Some photos from Owi to the Philippines (83)

    Here are a few photographs from Gene's collection.

On Owi:

Lt. Joseph Davis getting his mail from Sgt. Ahern on Owi,
Dutch New Guinea

A hut on Owi, Dutch New Guinea, at sunset

Officers' tents on Owi, Dutch New Guinea

In the Philippines:

Ruined bakery in San Fabian, the Philippines (note Gene accidentally
reversed the negative)

Turnips for sale at the market in Guimba, the Philippines

Gene's washstand (a device to hold his helmet) in Baguio, the Philippines

Cub ambulance service airplane in Baguio, the Philippines: "Goldberg's Angel of Mercy sponsored by the students of Goldberg Elementary School, Detroit, Michigan"

Bilibid Prison in Manila, the Philippines

A line of Igorot girls looking for lice in Caba, the Philippines

Granary in Caba, the Philippines

A view of Mount St. Tomas from Caba in the Philippines

What Can't Be Changed ... (72)

     Life settles into a routine in Caba.  Incoming patients are sporadic.  The census is 150.  Gene has time to play volleyball and develop black and white photographs.  Perhaps the following, one of my favorites, was one he developed.

Filipinos drawing in their fishing nets on the beach at Caba with U.S. transports overhead (I originally wrote "bombers", but my sister, a pilot, corrected me!)

July 19, 1945  There is a possibility I may get to take a 6 weeks refresher course in gen. surgery starting Aug. 1 at some Gen. Hosp.  ...

July 21, 1945  I tried trolling [for fish] from the homemade sail boat.  No luck.  Rice planting is in full swing.  When a carabao gets too hot, he just lies down in the mud and water!

The chapel at Caba was located in a temporary building instead of a tent

July 22, 1945  Sunday services.  Played volleyball and wrote some letters.  Things are quiet.  [Maj.] Sparky [Adams] has amoebiosis.  ...  We have 300 patients.  Weather hot and sultry, with occasional storms.

July 27, 1945  The more we hear of the point system [one point was awarded for each month in the service away from the 48 states, five points for each combat award, and 12 points for each dependent child under the age of 18 (for a maximum of three children)] and T.D. [temporary duty] the madder we get!  Snafu [situation normal, all fouled (or f***ed) up], completely.  Japan says they refuse our Potsdam ultimatum for unconditional surrender [the ultimatum on July 26, 1945, stated that if Japan didn't surrender immediately, it would face prompt and utter destruction].

July 28, 1945 ... They say the Jap landing is moved up but no rumors when.

 Sailboat probably made by army personnel from which Gene trolled for fish several times without catching any

July 29, 1945  Continued hot and dry.  I tried trolling from the sail boat for an hour - no luck.  I signed up ($2.00) for a Self-Study course in "Outline of Hist. Geology".

July 31, 1945  High surf along the beach, without much wind.  Full scale amphibious training starting for the 33rd Div.  Lots of LST's [landing ship, transport], APA's [assault personnel attack ship?], LCVP [landing craft, vehicle personnel], LCM [landing craft, mechanized], etc. etc.

Amphibious tanks (alligators) at Caba

August 1, 1945  Donovan finally left today on T.D.  ...  Beth finally heard my sad story and she is so grand about it.  She is the most wonderful there is!

August 2, 1945 Still another time away from Beth on her birthday [her third birthday for which Gene has been overseas].  How long does it have to last, this separation?

August 4, 1945  Orders came in last night for me to go on TD to the 120th Gen. Hosp. APO #1011.  I hear that it is in Santo Thomas, Manila.

Chance for Leave to the States? (70)

     Gene was promoted to major on April 22nd.  Turn around time for letters must have been about three weeks

May 15, 1945  Received the first letter from Beth addressing me as Maj.!  My but I'm pleased at her being so pleased!

Photo taken by Max Vinicor and sent with a
letter to Beth about Gene's promotion to major

May 17, 1945  All set for a big inspection by 4 star [General] Krueger, an English general and 1 star [General] Haggins of the MC [Medical Corps].   [And they waited!]  Finally Haggins came to see us, just at supper time!

May 21, 1945  No rain last night.  Took pictures from Dominican Hill, and in cemetery (where fighting took place).  I'm starting in with a cold.

May 22, 1945  No rain!  Wonderful weather.  I operated on  F.[Filipina] woman with a grenade fragment in her brain.  She died of pulmonary edema [fluid in the lungs] just after we finished.

Cemetery in Baguio where fighting took place

May 25, 1945  On the point system (for discharge) I have 67 points - not many.

May 26, 1945  I began to observe the art of cystoscopy [before fiberoptics, cystoscopy was a delicate procedure of the urinary bladder that involved insertion of a rigid, lighted instrument into the bladder through the urethra].  Maybe I can learn it in 10 easy lessons!  Weather still dry.  I bought a PX [fountain] pen for P6.50 [$3.25].  Given an Igorot wood carving [the Igorot are a primitive ethnic group living in the mountains around Baguio and other areas, who are still known for their wood carvings].

Igorot women working with the clean up crew

May 27, 1945  A quiet Sunday.  A bit of rain in the late afternoon.  I took the P6.50 [pen] back and got the P12.00 one.  It has a better point, but probably isn't worth $6.

May 29, 1945  We saw a propaganda film, "2 down 1 to go" today, attendance by roster! ...

June 1, 1945  [Col. Paul] Ireland [the Colorado doctor who organized the 92nd Evac Hospital in 1942] here on a visit.  Also heard [4 star General] Stillwell ["Vinegar Joe" Stilwell] is around.  I helped Si [Maj.? Cy? Burroughs who was slightly injured in the attack on the 92nd Evac that left five men dead (see post #44) and the only doctor in the 92nd to receive a Purple Heart, but not a very popular fellow] on a chest-liver diaphragm wounds and a belly case. 

June 4, 1945  Up until 2:30 A.M. working.  Not many cases but lots of waiting.

June 6, 1945  Up until 1 A.M. working.  I had a guerrilla with the symphysis and both pubic rami [the pelvic bones on the opposite side from the spine] fractured and bladder completely opened, urethra cut.

June 7, 1945  Worked on 2 brain cases - one a major shot thru the R. side of the head with Jap rifle.  ...  The rumors of a move are starting.

June 9, 1945  Rumor has it that we'll be alerted for a Sept. 15 operation [invasion of Japan?].  Also, that we may have to move down to the beach near Buang, at a spot the 41st Field Hosp. was to have.

     Several of the doctors were sick: Maj. Ray Nethery had fever, chills and aching, but it was determined not to be malaria; Capt. Joe Davis, Capt. John Yount, Maj. Arnold Neimeyer, Capt. (?) Nigg and possibly Maj. Si Burroughs had potentially life-threatening amoebiasis (in his account for the 92nd Evac reunion, Dr. Davis said McDaniels, Klochner, Varley and Huey were also suffering from it).  Gene said he took salts (probably Epsom salts as a laxative) and his stool was negative.
     A fairly new addition to the 92nd Evac, Maj. (?) Ives, who spent 20 months in Sydney and about 16 in Finschhaven, neither close to the front, got to go home on the rotation plan, much to the annoyance of the doctors who had spent much of their time close to the fighting.  The unpopular head of the 92nd Evac, Col. Free was also scheduled to go home on leave (Gene writes "What a hornet's nest that stirs up.  Personally, I'll bet he doesn't return")

June 17, 1945  Beautiful half day.  Not very busy.  I'm officially on the surgical service as General Surgeon.

June 20, 1945  More excitement - will I get to go home on leave?  Of course that means coming back for 8 months at least.

Gene, as all of the others in the 92nd Evac, is so very hopeful of getting a break after almost two years overseas.

20 June '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister's family],
     First of all I must give you some disappointing news, Jack.  The Jap helmet won't be in the box when you receive it.  I was unaware of the existing censorship regulations that helmets were forbidden.  I know that once they could be sent, as well as bayonets.  Don't ask me why - it is one of those obscure regulations.  I heard that it is because they want to collect all the helmets, bayonets, guns, etc. for purposes of identification training.  If all they want is Jap helmets, I can show then where dozens and dozens of new ones are!  In some storage caves near here is quite a stock.  Darn their regulations!  I had a bayonet to send but the box wasn't large enough.  Now I'm glad I didn't send it!  So I'll save it until after the war.
     My big news, as possibly Beth will have told you by this time, is that I stand a chance for a leave in the States later on this Summer of Fall.  I'm afraid to build up any hopes, but maybe so I'll be lucky.  At least it is a step in the right direction by the Powers that Be!  I know of instances where men were told they were going home on Rotation, and then were pulled back and sent into battle and killed.  That sort of thing is doubly tragic.
     I received your nice long letter a few days ago, Mary X.  I think you are the one who writes the interesting letters!  I'm glad you had a nice tea with all the folks.
     Maybe it is odd, but in my first burst of enthusiasm, my thoughts keep turning to the chance of leave!  If I do get to go, it will mean returning for at least 8 months longer.  But that doesn't worry me in the least.  With my 67 points, I'll be over here for quite a while anyway.  If I do go, I'll probably sell my camera when I leave, John, and hope that you or I will be able to get hold of one.
     Thanks very much for getting the developer and sending it.  It may still reach here before I get home!  I haven't been taking any pictures lately.
     Our weather continues partly cloudy and cool.  The other evening we had a sustained heavy downpour for several hours.  With a west wind from the ocean, the load of moisture can be dumped in a seemingly endless rain.  Most of our passageways are repaired and our large mess hall is now finished.  And speaking of mess - our food has been much better lately - fresh meat, fresh eggs, fresh butter - very good.

92nd Evac Hospital mess hall at the Philippines Military Academy in Baguio

     I saw a beautiful mass of bougainvillea the other day.  The vines had climbed a fairly tall pine tree and [it] was a brilliant mass of blooms as only a bougainvillea can be.  The house, unfortunately, had been blown flat by a bomb.
     Love, Eugene


Will he or won't he?

Baguio and Camera Discussion (69)

The 92nd Evacuation Hospital is moved to a place recently vacated by a Japanese military hospital.

May 3, 1945  Moved to the P. Military Institute at Baguio [Philippine Military Academy, which was in Baguio].  It took us 3 1/2 hours, we were such a line of trucks.  Officers have cottages.

Aerial view of the Philippine Military Academy in May 1945

May 4, 1945  I was cold as the dickens, especially my feet, last night even with 3 blankets.  Nice quarters.

May 5, 1945  The rainy season must be early!  We've had at least 4" this afternoon.  The buildings all have holes in the roofs from bombing and leak like a sieve.  I have a dry spot.

May 7, 1945  Rained hard this evening about mess time.  We dry out clothes by the fire.  I have a ward - #9 in the farthest building.

"X" marks the cottage that is Gene's quarters in the Philippine Military Academy

May 8, 1945  VE Day, and it scarcely excites us!  Wonder when VJ day will be - this year? ...

May 9, 1945  Althea Williams won the 150 guilders on the day VE [but she told me while I was interviewing her for the Memorial Day post that they took the award away from her because of an international dateline complication!]

14 May '45
Dear Folks [Mary X, Beth's sister, and John; and their teenage son, Jack],
     In about 2 or 3 months, Jack, you can begin expecting a package.  It is all things I've picked up around here.  I tied it up and took it to our local APO, so it should start on its way within the week.  We have to have G2 permits on all Jap equipment, but I was able to get that here.  The box contains the following: Jap helmet, sun helmet, cartridge box (leather) for belt attachment, leather medicinal corps belt box with an ampoule of medicine (probably atabrine [an anti-malaria drug]), clips of 5 - .25 caliber cartridges (powder removed and caps snapped - the censor might possibly remove them), coconut shell dipper and handle (I had to cut off a few inches of the handle), bamboo candle-lantern, toothbrush, and 2 panes of the "window pane clam shell" - this is not a Jap item.  Typical windows here are made from this shell.  I have a number of Jap family and personal photographs, but they can't be mailed.  Also, I have 2 Jap negatives I'll print sometime.  Oh yes - and a pack of 1000 peso Jap notes.  I forgot to list them on the permit, so they may be removed.  However, I have a bundle of them and can send them by letter.  In fact, I'll enclose a few with this.

Print from Japanese negative Gene found:
former hospital staff members

          Your V mails came a few days ago, Mary X, and your letter, John, at the same time.  I appreciate your data on the cameras, John.  I'll be darned if I know what I want!  The Contax II [a professional-quality, German camera], which will take a telephoto lens, is about $225 and that is more than I want to pay at present.  I know how difficult it is for you to get a line on cameras.  I read the ads.  Today I had a letter from my former tent mate, George Christie from Canon City.  He expects to go home for a month's leave, this month.  He could bring it back and get it to me.  So I have to make a decision, even though it may not be possible for you to act on it at such short notice.  This is it - a [Kodak] Bantam Special (f 2) or anything similar in your judgement.  Probably you won't be able to find one quickly.  If not, just let it go, and in that case maybe you could send me some descriptive literature on the various Eastman [Kodak] cameras (miniature class), and Leica and Contax for I don't know much about them.  I don't care especially about a range finder, for I've tried lately to use the depth-of-focus data and remember it, and focus is usually sharp.  One fellow's wife purchased an Argus [a low-cost American camera] for him at the Gary Camera Company, 619 Washington, Gary, Indiana, without trouble.  Possible they might have something.  (No, I wouldn't want an Argus, or any off-brand.)  It took 6 months to reach him!  Maybe you could get me some DK 20 (1 gallon size or other five grain [photographic] developer).  Beth hasn't been able to get it.  I'll enclose a request, both for a camera, and for mailing any developer you could get me.  Beth will reimburse you.
     Our weather continues cool and rainy.  No doubt it will be that for the next 4 or 5 months if we stay here.  But how I enjoy the coolness.  We don't have to be out in the rain very much, fortunately.  As soon as we have electricity in our cottage, I'm going to make a "dry cabinet" with a light going continuously.  Fortunately things don't seem to mold very much.  I've seen several cameras in which the lens was etched by mold.
     Thanks for the offer about the typing.  Next time we move and I have some new territory to describe, I'll take you up on it.  It would save Beth a lot of trouble.
     About the machete.  I meant that you ought to get one after the war, because they are such a handy item.  It isn't a knife.  It is bigger than that.  It is about 2 feet long and 2 1/2 inches wide at the widest part.  All the fellows here seem to have knives but I'll keep it in mind about your knife.  I'm enclosing some duplicate negatives for you.  Beth has similar ones.  Most of these are of out present area.  2 are of buildings down town.
     We haven't been very busy since we came up here.  There'd be a lot of time for pictures if the weather were right.  As it is, there is rarely more than about 1/2 hour of good conditions, every 5 or 6 days.  And later there will probably be none.  In spite of the cool climate, I've had a bit of trouble with fungus infection of my feet.  We are sitting around the fire, with a gasoline lantern for light and blankets across the windows.  Very cosy!  Now and then a few shells go overhead, just to remind us that the war is still going on.
     Love, Eugene

Enclosures (evidently not used because they were with the letter!):
14 May '45
Subject: Purchase of a camera
To: Camera Dealer
     I am stationed in the SWPA, in an Evacuation Hospital.  I would like to purchase a camera for general use, including that of photographing clinical cases for scientific purposes.
                                                                                    E.F. Pfile, Maj. M.C.
                                                                                    0-45677
                                                                                    92nd Evac. Hosp. (SM)

Postmaster,
     Please allow Mr. Barrett to send me some photo chemicals.
                                                                                   Maj. E.F. Pfile
[This was stamped Freeport Ill. May 28, 1945]

Last Days in Agoo (68)

Cub ambulance service in Agoo

     The fight for Baguio continued.  According to an A.P. newspaper article, the Japanese were determined to hold on.  "A civilian who came thru the lines reported the American bombing of the area was so intense that on one occasion explosions kept up for five hours with only one twenty-minute break."  With such intense fighting, the 92nd Evac and all of the other nearby hospitals were kept very busy trying to patch up the casualties.  Some of the casualties were brought in by private aircraft.  Animals were also occasionally treated at the 92nd.

K-9 Corps member who had been brought in for an x-ray of a jaw
fractured by a Japanese grenade

Then abruptly, the tide turned.

April 27, 1945  Our first light night.  I went to bed at 10:30.  We amputated a thigh for gas gangrene but the fellow died on the table.

April 28, 1945  Another quiet night!  We'll probably move to Baguio in a few days.  A lot of hosp. outfits have been angling for that spot!

28 April '45
Dear Jack [the son of Beth's sister, Mary X]
     A change in censorship regulations now permits me to send you these cancelled stamps.  Providing I make no comments.  I will say, however, that you should notice the inked-out portion of the old stamps.  Evidently the Japs continued the use of the original U.S. stamps, with the only change being the removal of the "United States".  Practical people, these Nips!
      But our side is being just as practical in that we are repairing captured Jap artillery and using captured shells, to shoot them with.  After all, why waste our ammo when theirs will kill them just as dead!  I was taking some pictures yesterday at an ordnance outfit here in out town, where they were repairing some of the Jap guns.  I saw one huge brass shell casing for a 12" gun [the diameter of the shell is 12"].  Is it ever a whopper!  Men who have heard the projectile from such a gun going overhead say it really makes a roar.
     Love, Gene

April 29, 1945  If that isn't the damnedest injustice!  MacArthur announced that the 33rd Div. took Baguio.  Actually it was the 37th! [This is the first instance Gene used "damn" instead of "darn" in his diary, and he used it because "his" men were not given proper credit.]    

Baguio, April 29 - (A.P.) - Yanks observed Japanese Emperor Hirohito's birthday by raising the American and Philippines flags over captured Baguio yesterday and by launching a new offensive northward from this summer capital.
     Contrary to Tokyo broadcasts, no Japanese counterattack was launched and the flags went up in an unmolested ceremony.
     Civilians in rags, some gaunt and sick, watched amid the war's ravages and the heavy odor of death as the American flag, which city custodian Juan Arenella hid from Japanese three years, was hoisted aloft.
     The Philippine flag followed and then both were lowered to half staff in honor of the late President Roosevelt.

May 1, 1945  We did 547 cases in surgery during April and had 17 deaths [about 3%].

May 2, 1945  Getting ready to move to Baguio tomorrow.  I'm on the forward echelon.

Majority! (67)

     Capt. Pfile continues to catalog and analyze his cases: gas gangrene in a man's leg (he says he and Capt. Nigg didn't debride (remove all of the dead or infected tissue) enough of the wounds (4 perforating (bullet passes through) and 3 penetrating (bullet remains inside)) so they had to amputate); a combined scrotal and pelvic wound; and a lacerated (torn) kidney.  Then almost out of the blue came the long awaited promotion to major.

Newly promoted: Maj. Raymond Nethery, Maj. John Mihalick, 2nd Lt. Herrill (possibly with the Medical Administrative Corp) and Maj. Eugene Pfile

April 22, 1945  Up until 3 A.M. [he was officer of the day the night before, so had to treat any casualties that came in during the night].  Today (4 P.M.) the Col. handed Mihalick, Nethery and me our promotions.  Amazing.

April 23, 1945  Troops getting closer to Baguio.

April 24, 1945  Up until 1 A.M.  Large wound of abd. [abdominal] wall, not into peritoneum though it was bared for 6 inches! [In other words, it was long but shallow.]

April 25, 1945  Up until 3:30 A.M.  Did brain case - defect in temporal area [this part of the brain is involved with hearing, and I would assume it was an injury rather than a birth defect].  160 patients admitted.  Troops reached Baguio.  None win the European war pool this month [most of the 92nd bet on the date the war in Europe would be over]!

25 April '45
Dear Jack [son of Beth's sister],
     If the war in Europe doesn't end today, I won't win the 150 guilder [about $60] "pot"!  And it doesn't look as though I will.

Zeke the monkey who for a short while was an honorary member of the 92nd Evac

     Jack, you'd certainly enjoy the antics of Zeke, the pet monkey of one of our officers.  He certainly does the most amazing things.  There are 2 pups in the area also, and of all the rough and tumble scrambles they have.  The term "monkey business" takes on a new meaning after seeing Zeke perform. [More about Zeke later!]
     Every now and then some P-51's will buzz the hospital on their way to and from "work".  I can imagine what it would be like if they were strafing us.  The bullets would be the first indication of the planes, they fly so low and so fast.
     We continue to be busy, especially at night.  But the Japs are gradually being driven back.  Jap prisoners say they really fear our artillery and planes.  They are becoming discouraged, too, because none of their own planes show up in spite of promises.  I see quite a few Illinois men [Jack and his family live in Freeport, Illinois].
     Love, Eugene

From a newspaper:
AMERICANS GET READY FOR FINAL PUSH INTO BAGUIO
     Manila, April 25 - (A.P.) - Americans consolidated their Baguio positions Wednesday for a final push into the ruined summer capital of the Philippines while far to the south, on Mindanao island, other Yanks pressed on towards the Japanese stronghold of Davao.  Maj. Gen. Percy W. Clarkson's Thirty-third division held commanding positions in the pine-covered hills to the northwest, west and southwest of mile-high Baguio.  One column, moving down highway 9 from the northwest, was little more than a mile from the city center.
     A section of the road blown up by the defending Japanese was being repaired by engineers for the movement of heavy equipment.  ...
     Gen. Douglas MacArthur reported in Wednesday's communiqué that "the enemy has as yet been unable to concentrate his forces in effective resistance."  ...
    
April 26, 1945  Up to [until] 2:30 A.M.  We did 60 odd [i.e. 60 - 70] cases

Casualties Pour In (65)

     At first, there isn't a lot of activity for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital, but that soon changes.  Easter is all but forgotten in the flurry.


March 19, 1945

Boats in Dagupan harbor

     To Dagupan shopping.  2 winnowing baskets for P 1.00 [$0.50].
     Yesterday I operated [on] a severe chest wound - 4, 5 and 6 ribs fract. [three of the middle ribs were fractured] by a tangential bullet wound [the bullet did not penetrate the chest], and a 4" rent in the pleura [the membrane surrounding the lungs].  Wired the ribs, sutured about half the pleura, closed 2 layers of muscle and fascia [fibrous tissue] to make it air tight.

March 20, 1945  Chest case fine.

March 21, 1945
     The guerrillas took San Fernando.  We are getting a few more casualties.  They are pushing the Japs in toward Baguio.  I wish we'd set up there - after it is safe!

March 22, 1945
     An ammo dump between Damortis and San Fabian was hit by Jap bombs and burned from 4 P.M. until morning. [According to a newspaper article, a Tokyo broadcast claimed Japanese planes had started 11 fires in the area]. We saw the planes.

Modified Rand McNally map showing Agoo (92nd Evac stationed) Dagupan (Gene visited), Damortis and San Fabian (ammo dump bombed) and Galiano (heavy fighting)

March 24, 1945  O.D. [officer of the day in charge of the hospital] last night.  Patton across the Rhine!

March 26, 1945  Palm Sunday - quiet day.  My chest case of a week ago up and walking around today!

March 29, 1945  More casualties.  The fighting for Baguio is no cinch!  Most casualties taken care of by clearing co.'s [clearing companies were sometimes links between the first aid stations and the evacuation hospitals, but they weren't set up for surgery].

30 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     My correspondence has been piling up on me, for I've been quite busy.  Things are a bit tough on the front we're near.  We haven't had so many fresh casualties as we have those who have been taken care of at the clearing stations, and then sent to us.  And we've had more of the fool Filipinos - kids and adults - who insist on monkeying with dud shells and fuses!
     Your [Christmas] Bulletin is most interesting and clever, though you make me blush!  I'll be darned if I see how all of you can keep up such a whirl of activities - it leaves me dizzy to think of it.  I'm certainly proud of Jim [the brother of Beth and Mary X] and his Bronze Star [awarded for meritorious service, the fourth-highest combat award in the armed services]!  The way things sound, he may get home for a while this year [Jim was in the Quartermaster Corp, which dealt in supplies for the whole army, in the European Theater].  I'm very much afraid I won't.  Probably I'll see China and maybe even Japan before this thing is over.  Except for a cold (the second in 6 weeks) I'm doing O.K.  Our food is good, for army life.  Food and mail are certainly better this war.
     Love, Eugene

Gene continues to briefly catalog his days in his diary:

March 31, 1945  [Holy Saturday] Fiesta day in Agoo!  I saw the feeble parade. Received a birthday card mailed Sept. 20 [Gene's birthday was October 15th].

April 1, 1945 [Easter]  Removed a fragment the size of a corn kernel from the Rt. temporal region - just thru the dura [the tough membrane surrounding the brain] into the brain.

April 2, 1945  Very busy.  Census 750.  Many casualties from 123 Reg. near Galiano.

April 3, 1945  Brain case rational and doing well.  I have 75 patients!  Not many casualties today.  Heavy rain last night.

April 4, 1945 Some Christmas packages - 6 months on the way!  Census 812

     Gene continues to catalog some of his cases: a lieutenant had a clip of cartridges explode against his left thigh; a guerrilla had a sucking wound in his chest; a little girl was full of grenade holes, probably from unwisely picking it up; a hole deflated his air mattress.  He fixes them all up.

April 11, 1945  Hot rumor.  We start closing this A.M., out of a clear sky.  Our census is 805!  But we received 115, evacuated 400!

April 12, 1945  Up at 1:45 to do a laparotomy [incision through the abdominal wall] - one hole in ileum [last part of the small intestine], couldn't find one in the rectum though blood by proctoscopic [exam] [looking up the rectum using an instrument like a hollow tube].  To bed at 5:30.

     Pretty worthless "hot rumor"!  The 92nd continues to receive casualties - 108 on April 15th, 182 on April 16th.  In the five weeks they have been in Agoo, 2501 patients have been admitted.  Two days later they worked on 46 cases between 5 P.M. and 2 A.M.


      None of the doctors from the 92nd Evac are alive, and not many of the nurses and ward men.  One outstanding exception is nurse "Little Willie", Althea Williams.  Her memories and some of the memories from the 92nd Evac Reunions will make up my next post, which will be on Memorial Day.

The Honorable John and Film Developing (64)

The 92nd Evacuation Hospital is once again close to the front lines.


14 March '45
Dear Folks [Beth's sister and brother-in-law, Mary X and John],
     Now I'm at a new place.  We are something like the old gambling houses (and such) of frontier days - following the crowd.  Our set of school buildings isn't as large this time, but good enough.  We aren't busy as yet, but no doubt will be.

Headquarters for the 92nd Evacuation Hospital in Agoo, Philippines

     The knife you sent me certainly takes a fine edge.  I spent about an hour on it, and it is very nearly razor sharp.  But I hope I won't have to use it on a Jap.  I did "spill" Jap blood you know - technically that is!  On our first campaign I amputated a Jap's leg.
     John, I've discovered that I can use regular 35 mm film in my camera by covering the "window" on the back and winding the film on a bare spool.  The resulting negative is 2 mm less wide, is the only difference.  My film is perforated only at intervals, and along only one side.  Buy counting "clicks" I can space the frames properly.  And the best of it is my tent mate has several hundred feet of the film!  I've started developing my own film, too.  Beth is sending me some DK20 [a high contrast film developer for black and white film].  I can use x-ray hypo [hypo sulfate, used as a fixer in film processing] .  Thanks a lot for the booklet!  It looks good.
     Love, Eugene

14 March '45
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     This is a continuation - I didn't get to tell you all I wanted!
     Beth may have written you that I went to see the sights in a city [Manila, but the censors wouldn't let him write that].  It was something to see large modern buildings burned and blasted to pieces.  We went thru a hotel [see post #63] where I'm certain Uncle John must have stayed at one time (or its predecessor) ["Uncle John" was the paternal uncle of Gene's brother-in-law John, the Honorable John W. Barrett, a larger-than-life diplomat and Dartmouth grad, who was the Minister to Siam under President Cleveland (when the little prince, Chulalongkorn, in The King and I was king), and a war correspondent and advisor to Admiral Dewey during the Spanish-American War in the Philippines; he later was involved in South American relations under President Theodore Roosevelt and served as the first Director-General of the Pan-American Union; he attended Beth and Gene's wedding in 1937 and died a year later].  The Japs had used it as a strong point, so you can imagine what it looked like.  I took 3 rolls of color.  Hope they turn out well.  ...

Gene on an overturned tank on the road to Manila

    Jack [the son of Mary X and John], in a box I'm sending Beth, there is a large numeral "3" on fabric from the tail of a Jap 2 motor fighter-bomber.  Also, a large thin metal plate [from an anti aircraft gun] with some ack-ack projectile plotting data on it, that I picked up along the waterfront.
     They were still gathering Jap bodies!  What a mess.  ...
     Love, Eugene

March 15, 1945  No wards assigned to me.  Little work.

March 16, 1945 
     Not busy as yet.  When the push up the coast for San Fernando starts, we will be.  Planes of all sorts go over every day.  Later we may move there.
     I'm developing my own [black and white] film now.

March 17, 1945  To Aringay, 10 km up the coast to see the sights.  The troops are 2 miles beyond.

What was happening just beyond Aringay:

YANKS WITHIN GUN RANGE OF BAGUIO, LUZON: 33rd Division Tightens Squeeze on Former Summer Capitol
     Manila, March 17 - (A.P.) - The Thirty-third division has rolled its heavy artillery to within eight miles of Baguio and can drop shells into the former Philippine commonwealth's summer capitol.
     The Thirty-third - a former Illinois national guard division - has tightened its nutcracker by pushing toward the famed mountain city from both west and south.
     Gen. Douglas MacArthur's communiqué reports that the Thirty-second division is probing the mountains from the southeast.
    ...  Installations around Baguio, Lieut. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita's headquarters, have been bombed and shelled heavily.  As yet the city has been spared.
     The advance of the Thirty-third has been slow - thirteen miles in a month - but the methodical gain has been made thru difficult mountain terrain filled with Japanese ambush parties.  The going has been made more difficult by the systematic blowing up of bridges although the 300-foot steel and concrete Aringay span was captured by a surprise night move.  ...
  

Manila (63)

Post card with bullet holes and an old registration card
picked up by Gene in the Manila Hotel

     Capt. Eugene Pfile barely squeaked in a trip to Manila before the 92nd Evacuation Hospital was moved from Guimba to Agoo, which was closer to the fighting.  During the move he didn't have much time to write letters.

March 6, 1945
     To Manila.  Stayed overnight at the 5th Field [Hospital] (Fawcett, in my class at N.W.[Northwestern University Medical School]),in the Ed. Bldg. at Santo Thomas University [a private, Roman Catholic university used as an internment camp by the Japanese until the Americans liberated the prisoners in February, 1945].  The oldest U. on U.S. soil [the Philippines was considered a U.S. protectorate until 1946], established about 1611.
     Saw the burned out city and other sights.  Went thru the Manila Hotel [considered the most luxurious hotel in the Philippines from its opening in 1912 until the Japanese occupation].
     I bought 3 sleeping mats (Buri palm fiber). P 5.00 [$2.50], 3 straw purses P 3.50 [$1.75], 3 Chinese embroidered handkerchiefs P 2.50 [$1.25], wooden shoes p 3.00 [$1.50].
     At the church of Quiapo, I bought 2 votary candles for 60 centavos [$0.30].  The Quiapo Church district was established in 1586 and the church built of bamboo and nipa palm.
     Saw the Malacaňan - the president's official house.  I took 3 rolls of Kodachrome, in all.

Street scene in unbombed section of Manila

Bombed out section of Manila

March 8, 1945  To move.  Stopped receiving.  Admitted [released?] about 1000 patients.

March 9, 1945 Closed hospital at Guimba [in his records, Gene states the 92nd Evac admitted 2,520 patients while in Guimba].

March 10, 1945  Packing up. 

March 11, 1945  Moved into bldg.  Tents down.

March 12, 1945 
     Moved 70 miles N along the coast to Agoo.  North of where we landed at San Fabian.  In a small school house at the east edge of town.  Rice paddies behind us for a half mile, then the hills, Mt. Santo Thomas [sic Tomas], on the other side [of the mountain] is Baguio.  There are barbed wire entanglements around town, and the street corner strong points that the Japs had to put up to defend themselves from the guerrillas.  The 33rd Div. captured this without trouble, a week ago.  The 33rd is moving up the coast, and from Rosario towards Baguio where the main Jap force is entrenched.

Modified Rand McNally map showing location of Guimba, San Fabian and Agoo

Dinner with a Filipino Family (61)

Gene's letter from February 25, 1945, to Beth continues:

     What a time I'm having with my civilians!  They don't want to be moved to the civilian hospital and to be taken care of by the Filipino doctors.  That is flattering to us, but hardly possible to grant.  Most of them will be moved tomorrow except my two sickest ones - the thyrotoxic woman [her thyroid is producing too much hormone due to a tumor, Graves disease, or something else] and the little girl with osteo [osteolysis or degeneration of the bone due to bone cancer, TB, or something else].  The woman is so much better this evening that I'm encouraged.  The little girl is some better.  Then I also received a woman with tetanus [also called "lockjaw", it is an infection by a type of bacteria that often enters through puncture wounds and causes prolonged muscle contractions, usually starting with the jaw, and often without treatment ends in death ].  She had her foot amputated somewhere else.  After the antitoxin yesterday and today she is practically over the tetanus.  Amazing!  This evening after supper, I was surprised when the one nurse, Mrs. Vigilian who gave me the fan, invited me to supper at her house - and to see her mother!  Her brother in the guerrillas is coming home today and they are having a roast pig.  Darn if I know if I'll be able to eat very much.  Anyway, it's an opportunity I don't want to miss.  Her mother has ulcers but since she's 51 and this started in 1941 with vomiting of blood, I'm afraid it may be a malignancy.  But I'll be glad to "sing for my supper" [and examine her].


Street in Guimba, with a thatch-roofed, bamboo house (and pigs!)

     This will be the first time I've "dressed up" for a long time.  When I went to the fancy tea, I had no other clothes to which to change.  Dress up will consist of putting on clean pants and shirt and my other pair of shoes! 
     Later - Well, that was very interesting.  They called for me at 6 instead of 7 in a guerrilla command car.  Her husband is a fine clean cut chap.  He had finished two years of Law Prep School when the war started.  Since then he's been a Sgt. in the guerrillas.  He saluted me before he shook hands!  They live only a few blocks from the hospital.  It is a typical F. [Filipino] house - bamboo and thatch, bare floor but plenty of chairs and seats.  There must have been a couple of dozen there, not counting children, about half GI's.  They said that before they invited me they hadn't known there would be so many!  I met her father, mother, uncle (who is head of the local high school), brother-in-law who commands a guerrilla squadron and some others.  It was quite noisy, but I talked to the husband about various items. 
     Pretty soon they asked me to come into the next room and eat.  There was a long bare table set with large platters of rice and other food.  They said most of the others had eaten, so there were only about 6 eating.  I was placed at the head of the table!  They asked if I cared for wine so I said certainly.  But by golly I'd call it brandy!  It is made from sugar cane juice and distilled.  I was the only one to get some and they said it was pre-war.  I felt the honored guest.  The main dish was plates of barbecued pig!  He explained how they split it and put rice in the body cavity and roasted it over a fire.  It was quite good.  Sure was a good sauce, not too hot - of what, I don't know.  Then there was some stewed goat meat.  There was hard rice and soft rice.  They eat with a fork in the left hand and a large spoon in the right and no knife.      
     Then she brought up her mother and we went into another room to talk.  All I can determine is that she has an atonic type of constipation [atonic constipation occurs when the muscles of the large intestine become weakened, but the muscles don't spasm].  She was quite dark in color.  I told them to bring her to the hospital tomorrow for further examination. 
     The nurse and her husband are Methodists!  We talked a while longer and they gave me some "turnips" to eat raw.  But they are a lot better than ours, being quite sweet and succulent [it was probably jicama, which is called a turnip in the Philippines].  They gave me some to bring back and brought me home about 8 o'clock so it was an interesting experience.  Their law, medical and nursing courses are quite comparable to ours in length of time, etc.  Among themselves they habitually speak the local dialect.  They have quite an accent when they speak English.  The girls all seemed rather shy around the soldiers and were rather quiet.  Maybe that is just when their elders are around.  It is easy to see that the people are quite poor, but everything seemed to be very clean.  For lamps, they had small bottles of kerosene and a round wick up through the cap and no chimney.  I had no qualms about eating their food.  But golly, that shot they poured for me was a stiff one.
     ...  All my love, Eugene

Gifts and Fights (60)

     Casualties from fighting have abated, and conditions are quiet enough at the 92nd Evacuation Hospital for Capt. Gene Pfile to learn more about the country in which he finds himself.


24 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     Do you hear that ta-ta-ta-tat?  No, not the war!  The fellows are just trying out some new machine guns we obtained. Now that we are a complete arsenal I hope we won't need them.   Amazing, this mail.  I received your Feb. 11 letter and one of the 12th from Mother and a Valentine of the 8th from your Mother.  It is so clever.  On the front is a pipe and open pouch with real tobacco spilling out of it.  And such a nice verse.  I collected some items today!  At noon the nurse on my ward gave me the dandiest palm leaf woven fan, dyed a brownish color.  She is the married one.  I've never seen one like it before.  And this evening one of my 18 year olds [patient] gave me a fancy fiber under arm bag [purse, see photo]. 

Photo from two of Gene's civilian patients with their
embroidered under arm purses

 I'd seen it before and asked her about it.  Also she gave me a small picture of herself and two sisters and brother posed in a studio.  Her sister added a fine handkerchief with the initial P on it.  The sister is the one who had the large fragment in her cheek and which I'd removed.  I also had their mother.  The sister's first name is Purito [?] hence the P.  Now I must wrestle up [rustle up?] a box in which to send home things!  And soon!  For I know you are anxious to see them.  Right now I'm waiting around to help [Maj.? Cy] Burroughs operate on a soldier with a ruptured peptic ulcer that happened suddenly a few hours ago.  Say, I'm glad I ate but little of that ersatz chop suey [see post # 59].  The colonel was sick from it last night.  I'm hoping that I can get caught [up] on my work this morning so that I can both see the cockfight and go to church!

The thank you note with the photo
and purse

     I almost forgot one of my interesting patients.  She is the wife of a guerrilla captain and is two months pregnant and has a terrifically toxic thyroid [produces excessive thyroid hormone, a condition from which Beth had suffered]. Her pulse is running 160.  Her condition isn't at all good.  And today I met a guerrilla nurse.  They must have had quite an organization.  I'll bet they cause the Japs plenty of trouble.  I think maybe I'll try some cheese and some beer!  It will be good for me besides helping me [this was one of his favorite expressions in later life!], as [Maj.] Hi [Armstrong] says.
     All my love, Eugene

February 25, 1945
     I watched a cock fight, and I don't care for it.  3 jumps and it was over - about 30 seconds. ...

25 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     [Maj.]Sparky [Adams] is just chortling in his beard about a news item.  It seems that since animal fat is no longer so much in demand (vegetable oil substitutes it) they began remodeling hogs.  The result is more ham and bacon per hog.  Also the super hog is now nimbler on his feet, free from danger of sunburn and nervous breakdowns!  Amazing!


Cock fights in Guimba

     Well, I didn't get to church this morning.  I didn't get my work done until almost 11 (church at 10).  So Sparky and I grabbed helmets and guns and tore out for the cockfight.  A goodly crowd was there - about 200 in all.  When we arrived, two cocks and their handlers were in the ring.  The roosters had a long (3 inches) fairly wide blade [strapped] on one leg.  They were going through a preliminary neck feather spreading and head stretching at each other.  The book makers were walking around taking bets.  After about 5 minutes the babbling grew louder.  The handlers took the sheath of the spur off his contestant.  What I thought was the spur was just the sheath.  The spur itself is certainly a wicked gadget - thin, curved slightly and apparently with a regular needle point.  The cocks were set down and they strutted around looking at the crowd.  The handlers sort of shoved them together, and bango, they went up high in a leap.  Then hit the ground and up again.  Then the one cock sort of wobbled but gave another jump and it was all over.  The poor loser kicked a few times and that was all.  Ugh!  I don't like it!  There is nothing sporting about that!  It didn't last a minute.  I'm going back some time to take pictures of the crowd, but I'm no longer interested in cockfights.

More of the letter on the next post!