No Mail.No Luggage.No Waterproof Bags (32)

27 April '44 [Beth wrote on top of the letter: I'm sure this is at Hollandia]
Beloved,
     There is no telling when this will go in the mail.  We have only the boats evacuating patients to depend on.  But here's hoping.
     Well, I guess I'm a real "sojer" now!  I landed 24 hours after the assault, and everything was going smoothly.  A battery of 75's [75 mm antitank guns] was slamming out shells just about 50 feet from where we landed, so it really gave the appearance of a war.  The first night we had quite a little show, including bombs, but nothing near us.  It is quite a sensation to hug the bottom of a foxhole and wish it was deeper.
     We started doing business the next day.  We haven't had many casualties from Jap action.  You probably know more about what is going on than we do.  I am on Surgery and have done a fair amount of things.

Capt. Arnold Niemeyer on the left in a Japanese lop-lop and
Capt. Gene Pfile on the right in Japanese pants

     There is lots of Jap equipment around.  We have a lot of their medical supplies and our mess is using their rice and canned stuff.  Our own clothes are filthy, so we got a lot of their pants.  I even had on some g-string style underwear.  Also I'm using Jap towels, soap and tooth brushes.  The first night I had a silk bed sheet - parachute - in my foxhole.  They certainly pulled out in a hurry and left everything.  There hasn't been much resistance at all.  In fact, I haven't seen one at all except some wounded prisoners.  We have quite a few German Catholic missionaries that have been wounded or sick.  they are so thankful to be in US hands.
     There are still snipers around but none have taken pot shots at me!  A couple of artillery batteries on the hill about 200 yards from us lay down a barrage every now and then.  It makes it interesting!!
     None of our bunch has been hurt, even accidentally.  I'm doing fine - not even trouble with my feet.  When it rains it certainly gets messy.  I sleep in my clothes (on the floor, a litter, a cot of anything handy) from choice.
     This is my last air mail envelope.  We are still living out of our packs.  No telling when our other stuff will come in.  We are getting things in a much more livable condition.  We haven't heard any news so are wondering about the German front.
     We all had carbines and were considered combat troops since it is the Japs we're up against [the Germans respected the provisions of the Geneva Conventions concerning the treatment of the wounded, sick, and medical personnel, but the Japanese  didn't].  But we haven't had any excuses to shoot.
     Water is scarce so we bathe (when at all) in the sea and wash clothes likewise.  I certainly drink like a fish and just drip all the time.  The nights are cool enough for a blanket and the dew is quite heavy.  It isn't bad when it is dry and it rains only every 2 or 3 days, but it certainly makes a mess of the red and chocolate colored earth.
     I've taken several rolls of black and white pictures but there is no telling when I can send them in.  It is marvelous what the engineers do.  They built more roads in 2 days than the Japs did in 2 years.  The missionaries say the Jap are just animals.  They are profuse in their thanks to the Yanks for deliverance.  A lot of them are old men in their 70's.  On the whole they are in fair physical shape.  Most of them speak English.  They were astonished at the news.  The Japs had told them the usual victory line.
     Of course I have had no mail but there may be some soon.  Darn, I still jump when the big babies go off!  I'm darn glad we're not on the receiving end.
     I suppose that in a short time we won't even have to black out, the way things are going.  We have electric lights in a blacked out tent for night surgery.
     Write the folks, please, for I'll have to beg envelopes until my trunk comes.  Don't worry about me.  All the fellows are fine and morale is high.  We certainly have a bunch of soldiers that have what it takes.  Me?  Naw, I haven't been scared at any time!!  You can tell the folks about this.
     All my love, Eugene

29 Apr. '44
Beloved,
     Think nothing of the torn envelope.  They all stick together.  This is Jap paper.  Yesterday morning Dick and I cut each other's hair.  Our barber isn't working as yet and we both needed a haircut badly.  Really the result isn't bad.

Capt. Dick McIlroy cuts his hair while Gene sits on a Japanese water purifier

     You may see a picture of me in the paper before you get this.  A Signal Corps Photographer was taking pictures of these missionaries and the nuns didn't want to pose so Niemeyer and I went over and engaged three of them in conversation while he stole a few pictures.  They chattered away in German so fast that all I could get was the general trend of the conversation.
     Things are quiet as can be.  I guess the fighting has been over for a few days except for an occasional sniper or patrolling.  All we are getting in of a surgical nature are the usual run of accidents.  We haven't had any air raids.  Haven't even had any rain for about 4 days.  But my shoes smell moldy inside.  We don't have a change, unless I find a pair of Jap ones to fit me.  A day's sunning would fix these up.
     Our salvage group (it isn't polite to call them scavengers!) is still bringing in Jap medical supplies, instruments and fixtures.  Some are quite good.  Some of the fellows are wearing the split type of Jap shoes, that is the great toe separate.  They certainly have all the rubber goods they want.  I have my carbine in a long narrow rubber case.
     I lost the good scout knife.  It fell out of the shallow pocket of the Jap pants I was wearing.  No, don't sent me another - I'd probably lose it too.
     Yesterday down at the beach I was poking around and found a couple of mortar shells still in their container, that our fellows had left.  When we first arrived I found 2 hand grenades the same.  Also there was a large shell of ours from the bombardment which had failed to explode and the nose had broken so the powder spilled out.  Oh, I've gotten over my usual habit of kicking all queer looking items!
     Our food is quite monotonous, but sufficient.  We have practically no vegetables, canned or otherwise, so the diet is a bit constipating.  There are hard tack crackers instead of bread.  This ersatz butter for tropical use doesn't even melt in hot coffee!  It tastes like butter, too.  This line about the boys at the fighting fronts getting all the best of everything is so much hooey.  In fact, the problem of transport is such that it is impossible to bring up all the frills.  But we just complain about everyone being told that for we don't expect the luxury items.

Village near Hollandia

     I took a little jaunt this morning.  4 of us went to a village about 3 miles away.  We caught a ride about half way and the rest was along a jungle trail.  There are still snipers around but we had some armed soldiers along.  We passed several dead Japs and smelled a few more.  The town has, of course, been carefully picked over, but we managed to garner a few items.  I took a roll of Kodachrome.  I found a new pair of "cloven hoof" shoes.  They are not comfortable but will do.  We bathed in a beautiful clear, fresh water stream.  That alone was worth the trip.  I looked and looked for a small vase for you but could find nothing except the usual run of Chinese café bowls and cups, and I know they wouldn't pack.  We came back by boat past the most interesting native village built on stilts over the water.  It was deserted and falling in.  Of course I had taken the last picture on my roll.  but when my things come (maybe 2 weeks, maybe longer) I'll try again.
     The mosquitoes aren't bad at all but the flies are terrible.  In all the places where the Japs lived there are bags of rice and other food in kegs and cans, all cut open and spoiling, so the flies have a time.  There were bags of what I took to be poppy seed and loads of Jap invasion money.  Apparently there were Geisha houses from the amounts of cosmetics and things.  Everything had been pretty thoroughly blown to pieces by bombs and shells.  Practically all the houses were merely thatched huts.  All along the trail there were small clearings and native huts with corn, sweet potatoes and squash growing.  The jungle is a bit disappointing, photographically speaking.  It is just a mass of tall trees tangled with vines from top to bottom and practically no color but green all set on steep hills and narrow valleys.  There are but few birds to be seen and they are not bright in color.
     All my love, Eugene

April 30, 1944
     I've another bad boil starting on my rt foot!
     Today I fixed a traumatic amputation of a finger.

From George Christie's wife, Marjorie, to Beth (undated):
Dear Beth,
     Here is the family excerpt - expunged somewhat for Mother Christie's delicate ears.  What Gregg [George] actually said about Gene was that when the alert sounded he'd get up, take a leak in the ocean, ogle the sky and then go back to bed.  "At least he'll never wet the bed."  And it does sound typical of your Gene that he'd keep on the run, even though there is no particular hurry.  Their hut 1/2 mile from where the hospital was but in the most recent letters he speaks of going to church at the hospital so it was probably still somewhat existent then. ... Our rodeo is next weekend [the Royal Gorge Rodeo ?] and I have a fairly busy week planned.  Well, I'd rather be busy. ... I suppose Mercy [McIlroy] told you about our hurry-up visit to Pueblo Monday and Tuesday.  More fun!
     All good wishes, Marjorie

[Excerpts from George Christie's letter to his wife, Marjorie]
     May 1, 1944.  More Jap ink for this letter.  We are seeing some interesting sights here.  the other day a group of about 100 missionaries came along and yesterday we packed them off.  They were certainly glad to go.  One of the priests held mass and had a congregation of about half soldiers and half natives - it was a motley crew.  I have picked up some interesting items of Jap equipment which I will try to send home.
     We are seeing quite  few British Indians (soldiers) who hae been on duty over here, but were until recently held by the Japs.
     We don't have any clean clothes yet - just what we wore up here and most of us are wearing part Jap part U.S. clothes.  You can imagine the effect.  We don't have a chaplain, so there were no services yesterday.  We do get radio news from Australia, however.  The mail goes out irregularly but I hope this comes thru soon.  I'm well and "happy" - wish to heck I was home.

May 1, 1944 Monday - thru 5th
     Hot packs to foot.
     Wednesday Niemeyer opened it and put in drains, under pentothal anesthesia.  Some stuff that!
     Air raid Monday night.  3 killed and 34 wounded on Pancake Hill [behind the hospital - see photos in posts 29 and 30].  The plane came in low and dropped 3 bombs about 400 yards away, and up the hill.  A chunk of metal dropped 2 feet from George where he was sleeping in the admitting office.  Our guns didn't even fire, for some unknown reason, even though they saw him (8PM).
     We are closing up and the 36th Evac is taking over.
     We are to go on with the 41st Division, somewhere.  No mail.  No luggage.  Not even our waterproof bags.

Following the Hippocratic Oath (31)

Isn't life ironic?  Today's post tells the story of the rescue by the Americans of some Germans from the Japanese.  In swearing the Hippocratic oath, a physician vows "I will remember that I remain a member of society with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those of sound mind and body as well as the infirm."  This means the Japanese as well as the Germans.

German missionary released from 
Japanese prisoner of war camp

April 25, 1944 Tuesday
     Last night I helped Niemeyer amputate a Jap's leg above the knee.  He was a mess.  He'd been dressed by his own medics and left behind on a stretcher.  His leg was gangrenous - smelled like gas.  He had several other large holes in both legs - all infected and 3 or 4 days old.  I went to sleep on the floor about 12.  Was it ever hard!  Today I amputated a leg below the knee.  The fellow had 6 other wounds, several large and into both knee joints.  His condition was extremely poor, even after 2 units of plasma [a unit is one pint].  He was unconscious from a small head wound, probably penetrating the brain.  There were quite a few other wounded.

April 26, 1944 Wednesday

     Slept on a litter - better.  No more raids.  Quite a lot of wounded and injured today.

someone said the souvenir hunters got ahead of patrols the other day.  I went to a beach to wash clothes and bathe.  I now have on Jap underwear and pants.  we are using Jap soap, tooth brushes, towels, socks without heels, bandages, creosol, tr. green soap [?soup?], etc. 

     We have a mess line.  The K rations were tiresome.  It rained yesterday and the mud was bad.  The 2nd echelon came in yesterday after being anchored a day until the beach quit exploding.  Jap planes dropped flares looking for their convoy the night before.

April 27, 1944 Thursday

     Big barrage this AM from the guns on the hill.  Things are more quiet today.  I sewed up a stab wound of the back with hemisection of the cord done by one of his buddies in the dark!  Also a bad cut of the foot.

     We have a big bunch of German missionary prisoners.

Lt. Glautauer escaped from Austria ahead of the Nazis,
and was a physician with the 92nd Evac

The following undated article was in an unidentified newspaper, but Gene, who spoke some German, had written next to it "He [Beuers] first told this story to me and I sent him to HQ with it."

PRIEST HEARD JAPS BEHEADED YANKEES: German Missionary Tells of Sending Biblical Phrases Thru Nip soldier to Two Captured Airmen About to Be Executed by Robert Eunson
     Somewhere in Australia (Delayed) - (AP) - A Japanese soldier carried a final Christian message from the German catholic priest to two captured American airmen awaiting their fate near Madang, New Guinea, last July.
     This story was told to me by August Beuers, mission brother from Muenster, Germany who was among the 100 missionaries liberated when the Americans seized Hollandia from the Japanese last month. 
     Beuers said he was bound hand and foot and was lying on the floor of a native hut when the Japanese brought in two Americans.  The Japanese untied Beuers and used the ropes to bind the Americans.  Beuers described them as tall, one red-haired and the other dark complexioned.  The Americans were weary after a long walk thru the jungle before their capture.
     Thru an interpreter, Maj. Arnold M. Maahs of Tilleda, Wis., Beuers related that the Americans were kept bound on the floor with no food and very little water for several days.
     "One day a native brought us some bananas but mean Japanese guards took them from him and ate them in front of us," said Beuers.
     "Finally, they took the Americans away.  A few days later a Japanese soldier named Torino came in and said Major Natehara, our captor, has ordered the Americans executed.  We didn't know whether he was speaking the truth.  He told us the Americans had asked for a Bible but Natehara had refused.
     'I can't cut their heads off without giving them a Christian message or they will come back and haunt me,' Torino told us, " Beuers said.
     The German then related how Father Luttmer, a German missionary who later died in captivity, gave Torino the Biblical phrase: "Let not your heart be troubled.  Ye believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father's house are many mansions.  I go to prepare a place for you.  I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am ye may be also."
     Beures said Torino spoke English well and memorized the message.
     "Several days later the natives told us Torino had cut off the Americans' heads," Beuers said.  "But we don't really know what happened."

A Night to Remember! (30)

When the men retired to their foxholes that first night, the atmosphere at the 92nd Evac Hospital was one of uneasy relief.  That morning they had joked about it possibly being their last day on earth, but the jokes had seeds of real concern in them.  The men were alert, but not unduly frightened.  Probably some of them had even spent part of the day swimming and poking around (Gene had  poked around some, being a naturally curious person!).  It was a good thing they were alert!

Japanese supplies amidst the wreckage from the pre-invasion shelling at Humbolt Bay

April 24, 1944 Monday
     What a night to remember!  We were in our foxholes (I on my silken sheets! and dirty shoes!) by dark.  We heard that all planes at night would be enemy.  Just at dusk a lone raider came along the beach below us.  There was no radar and no search lights.  By a lucky hit, he dropped 3 bombs on the Jap ammunition dump (probably guided by the fire on the beach from the dumps burning from the previous shelling.  Explosions were more or less continuous - some tremendous enough to shake the earth where we were on a hill about a mile (4 seconds by sound) away.  Fragments went whizzing over us and a few dropped nearby.  The display was spectacular - tracers, big flaming chunks up in the sky, fire!  Christie and some others thought it was all a tremendous counter-attack (you could hear the small arm cartridges sounding like machine guns) and were too scared to look over the top of their foxholes and see it.  Me - I had my head up peeking over to see the show, and to watch how close the red hot fragments were going to land.  If one hit my foxhole, I wanted to be ready to get out!  About 4 A.M. I had to urinate, so I used my helmet.
     We started to set up and will have 2 wards and a surgery by 5 this evening.  The area is in a little saddle between Pancake and another hill.  We had bull dozzers [sic] scraping flat benches on the hillside to put up the tents.  We have to take over a portable Hosp's patients, which is by our site.  Apparently most of our food and medical supplies were burned and blown up!  The loss of life and casualties will probably be large.  So far as they can tell, several companies were almost entirely destroyed.  What a disaster.  Why was the fire left burning? [Gene felt it guided the Japanese raider the night before].
     I dug in again with Sparky and George along a stone abuttment [sic].  The work is terribly fatiguing - perspiration simply runs off in streams.  But I have no headaches like I did last night.  Even then I slept most of the time, although I woke up at each big explosion, to keep an eye out for red hot pieces or incendiaries.  I couldn't tell which was flying thru the air.
     Probably the Japs will be back in force tonight.  Just about 300 yards up the hill from us is a battery of 90 mm ack ack and searchlight and radar.  We'll probably get the near misses when the Japs try for the emplacements.

Pancake Hill with Humbolt Bay in the middle ground; note the bomb craters

     Well, so far I haven't been afraid.  It's hard to realize that this is the real thing and that anything can happen.  The worst part is that we live like pigs.  I haven't had my clothes off since yesterday morning and probably won't for a while.  We have no provision against rain except rain coats.  Most outfits have ponchos or shelter halves.

From an unidentified, undated newspaper article:

THOUSANDS OF YANKS STORM HOLLANDIA AND AITAPE BASES: Huge Air and Sea Armada Covers Landings With MacArthur Looking On (A.P.)

     MacArthur's Advanced Headquarters in New Guinea, April 24 - Under cover of a tremendous naval and air blasting, thousands of American troops established beachheads at Hollandia and Aitape on the strategic north coast of New Guinea Saturday and Monday - 60,000 more isolated Japanese faced annihilation.

     Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who witnessed the gigantic operation, terned it Bataan in reverse.  MacArthur's triumphant communiqué Monday said 140,000 Japanese troops stretching from New Guinea to the Solomon islands are thus "neutralized and strategically impotent".  These Japanese are all that remain of a force on one-fourth million established in these islands for the invasion of Australia, he declared, adding, "Time and combat will be required to accomplish the annihilation, but their ultimate fate is now certain."

Locations mentioned in the article are marked in pink.  The map is from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: Engineers of the Southwest Pacific, 1941-45, Vol.1

     The 60,000 Japanese are caught between Hollandia and Madang.  The other 80,000 are in New Britain, New Ireland and Bouganville. 

     The Japanese, caught far off by feints in the direction of Wewak and Madang to the southeast , offered little opposition to the powerful American forces which poured ashore on both sides of Hollandia and Aitape, 150 miles southeast.

     Immediately the Americans drove toward the airdromes at both bases with tractors and bulldozers to make serviceable the excellent airstrips which are a little over 1,000 miles from the Philippines - within bomber range.

     General MacArthur, intent upon returning to the Philippines from which the Americans withdrew a little more than two years ago, watched the Hollandia landings from the quaking deck of a bombarding cruiser and went ashore with the second wave of troops, which established a beachhead at Tanahmerah bay west of Hollandia at dawn.

     After greeting field commanders and many of the men, he proceeded to the Aitape area and watched from a destroyer as the first assault team made shore, later to seize Aitape's air strips.  MacArthur went in with the second wave again and expressed his satisfaction to the commanding generals for a job well done.

     The landings, which in the case of Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea meant the first recapture of Netherlands territory in the war, bypassed the Japanese base at Wewak with its four airfields and the other enemy air bases of Bogia, Alexishafen and Madang along the northeast New Guinea coast.  The campaign swept the New Guinea front 500 miles up the coast from the Madang sector.

     A strong force of central Pacific warships under the command of Adm. Chester W. Nimitz participated in the preinvasion shelling, lending support for the first time to a MacArthur landing operation.

     These warships previously had prevented material Japanese air interference with the Hollandia action by smashing hard at Palau and Woleai in the western Caroline islands north of New Guinea as well as Truk to the east.

     The Americans disembarked from transports in tropical predawn darkness for the Hollandia landings.  They hit shore at 7:08 a.m. and by noon had driven about two miles inland from the beachheads at Tanahmerah bay and Humbolt bay.  Their objectives were three airfields lying midway between the two beachheads.

     No land mines or obstacles interfered with rapid establishment of the beachheads.  The troops met only weak resistance as they headed inland with fixed bayonets and suffered only light losses.  The estimated 14,000 Japanese in the Hollandia area may attempt a stubborn stand around the vital airfields or may withdraw to the slopes of the Cyclops mountains commanding the airstrips.

     Hollandia's once formidable air power had been knocked out in a pulverizing 1,500-ton bombing assault which started three weeks before.  The enemy's coastal defences were hit by hundreds of tons of shells in the stiffest warship and carrier plane pounding of any Japanese objective south of the Marshall islands.

     While advanced ground units pushed toward the airfields and transport craft were disgorging more men, guns and supplies on all three beaches, hundreds of naval planes and many heavily gunned warships maintained a protective screen overhead and far out to sea.

     As the first assault waves dashed toward shore in Higgins boats and amp0hibious Alligators and Ducks, navy planes dived thru the dense smoke clouds to unload bombs on a few enemy guns that survived the bombardment.

     Amphibious tanks and trucks carried the first assault wave into the southern inlet of Tanahmerah bay, Infantry followed closely to establish the first beachhead as transports unloaded a larger force five miles to the north.  By afternoon this force had driven a strong spearhead to the westernmost of the three airdromes lying between the Cyclops mountains and Sentani lake.

     The eastern jaw of MacArthur's pincers trap was set on the shores of Humbolt bay where another assault group landed between Hollandia village and the Tami airdrome, twelve miles southeast.  One unit gained the beach, drove rapidly inland one mile to occupy a hill overlooking Hollandia village, and then cut across the main road.  Americans captured a few Japanese and killed several more in this first thrust.

     Two other units landed further south and a fourth, coming in on ducks and alligators, drove thru the center across narrow palm-fringed spits enclosing the inner harbor of Humbolt bay.

     A few minutes after the assault troops hit the beaches a naval party went ashore to set up a liaison between ground forces and naval fighters and dive bombers.

     Steaming for many of the prelanding hours within range of Japanese aerial reconnaissance, the Allied invasion armada had succeeded in keeping the enemy guessing about the ultimate objectives until it was too late for the Japanese to organize any counter-action.

     approaching Hollandia from different directions, carrier and attack fleets had rendezvoused at a point which even if detected still gave the enemy no indication of its destination.  Friday night the invasion force abruptly changed its direction and warships' heavy salvos were probably the first warning the Japanese received that Hollandia and Aitape were being invaded.

     Thruout Saturday hundreds of United States navy planes monopolized the skies while fleet units steamed offshore in case the Japanese navy decided to accept the challenge to battle which the American navy has been flaunting in the Pacific since the invasion of the Gilberts last November.

     

    

Anticlimax - or is it? (29)

Members of the 92nd Evac are facing their first battle.  How will Gene react?

April 23, 1944  Sunday
     Woke up at 0300.  I had to sleep on the hard cushions again.  "And the condemned ate a hearty breakfast" says Hiram.

Humbolt Bay from Pancake Hill - note tanks and LCVP's (Landing Craft:
Vehicle Personnel)

     We landed about 8.  On the way in we watched some of our Navy planes dive bombing some air strips.  One started a big fire.  Some fellows were in swimming so we knew things weren't bad.
     At the beach, not 30 yards from our boat, a battery of 75's were shelling someplace, probably Hollandia [Airdrome]. There were more down the coast and we heard their shells screech a little as they went by overhead.  There were large Jap stores of rice, soy beans, artillery shells, food in boxes and small kegs, bombs, plane motors still in crates, parachutes and medical supplies, all along the beach.  The beach at high tide was very narrow, and terribly congested with vehicles.  Some were stuck in the sand and bulldozers pulling them out.  I'm glad we weren't being bombed or shot at.  There were shell and bomb craters and slit trenches everywhere.  I saw the first body of one of our soldiers, on a litter and wrapped in a blanket.  It took my vehicle (we walked) about 1 hour to get on the beach.  After another hour of barely  moving (it was hot!) we tied our packs to the water trailer back of the weapons carrier and walked ahead to our area.  It was up a new road along the side of Pancake Hill, a bare hillside.  The landing on D day was made without much opposition.  In fact, not a dozen Japs were killed.  One of our Companies was straffed [ sic strafed] by our own planes - 6 killed and 8 wounded.  On a campaign they figure 5% casualties from our own guns and planes!

Pancake Hill from behind the surgery

     We went to the 41st CP [command post] and heard the news.  A soldier was killed by a sniper about 200 yards up the trail about an hour before we were there.  We took over some fox holes - mine didn't even need remodeling.  But if it rains tonight - this red mud!  Not even a pup tent or a tarp.  But I have a Jap silk parachute to sleep on.  We ate K rations [according to Wikipedia they consisted of two packages of dried biscuits, cigarettes, gum, sugar (granulated, cubed or compressed), and a key (dubbed a P-38) to open a small canned portion; items specific to the breakfast meal were canned meat and eggs, a fruit bar, and instant coffee; specific dinner (lunch) items were canned cheese and a lemon (early), orange or grape (late) drink packet; specific supper items were toilet paper, a bouillon packet, and a lemon, orange or grape drink packet (later production rations had a disposable wooden spoon, too); if all three meals were eaten, about 3000 calories were provided; they were produced by the Cracker Jack Company with a waxed paper ration box about the same size as the Cracker Jack box] - not too good.  I perspired something terrific and have a headache in spite of 4 salt tablets.  The sun is fiendishly hot.  All of us have our clothes and persons covered with red clay.  Desultory shelling of Jap positions has gone on all day.  On the beach I took pictures, including a bomb explosion when a bulldozer clearing the dumps pushed it on a burning dump.  One fellow was wounded.  A while later there was a terrific explosion at about the same place.  Several small gasoline dumps had been burned.  The 50 gallon drums were pooched out in peculiar shapes.
     This evening about 40 native men, women and children, in all stages of dress and undress, went past under guard.  I wonder what they are - prisoner or refugees.
     In 2 days the Yanks have made more roads than did the Japs in 2 years.  Pim [on Jautefa Bay about 4 miles south of Hollandia] was taken yesterday and Hollandia by noon today.  Certainly we haven't been in much danger today.  I hope this night is quiet.  They said that in this area Jap snipers bothered some last night.  There is a tremendous concentration of troops and guns and machines, etc., and we haven't seen a Jap plane.  They say several thousand tough Jap marines went to Wewak a few days before, for that is where the Japs expected us to strike.  Mostly service troops are left here.
     At night you crawl in your fox hole with loaded carbine and knife handy, and don't get out for anything, for the rest are apt to shoot at anything that moves.

Little did they know what was in store for the U.S. forces in the area.  The undated article below is from the Yank Magazine.  It is mostly about the portable hospitals which are smaller than the Evac hospitals and are usually closer to the front. 

"MEDICS UNDER FIRE: They're non-combatants according to treaty so they don't get extra pay like the infantry but they do draw plenty of enemy lead" by Sgt. Charles Pearson, YANK staff Correspondent [with comments in parenthesis and underlinings presumably by Gene]
     Dutch New Guinea - A portable surgical hospital is a medical unit of four doctors and generally 32 enlisted men.  They're supposed to work directly behind the line of battle and patch up casualties so they can be removed to an evacuation hospital.  Sometimes part of the portable hospital's personnel have to be removed, too.
     During one of the Dutch New Guinea campaigns a portable unit was brought up by buffaloes [a type of landing vehicle] to a position behind the advancing infantry of the 41st Division.  They were moving up a coastal road from the landing beach toward Jap-held airstrips.  The road was on a narrow strip of land with the sea on one side and a strip heavily wooded coral terrace on the other.
     The portable hospital medics arrived in late morning and set up their tents in a coconut grove.  The infantry up ahead was moving along without much resistance.  The hospital personnel were getting the idea they might have an easy show ahead.  The coconut grove was picturesque.  Just off the shore was a reef.  A lot of the men were out on it looking for cat eye shells.  It was all quite peaceful.
     In the distance could be heard the occasional chatter of machine guns and the popping of small arms.  It was a comforting sound.  They were our guns.
     Suddenly they noticed the fire was rapidly intensifying.  The thump of heavy mortars was almost blotting out the sound of the machine guns.  The operator at the field phone called out that they had run into a strong force and were being heavily pounded with 90-mm mortars.  The first casualties were already on their way back.
     Shortly a captured Japanese truck sputtered into the hospital area with six wounded on it.  All of them were badly torn up.  Capts. Edward L. Waisbrot of Canton, Ohio, and Theodore Moss of Kew Gardens, L.I., were quickly working on a man whose arms had been smashed to jelly.  It was an amputation.
     At the other table set up in the pyramidal tent which was serving as an operating theater, Capts. Bernard Sollod of Baltimore, Md., and Sydney Kahn of Chicago were amputating the leg of a soldier.  It had been badly fractured and the main blood vessel hopelessly torn.
     The six casualties had now multiplied to 20 and they were still streaming in.  T-4 Cecil Wells of Hockersville, Okla., a former boxer and carnival pitchman now wardmaster, was going from one soldier to another trying to ease his pain while patients were coming in faster than they could be treated.
     A call was sent back for more doctors.  Three came up later in a jeep.  Lt. Burroughs from Oakland, Calif., (Oscar!) came from the evacuation hospital.  Capt. Krupke of Chicago was from another portable unit and Capt. Ludden came from a clearing company.  Another table was set up in the already crowded tent.  Three teams of doctors continued work steadily.
     Up ahead the infantry was stopped.  Jap artillery and a naval gun were ranging in on them.  Down between the hospital and the beachhead a second Jap force was driving a wedge between the fighting battalion and the rest of the force.  It was now dark.  The doctors were working by the illumination from one hospital light hitched up to a generator, one Japanese headlight powered by a storage battery, several Coleman lamps and all available flashlights in camp.  It was hot in the tent and the surgeons were stripped to their underpants.
     The casualties continued to come in, now from both directions.  The patched up ones were being evacuated by landing craft and buffaloes.  The force ahead was slowly giving ground.  The battle was coming closer.  An occasional mortar shell landed in the area.  The supply tent and extra equipment had already been blasted into ribbons.  One hospital attendant had been hit by a shell fragment.
     Down in the kitchen tent Sgt. John Millner of Washington, D.C., T-5 Arlen Bradstreet of Stockton Springs,.Maine, and T-5 Lucien Nadeau of Matawaska, Maine, were brewing hot coffee and bringing it to the operating theater.  Operating room assistants Pfc. William Abbott of Sommerville, Mass., Sgt. Emerson Hein of Tonawanda, N.Y., T-5 Richard Lucier of North Adams, Mass., and T-5 Sydney Shub of Ithica, N.Y., were giving plasma and morphine and setting the wounded onto litters in slit trenches.  Knee mortar shells were coming down from the ridge and exploding around the ward tent.
     In the pitch black of the night it had not been possible to bring some of the wounded from the lines of fire.  They had to wait until daybreak.
     At 0500 the next morning all the wounded had been cared for.  The doctors knocked off for a bit of sleep.  An hour later in the early light of dawn the stream of casualties began again.
     At 1030 a message came up from the beachhead to be ready to move out at a moment's notice but to continue working as well as possible.  Dr. Moss was working on a man whose head had been split open and whose brain was injured.  He was hemorrhaging badly.  A patient on another table had had his arm blown off at the shoulder.  The fighting was getting closer.  Wounded men were walking back from the lines and collapsing at the hospital.
     The battalion was withdrawing trying to consolidate its position.  The Japs had cut the supply line and were moving up the beach from both directions.  Cpl. Ted Hunter of Macwahoc, Maine, and T-5 Leroy Faulkerson of Columbus, Ohio, climbed up a bamboo ladder against the coral terrace and brought down a soldier with a hip wound.  Infiltrating Japs were working down through the wooded terrace behind the hospital, setting up knee mortars and trying to hit wounded going out in the buffaloes.  Pfc. Leonard Solow of New York City had the job of getting them away from the jetty.
     One Jap reached the ledge directly above the ward tent.  An infantryman shot him.  He fell into a slit trench behind the kitchen tent.
     At noon the last American vehicle came through.  The fighting was now right in the area.
     At 1300 hours the hospital started to evacuate, but at 1400 those men whose lives depended on immediate attention were still being worked over.  An hour later the last of the doctors climbed into the buffaloes and traveled back to the evacuation hospital with the wounded.  Half an hour later the Japs were swarming over the area.
     Back at the (92nd) evac hospital the portable surgical unit doctors continued working. (and how!)  Two days later they were again sent up to the area of their hectic 24 hours.  This time the Japs were in headlong flight, being pursued by the reorganized battalion supported by tanks.  This time the portable surgical unit could patch up the wounded without ducking for cover every few minutes.  As one tired medic put it, "If I was in the Infantry I might be getting that extra 10 bucks fighting pay they talk about.  But then, they say the medics never see combat."

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

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

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

Easter services at Finschhafen were well attended

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

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

April 13, 1944
     Sitting and waiting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gene with his jungle pack in
front of his hammock

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

92nd Evac men bathing in the little river

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

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

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

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

A look at the jungle in Finschhafen

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