Entertainment and the Dance of the Doctors (41)

It is interesting that Gene didn't dwell on the famous entertainers who visited.  He seemed more taken up with the number of doctors that were leaving the unit.

Bob Hope signing a dollar bill (?) on Owi

Francis Langford signing her autograph with Jerry
Colonna behind her and to our left

August24, 1944
     Bob Hope, Francis Langford [one of the few stars of the era who didn't change her name, Francis was a popular singer and actress; in his memoir, Don't Shoot!  It's Only Me!, Bob Hope recounts the story that at a U.S.O. performance in the South Pacific, when she sang, "I'm in the Mood for Love", a soldier stood up and shouted, "You've come to the right place, honey!" brought down the house], Jerry Colonna [for a typical exchange in a skit, Hope would ask,"Professor, did you plant the bomb in the embassy like I told you?"  Colonna, in his booming voice, would answer, "Embassy?  Great Scott, I thought you said NBC!"] and others put on a dandy show this evening.
     The 9th General Hosp. personnel came to Biak a few days ago on the hospital ship and will set up by Sorido strip.  I guess we'll be moving one of these days.  I'll hate to move, in a way, for we now have electric lights in our tents, and I put a floor in my part.
     My prickly heat and itching scrotum about drive me nuts at times.
     I weighed #`144 on a U.S. scales, so I guess our Jap scales is accurate.
     They are still killing Japs on Biak.  The last total announced was 5,100.  They are sick and starving but won't surrender.

September 1, 1944  Many B-24's going on missions almost daily from Owi and Biak.

All three photos are of nose artwork on the
B-24's that landed on Owi

Bale's Baby was reported "an operational
loss" in October 1944

September 10, 1944
     We had an 8 plane raid last night - quite a few bombs but only 1 wounded (finger only!) and little damage.  They claim our night fighters got 2.
     The heavies [bombers] go out of here 50 or 60 every morning and lots of P-38's [heavy fighters] - they pound the Celebes, Halmahera and the Phillipines [sic].  Every morning from about 5:30 to 7 or later, they roar off over our heads.  At night about 4 to 6, they return, but not always all of them.

September 17, 1944
     [Maj. Dick] MacIlroy is being transferred to the 135 Med Bn in trade for an EENT [eye, ear, nose and throat, also called "ENT"] man.  Why he was sent instead of Burroughs, I haven't the least idea.  Maybe it is something personal with Sterling.
     [Capt. Edward] Hagman went psycho, following a hemorrhoidectomy about 2 or 3 weeks ago and was shipped out.  Too darn bad.
     [Maj. Merrick] Michels [who was suffering in May from the "ids" or trichophytids, see post #21, "Physician Heal Thyself" and #33, "Purple Hearts but No Mail"] left over a month ago because of his severe allergy to fungus.
     Adams, Armstrong and Niemeyer were made majors.  All deserving it.
     Sterling about knocked me over today when he told me he was putting me in for a majority.  He said, of course, that it might not go thru.  Really, I wish he hadn't, for I don't consider that I have the professional qualifications a major's commission should carry.  Of course when I look at some majors, I think I deserve it!  But, chances are it won't go thru, so I'll tell no one.  Especially in light of the fact that Sterling may be relieved.  Time will tell.  Like [Lt. Roy] Swanson said - expect nothing and you'll probably get it.

September 20, 1944  [Lt. John] Dykstra left - transferred Grice to 6th Army.

September 21, 1944  [Lt. Col. Robert] Sterling relieved and transferred.  Lt. Col. Free the new C.O.

September 25, 1944  [Lt. when the 92nd formed Ed] Powers a major.

September 26, 1944  Neeb - the new ENT man traded for McIlroy arrives.

September 28, 1944  Powers and [Nurse] Justice go to the Gen. Hosp. for diag. and treatment.

September 30, 1944  Under the 8th Army.

October 1, 1944
     Christie left today for Hollandia.  Out of a clear sky, he was ordered to HQ USASOS [United States Army Services of Supply Southwest Pacific] because of his command and Gen. Staff School course.  I hate to see him go.
     Sterling left a few days ago for the 58th Evac. Hosp.  He was replaced by Lt. Col. Free, who seems O.K. though a bit military.
     Dice left for the 6th Army Surgeon's office.
     Dykstra was sent to an Evac Hosp at Savapor.
     Powers is now a major.
     We are short about 10 medical officers [doctors]!
     Capt. Neeb, an opthamologist and ENT, from the 135th Med Bn replaced McIlroy.
     In our four months of operation here we've admitted 11000 patients!
     We are to be under 8th Army until December, then go back to the 6th A [Army] & go in to Luzon.  Sounds O.K. but I hate this sitting around and doing little.

1 Oct. '44  Netherlands East Indies
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     The censorship regulations now permit me to let you in on the above secret!  We even use coin of the realm, though the limited stock of our PX doesn't encourage spending largely!
     John, your letter of Aug. 10th, written at the Y [YMCA] camp, came yesterday.  That must be a nice place.  Our tide is at its highest right now.  I could drop in a line right from the tent!  Not that I'd catch anything.
     We have a radio station on our island - they announce it as "Station - of the Jungle Network".  The re-broadcasts are fine, for they have no commercials!  Like the porny [pornographic] editions of magazines - no advertising.  Some of them are pretty thin!  Bob Hope gave a show here, some time ago.  It was good!
     Week before last I had a "touch" of dengue fever  [caused by a mosquito-borne virus: fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, and skin rash, occasionally leading to life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome].  Not as bad as it sounds!  But I'm glad it wasn't scrub typhus.  This is the tropics all right!  How are you all?
     Love, Eugene

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!

Hot Zone (39)

June 13, 1944  Setting up in nice area. [They don't realize they are in a scrub typhus hot zone!]

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!

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.


Lt. Joe Davis watching Sgt. Ahern sort the Owi mail

     Rumor has it that another evac Hosp. is coming and that we'll be on our way again.  I hope the footlockers arrive first!  I've no film at all.
     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.

"I Can't Fully Tell Beth" (37)

The situation was bad.  War is, indeed, hell.

June 3, 1944
     I worked from 12 [noon] yesterday right thru until 1:30 A.M. today, awoke at 6:30 and worked until 1 P.M.  Yesterday afternoon we had quite a raid.  They claim 10 out of 14 were shot down.  Some fellows saw 6 go down.  2 pilots bailed out, one landing on the ridge right back of us (at the place where a Jap patrol tangled with some of our Infantry).  The pilot was trying to destroy his maps when they killed him.  I was working at the time and missed it, as usual.  They dropped a small bomb near the searchlight (200 yards from us) and knocked it out.  Another  landed about 400 yards on the other side of us.  They did some straffing [sic].  We had quite a few casualties and we all worked on them.  Even MacDaniels the dentist worked on some.  It was quiet except for a few alerts, the rest of the night.  When all the concentrated AA is cracking past over your head, it really makes you cringe.

A ward tent on Biak

     This noon was the worst!  these things I just can't tell fully to Beth, for it is bad and apt to get worse.  Several planes straffed [sic] and bombed.  One good sized one hit a few feet from our latrine, and about 150 yards from me - 3 tents were in between, and the kitchen.  I was working on a head wound.  When it began to sound really hot, I got down behind the wall of sand bags, keeping my hands sterile.  Even at that distance the wall bulged inward about 6 inches and rocks hit the tent.  The smell of powder, smoke and dust was strong.  I thought it hit one of the tents, but I went tight back to work on the patient though my hands weren't quite steady.  Fortunately the patient was not quite conscious!  The bomb made a hole in the soft sand about 10 feet deep and 15 across.  Luckily everyone near was in a hole and no one was hurt.  One fellow asleep in a hole about 15 feet from it was partly buried by sand.  He said he dreamt Zeros were bombing him and here they were!  [He] picked up a fragment 2 feet long and 3 to 4 inches wide, laying on the tarp of his foxhole.  It didn't even go thru.  It happened just before dinner and a lot of men were around the mess.  I saw [Col.] Sterling afterwards and I swear he had the wind up [became nervous] more than a little.  He wanted action and he's getting it!
     In the PM I had to go over the 21 patients (chiefly wounded) that had come into my ward.  Then I washed clothes and bathed in the spring on the beach.  But like an old gander, I kept my eye peeled for planes and artillery.  What casualties the Japs must be receiving!  They say some of the fighting is worse than Guadal Canal [sic] or Buna.  The 41st is really catching it.

I'm sure Gene took a deep breath and composed his thoughts before writing Beth.

3 June '44
Beloved,
     I didn't get to write yesterday for I was on from noon yesterday till noon today.  I have a ward in addition now, practically filled with FUO [fever of unknown origin] and malaria [hmm - he said "chiefly wounded" in his diary]!  So I was kept busy.  Yesterday afternoon we had some show.  They claim 10 out of 14 were shot down.  As usual I was busy and didn't get to see any come down, dang nab it!  One parachuted down landing on a ridge back of us.  Baker and some others grabbed their carbines and tore up to get him, but soldiers on the ridge had already finished him just as he was trying to destroy his maps.
     This afternoon I did some laundry [does he do his laundry just so he can talk about it in his letters?] and washed out on the beach.  You know how they picture an old gander, leader of a wild flock, standing on one leg and keeping one eye cocked on the sky!  But a fellow really feels naked, out there naked anyway.  Of course there are foxholes within jumping distance.
     We have something over here they don't have in any other theater, and that is sword wounds!  I worked on one fellow who was cut across the head and into but not thru the skull and across the scapula.  They killed the officer, of course, but it is hard to realize that the Jap Officers really use the sabers they carry.  They carry them on patrol, even, when they wrap their feet in rags.  One was killed like that the other night, and I saw the sword.  They are really curved sabers.  In the handle the history of the sword itself is kept, and how it is passed down thru the family.  Interesting, isn't it?  Certainly they are war minded!
     There is a darn gun right close to us that makes me jump even though I know it is coming!  It is a big one and fires at 15 minute intervals.  The shell does sound sort of like a train rushing along in the distance.  Boy, I'd hate to be on the other end.  Today they've been bombing the devil out of the Jap positions.  It sounds nice to hear those sticks of bombs going "womp, womp, womp!"
     We had the darnedest rain about noon.  It came down in buckets.  Our 8 inches for the month will soon be used up if this keeps on.  Again I'm so glad for the change of shoes!
     I didn't see them but I heard that some P-38's and Liberators knocked off 6 Jap planes somewhere around here today.  That's another thing I'd like to see, a dog fight between planes.  That really must be something.  Of all the flak that goes up, none of it falls around us.  That is a help.
     Next morning - during the night I heard a plane buzzing around way up.  I believe he dropped some bombs into the ocean, probably afraid to come over the guns and afraid to go home with them!  I think the Nips have a great deal of respect for our gunners.  I heard a good one about one of the fellows close [to] here who is exceptional.  A fellow talking to him said he was chewing tobacco unconcernedly and spitting.  When asked who got such and such a plane, he said (spit) "Me and another guy."  Just then a plane came along and he just sat there working his gun and chewing calmly and drawing a careful bead and not wasting his ammunition!
     It certainly is delightful how few skeeters there are here,  I haven't used a net since a week ago and I don't think I've had a bite.  The flies aren't quite as bad here either.  They claim there are lots of alligators around in large streams.  Dick [McIlroy] and I plan to go hunting sometime.
     All my love, Eugene

The newspapers reported on June 4th that most of the fighting was over and the U.S. forces were just mopping up.  Unfortunately, the Japanese were more desperate and dug in than anyone realized.

June 4, 1944 Sunday - Jap naval task force said to be coming to shell us!

June 5, 1944 Monday
     Yesterday morning all looked quiet. I was just catching up on my ward. At 10:30 they called in all the officers. They said part of the Jap fleet - a naval task force - was expected in about 6 hours to shell the beach, and that we had to send all patients possible to duty and take the rest up over the ridge with as much of the hospital we could, to set up another. We were to take a light pack, carbine, water and rations. I dismissed as soon as I could complete their jackets [the patient's records], all my medical patients [the ones admitted for fevers, etc.] They [the ward men?] packed a few sets of instruments, plasma and dressings and put the rest in foxholes, including x-ray, to protect it as much as possible from shelling. All but 2 ward tents were taken down and litter cases moved into 2 wards. All walking patients were sent up on the first slope, and then up the ridge. It was extremely steep, and hard on the patients. Carbines, rifles and pistols and ammunition were given out. I was sent up, with some others, to look after the patients. We were to stay put until we had definite word. Getting up the litter patients would have been a terrible job. We heard that our Navy was on the way, but couldn't arrive in force soon enough. A whole bunch of fighters and Liberators went after them [the Japanese force]. By afternoon nothing showed up, so we all breathed more easily. They brought up litters for the night, blankets, water, food and medicine. We bedded down behind an infantry perimeter. The things I didn't carry, I [had] put in a waterproof bag and put it in Hiram's foxhole. I found on the floor

Hiram's foxhole on Biak

of our tent [in the dirt on the ridge], a small waterproof bag containing an excellent Jap plane clock. The night brought more alerts.  We'd give most of the men amytal [a barbiturate that causes sedation]!  Several planes were fired at, but there was reported there were several destroyers, transports of troops and a cruiser - about 18 in all.  We are opening up again and may more to a quiet island about 3 or 4 miles south.  Today they've been shelling and bombing the very devil out of the Japs.  We had some mail when our refrigerator arrived on an LST.

June 6, 1944  More air attacks and more work.

In a letter to his 14-year-old nephew, Gene sounds quite nonchalant.

6 June '44
Dear Jack,
     Here is a Jap cigarette (from which I took part of the tobacco) and the wrapper.  Also two pieces of paper invasion money and some aluminum invasion money [this was money the Japanese used in the countries they had invaded] (3 coins).
     No, I've not been collecting my souvenirs, but I do have a good clock from a Jap plane.  It is just too much to carry things around.  I'll be glad when we don't have to live out of a pack.  It seems we've been on the move for such a long time.
     I've seen quite a few natives.  They are quite primitive, and a sorry-looking lot.  Most of the children are pot-bellied from enlarged spleens from chronic malaria.
     Things are O.K. here - a bit warm at times but none of us have been injured, unless it was by someone jumping on someone else in a foxhole.
     Love, Eugene

June 7, 1944  We are to move to [the island of] Owi.  I go over to supervise the setting up of surgery.

Map of Biak with Owi circled

Owi is about 4 miles across the water from the location of the 92nd Evac.  It is about 3 miles long and 1 1/2 miles wide.  Most of the island is covered with scrub brush that is inhabited by a particularly nasty type of chigger, the larval stage of a mite.  It attaches itself to a host, bores a hole using enzymes, then eats the skin This causes the host intense itching.  This minor irritation turns major when the chigger transmits bacteria, Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, (tsutsuga means something small and dangerous in Japanese, and mushi means creature). These bacteria cause scrub typhus.  The initial "bite", which first is like a pimple, ruptures and becomes covered by a black scab. The symptoms begin about 10 days after the bacteria get into the person's body: rather sudden chills, fever, and a severe headache.  The lymph nodes swell and the mucous membranes of the eyes get red.  The patient starts coughing, and his fever rises for the first week to about 105°.  After the fifth day the patient develops a rash, which may fade away or become brightly colored.  Pneumonia may develop.  The patient may become delirious, lose consciousness and start twitching.  The heart muscle may become inflamed.  Today it is treated successfully with antibiotics.  In the 1940's it was treated by nursing care, and was often fatal.