Old Wounds (57)

18 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     ...My patients kept me busy all day.  They may be transferred to another hospital for civilians and I hope to heck they are.  I opened an abscess of a cheek and took out a chunk of bomb fragment on a young girl.  It had gone in just below into the side of the nose, cut off four upper teeth, went through the pallet [roof of the mouth] and maxillary sinus [just behind the cheek bone] and stopped next to the angle of the jaw.  Some more have osteo [osteolysis, or degeneration of the bone] of the femur and foul discharging wounds.  Poor people!  And tonight I opened a fellow's bladder about the pubis [the forward part of the hip bone] and put in a catheter.  He (a civilian) had been shot by a sniper six weeks ago and urine drained out a hole at the side of his thigh.  I must say I prefer caring for fresh wounds!  All outfits held a Thanksgiving Service for the liberation of the Philippines today, at MacArthur's order.  But I was operating and couldn't attend.  I missed church too, and the cockfights I wanted to see.  Another time!

Capt. Eugene Pfile in the Philippines

     Well, we've been ashore over a month and quite a few events have happened, both to us and elsewhere.  One of our men who was wounded that night [January 19, 1945, the night the 92nd Evac was attacked by Japanese snipers and 5 men were killed] returned.  He had a grenade fragment in his thigh.  I don't believe I wrote that we've had a shower in operation for about a week.  There is lots of water and lots of shower heads.  My but it is wonderful!  The water is from a surface well in the rice paddy and is very soft.  A shower is much more satisfactory than a helmet bath!  I hope I don't get lousy!  It seems that some of our F. [Filipino] patients brought a few colonies of pedicullii [lice] with them!  That is something new for us.
     There is one subject I've neglected in my photography and that is the guerrillas.  They are somewhat colorful!  Several soldiers have told me that they are fine on scattered fighting, but can't be relied upon when there is concentrated shellfire by the Japs.  Then they remember business elsewhere!

Gene's scrapbook label: "Filipino guerrilla detachment eating breakfast
after doing night guard duty on our perimeter"

19 Feb. '45
     ...  I now have on my women's and children's ward a graduate F. nurse and a nurse's aid.  Both seem quite capable so order is coming to chaos.  This morning when I reached the ward (after seeing my other patients) they had already started in to do dressings.  The nurse (what her name is, I haven't the faintest idea) wears a white nurse's uniform and can interpret.  She wears a wedding ring.  I haven't gone into her private life!  Then there is the regular ward man and his F. assistant.  Also a self-appointed F. assistant.  Also the various relatives of the patients.  So it is a tent full!  Some of the people bring food, such as rice in a polished coconut shell, chicken and I don't know what all.  One little girl with the osteo and the pneumonia wants rice to eat.  She doesn't like our food.  I've had others tell me the same.  I inquired at the kitchen and we have practically no rice.  Now to get rice, I'm certain it would have to come from the States, when we are in the rice center of the island!  The rest of the people with the phosphorus burns are doing O.K.  Speaking of coconut shells reminds me that there are no coconut palms around here.  There are some of the "palm leaf fan" palms, if I make myself clear!  Their leaves are about 3 or 4 feet across the fan part.  It is funny how I once thought that was the shape of all palm leaves!  Someone brought bouquets of flowers to the hospital today!  I recognize several of the various kinds.
     I appropriated some [second class] magazines and papers that came in for departed members [92nd Evac doctors that had been sent to other units] today.  [Maj.?] George [Christie, his former tent mate and good friend] "contributed" Colliers, [Capt.?] Ed Powers some Los Angeles Times, [Lt. Col.? Albert] Tipple a November's Readers Digest and one of the nurses a Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogue!
     All my love, Eugene

Civilian Casualties (56)

February 17, 1945
     What a wild night!  I went to bed about 10:15 after working on the youngsters with white phosphorus burns ... At 10:30 the SE corner guards opened up with a few shots and a grenade went off.  We hit the dirt and stayed there for 3 hours while the darnedest small arms barrage went on - all sorts of weapons.  After the first 20 min. we began to figure that most of it was random firing, for no bullets came over us.  I saw some tracers even going up at a 45º angle.  The guerrillas and some of our men just laid down a fire, all night long.  I heard several loud explosions and saw large flashes and thought it might be the Japs using mortar on us.  It tuned out to be some bazooka rockets the men got.  All we heard go over us was one grenade fragment and maybe one bullet.  I'll bet 3000 rounds were fired - M1 [Garand semi-automatic rifle], carbine and tommy gun [Thompson submachine gun].
     Results - 2 dead Japs!  One was lying by the RR tracks.  He had lots of bullet holes in him, but he'd held a grenade against his head, and blown off the hand.  The other was out in the woods.  The guerrillas claimed to have shot another next morning along a little creek about 200 yards off.  They claim they saw 3 more, but I doubt it.  Anyway, the guerrillas combed the area like a pack of dogs.  The Japs may have been escaping from Manila or the Zambales Mtn.

Modified Rand McNally map showing locations mentioned

17 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     This is probably the right date.  I have the darnedest time keeping track of the days!  We take atabrine [a medication used to protect from malaria and some parasites] daily so I can't count for that.  I was rather busy today doing this and that.  We received quite a slug of civilian casualties from another place.  Most have been taken care of but it is something to get a ward full of new patients.  It's a good thing I'm a general practitioner for the bunch I have are all women, girls, and small fry.  Many of them were injured last month and went practically uncared for, for some time.  So you can imagine there are some odoriferous items.  One woman had a large sarcoma of the jaw - very unsightly - and the worst of it is that nothing can be done for her.  It is much too far gone.  Another is a youngster who hammered a 50 caliber cartridge on a rock and all he received from it was a crease across his leg.  Several are in casts.  I've seen several cases of tetanus among the civilians, but they come out of it O.K. with lots of antitoxin.  One poor soul is seven months pregnant and has a compound fracture (shell fragment) of the thigh that was untreated and now she has an osteo [osteolysis or degeneration of the bone] with it.  I just heard that we'll have some casualties.  One of our patrols out in the hills somewhere ran into an ambush.  That patrolling is bad work!  Three of the four youngsters with [the worst] phosphorus burns died.  The two on which I worked seem to be doing O.K.  Later - Well that fellow sure had his Achilles heel [vulnerable spot]!  A Jap machine gun bullet went through his heel bone from side to side and really pulverized the bone.  But he'll get a good result, no doubt.  He was also creased about the left buttock.  I heard that the two Japs that came by the other day were killed by F.'s [Filipinos].  How they go for the Japs!

Some of Gene's civilian patients in Guimba

     The F. people here certainly have Spanish names and use the Spanish pronunciation even though they don't speak it.  The names almost make me think I'm home in Trinidad [Colorado]!  They have black straight hair, black eyes and some have Spanish features.  And the young gals can roll their eyes the same way!  Apparently these "country" ones are not on the loose side in morals.  Some of the men seem to think it "muy malo" to fool around for the family takes them seriously if they do!  There is an F. nurse on one woman's ward looking very crisp in her white unitorm.  We certainly use the nurses now!

Escape to the Ordinary (55)

Children are the hope of the future.  Children are also major victims of war.

16 Feb. '45
Beloved,
     I've just spent a bad three hours.  We received nine children and four adults who had white phosphorus burns [White phosphorus is a compound that burns fiercely and can set cloth, fuel, ammunition and other combustibles on fire.  Phosphorus burns carry a greater risk of mortality than other forms of burns because the  phosphorus is absorbed into the body through the burned area, resulting in liver, heart and kidney damage, and in some cases multi-organ failure.  White phosphorus continues to burn on the body until it is deprived of oxygen or until it is consumed, often burning right down to the bone.]  It seems that the kids found a phosphorus grenade and lugged it home and under the house.  Some time later it went off.  They ranged in age from about three and up.  It had happened some hours before they came in and they'd been given initial treatment.  Some of the kids' faces and eyes were really puffed up and blistered also arms and legs.  I had a boy of about eight and a girl of about four.  I've no idea how they will turn out.  On only one place did I find phosphorus active (it gives out white fumes until it has burned out).  This P.M. they brought in a wasted little girl of six with a huge abdomen.  It is probably a tumor of the ovary with fluid formation.  She is too sick to undergo surgery and the fluid is too extensive.

One of Gene's photos depicting ordinary life in Guimba

     [Gene feels such compassion for his patients, particularly the young ones, but dwelling on the tragedies does not help him in the fight to save others, so he continues his letter about happier, more ordinary things in his daily life.]

Photo of the interior of a church in Guimba

     Last evening I forgot to tell you of the color pictures I took that noon.  I fear I ruined several.  The outside of the church is very unprepossessing but the inside rather picturesque.  A bunch of nuns (black hood, white habit) were kneeling in the front.  So from the balcony I tried a seven or eight second exposure.  Probably it won't show a thing!  Then I went up to the belfry to take a picture of the town.  Darn if I didn't leave the [long] exposure time on [the] bulb and so moved the camera before the shutter closed!  Then I got in a hurry to catch some kids in front of some carabao carts and didn't change the focus properly!  I took others about the streets.  I tried to get typical town scenes, usually with people and not pictorial masterpieces.  I think it is well to show the ordinary scenes a "tourist" sees. [Looking for the ordinary is one way Gene copes with the horrors of war.]
     This morning I took a little time off and went to market.  It was held in a vacant lot along the street.  The food was limited to vegetables.  There were some unglazed pots.  I had to laugh at the F. [Filipino].  I asked how much and he had a queer look on his face and said 30 centavos.  I'm certain they were usually about 15!  I could fine no straw matting, wooden shoes or baskets.  A lady told me that in usual times they wore leather shoes, though I suppose the poor always wore wooden clogs or went barefoot.  But I did make a purchase - 6 meters of abaca cloth [the abaca plant fibers were used to make twine and the original Manila envelopes, and now are used to make paper tea bags and other paper products] at 50 centavos a meter [about 25¢].  Of course it's only twenty-two inches wide.  It looks like loosely woven linen.  It is dyed of blue green which no doubt will fade.  It is made from a fiber of a plant resembling a banana.  It is a regular cloth and is treated as such.  Washed in soap and water, cut and sewn and etc.  It is used for shirts, dresses, and such.  I may get some more later on.  A fellow gave [Maj.] Hi [Armstrong] two pairs of wooden shoes and he gave me one.  They are not so fancy.  I saw a shirt of a very fine variety.  It is made from pineapple fiber with very tiny threads.  It is almost transparent but with a glossy finish.  There was a lot of embroidery on it.  I've no idea how much it cost.  That type of cloth is said to be used in the National Costume and is worn by the well-to-do in all big occasions.
     The dogs here are the darnedest looking curs.  They always slink around in a very furtive and sullen manner [dogs were occasionally eaten in the Philippines, so maybe they had reason to slink!].  And how they bark at night.  This morning about 4 our guerrilla guards challenged someone walking along the track.  When they received no answer they shot a few times but hit nothing.  Probably it was a couple of hungry Japs heading for the hills that got away from the fight in the big city.  How I like those guerrillas!  They know how to use [American] Indian tactics too!  We feel perfectly safe with them on our perimeter.