"How is Australia?" (20)

Inside a 92nd Evac. ward tent at Rockhampton

September 30, 1943 (Thursday)
     ...  This evening we received 2 ambulance loads of the 162nd Reg. They landed at Gladstone and came up here by train. They were in on the Salamana [or Salamaua, New Guinea] push, so saw plenty of fighting. Terribly tough going - straight up and straight down, with Jap pill boxes at the top! Pill boxes so well constructed that a direct hit from a 105 wouldn't harm it. But it was the artillery that finally broke the last line. The AIF (Aussies who were in N. Africa) are the toughest fighters. But a green Aussie outfit! They said - Come on, what's wrong with you Yanks! And the Yanks had to help go up and carry them back. One of their first questions was "Has Finchhofen fallen?" It had - 3 days ago. [According to Wikipedia, Finschhafen didn't fall to the Australians until 3 October 1943: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finschhafen]
Also 24 nurses arrived from a staging area at Brisbane to help us. They are of the 108th Station Hospital. They had been at Townville a while.

3 Oct. '43
Dear Folks,
      Ho-hum! It's early in the morning. Well, 1 hour earlier at least. We went on day light saving time during the night. That puts us on the same basis as your war time. So now if it is 8 A.M. here, Sunday, it is 5 P.M. Saturday for you. Heck, I quit - I can't figure it.
     ... At last we are to have a floor in my office - a semi-permanent building. It is started and should be done in a few days time.
      I've started another leather sewing project - making a sort of bag to hold the camera and stuff with it. I'll get a zipper off some reclaimed clothing [it didn't turn out quite like he had envisioned it; it had no zipper, but was a box with an attached lid and strap]
     A patient is just going out this morning with whom we had a time when he entered. He was in full equipment, but a little out of his head and wouldn't let go his rifle. Fortunately it wasn't loaded for we had to take it away from him. We've been seeing some restricted pictures also of the Japs and their background. No wonder they are tough eggs.
      ... Hope you are both staying well!
      Love, Eugene


     Exerpt from "The Bitter Pill", Vol. 1 No. 8, a newsletter for the 92nd Evac. while in Rockhampton: "Leaving the brass and pulling our finger further down the roster we are confronted with the name, Adams, Francis, Capt., M.C. [Sparky].  When not instructing the nurse to 'begin the atabrine routine' Capt. Adams is deep in the throes of concentration dreaming up another invention.  Oh, well, you know what they said about Edison.  Then we have Armstrong.  Or do we?  Were we dreaming or did we actually hear someone say 'I think Capt. Armstrong is the nicest man!'  ...  Slightly removed but a first cousin to the medical service is Capt. Pfile who threads needles in the Receiving Dept. and sews in his quarters they do say.

October 6, 1943
      A 2nd Lt. from the 34th Div. had been with the 32nd Div. in some heavy fighting. He said that the natives saved his life. They carried him for 8 hours, after he had been shot in the back by a sniper.
      2 Portable Hospitals, 16th and 24th Portable Surgical Hosp. are attached to us for a rest. They were up at Salamana for 10 weeks, taking care of battle casualties. One of them was set up at the foot of the ridge where the fighting was. Stray bullets used to fly around them occasionally, or a mortar shell. I heard some men talking - his company got lost with 2 days rations, for 7 days. All the time they were within a mile of camp.  They say the hills are straight up and down , and so densely covered with growth!

6 Oct. '43
Dear Folks,
      ... You ask what I really think of the country. Well, I'm hardly in a position to judge it accurately. I haven't met many of the people, nor seen their homes, but what I have I like O.K. They have been at war much longer than we have, so naturally their stock of luxuries has been depleted,  But their manufacturing is a younger thing, so naturally their items don't have the polish or refinements that ours do. Many items are just too expensive, or too strictly rationed, for them to possess a lot of worldly goods. It seems to me that they waste an appreciable share of their income, betting on horse races or buying lottery tickets, or both. It seems almost a universal vice, with them! They do eat a great deal of sweets - cake and pastry more than candy. They have a lot of sugar - raise it I mean. And meat! Steak and eggs is their idea of a meal, so many of their restaurants are drab with an inescapable odor of steak fried in mutton tallow! The waitresses have not the polish - tend to slam things down and beat it! Most places have an acute shortage of matched dishes and cutlery - table knives with warped plastic handles, odd sized spoons (either demitasse size or tablespoon size), forks with bent tines. Napkins are seldom furnished - never cloth ones. Tipping is not expected. But of course I haven't seen their large cities. Their first 3 cities are said to be quite cosmopolitan, so I may be doing them a great injustice. I don't see how they have bourne up under the avalanche of "dog-faces" (infantry or GI's to you!) as well as they have. Our men, with higher pay, came to this country of relatively cheap prices. Supply and demand sent the prices soaring, so it worked a real hardship on the people. Thru it all they remain friendly. Get a book on Australia. It can tell you better. This "Australia" by Paul McGuire is quite good, even though I don't agree with all his views!
     I'm doing fine!
     Love, Eugene



October 7, 1943
      We admitted 100 patients in 12 hours, for a total of 103, midnight to midnight. Over half were soldiers just back from New Guinea.
      Today the carpenters ("joiners") said the plumbers (roofers) would put the roof on. Tree getter is a lumber jack.
      As I was sitting in my tent today 2 birds flew thru, touching my hair! They were playing tag, or whatever birds do when one chases the other.

October 14, 1943
     The other day I saw a bunch of [Japanese] things one of the Doctors brought back from Salamana - mosquito ointment, garden seeds, pencils, insignia, etc., and including a map on which some Jap officer had marked out the route by which he had come to New Guinea - just as I marked on my map our route to Australia!  Here's hoping no one gets mine as a souvenier!
     There's one bad thing about most of these movies - the heroine makes me so blasted lonesome and homesick for Beth!  Only 3 months in Australia and it seems like 3 years or more since I saw her.

TELEGRAM COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Postmaster General's Office VIA BEAM W 404 FREEPORT ILL                                                          11 OCT 43
EMF   CAPT EUGENE FREDERICK PFILE 0 445677
AMBYDA QLD (ROCKHAMPTON)

BEST WISHES FROM ALL OF US BIRTHDAY GREETINGS LOVE BETH ANN PFILE

October 15, 1943
     My birthday today, 33 years old.  And here I'm in the army, and a long way from home.  They talk about the war lasting 1, 2, maybe 3 years more.  The prospect is mighty depressing at times.  If it wasn't for being separated from Beth, I wouldn't care.  Who knows what the future holds.  Probably it's best we don't know.  But there is no use fretting, for it can't be altered.  Only, it just plain hurts to know Beth is having to carry on with her problems [her father was dying and her brother going through a messy divorce], and I can't be there to help, or even comfort her.  Wonder where I'll be next year.  But feeling sorry for myself won't help a bit! There are plenty more in the same fix.

17 Oct. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  But it [rain] is good weather for something.  My cobber, George, goes fishing in this muddy old river, but caught 2 catfish last evening.  The cooks fixed it (one fellow from Oregon who had been a fisherman by trade cleaned them just bst-bzt!).  They were astonishingly good!  We are still on tidewater here, but the river stays muddy.  I don't have the patience to sit in the dingy on the river.  It would be different on a lake.  ...
     As I sit here writing this , I overhear bits like this, "why you'd get up to about 4 feet before they'd open fire!"  I'm inclined to think that a lot of the stories get taller with the telling!  ...
     Yesterday I received Beth's Christmas package, which I only peeked into to make certain it was for Christmas, and then closed up again.  Other packages seem to be slower.
     My birthday passed very quietly.  In fact I scarcely thought of it.  Oh, I try not to feel sorry for myself.  I read the Psalm.  Thanks for the thoughts, Mother!
     You don't know our Padre!  He goes over big with the fellows.  He is quick on the trigger and can get the laugh on the others, and can preach the most forceful, short sermons I've ever heard!  And he is no hypocrite!  He is perfect as an army chaplain.  ...
     Love, Eugene

October 20, 1943
     ...  These 24th Portable boys had a rugged time.  They were in the 2nd wave landing at Nassau Bay.  They landed about 2 A.M., in heavy surf which turned their boat sideways so that they had to jump into the water from about 12 feet.  They crossed the narrow (30 yd) beach without opposition, and dug fox holes.  Then the Japs began infiltrating their perimeter (they were only a small group - a little over 1 company [100 - 250 men?].  Plans for following waves didn't pan out.).  The Japs fired at them with machine guns and mortars and used grenades.  32 of our men were killed that night, out of the group!  Luckily none of the Portable (which wasn't all there) were shot.  Next morning more troops landed and helped them! 

20 Oct. '43
Dear Folks,
     This is a very nice, fresh morning.  But I suppose it is just ordinary Spring weather for these parts.  Certainly my corn patch is growing after the rain.  And we've seen what tropical downpours must be like, but only for short periods.  here, as it seems to be elsewhere too, weather is essentially changeable.

Gene outside his tent in Rockhampton during a downpour

     We are now very fancy, and don't quite know how to act, with a floor and a roof!  The boys moved the office yesterday.  It isn't quite complete yet, but close enough for us.  The floor and posts beneath, are gum wood.  This is light brown color, reddish rather, and very heavy.  A piece of 4 by 4 about 10 feet long, is a good load for an office worker.  It is fully as heavy as ironwood, and about as hard.  No, it doesn't have the same odor when burning.  They have to work with it while it is still green, or it gets so hard they can't drive a nail in it.  As it is, nails are difficult to drive without bending.  Of course it then shrinks and warps a bit, but it merely makes it easier to sweep a floor - all the dirt drops thru.  The floor is rough sawn only, not planed,  For sides and roofing a sort of asbestos and plaster mixture [is used] to make a sheet.  This is fairly thin and somewhat brittle but makes fine siding and roofing.  One thing that makes a tent so hot is the fact that it is low at the sides.  Besides there is less head room at the sides.  this type of building has a space of about 3 feet between the top of the wall and the roof, and a rather wide eaves, and the side wall slopes inward at the top slightly, so that it is quite airy and rain seldom blows in.  It is commonly used in tropical and subtropical areas.  Like all the homes here, it is upon posts but partly also to make it level.
     It's funny to see them haul lumber.  Their trucks are none too heavy, and with the great weight of the lumber they can only haul what looks like a small load.  We are to get some table-desks made.  Now we are using big boxes, which leave something to be desired.  ...
     Love, Eugene

October 23, 1943
     Our census reached 790 this morning.  All 24th Div. patients must be out of hosp. very soon.  Are they going up front?  Could be.

24 Oct. 1943
Dear Folks,
     ...  Last evening I listened by shortwave to the "Zero Hour".  You might try to find it some time.  It is on here at 8:30 P.M. so that would be 1:30 P.M. for you (except Saturday for you)  The announcer hasn't a trace of an accent.  They give 5 minutes of news.  The Allies are referred to as the anti-Axis folks, while they are the Imperial Forces.  Their version is vastly different!  Their theme song is "Stars and Stripes Forever".  Can you feature that?  Oh it is very subtle.  They even played the record (it is all recordings) "I Am an American".  The announcer would put in comments between records such as "Remember the good old days back in the States - baseball, hamburgers, Coca Colas.  And where are you now?"  They just try to make the fellows homesick.  Funny thing is, everyone gets a laugh out of it, instead!  We should give them a program, called "Fortress Hour".  ...
     Love, Eugene

27 Oct. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  I've given up my 2 feet square garden.  Carrying water to it is too much of a job.  It is queer - less than a week after a good rain it began to wilt, and if this is going to be the dry season for another 2 months, I'll pass, and wait for rain!  Besides there is too much competition  from the tree roots.
     Milk is still delivered from house to house by a horse drawn 2 wheeled cart, being dispensed from a large can into the housewife's container.  I don't know if it is pasteurized or not.  Apparently the prospects of meat rationing for the civilians here is causing quite a stir.  It won't affect us.  We get quite a few fresh vegetables, including the stringiest beans I've ever eaten.  We also get red beets, squash, cabbage (great quantities of that and frequently), stewed onions (fortunately they are now getting so that they cook or fry the onions separately.  But we still get them in fresh cucumber salad, bread, dressing, etc.  I declare, from all the onions I've seen, there must be an army regulation saying that onions must be served frequently!), fresh tomatoes, and sweet potatoes.  We usually have peanut butter or jam.  ...  We are still using the old mess line system.  And coffee - I've never drunk so much in my life before.  Officers have a liquor ration system.  I've been buying mine only part of the time!
     Some of the buses here are a bit ancient, with long running boards for side entrance into the seats which hold 4 and are crosswise.  There are open sides with canvas curtains for rain [see photo in post #17 of the bus in front of Stewarts].  When it is full, the driver will have 1 or 2 persons on his right and 2 or 3 on his left!  They have one line of nice modern ones, too.  These charcoal burning cars and trucks are peculiar looking items, but they run.
     Time for chow.  We have had no bugler for a long time and I miss it.
     Love, Eugene.

October 28, 1943

Joseph L. Ferguson

     No mail from Beth for 4 days, but a letter from Mother refers to Dad Ferguson's death.  He was one of the Best.  A true Gentleman and a Scholar.  If any mortal receives immortality, as indeed we all hope, it will be he.  How I wish I could have been with Beth to try to comfort her, and her Mother.  Requiesat in Pace.
     Today I admitted Lt. Col. Archibald Roosevelt, son of Theodore.  He is in the 162nd Inf. Reg. and was with their outfit in New Guinea.  He is tall and thin, graying hair and quite pleasant.  Admissions diagnosis - bronchitis.

31 Oct. 43
Dear Folks,
     ...Our weather has been very pleasant after a hot spell.  My tent mates and I spent Thursday afternoon fixing a bamboo frame for out tent.  The bamboo is about 3 to 4 inches across.  We put a frame along the top of the side wall, and longer corner poles (also of bamboo), raising the whole tent (including center pole) about 2 feet.  then we put three of the side walls out almost horizontal, all of which gives a much better circulation of air.  Besides, we have taken our clothes rack from the center pole where they took up a great deal of space, and hung them from the poles of the roof-wall location.  The poles are very convenient in that green as they are now, we put nails and hooks all along the wall for hanging things.  Handy stuff, that bamboo!
     The war news continues to sound good.
     Love, Eugene

Recreation (19)

Practicing cricket in Rockhampton

September 19, 1943 (Sunday)
     This afternoon I went to the cricket field and watched some fellows at practice.  They ranged in apparent age from 18 to 50!  I learned something of the game.  Wickets, wicket keeper, batsman, bowler, fielder - 11 in all.  Stumps, bails, ball, bat.  Quite interesting to watch, though somewhat slow.  The ball must be bowled (thrown overhand).  I talked to a Reggie Armstrong - swimming coach at the grammar school.  It apparently corresponds to our high school and jumior college.  It is a private school.  Students come from "out back".  It is a boarding school, endowed, and not run for profit.  The "Master" is an MA (master's degree).  It has a boys and a girls section.  Men teachers only.  It is 50 years old.  I hope to attend some of their [the club's] cricket matches.  That must be an endurance contest - 2:30 to 6 is nothing.  One player has made as high as 600 runs before being put out.

22 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,
     Yesterday was our first day of Spring (I think!)  Anyway, the weather was more than Spring-like.  The last few nights I haven't pulled the top of my sleeping bag over me until along towards morning.  But at least it is cool enough to sleep at night.  During the day it was in the 90's.  I'll be glad when the "open air building" for my office is up.  They claim that the shorts are much cooler in summer.  But the long wool socks that are worn with them would seem to me like a drawback.  And they cretainly couldn't be worn in the evening the way the mosquitoes gather around.  The other evening I put on my helmet to keep them off my ears.  They claim that some of these skeeters look at your dog tag before they bite, to see what blood type you are!

An Australian possum

     Last evening one of the fellows shot a "coati" - at least that is what it was called [possibly a bandicoot, or an Australian possum since coatimundis are New World animals].  It belongs to the marsupial family.  It has a head and ears like an oppossum, and a long tail, bare along the underside only.  Why they killed it, I couldn't quite see, for certainly the fur is no good now at this season.
     ...  Our shows lately have not been good.  The other evening there was a typical Western - "Bandit Ranger" - you'd have laughed at how the patients enjoyed it.  They just whooped and cheered.  They are (a lot of them) just kids.  I suppose the average age is almost 10 years younger than I [Gene was almost 33].  I'm a considerably older soldier than you were, Vernon [he was about 18 in WWI]!
     Our mess officer was just in for the census.  He certainly has a headache, trying to anticipate several days ahead what our count will be.  We are busier than we ever were in the States.
     The boys who have been there, say that in New Guinea they opened lots of packs of cigarettes, only to find them molded.  Imagine sealed packs molding!  They say that Camels was one of the few brands tightly emough sealed to withstand it.  ...
     Love, Eugene

September 23, 1943 (Thursday)
     Christie and I had a tea - lunch at Stewart's.  Then took a bus out to the Botanic Gardens.  It was quite interesting - a fairly large park-like arrangement with all sorts of tropical trees and plants, some labeled including the "cassia fistula" or Indian Pipe Tree.  This had long seedpods that contained a black resin smelling like ichthyol [ammonium bituminosulfonate, used to treat some skin diseases].  A huge tree had large, waxy red blossoms.  It was full of beautiful little wild parrots.  There was a banyan tree and all sorts of palms, some of which even had clusters of coconuts.  Another tree had things hanging from branches that looked like the very large sized bologna, and about a foot long, hanging from a string [see the photo of the sausage tree in post #17].  There were beautiful bougainvillea flower masses, now fading.  I hope to take pictures in it [the Botanic Gardens] - kodachromes.

At the Rockhampton bowling Club

September 25, 1943 (Friday)
     This afternoon some of us went to the "rices" at the RJC - Rockhampton Jockey Club.  I didn't bet!  After the 2nd, George and I had tea, then walked over to the RBC - Rockhampton Bowling Club - and watched the members at "bowls".  They all wore white clothes, including some type of straw hat (even formal style) with a hat band insignia.  There were 7 alleys.  They have about 100 members.  They were very nice and hospitable, explaining the game (which I had watched in Denver).  About 4 a bell rang, and they invited us to tea!  (When a bowl was short); Good on you!, Kiss the kitty (=hit the bowling jack).  Then we talked to some fishermen along the river.
     ...  Beth's letters make me so darn lonesome.  No one knows how many years of life are left to each of us.  What a cursed shame that time is slipping by, and we're apart.  Why must there be war and suffering?
     At the race a lady back of me said, "Why that horse is knocked up before he starts" meaning he was tired before starting.

26 Sept. '43
Dear folks,

Waiting for the dingy on the Fitzroy River

     ...  [W]e talked to a man fishing in the river.  It is quite a sizeable river, and the tide varies its depth.  It is about 300 yards wide and there are quite a few fishing boats and launches on it.  Prawns (a variety of shrimp) are taken by netting, at night.  The salt water when the river flow is low brings in sea fish to a certain extent.  The water looks as muddy as the Pecatonica River [the river through Freeport, IL], to me.  We cross it each time we go to town.  I still want to go ocean fishing some time.
     One of the fellows shot a "gecko", a species of hooded lizard.  He skinned it and expects to mount it.  It is harmless.
     Hope you are both doing O.K.!
     Love, Eugene

September 30, 1943 (Thursday)
     Last night at the show, we had a good G-I short.  It introduced the "Screaming Eagle Hardware Company"  The sales talk was clever.  "Are you bothered with tanks?  Then see our latest model Tank Eradicator. T-A-N-K  D-E-S-T-R-O-Y-E-R, tank destroyer.  With its new bogey wheels it rides smoothly (?) along over the roughest terrain.  And its new gun - a model for ease of operation.  The trigger is conveniently mounted as a push button.  Etc., etc.  See your Supply Sergeant today.  Ask the man who didn't own one - Irwin Rommel of Berlin."
     In the last issue of the Yank, the story of the song of Dirty Gertie from Bizerte [a city in Tunesia under French control at the time] is given.
          Dirty Gertie from Bizerte
          Hid a mouse trap 'neath her skirtie
          Strapped it on her knee cap purty
          Baited it with Fleur de Flirte
          Made her boy friends' fingers hurty
          Made her boy friends most alerty (or very shirty, originally)
          She was voted, in Bizerte,
          Miss La Trine for 1930.
    

Old river man, all cleaned up

October 10, 1943 (Sunday)
     ...  Today George and I left at 1 and went down to the [Fitzroy] river where he had scraped up acquaintance with an old river man.  This old man of 72, born in England, started as a pharmacist apprentice but left that at the age of 15 (thought he had poisoned a customer.  This woman asked for 6d of laudanum, which he gave her and she drank at once.  So he just went home!  The woman was an addict, so it didn't bother her!)  But he went to sea.  In about 1885 he came to Rockhampton with a load of settlers.  The town was nothing, then.  He has packed [in] supplies in north Q'land (had a huge alligator break the back of one horse at a ford), hunted, fished for turtles, all around the islands north of here, etc. etc.  He has a stubby sailboat, not over 16 feet long, with a half cabin forward, in which he lives.  He is short, sun-burned, and none too clean.  He was anchored out in the river when we came, but rowed his "dingy" in for us and took us out.  He then proceeded to wash up and change clothes for the occasion!  The boat was crowded with all sorts of gear - tar buckets, boards, etc.  He lets George take the dingy out in the river to fish, which George, being a natural born fisherman, enjoys immensely, dirty as the water is!  George rowed me across the river (300 yards wide, and 40 to 50 feet deep in some places), and I went to take pictures.
     All is not quiet these days.  Outfits are starting to leave.  Something is no doubt beginning .

Recreation time is over for those returning to war.  The members of the 92nd Evac still have some time to watch and wait.

Back into the Routine in Rockhampton (18)

Smiling faces (Gene on the left) inside the 92nd Evac.
A & D (Admissions and Discharging) in Rockhampton

After the flurry of discharges and preparations to leave Australia only to be told to reopen, the 92nd Evac settles down to the same old routine.  Capt. Pfile continues in his diary:

September 4, 1943 (Saturday)
     ...  Our first 3 days since we re-opened, we admitted 238!  ...

7 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  In a cartoon recently in "Yank", a girl was shown talking to a friend.  The room was full of Australian things - kangaroo, emu, platypus, kukuburra [kooksburra] bird, etc.  The girl was saying "Sometimes I wish George hadn't gone to Australia!" 
     Beth is sending my camera and film.  There are a host of common ordinary things that I hope to take pictures of, for they are really the interesting items.  The scenery is about the same the world over, and we can't get around much any way to see the really remarkable things.
     I was able to buy 15 cigars the other day - 3/ or about 50¢.  Each month each person is allowed to buy a certain amount of cigarettes ( 40¢ a carton, Vernon - any popular brand!)[Gene's stepfather was a heavy cigarette smoker who died from lung cancer in 1958], but this was the first time cigars were available.  Of course they do have some pipe tobacco but it is usually Velvet, Prince Albert or Half and Half, none of which I fancy.  Officers also have a liquor ration available: 2 bottles monthly of brandy, gin, rum or whiskey, 12 bottles (24 oz.) of beer or ale, and any amount of wine.  It is all Australian.  So far I have purchased 1 bottle of brandy (really very good and only $2.56 for 26 oz.) and some wine and a few bottles of beer.  The liquor part strikes me as very funny.  But this is really part of the British Empire!  They have an iten called ginger beer which is really only ginger ale, but stronger in ginger than ours.  Their wine is quite good.
     I bought flower seeds today, also.  I may not get to pick the flowers, but I remember well the baby chicks that we never expected to see grown up, but which we ate quite a few as fryers!  We've had some rain.  In fact, 3 days of almost steady drizzle before it stopped.  Of course the natives say it is unusual for this time of year!
     We are certainly in the country!  The other day a few cows were wandering thru one corner of our area, and a few horses in another.
     ...  As Australians would say, "Good-o!" and love!  Eugene
     P.S. I've been writing twice weekly.
     E.

September 8, 1943 (Wednesday)
     ...  Spring is in the air!  Last night I woke to hear a muffled scream over by Power's bed.  Then a terrific caterwalling.  Ed said the damned cats ran right under his bed and bumped against it.  Christie said they ran thru his tent twice!  Fenton later told of peppering some cats with .22 shot.  He said each one would yell "Kee-rīst" and jump straight up about 6 feet.
     Last night we had sheep hearts for supper.  Armstrong looked at them and said "Kangaroo hearts!  Nope, too small, must be wallaby!"
     We've admitted over 400 patients in about a week!

September 9, 1943
     Italy surrenders.  Glory Be!  Of course we don't have it though.  The Germans do!

12 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  We didn't get to see Mrs. Roosevelt.  She visited our neighbor but not us.  Can't say as I blame her!

Bathing a horse in the Fitzroy River near Rockhampton

     Everything is going fairly smoothly.  The boys betting on the races continue to be clipped regularly.  This country certainly is enthusiastic about them.  On lots of the side steets around town you will see somebody leading or riding a sleek looking horse that must be raced somewhere, out for exercise.  There is some question though on just how honest the races always are.
     ...  Have you heard the song "Waltzing Matilday" any time?  It seems to be the Australian popular song.  They play and sing it a lot over here [and it was the second song our father taught my sister and me to sing;  the first was "O Tannenbaum"]. 
     There is a roadside stand not far from here.  The other evening the proprietor told us when the Americans first came over, they taught him how to make a hamburger and a malted milk.  The nearest thing they had to a hamburter was "meat pie" - some "minced" (as they call ground or chopped) meat with "herbs" wrapped in dough.  They were likewise astonished at the amount of ice cream we put in milk shakes.  Down town they have "hamburger bars".  Really the only thing that is cheap over here is food, and that is going higher.  They like our cigarettes.


Aussie soldiers on bicycles near Rockhampton

     It seems funny to see all the people riding bicycles, even women dressed in high-heeled shoes, etc.  Youngsters often carry a knap[sack on their back.
     ...  Love, Eugene.

 13 Sept. '43
Dear Folks [Mary X and John],
     Friday I mailed a package to Beth that included a boomerang for you , Jack [Gene's 14-year-old nephew] and a picture book for you, Marianne [the 4-year-old daughter of Jim, the brother of Beth and Mary X, who was temporarily living with the Barretts]!  [When Beth received the package she wrote to Mary X,  "...Tell Jack it is a wicked looking object and he had better watch for the package or you may not let him have it!!  The book for Marianne is a bit (!!) lurid - perhaps you'd better censor it.  Jack can read about the boomerang in it."  Later Jack reported in a letter to his grandparents that he could get it to change direction, but not return completely.]  I tried throwing the boomerang but it wouldn't come back to me.  You can no doubt find something in the library on how to throw it.  It is made from a tree root, already curved.  It is the same type as the Aborigines used.


Yepoon Beach near Rockhampton

     Yesterday we went to the beach, and had a swim and steak roast (a really GI version in simplicity).  There are sharks around here so we did not venture far out.  We saw a fish trap that really works.  It is full moon right now, with the biggest tide variation.  What I would like to find is a quiet pool to observe sea life, but there don't seem to be any.
     ...  You all sound busy!  Take it easy - Eugene


15 Sept. '43
Dear Folks,

Gene on his cot, inside the mosquito net.

     ...  So you are pestered with mosquitoes this year.  We haven't had any rain to speak of, and yet we have swarms of them staying in our tents all the time.  In the daytime they "nest"  in the dark corners of the tent and in the clothes, and fly up in a small cloud when disturbed.  At night they become active and z-z-z around your ears.  Fortunately they really aren't vicious as they get at home.  Later as the weather warms up, they no doubt will be.  What is bad is to get 3 or 4 inside your net at night and have them chew on you all night!  Last night while I was writing to Beth I killed several, and enclosed them in a bit of paper for her to see the size!
     Yesterday I planted flowers!  Two rows about 18 inches long is all - petunias and zinnias!  One of the other officers planted sweet peas and snap dragons!  sounds funny, planting flowers this time of year
     I've been working on linoleum block prints.  If they come along O.K., and they seem to look O.K. ... I'll send the blocks to Beth for her to print , for Christmas cards.  This George Christie from Canon [City, Colorado] is my artist.  He does the drawing.  He did last year for the one I made, too!
     ...Your weather is cooling down and ours warming up.  Last night I didn't pull my sleeping bag over me until early morning.  I had a leak in my air mattress, but was able to patch it.  They can't be replaced any more for love or money!  So I'm glad mine is not ruined.
     ...  Love, Eugene

September 18, 1943
     599 patients in the hospital last midnight.  The highest we've ever had (Later - about Sept. 20 - 615)
     Today I went over to the rifle range (by myself) and made 4 bulls out of 11 shots.  Not bad for the first time I ever shot an M1 Garand, first time on a range, and that also included zeroing the rifle.  3-3's, 4-4's and 4-5's, 45 out of a possible 55.  The range was 200 yards, 10 inch bull, all positions.  One bull was off hand!
     Tonight at the show they threw on for a "sing" the song "I wonder Who's Kissing Her Now".  One of the patients said, "That's not in very good taste!"
     Last night I went with Christie to Mt. Morgan to pick up a patient who had gone AWOL and then turned in to the hospital there.  ...    
     I planted Zinnias and petunias 5 days ago.  Today the zinnias are up!  Such speed!

Not much else seems to be moving very quickly!


    

Photos from Australia (17)

Capt. Pfile knew Beth loved flowers, so he took lots of photos of nature.  Here are a few:

White frangipani bush in Brisbane

Sausage tree in the Rockhampton Botanic Gardens

Rockhampton Botanic Gardens (I think)

Pink frangipani in Rockhampton

Coral trees in Rockhampton

Gene also took lots of photos of everyday things:

Grosvenor Hotel in Rockhampton (C.C. Adair, proprietor); note car and Dewar's Whisky advertisement.

American soldiers walking down the street in down town Rockhampton;
note the open-sided bus, and Stewarts, where Gene bought three lace handkerchiefs, (made in England) for 2/6 each and 2 ration coupons for the lot.

An Australian soldier in front of the Public Curator's Office in Rockhampton;
note the old car in the background

Residential area in rockhampton; "Tidewater" is written over the door of the white building.

Since the Fitzroy River was prone to flooding, and cyclones were not uncommon in Rockhampton, many of the houses, like this one, were built on stilts.

Note the old tramway tracks in front of this lovely home in residential Rockhampton; the tramway had been closed down a few years earlier.

Looking for beauty in the ordinary was a way for Gene to find a brief refuge from the ugliness of war that confronted him every day in the wards..

Soldiers' Stories (16)

The soldiers get pretty lonesome when they are away from their loved ones.  They react in different ways.

August 8, 1943 (Sunday)
     Last night it suddenly struck me - the sun and moon are messengers for Beth and I.  When they set for me, they rise for Beth! ...

August 10, 1943 (Tuesday)
     ...  This afternoon I was in the Kodak shop when 2 1st Lt's from the 163rd Reg. came in to see for the first time 2 rolls of movies they had taken in N. Guinea.  They showed some of the scenery, part of the Santa Anandu Trail (?) - a stretch of beach with some wrecked Jap invasion barges, and a lot of the natives, chiefly of the women and their bare breasts, including a line up at close range (!) and of the bouncing as they walked along!  Also a soldier turning over a skull with his foot.  I asked about that.  They said there were about a dozen Jap skeletons there and that it only takes about a week for a skull to be fairly clean.  He said one of their boys was shot and they couldn't recognize him in two days time!  ...  Another thing in the movie was a sign on their "club house" - they called it the "Lacka-Nookie Club"!

11 Aug. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  I forgot when I wrote last, so maybe this is repeat.  Sunday afternoon I went down to the beach.  This summer (or beginning next month) they are going to try to rent a house near the beach and we will take turns spending weekends there.  The fishing and swimming should be fine.
     ...  We see an interesting variety of things in our work, and really have to study a lot on the tropical things.  Some of the stories these boys tell (be they true or otherwise) make your hair curl!  But we'll see some of it ourselves eventually.  ...
     Love, Eugene

August 12, 1943
     Rain yesterday afternoon and last night!  The officers and nurses of the 5th Station Hospt. and nurses of the 33rd Surg. Hosp. gave a dance for us at the Officers Club down on the riverband (Fitzroy River) in town.  Armstrong, Tipple and I went together.  First we went to the Red Cross where they ate.  I learned things about Pueblo! [Most of the doctors in the 92nd Evac were from Pueblo, Colorado.]  Then at the club I had 2 drinks of brandy and soda and got enough courage to barge in and dance with 3 nurses.  There were no unattached nurses, as I expected there would be.  Omer had purchased a gunny sack 1/2 full of prawns (shrimp) freshly caught and cooked.  These we shelled and ate at intervals.  ...
     Some of the 24th Division is arriving from Hawaii.  They came on the Lurline.  Reports varied from it dodging subs all day and towing a crippled destroyer to that of a man who was on it told me that no such things happened!  800 replacements for the 163rd Regiment have come in from the states in the last week or so.  Some have only been in the army 6 months!  We have some of them already - 1 with real bronchial asthma for 9 years, another with a questionable backache for 15 years.  Why they don't comb them out over in the states, I can't understand!  Of course, our own exam at Stoneman was a farce.  Certainly it isn't an efficient way to do things.
     Some of the tents have floors put in them.  Maybe we'll get them, too.
     These evenings are plenty chilly, but are beautiful.  I wear cotton pants and shirt, pullover sleeveless sweater, field jacket, trench coat, and gloves and a cap!

Beth: 12 August 1943
My dears,
     ... Had another letter from Gene yesterday.  I am being beautifully spoiled.  This was #13 and I got #17 the day before.  He writes the nicest letters!  Think I'll try to type all his remarks about the country and the people and keep it separate from the personal items.  ...
     So much love, Elisabeth

14 Aug. '43
Dear Folks,
     ...  I bought a sheepskin (plain tanned hide) for 4/ (64¢)!  I don't know what I'll do with it, but I'll make something!  I'm much happier when I have something to putter at!  I get tired going down town.  There's nothing there but shopping or shows or eating.  I ordered a wooden chest at a local carpenter-furniture shop.  It is quite substantial.  I can use it to store extra things.  When outfits move forward they take very little with them, storing all extras in their foot lockers and chests.  And I hate to throw away anything.  [Gene was known to be a pack rat!]  And if I stay here any length of time I'll be certain to collect things.  And if I ever get any souvenirs, I'd hate to have them stolen like yours were, Vernon!  [Gene's stepdad was in WWI]
     ...One captain was telling me that he liked New Guinea in spite of its drawbacks.  He said it rained every night, but a nice, gentle rain.  And there were lots of bananas and oranges growing wild that were just delicious.  Most men didn't like it there at all.
     Just a year ago we were on the desert, sweltering in the heat - frying I should say.  ...  I read a clipping that 3 had died from thirst and heat [in the DTC] when a platoon became lost, somewhere on the desert.
     ...  Butchers over here advertise "meat and small goods", the small goods being wieners, sausage, etc.!  A "mercers" is a dry goods store, as nearly as I can make out.  "Solicitors" are agents of various sorts.  Darn!  A mosquito just bit me, and it's cool enough to see your breath!  So I'll say good night and crawl into my sleeping bag and pull the net over my head.  ...
     Love, Eugene

August 16, 1943
     We now have a floor in our tent.  Such luxury!  I've rigged a drop cord and reading light to add to comfort!  Of course the floor isn't quite level, but it is a lot better than the dust and uneven, rocky condition we had.  ...  We are getting a lot of recurrent malaria cases.

TELEGRAM COMMONWEALTH FO AUSTRALIA Postmaster General's Office
VIA BEAM QSB 2210 X 270 WARRENSBURG MO               16 AU 43

EFM CAPT EUGENE FREDERICK PFILE
0-445677 AMBYDA (RTON)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY I WISH WE WERE TOGETHER ON THIS SPECIAL OCCASION ALL MY BEST WISHES FOR A SPEEDY REUNION LOVE AND KISSES
... BETH ANN PFILE

Beth: 19 August 1943
Dear Mary X [their folks are back in Warrensburg, Missouri, where Beth is]
     ...  Gene writes me such good letters and I just live for them.  ...
     Six years ago now we were both with you [when they got married in Freeport, Illinois].  I'm calmer now than then!  And the atmosphere is quite different.  This will be out 2nd anniversary apart.  I wonder where we will be next year.
     It is time to fly to the P.O.  Do hope all is well.  ...Send love to you.  Elisabeth

August 20, 1943 (Friday)
     ...  Last evening Griffiths, Hansen, Fenton and I attended a combined meeting of the Rockhampton [Masonic] lodges, at which was the official visit of "Most Worshipful, the Grand Master, the Right Honourable, His Excellency Sir Leslie Orme Wisdom" - Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Queensland which has 320 lodges.  He is also governor of Queensland, former governor of Bombay.  I never saw such a meeting - everyone in tuxedo or tail coat. ... To prepare for a toast, the toastmaster says, "Charge your glasses and be upstanding while we drink a toast to -"
     Some vernacular: In greeting a person in the evening, they may say "Good night" and in saying goodbye it may be "Good-o".  Instead of saying "No dumping" it will be "Persons will not deposit rubbish here".  At the mine, a sign said "Warning will be 2 blasts on the big hooter", a hooter being the whistle.  Steak and eggs is a dinner dish - I had some for 2/6 and tea.  They have a habit of putting a big white post in the middle of the road in a sharp curve, to keep you from cutting corners.
     Hansen, Fenton, Hagmann, Armstrong, Christie and I went in a weapons carrier (and 2 drivers) about 23 miles S.W. to Mt. Morgan, to go thru the workings of the gold and copper mine.  It started as a gold mine, but its most important article is copper now.  They had a lot of tunnels years ago, but have opened a hole down to the lowest and are taking out all the rock.  We followed the ore thru various crushers, ball mills, belt conveyors, bins, flotation mills, concentrators, solutions, roaster, blast furnace, converter, to the final pigs of 250# of Cu, each containing about 1 oz. of gold.  The balls (which they cast themselves) are certainly worn to a shadow.  Their coal to make the electricity comes from about 100 miles inland.  The mine caught fire in 1925 (the sulphide of the iron pyrites is burning), was sealed off, but still burns and the sulphur odor is strong in one place.  The Bessemer converter was a beautiful sight, spouting sparks.  They are adding to the blast furnace.

Admissions tent in Rockhampton

August 25, 1943 (Wednesday)
     2 months today that we left Stoneman, and here we've been working a month - we've admitted 569 patients with a census of 334!
     Tonight's show was "Human Comedy".  I had read it on the boat.  I understood the picture and liked it a lot better than the book.  Just before the show started I overheard 2 patients talking.  One was telling of an attack.  The order had been given to retreat and this one fellow had been left, badly wounded.  So this soldier telling it, and another, stayed until they were able to get the wounded fellow out, even though they knew he was going to die.  Apparently it was a fellow whom this soldier had sworn that if he ever got a chance, he'd shoot him, but he said at a time like that, you help anyone who needs it, regardless.  The same way, they hated to leave anyone's body.  Once they were carrying 2 bodies back to be buried in the regimental cemetery (the fellow said "You know, you think of how their folks would appreciate it!") and in the process 2 more men were killed.  Another fight, 9 of their men were killed, including a 1st Lt., and they had to withdraw and leave their bodies, and they felt so badly about it.  Another remark I overheard - a fellow was talking - said it would soon be Christmas and when it was, he'd wonder if he'd ever see another.  It's funny, I've never thought of it that way.  I wonder, will I?  I think so!
     Some of the officers who had been there, said our losses in men and planes haven't been told in the papers.  He said we had plenty of our planes destroyed on the ground, just like we did to the Japs at Weewac [Wewak] recently, several times!

August 27, 1943 (Friday)
     Everything went as usual until afternoon.  Then they told us we would admit patients tomorrow as well as today, to even the load with the 5th Sta.  I came back from supper and began to put more raw linseed oil on my footlocker box.  ...  Holt came to the tent to ask me what to do with the patients.  Ireland had just told Decker not to admit any more patients.  So I went over to see Ireland, to ask him what to do, thinking that since we were talking that we didn't have enough blankets to open new wards.  We have about 360 patients.  I saw Rice, who said we were closing up!  That we had to pack up in about a week and leave!  We might get rid of patients by train and to the 5th!  No word of where we are going!  When Adams was in Brisbane, some officer said, "We are going to keep you busy next week!!"  He must have known!  Dykstra said somebody asked him today, if we were the outfit going to Milne Bay!  Maybe we are!  Sparky guesses Darwin.  No body knows!  We still may not leave, so I won't even hint it to Beth until we are ready to roll.
     Overheard at the show tonight: "Naw, you never want to try to use the sling (on a Garand [rifle], or they'll be patting you on the face with a shovel!"  "One time I wished I didn't weigh but 10 pounds.  Their bullets was clipping to tops off the grass!  That's when they creased me across the leg."
     One patient came in to get a pass today.  He was going back for a ceremony at which he, among others, was to get decorated with a silver star for unusual bravery.  He was just a tall, thin kid!  I asked him what he did.  He said I'd better read the citation, it could explain it better than he could, and handed me the slip.  It said that he had been given a mission to inspect some signal equipment.  The native alonside him was shot in the back and killed, so he went into a dugout and killed the 3 Japs!  Then the kid said, "But I got 6 in all that day!  We were just cleaning up and it was just like shooting ducks."  I asked what kind of a gun he had - an '03 rifle [a rifle first used in 1905] and a .45 caliber [a semi-automatic pistol first used by the army in 1911]!  That is the stuff heroes are made of!

August 28, 1943
     Discharging and transferring patients.

August 29 (Sunday)
     Yesterday and today I've had a workout.  We discharged, transferred, or transferred for evacuation, 361 patients.  In less than a month (1 day) we admitted 624 patients.  Just fair!  Rumor has us anywhere form Port Moresby, Oro Bay, etc.
     It's difficult to write letters, especially to Beth, and not tell her.  It takes me 3 times as long to write and I feel I have to chatter about this or that.  I wonder if she senses it.  I will try to give her a hint the last day.

Here's an example of one such letter, this one to his parents:

29 Aug. '43
Dear Folks,
     I'm a little late on the letter but for a change I've been working a little!  While I write this I have my feet soaking in a mixture that smells worse than Pagosa Springs [a hot springs in Colorado], if you can imagine that.  I've been fighting athlete's foot and am trying something different.  I've put on a vigorous campaign to clear it before the wet season starts.  So far the weather has been marvelous.
     No letter from you for some time now.  In the last few days I've had air mails that Beth mailed July 23 and 28th.  Her V-mail usually does it in 12 to 14 days, although there is some that I never have received.
     It seems such a long time that we've been here, but we haven't fallen into any rut.  It is interesting to talk to the fellows.  Vernon, you remember that .25 caliber rifle?  I had opportunity to examine a Jap rifle and bullets.  They use a .25 caliber but it is a long rifle - the shell case looks just like the ones for yours, but the bullet is longer.  I weighed a bullet - 132 1/2 grains as against 117 grains for yours.  It must pack plenty of power!
     How is the well on the place holding up during the summer?  Which reminds me of past fishing trips and mosquitoes.  Remember the time you and I went, Vernon?  A little netting to cover the bed would have been such a simple relief!  I still havn't done any fishing here, but expect to sometime.
     Hope I'll hear from you soon.  I'm sure you're writing.  I'm doing just fine!
     Love, Eugene

August 30, 1943 (Monday)
     This is a Tulane deal all over again!  At 4:15 P.M. this afternoon our Hq called and told us to stay and open up again Wednesday morning!  Half our tents were already down!  We got off our 75 patients on the train this afternoon (who had stayed with the 5th Station Hosp. over night).  ...

September 4, 1943
     ...Golly but I miss Beth!  Words can't describe it.  A lump just about chokes me sometimes when I think of her!  She is without doubt the most wonderful person in the world!

On to Rockhampton (15)

After a mere nine days in Brisbane, the 92nd Evacuation Hospital is moved north, closer to the action of the war in the South Pacific.

July 22, 1943 (Thursday)
     We leave this noon!  We had to pay 10/ extra on our mess bill - certainly a gyp for what we had to eat!
     [Later] We left the area by truck at 12:30 and went to the Roma St. Station, and left there about 1:30.  What a train!  We had a "2nd class sleeper" of very early vintage.  The Aussies with us said they hadn't seen one like it for years!  It was in 5 compartments, narrow aisle to the side, 6 to a compartment.  The back of each seat raised up to give 6 bunks (2 permanent as shelves).  The covering was that slick straw.  The engine was a tiny thing.  The cars all wooden.  ...  The wheels are not solid but iron spokes!  The whole thing is light in weight.  The "guard" or conductor-brakeman rides in a special little cubicle in the last car.  Some cars have side doors to their compartments.  ...  We ran thru gentle hills and wooded country - a few skinny and tall palms, ferns, few pineapple fields and sugar cane fields.  We stopped about 6:30 (after dark) for supper at "Gimpie" [Gympie, Queensland] and went thru the mess line at the station - steak, watery mashed potatoes, gravy poured from a pitcher, sliced tomatoes, tea already "treated" with milk and sugar, bread, butter and jam.  But were we hungry!  We went to bed early.  The roadbed was too rough for much reading.  It was cold!  I had on long underwear tops, wool shirt, jacket, and covered with my trench coat.  I awakened at 1:30 and went right back to sleep.  At 3:30 I awoke again and shivered until 4 when I got up and put on the long drawers, a wool sweater and slept until 6 when we stopped and everyone woke up.  At 4 I put my head out the door (open platforms at the ends of the cars and no passing between cars!) and it was very cold.  It was said that we got up into 4000 ft. mountains during the night.  We reached Rockhampton about 9:45 A.M. about 400 miles from Brisbane.  Averaged just about 20 miles an hour!

July 23, 1943
     We ate breakfast, going thru the line at the station again and had practically the same food!  Trucks were waiting for us.  The town appears to be very much spread out, and quite similar to Brisbane.  We headed for some low hills east of town to our area.  We found the 5th Station Hospital very well set up in some buildings, tent frames - very fine in fact.  They've been here 6 or 7 months.  We are to be just back of them and up on a knoll for part of our camp.  It has been occupied before, so we can set up more easily.  It is quite full of trees from saplings to 8" [diameter] ones.  It is now dry and brown and a little dusty, but so very pleasant.  We can see part of the town, which is about 3 miles away.  There is running water (cold) and electricity.  This should be fine!  We ate at their mess - very good!  We slept in some of their wards, under mosquito netting as is required here.  There are very few skeeters due to the dryness and cold (what ones there are must use a low SAE oil in their engines to be able to fly these chilly nights!)  There is no native malaria, but some Dengue fever - very mild - from these mosquitoes.

Camp at Rockhampton

     I mailed a letter to Beth that I hope the censor doesn't see.  I'm afraid I inadvertently said the wrong thing about moving!
     Our new APO is #926.

July 24, 1943 (Saturday)
     What a cold night!  I missed my sleeping bag!  Nothing to do today but walk around.  Our fellows are setting up.  This is certainly a pleasant grove - more like a camp meeting grounds.  We are not accustomed to such surroundings!  What long evenings - worse than Freda.  ...

July 25, 1943 (Sunday)
     ...  No blackout here!  However, there are bomb shelters, slit trenches and all that!  All the windows of the stores are crossed # with tape or boarded up or covered with wire netting.
     3 of us took about a 6 mile hike up between some hills and saw some very nice country.  We came upon an open park with a shack in it and evidence of farming and a few orange trees.  We saw a large wild wallaby.

July 26, 1943 (Monday)
     ...  Tonight we moved to the area to assigned tents.  I drew Powers and Terstegge!  We had slept for 2 nights in one of our ward tents.  2 letters from Beth dated July 10 and 12.  The July 11 didn't arrive yet!
     On our way back from town Christie stopped to talk to an elderly man about fishing.  He [Christie] pulled some tackle out of his pocket and out fell a rubber.  Padre [an army chaplain is usually called "Padre", regardless of denomination] and I practically rolled on the ground laughing!  It was one Christie had been given as a joke, for censoring mail while at Ascot.  Even the [old] man laughed!

Old man and his fishing boat on the Fitzroy River

July 27, 1943 (Tuesday)
     Today we really began to set up the place!  Sgt. Decker (I have 6 clerks and 4 orderlies and 1 ass't - Lt. Vinicor) can be trusted to get things rolling.  I received 2 V-mails from Beth, the 14th and 15th of July, and a regular June 28th and an air mail from Mother of June 28.  Fine weather!  I'm Receiving Officer.

Form filled out for each outpatient at the
92nd Evac Hospital in Rockhampton

July 28, 1943 (Wednesday)
     Fairly quiet day!  The admitting tent is functioning.  We got our liquor ration.  I drew a 26 oz brandy for 16/ or about $2.56.  It is good, aged brandy.  We are allowed 3 bottles of beer a week at 1/8 a bottle.  I sold my share to the men, for it seems a shame that they are left out of any army arrangements.

July 31, 1943 (Saturday)
     ...  2nd Lt. Gray arrived late last night with [six] 2 1/2 ton trucks, 2 weapons carriers, 1 command car, 1 staff car, 2 jeeps.  It took them 3 1/2 days to drive the 300 miles from Brisbane!  They were allowed 4 days, but decided to come right thru.  Their roads were scarcely ever surfaced!  Sometimes it was just a single track dirt road thru the woods!  They said the "backwoods" people regarded them as such a curiousity and were so hospitable!
     Some of the birds can sing very well with beautiful liquid notes.  And others, especially morning and evening, sound like someone trying to rob the henhouse!
     One officer [a patient in the ward] told about his outfit capturing a Japanese hospital that they tried to defend.  Our men went thru it, killing every patient and the few doctors that were left.  They have learned not to trust the Japs any time.  The Japs are always pulling stunts such as pulling out a grenade and setting it off when a Yank gets close to him, killing himself as well.  The officer said you sleep anywhere, and with a knife in your hand.  ...  In the dense jungle, a man could be firing at you from 5 feet away and you couldn't see him!
     Men carrying supplies thru mud, sometimes made 2 round trips a day over an 800 yard distance.  The Japs sank the Australian hospital ship, in retaliation for one of theirs we sank (and which was not told in the papers!)  Since we killed off a few of their hospital units in retaliation, they've left our hospitals alone.  In one place our men captured, they found ample evidence of Geisha girls - including rubbers!  They [the Americans] used [captured]Jap drugs and other supplies freely.  Some Japs were very much malnourished.  In some places they found vitamin tablets!

August 1, 1943 (Sunday)
     Lansing-Hatfield, Metropolitan baritone who sang in Trinidad several years ago, sang [The Lord's Prayer] at our church service this morning.  He is in the USO.
     Hagmann and I climbed a hill NE of our area.  A grand view of the city and valley.  We saw a wallaby.  The Fitzroy River is quite a river.

Beth: 1 August 1943
My dears [Mary X and their parents, who are visiting Freeport],
     ...  Knowing that Gene went to church yesterday since he is a day ahead of me makes me feel as tho [sic] he is a 7 day Adventist!  ...
     Can't wait for tomorrow for I should have the missing letter from Gene.  A year ago today we spent at Fort Ord and on Monday he left for the desert.  ...
     Love, Elisabeth

August 2, 1943 (Monday)
     My Honey's birthday and I'm not able to hold her in my arms and hug her.  Last year we were confined to the Fort of Ord because of leaving for the desert, and today I'm too far away to even see her!
    
Beth: 2 August 1943 (Monday)
My dears,
     I'm favored by the Gods!  Such a lot of good mail I got at noon and now at 3:30 pm I get a birthday cable from my sweetheart in Australia.  I must tell first the good news that is in his letter.  He has been writing that they would move and intimated New Guinea and I've been so upset about it.  Col. Ireland went out on "an expedition" and rumor had it he called on MacArthur.  Anyway their orders were changed and they had to set up a base hospital which is an entirely different thing from an Evacuation Hospital.  The base hospital is supposed to be about 3X the size of the EV and be stationary in a safe spot.  An EV Hospital follows the battle and is the first behind the line.  He said they would be in a lovely spot near a nice Australian town and all were so happy about it.  I am overjoyed.  Once set up they can't move them for quite a spell.  And I won't have to worry about Malaria.  When his other cable took 6 days to come, I wonder how he knew when to send this one.  And in his letter he said he was afraid it (the letter) would arrive after the birthday but he wanted to send greetings.  That letter, #10, came today and I have not had #9 yet!  ...
     Love, Elisabeth


A reprieve from the battlefront, but for how long?