Eugene".

2 Apr. '44
Beloved [Gene is not allowed to mention his location, but in copying the letter, Beth wrote across the top: "I'm sure this was at Finschhafen"; army wives were pretty canny!],

Gene with his jungle pack in
front of his hammock

     You should see me.  I'm sitting on my helmet - a few red ants keep me off the ground.  I'm in the midst of a grove of coconuts.  All around the ground is covered with coconuts.  Some of the fellows are trying to knock off the green ones.  They may taste better.  I tried a few.  The milk is very watery and not so sweet as I remembered.  The meat tastes the same.  First I tried my machete to take the husk off, but I found my hunting knife does better.  Then I split them with my machete.
     Can you imagine me sleeping in a hammock?  Well, I do.  The jungle hammock has a canvas-rubberized bottom, wider rubberized roof, with mosquito netting sides and zippers to close where you crawl in.  Mine right now is slung between two coconut trees.  If you get unbalanced, it is hard on the net sides.  I find that with due caution I can turn on my side, but none of this flopping around stuff.  Each time you set it up you have to cut sticks for spreaders for top and bottom.  The blanket and hammock fit right into the jungle pack sack.  In fact it is surprising how much it holds - so much better than the musette bags.     The humidity is terrific, but it isn't really hot even with the sun as bright as it is.  But you just drip whenever you move around.  A blanket is necessary by morning.

92nd Evac men bathing in the little river

     I can hear some one whooping at the little river.  This temporary spot offers no other means of washing or bathing or shaving.  The water is surprisingly cool but not like a Colorado stream.  It is astonishing the lack of mosquitoes or flies.
     I wish we had some of this soil for the ranch and garden.  It is so very black with so much humus.  It has been cleared with a bulldozer so makes a good surface - unless it rains a downpour.  Ferns and heavy undergrowth are all around.  There is a great deal of coral around and the roads are made of it in places.  There is quite a dank smell in the evenings.  I haven't seen a snake, not that I have been searching for any.  The hills are certainly steep.
     Too bad I can't dry a bunch of coconut meat to send you for coconut cream pie, frosting and such.  There are hundreds of nuts on the ground, and they float out in the ocean in places.  They seem to sprout quite readily and make the nicest little trees.  They would go well as potted affairs.  No, they can't be sent in the mail, but I'll eat enough.  It will be surprising if there aren't a few gashed fingers.  The machete reminds me of the corn knife I used to like to swing around when I was a kid.  It is very handy. [In later years he used it extensively in chopping up corn stalks and such for compost in his garden which, alas, had none of the nice black soil!]
     All my love, Eugene

April 2, 1944
     Atabrine [against malaria] will by [be] 2 daily, 5x a week!  [Some of the doctors suffered from malaria anyway; Dr. John Mihalick's obituary from 1961 mentions that he quit his orthopedics practice after he suffered another bout with malaria after the war, and then took up psychiatry.]
     All the washing facilities are, is along the creek bank.  ...  I just washed my face - I couldn't bring myself to it just yet!
     There is a small cemetery near here - U.S. and Aussies.  [The soldiers' who died in battle or shortly afterwards were usually buried locally and later exhumed and flown home].
     Perfectly open-air latrines.  We go thru the mess line, too!
     The heat gives me a little headache in spite of salt tablets.  This certainly reminds me of our first days at Freda [California].  We just sort of wander around aimlessly and don't know what to do.

April 3, 1944
     Light showers last night.  Our own mess starts today.
     What a time this noon!  Around 11 A.M. it began to rain and just poured down.  I had put up a pup tent to keep my stuff dry and ditched around it.  I sat under it until 12, then had to improve the drainage ditches.  ...  I stepped in an old shit trench and went almost up to my hips.  Then I took my clothes off and took a shower in the rain - lathered nicely.  I caught rain water off my hammock top in 2 helmets and did some laundry.  This evening we were supposed to move to a better area, not so down in a hole.  The men finally had to move in the dark.  Sterling [the C.O.] was unpopular!

3 Apr. '44
Beloved,
     Here I sit in our pup tent, snug as - well, pretty snug.  The rain drops slowly.  George and I each played safe and brought a shelter half and I'm certainly glad we did.  Now we can keep our stuff dry.  But the humidity is terrific.  One stands around in the rain without a raincoat for you are already wet and surprisingly enough it isn't uncomfortable.  I wear my helmet for coconut protection and to keep my glasses from spotting so fast.  Am I ever thankful for all the Kleenex I have.  A raincoat makes you hotter and wetter than going without.  I have my hammock roof higher at one end and my helmet catching the rain water so I can wash some socks.  The creek water is tidal and so is extremely hard.
     There is quite a collection of insects.  Big red ants that bite and lots of small spiders.  In fact, when I opened up this writing case, one was inside.  There are a few small land crabs around,  There are not so many birds and they don't make such a racket as in Australia.
     I have my camera wrapped in plioform as well as the film and the whole thing in the large waterproof bag that fits in the jungle pack.  Really they have thought of everything.  There are six small rubber bags in addition to the large one.  I am very glad I packed Vernon's lighter, for it works beautifully.  Matches are almost too damp to strike.  The pack also includes a waterproof match-safe with a compass top and a flint strip on the bottom.  Really we aren't uncomfortable and I am getting adjusted.
     The fuzz wuzzies are peculiar looking chaps.  Black as the ace of spades.  They wear a piece of cloth wrapped around their hips like a skirt.  They can go right up these 60 foot palm trees.  They tie a rope around the trunk and each foot and just sort of hop up.  At the censors' office I saw some dillies of pictures that had been confiscated.

A look at the jungle in Finschhafen

     You should have seen me about two hours ago.  About noon I came out of the pup tent and went to eat.  I stood ankle deep in water in the mess line.  By the time I was thru eating my mess kit had about 1/4 inch of water in it.  It is a nice way to cool the coffee, though.  When I got thru I decided to wash.  I'd been wanting soft water.  A helmet on each side of the hammock collected it nicely.  I washed 4 pairs of socks, 2 handkerchiefs, a shirt, pants, 2 pairs of shorts and coveralls.  During that time I took off all but my shoes, and took a bath.  Rain water lathers wonderfully.  I put shorts, pants and shirt back on for they will dry better on than any other way.  Oh I have dry ones but these aren't uncomfortable.  But the darn rain let up before I got the coveralls rinsed.  I took off my shoes and dried and powdered my feet and put on dry socks and my jungle boots.  They are slick items, heavy rubber soles with broad rubber cleats, and canvas foot and tops over half way to the knees with a tongue joined all the way up.  The good thing is that when your feet get wet they dry much faster than leather and won't be stiff.  Rubber overshoes would make your feet too hot and nothing else would keep them dry.  There is just one drawback.  The canvas snags too easily.
     I didn't get this mailed so will add to it.  Here I sit puffing a Roi-Tan [cigar].  For free.  It seems that there were extra as PXs are few so everyone is issued chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, cigarettes and cigars - 20 of the latter.  Not bad.  But I imagine it won't happen again.  I took cigars.
 

Forward to Finschhafen! (26)

Members of the 92nd Evac board the ship, not knowing where they are going (after all, "Loose lips sink ships"!)

March 24, 1944 - Friday
     Here I sit in the wheel house, and the darn boat is pitching before we're out of the harbor!  Oh me!  We are to eat about 0830 and 1630.  Mess is set up on the forward deck.  This is a Liberty ship [a cargo ship that was cheap and easy to build, and became a symbol of pride in the wartime industrial ability of the U.S.] and never intended for a cargo and troop ship.  The 218 F.A. Bn is with us, with 155 mm howitzers [a cannon-like piece of artillery], weighing 7 tons each!  All the junior officers have to sleep out on the deck.  It will be cold and maybe wet.  This is certainly a nice spot.  I can watch the compasses, steering (last night I had my clothes hung on the wheel!) and engine speed.  All we have to do is keep things cleared away.  I didn't get to mail my last letter to Beth - a V-mail.  Our last mail was the 22nd.  I have to set up a dispensary on board for our men.  ...

Wake of the Francisco M. Quinones

March 25, 1944 - Saturday
     Awakened at 0530 to attend one of our men who fell down the after hold - fortunately nothing broken.  Groping along a wet deck, in complete blackout, and a strange deck at that!  A blacked out ship is an eerie thing.  Reminds me of the movie or play "Outward Bound" [a supernatural drama that concerns a disparate group of people who find themselves sailing to an unknown destination on a ship constantly shrouded in fog].
     We're on the "Francisco M. Quinones [launched Nov. 1943, scrapped Sept. 1968].  We should reach Townsville  [on the Australian coast north of Rockhampton] by 5 or 6 P.M.

March 26, 1944 - Sunday
     We've been at anchor in the harbor of Townsville over 24 hours and no sign of leaving.  ...

March 27, 1944
     Finally left Townsville at 0300.  Cloudy.  Turned NE off Cairns and went thru the Barrier Reef into the Coral Sea.  Not at all spectacular.  Just a line of surf breaking along the horizon.

Sunset on the Coral Sea

New Guinea is, after Greenland, the second largest island in the world.  The interior is blanketed with dense, unexplored rain forests.  The highest mountains are over 14,000 feet.  Rainfall in some areas is 300 inches a year.  Parts of the interior are still in 2012 largely unexplored.

Tropical diseases in the 1940's were rampant in the area due to the hot, harsh climate and coastal swamps.  Malaria, respiratory diseases, dysentery, frambesia (yaws), tropical ulcers, hookworms, and filariasis were common.  The people of the area were not homogenous.  The ethnicity of the natives varied according to the tribal area, but cannibalism, headhunting, and tribal warfare occurred regularly.  Hundreds of languages and dialects were spoken.  The Japanese were mainly interested in using New Guinea as a protective barrier for their southern flank and as a base from which they could threaten Australia.  The Allies, Gen. Douglas MacArthur in particular, were interested in using New Guinea as a jumping-off point for recapturing the Philippines.

Before the Japanese invasion, the island of New Guinea was separated into three political divisions: Papua (formerly British New Guinea), which was the southeast quarter and administered by Australia; North-East New Guinea (formerly German New Guinea), which was the northeast quarter of the island, part of the Australian-run Mandated Territory of New Guinea; and Dutch New Guinea, which was the western half, and part of the Netherland East Indies.  Finschhafen was located in North-East New Guinea, and Hollandia further northwest along the coast just barely into Dutch New Guinea.

In January 1942, Japan invaded New Guinea.  Their control was never complete due to the dense jungles, but key ports and airfields were seized, and more airfields were built.

Finschhafen was re-taken by American and Australian forces from the Japanese on October 1, 1943.  The 92nd Evac headed for Finschhafen on March 28, 1944.

Gene continues in his diary:

March 28, 1944
     Beautifully nice morning but 84º at 7 A.M. and sticky.  We have the coolest spot on the ship in the wheel house.
     I slept fitfully, with the hydrophones [for detecting submarines] buzzing over my head at night.  We are well out on the Coral Sea.  Last night there was gunnery practice and are these young Navy squirts are good!  They launched large red balloons (about 2' or 3' in diameter) and let them get 3 or 400 yards away and up.  Then they cut loose with 20 mm tracers, about 4 guns at different places along the port side.  They hit 4 out of 6.  Then the 3" on the bow fired a few explosive shells but didn't connect.
     A plane circled us several times today.  On patrol, I suppose.  Also we saw a sub-chaser.  These darn latrine seats!  They are the Johnny Jump up kind which follow you up with a surprising sort of feelling.  This is the first day I've kept my flotation bladders in my pocket.

March 29, 1944
     ...  At anchor in Milne Bay by 1030.  This place is certainly lousy with every kind of vessel up to and including cruisers.  The passage thru the China Strait began about 0700.  I saw the first coconut plantation.  There were a few nice-appearing red tile-roofed houses.  The Owen-Stanley Range was visible.  High hills begin at the water's edge and go right up - extremely rough-looking country.

March 31, 1944
     Arrived Buna about 1:30 A.M.  Certainly lots of shipping coming and going.  All had their riding lights on.  ...  Almost hit a ship when we turned east at Lae during night.

April 1, 1944 April Fool's Day
     What a day to arrive [land] in New Guinea.  Arrived at Finschhafen and finally unloaded troops about 15 miles S. of Finsch.  I came ashore in a Duck [actually a DUKW (D=designed in 1942, U=utility, K=front-wheeled drive, W=two powered rear axles)- a six-wheeled amphibious truck].  They are the darnedest things - waddle up and out of the water just like a duck.  We drove to Finsch. in trucks - terrible dust though fairly smooth dirt road.  We put up in a temporary area in a coconut grove - a mess.  If anyone had told me a few yeas ago that I'd sleep in a jungle hammock, slung between coconut trees, I'd not believed it.  There are coconuts galore.  Right off I cut the husk off the end and tried the milk - clear but not as sweet as I expected.  Then I cut it open with my machete.  The meat tasted fair.

Hammocks slung in coconut grove in Finschhafen