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On August 25th 1943 we
left Magnetic Island and set up our tents at another racetrack,
Cluddin Racetrack. We were issued a lot of jungle suits and
boots. Our undershirts and pants were green or O. D. colored
now and also our towels or anything that was white. We were
issued a jungle hammock. Had a sturdy bottom and mosquito
netting all around, and a zippered opening that you could close up
after you crawled in. You had to make a T-bar for each side of
your cot to hold it up. It sure worked well for us. The
infantry weren’t that fortunate. Also some of our men got a
different gun. It had 15 shot clips that you can set on
automatic and it kept right on shooting. I still had my Garand
rifle. We got a long knife called a machete, which we used cut
through jungle underbrush. We kept our work suit, which
consisted of a pair of blue jeans and a jacket. No work
shirts.
This is where we got our new battery
number. We were now Battery B237th Anti-Aircraft Artillery;
Search Light Battalion. We also had an “A” Battery in our
battalion. Before this we were all either Battery E, 94th
Coast Artillery or 197th National Guard. I don’t
remember when we got Lt. Patrick, but he was our Battery Commander,
and our Battalion Commander promoted him to Captain. As we
were waiting for our next assignment, we had to go on hikes and had
to climb a rope net, which I was glad we did because it came in
handy in the Philippines. We knew now we were going in for
more dangerous action. Looked like we were going to New
Guinea, as they were really fighting there.
On 22nd September 1943 we
boarded the liberty ship S.S. Hall Young. We had to board it
by climbing these cargo nets we were practicing on. It was a
little different with a full pack on your back. We spent 18
months in Australia, and now we are really going to see some action.
We got a lot of scares while we were there, but the Aussies treated
us with respect and hated to see us go. Except for the young
soldiers in their army, who didn’t like the way their young girls
were so liberal with our soldiers. There were threats made
after we left. But I don’t think anything happened.
We landed at Milne Bay, New Guinea,
on 28th September 1943. This part of the island was
governed by Australia, and the money was the same except the
shilling had a hole in the center. The area had a long bay
with two sunken Jap boats in the middle of it. Two pieces of
land extended toward the sea like two legs, one on each side of the
bay. We set up headquarters on one side and on the other side
a platoon of lights. My section was on that side. We had
to have a boat bring over our supplies every day. I slept in
the searchlight trailer next to the control station. The rest
of the crew slept in a large native hut. There wasn’t any
action here, and I wondered why we stopped here. Seems like
they weren’t ready for us at Lae, farther northwest.
Our side of the bay didn’t get as
much attention as the headquarters side. We didn’t have much
to do. We were issued a set of horseshoes so we set out a
couple of stakes 40 feet apart and started to pitch shoes. It
was sandy, and the shoes stayed where they landed. I had a
partner, and two men went on the other side. Well, I got hot
and was throwing ringer after ringer. We attracted a bunch of
the crew, and they started betting on me. I didn’t like that,
as that put a lot of pressure on me. I wanted to quit, but
they wanted me to keep going. I finally quit, and I didn’t
pitch any more. We also had a ping pong table under a tent,
and we played a lot of ping pong. Frost was our platoon
sergeant, and he was good at the game. We played doubles a
lot, and as we were on sand, we stirred up a lot of dust.
Kramer got some garden seeds from
Wausau, and he wanted to plant them. We were on the beach, and
the jungle was all around us. The CBs were putting up a
telephone line on the outside of our camp and were clearing an area
for the line. They had a TD14 International bulldozer that
they were knocking the coconut trees down with. They didn’t
work that Saturday, so they left the dozer right by my trailer.
I said to the crew I’ll see if I can start it and I’ll bulldoze a
spot for your garden. I got it running, and I cleared about
half an acre for them. They got to planting immediately and
planted all kinds of vegetables. I set the dozer back in the
same tracks, and they never knew I used it. The sad part was
just as it was ready to eat, we had to move.
One day somebody called for me and
said we had a break in our phone line between our sections.
The line was laid on the ground, so I took my rifle and tools to fix
it. I said earlier that I worked with the signal corp in North
Carolina, so somebody remembered. I walked down the trail
following the line and kept testing it. I had a portable phone
with me. I found the break and repaired it, and just as I got
done a native woman was coming down the trail. I held back
from laughing until she got by me, as she just had a grass skirt on.
She had a huge basket of fruit and veggies on her back with the
tongs to hold it there going around one breast. Had a good
story to tell when I got back to the section!
On the other side of the bay they
built a place to show movies. Laid palm tree logs on the
ground for seats. We didn’t have that on our side, and I
wasn’t going across on that boat they used to bring our supplies
over on. I’ve been following the book that Roccati wrote; I
see where Jack Benny, Carol Landers and others visited us. I
must have been on the other side of the bay and didn’t get to see
them. While we were there the two lieutenants lived together;
one was cleaning his pistol, and it discharged accidentally and shot
Lieutenant Werner. He died there. Lieutenant Upchurch
was transferred out of our battery, and after the war he committed
suicide. By now we were getting more reinforcements and were
pushing the Japs out of New Guinea and even bypassing some units.
They either crossed the Owen Stanley Range or died there. We
even got a detachment of WACs. Only officers could go out with
them. The enlisted men didn’t like that a bit. Things
quieted down as for chance of action.
We’ve been in Milne Bay since 28th
of September 1943. I believe a searchlight battalion came in
from the states and relieved us, so we were united with headquarters
again. They way it looked we were being prepared for another
move. Sure enough, on the 24th of December 1943 we
boarded the SS Frank Joseph Irwin. The army and other units
were in the act of taking a large area around Lae, and we were to be
in the invasion. On 28th of December we landed at
Lae. It also was called Nadzab and Markham Valley. We
set up in Markham Valley after the area got cleared of Japs.
We got plenty of action here, lighting up Jap planes during the air
raids. Our section was set up in a small open spot in the
jungle. We didn’t get any action. Most of it was over
the airstrip. It was sad that Amelia Earhart took off at this
airport and was never seen again. There were two sunken Jap
boats in the water. We were in Lae a couple of days while our
equipment was being unloaded, and I got a picture of them. I
didn’t have a camera because they didn’t allow us to take any
electrical devices on the Queen Mary. I wrote home to ask if
they could send me one, and my sister Sophie sent me hers.
Thanks, sister. I had it until I got sunk by a Kamikaze plane
in the Philippine invasion. I sent home some pictures that
didn’t have any equipment in them. The rest I was to bring
home if I made it, but they and the camera were lost in that
sinking. On the 30th of September 1943 we drove our
trucks and equipment to Markham Valley. I wrote about setting up
earlier in this writing.
Sgt. Frechete was in charge of the
section. I was still a Corporal and took care of the
control station, and Frechete had the radar. Kramer, my
searchlight operator, must have gotten lucky when they drew numbers
for who was to go home. I didn’t see him again. I got a
new operator by the name of Thurman Hill from Marion, Illinois.
He was my bunkmate in Lae. I don’t know where he got that
phonograph, but he had only one record. He played it time
after time until I almost learned the words of the song. “I
bought myself a brand new Hotsey and I’m Hotsey Totsey now.”
That’s all I remember.
We dug a pit for our light and one
for the 50-caliber machine gun. Frechete and his crew dug pits
and sandbagged the radar. We were ready for action now, but we
set up several miles from the airstrips, and no planes came our way.
I was disappointed because I hadn’t lit up a Jap plane yet, only our
own in Australia. Most of the air raids were by low-flying
planes, and they didn’t stick around very long. We drove to
headquarters for meals for a while. Two stayed as guards, and
we brought back their meals. Later we got our own kitchen and a
cook. We ate two meals a day, as seemed to be the custom
there. The cook got busted from mess sergeant, so he wasn’t
real happy. He made coffee in the morning and it wasn’t bad
hot, but when he gave us the same coffee for 4 o’clock supper, I
made a complaint. Sgt. Frost was our platoon sergeant, as Sgt.
McDonald made 1st Sergeant. I made the mistake of
going over Sgt. Frechette’s head. I mean I should have gone to
him first. I got chewed out from Sgt. Frost, but it did help.
No punishment.
As I said, we didn’t have much action
so we just sat around, and Thurman and I listened to his darn
phonograph. We were set up by a creek, so we cut down some
coconut trees and built a dam over it. The water was over
waist high by the dam, and I tried to swim. I didn’t know how
to swim then, so I kept trying. I got so I could stay afloat.
Somebody cut a fuel barrel in half long ways, and we used it for
washing clothes. We took our baths in the pool.
There was a banana plantation nearby,
and some of the men picked some. They complained they weren’t
getting ripe and were smaller and flat. I didn’t get any yet,
so I took a look at theirs and I said you got the cooking kind.
Somehow I knew the difference. They threw them away and got
the right kind. We didn’t think there were any Japs around,
but we carried our rifles wherever we went and our gas masks.
I decided to get some bananas. I took my machete along to cut
the stalks. I got greedy, I guess. I cut off three
bunches and tried to carry them with my heavy rifle, and it was just
too clumsy. I had to be satisfied with one bunch. I also
got turned around and figured I was lost. I struck out toward
the way I thought was right, and I felt relieved when I came out at
the creek where we washed.
Other incidents took place while we
were out in our sections. Some nights we would get a call from
headquarters to put our light into the position it shone straight
up. They did this when a plane didn’t come back from his raid
or it got lost. One night we had it lit up all night.
Didn’t find out if it came in or if they forgot to tell us to shut
it off. Anyway, the next day we had to shovel the bugs out of
the lights pit. You could see the darn bugs high in the sky
coming down the beam and banging into the light. We did this
several times.
One day a B-24 came back with the
bombs inside. They were shot up some and couldn’t release the
bombs. The crew thought they could make it in, but they hit
the ground before the landing strip and blew up. We heard the
blast and went to the site in our truck. Nothing there but a
big hole and pieces of the men.
Another incident happened the same
way, only no bombs. His landing gear wouldn’t come down from
being shot up, too. But this time they decided to let the crew
jump out two at a time with parachutes, and the pilot put the plane
on automatic pilot and jumped out. Some P-47 and P-38s took
off and followed it out to sea and shot it down.
We finally had a plane come close to
us. As it was daylight we just watched it fly out of sight.
This plane was different. It had an inline engine in it.
All the other Jap fighter planes had radial engines; pistons in a
circle. I recognized it as one of their new planes called
“Tony.” Our P-51s had the same type of engine.
While we were bivouacked in New
Guinea waiting for our next move, I was called to see somebody in a
tent not far from us. I couldn’t figure out why a higher
officer would want to see me. When I got in his tent, he
introduced himself as Colonel Volk from Greenwood. He was one
of the Volk Brothers that made dress suits in the now Bill Adams
store. Steve Plautz knew him, and we had the same APO numbers
and asked him to look me up. We discussed the situation we
were in, the morale of the troops, and how I was doing. I
forgot what branch of the military he was in.
Before we moved into New Guinea, we
were given several shots. After we got on the ship, the
doctors lined us up, and we had to roll both sleeves up, and they
gave us a shot from both sides. On January 5th,
1944, we got a tetanus shot and one other. In May 1945 in the
Philippines we got a small pox, typhoid and cholera shot.
Also, when we hit New Guinea we were given a pill called “Atabrin.”
It made your skin yellow, and some of the men really got yellow.
It didn’t seem to bother me. This was a replacement for
Quinine. There was a shortage of Quinine so they had to come
up with a substitute. We didn’t have to take it in Australia,
as we never were in their jungle. I took this pill until I
left for home in July 1945. Some of the men refused to take
it, so when you were handed the pill in the meal line at noon, he
had to see you take the pill. This went on for some time.
Even after taking this pill, some came down with Dengue fever.
This is worse than malaria.
Around June 1944 I was called in to
see Captain Patrick, our battery commander. He said you have
been here a long time and was trying to get me a higher rating, as I
was the light commander. My next rank would be Sgt., which
paid more, all of $66.00 a month. I was getting $54.00 as a
Corporal. He didn’t have a sergeant rating open then, but he
had a T14 rating, which paid the same amount, but I would have to go
to a radar part of the section if I took it. I would have to
learn how to run the radar. I tried it earlier in practice,
and I really didn’t care for it. You had to turn the radar in
a circle, searching for a blip in the scope. You had to look
into it and turn the radar by hand. The men on the radar said their
hands and arms got very tired turning it. But I wanted to get
a few more bucks, so I took it. A few months later he called
me in again and said he had a buck Sergeant opening and wanted to
know if I wanted it. I took it, because as an operator you
were just a soldier. As a sergeant you had more power, and you
didn’t have to pull KP or other duties. I never tried for a
promotion like some others. Captain Patrick was very good to
me.
Now to get back to being Technician
Fourth Grade. I was sent out to get trained as a radar
operator. I went to Sgt. Dimmerling’s section. When I
got there, I came down with Dengue Fever. For three days I
laid in a bunk sweating so much I was in a layer of water. The
battery medic came out to see me and gave me some aspirin. I
took two aspirin every four hours day and night. One night we
had an air raid, and I rolled out of my bunk into a small trench
somebody dug. They were tracking the Jap plane, but it didn’t
bomb us. It went over the airport. Somebody brought me
some food. I was alone in the tent, and I didn’t see anybody
from the section. I figured the crew didn’t like the idea of
training me, as there was only one T14 per radar section, and I was
going to take that position away from them. That was my way of
thinking. I never questioned anyone. I never got
trained. Right after that the sections were called in, and
another unit took over. We were being assembled for another
move. This was around June or July 1944. The 350th
searchlight battalion took over, and they came in directly from the
states. I don’t remember this as I might have been gone on a
furlough to Sidney, Australia.
After we were assembled at
headquarters, we didn’t have much to do. Kramer left his
garden seeds with someone, and some others got seed, too, and the
men in the tents dug up the ground around their tents and planted a
garden, even tomatoes. And the same thing happened when I
bulldozed them a space at Milne Bay. Just as the tomato plants
had big, green tomatoes on them, we had to move. I can still
see them after the tents were taken down. This was the last
gardening adventure, as we never stayed this long on all our other
invasions.
The higher brass thought we should
get more exercise, so they ordered marching for us. Captain
Patrick argued for us and told them we were seasoned combat troops.
On our first march, which was mostly in route step, not in cadence,
after we got out of sight of camp we stopped, and our officers let
us sit down under some shade trees for a couple hours, and then we
walked back to camp. After that Captain Patrick got us to play
softball. There was a lot of cleared area around us, so we
laid out several ball diamonds. Teams were chosen, and the
first team got all the best players. We had a darn good first
team, and they played other teams from the gun sections, as they
were doing the same thing.
Captain Patrick played with one of
the teams. I got up a team that was left, and we played or
tried to anyway with our own teams. I played catcher, and one
of our cooks, Bublitz, could pitch some. We played for a
while, and then we played volleyball until dark almost every day.
Captain Patrick formed a volleyball league with other gun sections
and so forth. I was again made a captain of one team, and we
went from one battery to another. I had one player about 6’6,”
but the rest of the team was about my height. We got beat a
lot after we played out the league schedule.
Captain Patrick came up with another
scheme. He was a teacher in College Station, Texas, in a
military school, so he was versed in higher grades. He taught
math and other subjects. I took up algebra, as I hadn’t gone
to high school. Elmer Livernois went to high school, so he
helped me a lot. We got into our lessons up to graphs.
He was waiting for them to go ahead when an order came through that
some of us could take a furlough to go to Australia for some R&R.
Somebody knew we were going on a dangerous mission and were giving
out furloughs. Evidently it wasn’t going to happen for a
while. Afterwards we found out we were going to be in the
invasion of the Philippines. They were giving furloughs
earlier, but I didn’t care to go then. I was sending most of
my money home, so I had to hold back some money. You had to
pay your room and board if you didn’t stay in the army arrangements
they had made.
I finally decided to go to Sydney.
The reports that came back from GI’s who went there were how
wonderful the Australians treated them. I figured if I wanted
to see some more of Australia I’d better do it now. We were in
bivouac for two months already, and it was made pretty clear we were
going somewhere else other than New Guinea. They had New
Guinea pretty well under control now and didn’t need us here any
more, as the 350th
Searchlights took our place. So I applied for a furlough and
got one for two weeks to Sydney. This was plus travel time, as
it took us one week to get there and one week back by boat. I
was away for a month. I took a plane from Lae to Finchhaven
when it was made a departure and return for us on furlough by boat.
This must have been the latter part of August and first of September
1944. The boat took us to Brisbane, and from there we were to
go to Sydney by train.
When I checked in at Brisbane we were
told you can’t go to Sydney, as it was off limits to US military
personnel. Wouldn’t you know it, there were so many US
military personnel in Sydney that were AWOL that they wouldn’t let
any more go there until they rounded up the ones who were AWOL and
sent them back to where they belonged. The soldiers found
girlfriends who would furnish them with civilian clothes, and they
just stayed there. Spoiled it for the ones that wanted to see
the city.
They were preparing another city
about 200 miles north of Sydney. The place where we checked in
was called a troop movement office. Every place that was
picked for R&R had one, and that was where you got your
transportation from and billiting. As we couldn’t go to
Sydney, I was offered to go to this new place. I forgot the
name, but it sounded like Bloomingdale. I went, as I didn’t
care to stay in Brisbane. We were the second trainload that
stopped there. The first one left just before we came.
We were treated by a large number of Aussies from the city.
They had a large hall, and we were ushered into it. The hall
was circled by benches to sit on. They were filled up with
young girls and their parents. Maybe some didn’t have their
parents. Not too many young men. Most were in the
military. There was a band playing, and girls and men were
dancing. I asked a girl, and I said I’d try. I didn’t
know how to dance, so it didn’t turn out so good. They had a net
stretched about ten feet or so and about neck high, and you were
supposed to keep this ball from falling to the floor. There
were more men and even some women playing. I played a while.
Around 12 o’clock you had to sign in
as to where you were going to stay. You had a choice: some
people could take you into their home or you could stay in the hall
where they had cots set up. You had to supply your own food,
but the cot was no charge. A couple came up to me and wanted
to know if I would like to stay with them. I’d say they were
about 50 years old. They said I could stay in their home and
eat with them if I wanted to. I accepted, so I got my barracks
bag with my extra clothes and toilet articles and went with them.
They had a cot in a room and said I could stay there. I went
to bed and was sleeping pretty good, as I was tired. In the
morning I felt like somebody was looking at me. I had my face
against the wall so I couldn’t see until I turned around. Here
was a beautiful young lady looking at me. As soon as I turned
she ran away. Was I surprised! She wasn’t with them at
the dance, and they didn’t tell me they had a daughter, so I wasn’t
expecting this.
I got dressed and went into the
kitchen, and they gave me breakfast. The girl was not around.
The city was giving tours. They had a two-level bus, and you
could see the best from the top. They had a large steel mill,
and that was one of the things they showed us. I can’t
remember what else they showed us. Every morning you could go
down to this hall and find something to do. I suppose you are
wondering by now what happened to this young lady. Well!
That will come. The first week I met some soldiers from
Hollandia. This is just north of Finchhaven. They were
in an engineering company. We went to some pubs and had a few
drinks and talked a lot. I hadn’t had a beer since we left
Magnetic Island, so it didn’t take much to get drunk. I didn’t
care to do that any more.
So, here we go. I met the
daughter finally. She was 23 years old, and to me she was very
good looking. Remember I hadn’t seen a white person since
Australia. I’d say she was 5’3” or 4” and had a good figure.
As Lorraine had already broken up with me, I wasn’t bound to anyone.
I told her where we were, but couldn’t say where we were going.
I didn’t even know where we were going. She asked a lot of
questions about where I was from in the United States, and I told
her all about Wisconsin and that I had been farming and working for
my brothers. She was very interested and so were her parents.
I believe I had a few meals with them. After supper we would
visit and talk some more. I wanted to know more about
Australia. The man worked in the steel mill, and Mrs. Barrow
was home all day. Betty, the daughter, didn’t seem to be
working, and I wondered what a single girl was doing at home all the
time. I never asked what she was doing. We went to a
movie one night. The little time I was there went by pretty
fast, and then it was time to go back. I gave her my address,
and I had hers, and we were to write each other. When I got
back to our battery in Lae, New Guinea, they were getting ready to
move, and I never got a chance to write. I never received
anything from her, either. So that’s how it stands. I
had an enjoyable week with these people. At least I had one
good week of R&R.
We left Lae, New Guinea, on October 3rd,
1944. Had no idea where we were going. We were on a
liberty ship named S.S. Bernard O’Higgins. We moved up the
coast and stopped at a town by the name of Hollandia on the 5th
of October 1944. We didn’t get off the ship. I wrote
earlier that I partied with these three men from Hollandia.
They were working on an airstrip there, but due to soggy conditions
they couldn’t land bombers there. They said one bulldozer kept
sinking so deep they lost it. Also lost a truck. The
strip was good for only light planes.
At this time our troops were landing
on Biak, an island 225 miles west of Hollandia. The air force
had to have an airstrip closer to bomb Leyte in the Philippines, and
Biak had lots of rocks and harder soil. I got the Greenwood
Gleaner from my brother, Steve, and it had an article about a
Greenwood paratrooper landing on Biak. His name was Kermit
Braun. They jumped again – I don’t know where – but Kermit got
killed. On Memorial Day services his name is announced when we
drop a poppy.
We got to Maffin Bay on the 6th
of October 1944 and stayed on the ship. We left there on
October 9, 1944. We stopped again off the coast of Wakde
Island, about 150 miles up the coast from Hollandia on the 13th
of October 1944. We sailed a little farther and anchored at an
area called TOEM, Dutch New Guinea the Netherlands East Indies,
which was the western half of New Guinea. There was no dock in
this area, so we stayed on the ship until they fixed up a temporary
dock so we could get off with our equipment. We still weren’t
told where we were going, as this was just a temporary stay.
While we were on the ship, our troops were clearing the area of Japs
that were still there. They shot down one of our planes within
our vision. I watched it crash, but the pilot bailed out, and
a rescue boat got to the pilot and picked him up. After we
finally got unloaded and put up tents in a small clearing, we were
warned to keep a sharp lookout, as there were still Japs in the
area. The guards shot up a lot of jungle, as they thought
there was somebody out there. After checking in the morning,
all they found was a lot of shot up jungle. I was a sergeant
then, and I got out of guard duty. We had more alerts and
shootings, and the Japs set fire to an ammunition dump the infantry
had nearby. Some of our battery members helped put it out and
got burned. Some got purple hearts and citations. I still have
a notice of the names from a bulletin that came out in Leyte on
October 29th, 1944.
We had a part of a typhoon hit us.
We all stayed up until it was over. Afraid our tents would
blow down. We made it without any tents collapsing. We
stayed there from the 13th of October to November 9th.
We now boarded an LST #700 at TOEM. We were now going to
Leyte to take part in the invasion of the Philippines. We had
quite a few scares on the way, but our A Battery wasn’t as lucky.
Their liberty ship got hit by a torpedo and sank. The men were
all saved, but lost all their equipment. The men there then
spread over the other batteries, and I don’t know if they got
equipment again. We landed at Taclobin, Leyte, on November 12th,
1944.
Just three weeks after the initial
wave landed. My ship didn’t get in close enough to shore to
drive our equipment off without getting wet. The engineers
were there already, and their bulldozers pushed sand to our ship, so
we walked off without wading in the water. Our men had to go
in the water up to their bottoms and lay sandbags on the sides so
the sand didn’t get washed away. Again, being a sergeant
helped. We didn’t have to go in the water, so I watched from
the deck until it got ready to depart. A typhoon had hit
before we got there, and the roads were full of water. We were
picked up by our tricks and taken inland. For a ways we could
have gone by a small boat, the water was so deep. We set up
our tents near the dulag strip. We did not set up our
equipment here.
The army had some tents set up close
to where we got off the ship. I dug a slit trench, but could
only go down about three feet until I hit water. No one else
wanted to do anything. We had an air raid that night, and you
just can’t imagine how fast that slit trench filled up! They
almost smothered the bottom ones. I didn’t get into my own
trench. I laid down because they were dropping phosphorus
bombs, and you had to get to water if you wanted to stop it, so they
would drop anti-personal bombs to get you if you would stand up.
That morning we had another raid, but only one plane. The
whole harbor was filled with ships, and they put up a hail of fire,
mostly 40mm tracers, and the fighter plane ran into that fire and
got shot down. I was watching this from the tent area, as I
was concerned about where he was going to hit. We were lucky.
He hit an open spot of water and sank. It could have hit one
of the ships, and then we would have been in lots of trouble.
We then moved farther into the hills.
Roccati and I had a difference on
dates when we arrived at Leyte. It really doesn’t matter, but
a week makes a lot of difference when you are landing with the
infantry, mortars and field artillery. The military changed
their style of fighting, and now the anti-aircraft artillery has to
come in as soon as a beachhead was established to protect the
infantry from getting strafed. There was a different
searchlight battalion that took care of this one. We were
designated for the next one, which was Mindoro. Meanwhile, we
loaded and unloaded supplies coming in and our ships for the Mindoro
invasion. We got some transfers from Battery A that had been
sunk going to Leyte from New Guinea. As some men left on
rotation, I was hoping my number would come up soon. It didn’t
happen, though.
I have been referring to dates and
incidents that took place from the book Roccati wrote. I
remembered a lot more, so I’m going to add on a few of them.
Before my battery moved farther
inland, we still stayed by the beach. There was a large river
emptying into the bay. I forgot its name. Its depth was
about up to my neck. I still had a bathing suit, which I would
put on to go take a bath or go across to the other side. There
was a small village or a bunch of buildings on stilts, as they were
in a flood zone. I met a family there, and they could speak
good English, especially the young lady. She was a school
teacher, but wasn’t teaching yet, as we just liberated them. I
took some pictures of the family. I walked across the river
with the camera held high above my head. I got their address
and was going to write to them. Of course, I lost everything
when we got sunk, so that was the end of that.
Well! This river was a source
for the people and us to wash our clothes, bathe, and everything
else a person does. Naturally, it was quite polluted. We
soon got a notice that we had to take some stool tests. We
took samples for a week. The doctors found an organism called
Schistosomiasis in the river. I imagine we were drinking some
of this water. I didn’t get it, but some did and had to go to
the doctor to get treated with something – never found out with
what. One of our men died from it later on.
In the article I wrote about the
paratroopers that were to land on the new strip they were making.
As it was raining so much, the army abandoned trying to make a strip
at Dulag. They started to doze over a large area of coconut
trees where it was more sandy closer to Taclobin. They had one
of our lights in position to give them light to operate at night at
the far end. This plantation was owned by Palmolive Peet.
I wonder how much the US had to pay for that! Then we got the
word the Jap paratroopers were to land on the strip we were making.
The Japs evidently didn’t know we weren’t making that strip in Dulag
any more, as that’s where they landed. This took place on
December 6th, 1944. It says they dropped 250 men,
but our troops killed all of them. We had some casualties.
Now I was sent with 12 men to the strip we were making closer to
Taclobin in this Palmolive Peet plantation. I had my
searchlight with me and a lot of ammo. We waited, but as I
wrote previously, they landed at Dulag. It was a relief, as I
didn’t know if they had infantry there to help us. I hoped
they would, as 12 of us against 250 wasn’t good odds.
While we were waiting, there was a
naval sea battle going on within hearing, but not seeing, and the
fighter planes came in to land on our unfinished strip. I have it
written up in “The Sinking
of LST 460.”
The 77th Division also
landed at Leyte. It pulled out of Dulag because of muddy
conditions. They couldn’t move their machinery around without
a bulldozer. They then landed on the other side of the island
where the ground was firmer. It was a gamble though, as the
Japs were still firmly entrenched there. But they made it and
finally took the big city of Ormoc away from the Japs (12/8/44).
The reason I write about the 77th Division is a member of
their outfit was from Loyal by the name of Robert Bugar. After
the war he married Ellen’s sister. Bob and I started talking
about where we had been and found out we weren’t 20 miles apart.
I found out Mike Krultz was at Leyte also.
Now for the invasion of Mindoro.
The 2nd Platoon loaded their equipment on LSTs.
Roccati was on LST 986. The military was having a problem with
all this rain and the terrific resistance by the Japs. They
held back on the invasion of Mindoro. This was November 28,
1944. We were losing a lot of fighting ships, as the Japs were
resorting to their Kamikaze antics. The 2nd Platoon
and other troops that were loaded stayed on their ships until
December 12th, 1944. They took off that night for
Mindoro. It was a 550-mile trip. The commander of this
operation was Brigadier General William Caldwell Dunckel. He
quoted, “I assume every man in this force is a ground soldier.
He’ll have to fight like one.” Roccati didn’t like that idea.
An artillery man does not fight like a ground soldier. As I
was away from Camp Davis, North Carolina, when they had their
infantry training, I didn’t get any.
This convoy got hit by Kamikazes on
December 13th, 1944 around 3 o’clock. Our fighters
shot down most of them, but some made it through and crashed into
the flagship “Nashville.” Killed 175 men and wounded 190.
General Dunckel suffered a few wounds, but not serious enough to
lose command. They had more attacks, but no more loss of ships
or men. They landed on Mindoro on December 15th,
1944, amid another wave of Kamikaze attacks. LSTs 472 and 738
were damaged fatally and an aircraft carrier and two destroyers were
damaged, plus one PT Boat, #223. I have been writing this to
show you that we finally took part in an invasion with the first
wave. As I wasn’t there I had to use some of Roccati’s
writings. There was hardly any ground fighting. They
penetrated about 11 miles inland and took over the town of San Jose
and the airfield. There were still plenty of air raids, but
they were not as violent as before. The Japs lost many planes
trying to get Mindoro back, as Mindoro was an island next to Luzon
and Manila. They knew from reports that they lost the war, but
were too bullheaded or proud to surrender.
The 1st Platoon, which I
was in, left Leyte on December 19th, seven days after the
2nd Platoon and headquarters left. We were on two
LSTs, the one I was on, 460, and another one. We didn’t have
an escort of aircraft carrier and other fighting ships like when the
first wave went in. We had two ships smaller than destroyers
escorting us. On the 21st of December 1944 we got
hit by those 40 Kamikazes I wrote about in “The Sinking of LST 460.”
It says in Roccati’s book that there was an attempt to put the fire
out, but I was right there, and there were no officers around to
give orders to do so. There was no attempt to put the fire
out, as it was a raging inferno in no time.
Another man and I waited by the life
raft for the signal to abandon ship. Finally an ensign, an
officer like the army’s lowest official, gave the signal to abandon
ship. So, the other man (I didn’t know who he was) and I
chopped the ropes holding the raft in place and it slid to the
water. We jumped in after it and didn’t know what happened to
the rest of the crew on the LST. We had five men killed by
this event. One was from my section. Poor Wally Abel
didn’t take cover quick enough. He was a replacement we picked
up in New Guinea, only 18 years old. Every ship had a small
boat tied to the ship with a long rope, and when we got hit they
unhooked the rope and started to pick up the survivors. I
caught up to the raft, but when I got to it, it was loaded down with
the men that jumped before. They all crawled onto it and sunk
it a couple feet under water. There were two wounded men lying
down in it, and I made the guys get off and just hold onto the raft
so we stayed together and brought the raft out of the water.
The blood was squirting out of this man’s arm, so I had one of them
take off his belt and put it on as a tourniquet. It stopped
the bleeding. The small boat came over then and started
picking us up. They jumped two at a time, as the sea was
rather rough. I was the last to go, and they took me to
another LST, and I had to crawl up that rope ladder we were
practicing on in Townsville, Australia. Came in handy. I
was on an air force ship, so they gave me a bunk and a shot of
something, and I went to sleep.
We talked about our escapades during
our reunions when we got to one. Ed Jorstad from Chicago told
one. He was set up on the beach in Mindoro when a Jap came
over and dropped a cluster bomb on his radar. This bomb has a
large amount of smaller bombs. They also are called personal
bombs. They drop it on troops and equipment. He just
barely got out of the way when it hit the radar, and not one of the
bombs went off. All duds. Call that luck! But the ammo
ship he was watching that day wasn’t that lucky. A lone plane
came over and dived into it, and after the blast all you could see
was a little disturbance in the water.
I said earlier that we got hit by
those 40 Kamikaze planes the first day we were at sea, but I see it
was the second day at ten minutes to 5:00 on December 21st,
1944. We traveled all night and landed on Mindoro on December
22nd, 1944. (Refer to “The Sinking of LST 460.”)
About the naval bombardment by the Japs at Christmas time 1944: I
was sent to take care of Otto Long’s light section, as Sgt. Long had
gone to the hospital for some reason. While there, this
bombardment started about 7 o’clock. I can still remember
sitting on the edge of the slit trench I dug, and the Japs were
firing flares over us. The light was so bright if I had a
newspaper I could have read it. I said, What a way to spend
Christmas Eve! The book Roccati wrote says it was the 26th,
but I still say it was Christmas Eve. It’s a long time ago,
and I could be wrong. Roccati says we had a fancy Christmas
dinner, turkey and all, but I can’t remember that. We were
informed that night to not light up any planes going over us, as our
command didn’t want to reveal our positions. It said, do not even
light up a cigarette. After this we had some air raids, but no
more scares of an invasion. On December 30th, 1944,
and the 5th of January 1945, we had two supply convoys
come to Mindoro with additional reinforcements and supplies.
We lost several ships due to the Kamikaze attacks. They were
becoming a real menace to our shipping.
Major Richard Bong was with us at
Mindoro. He had 40 Jap planes shot down to his credit.
The command wanted to send Bong back to the states before he got
shot down himself. They wanted to test the new jet P-80 that
they were working on and wanted Bong to be a part of it. Also,
Bong was getting pretty nervous about these dog fights with the
Japs. On December 29th, 1944, Bong left us and took
part in testing the P-80 jet. Shortly after, his P-80 jet
flamed out, and it crashed, killing him.
It was now the middle of January
1945. We had all of the Philippines pretty well under control.
Our battery had a couple more invasions to make. We didn’t get
to go to Luzon or Manila. The Japs were busy defending
themselves elsewhere, so we didn’t have many air raids. Now we
were preparing ourselves for the next move. I got new
equipment for what we lost when our ship, LST 460, was sunk, and we
had a section again. On the evening of February 26th,
1945, my platoon of six lights and batteries of artillery and the
186th Regiment of the 41st
Division left for Palawan. We landed at the town of Puerto
Princesa and the airstrip the Japs were making on February 28th,
1945. There was very little resistance. But I saw four
graves dug close to where I set up our equipment. Also, the
trench where the Japs killed all the POWs they had there working on
the airstrip. I saw one day after we set up some of our
aircraft were bombing the Japs not far from us, but I heard later
they didn’t want to engage in combat. Somehow they must have
gotten off the island. When we got ready to set up someone
found a bulldozer and brought it to where we were to set up and told
me to dig the holes we needed to put our radar and powerplants into.
Maybe Sgt. Wade told the officers, as he has been with me all the
time. After I did that, he had me climb a 40-foot pole to hang
up a small unit called a tweeter. He needed that to
synchronize the radar. The cat dozer was a D7 with a cable
dozer. Little harder to operate. I didn’t get to fill in
this trench after the people who pick up bodies, etc., cleaned it
up. It had a lot of dog tags in it and also parts of the
bodies.
I said before there were about a
hundred killed, but after I got more information it was like 150
POWs. All the while we were in Palawan Island we didn’t have
one air raid. So we had to do other things to keep busy.
Our commanding officer, a new lieutenant I didn’t know, gave me a
command to make up a crew of men and go to where our supply ship was
docked and help unload cargo. They came back from the job, and
some had mattress covers for single beds. Nice, soft, white
covers. Wow! They cut one side of it lengthwise and laid
it on the bunk and slipped into it and had like a sheet on bottom
and top. Nicer than an army blanket doubled and slid into.
So, one day I said I’m going along. I didn’t have to work, but
I wanted one of those covers. We found another case, and I got
one. They weren’t checking you when you left, but I hid it
under my jacket. Found a case of tomato juice and they drank
that up. They said they found a case of wrist watches, but
didn’t say what they did with them. I wondered why there were
wrist watches in our supplies. We never got any that I know
of. Could have replaced mine, as it didn’t run any more, and
the army refused to pay for it.
Well! We got done unloading
that ship, so the lieutenant gave me an order to put floors in our
tents. I said where do I get the lumber. He said go and
find some, tear down a building. I was looking around at what
was left of the town and saw some buildings with nice lumber, and
other outfits were tearing them down. So I said to the
lieutenant I didn’t believe in wrecking the homes of these people.
He didn’t take too kindly to that, but the next thing I knew here
came a truck loaded with lumber and we put in floors in our tents.
I slept alone in one tent, and we floored it. Now we had to
keep the danged floor clean. We didn’t have a kitchen or cook.
There was a gun battery close to us, and they had a kitchen and I
believe we ate with them for a while. Meanwhile, the navy
moved in and built one of their buildings close to us. Was it
called a Quonset? So us and the gun battery ate with them.
Gee! Was that nice. No KP. Ice cream twice a week.
This was the best food we ate since I had been there. They had
a ship in the harbor, and the food and ice cream machine were in
there on their freezers.
In April or June 1945 we were getting
some of our Christmas presents that finally caught up with us.
Pretty well banged up. I didn’t get all the stuff I was told
you were sending, so when I left in July I told my truck driver,
Larry Wilcoxson, he could have them. I never heard from him or
saw him again. He didn’t come to any reunions, but he is
listed as a member. So I don’t know what happened.
By now it seemed we would have to
attack the Jap mainland. I had quite a few replacements in my
section. So the lieutenant gave me another order, start
teaching the new members of our battery how to run our equipment, as
the word was to get them ready for the invasion. So, every
morning for a while we had classes. I taught the operation and
parts of the searchlight and power plant, and Sgt. Wade had to teach
how to operate, tear down and set up the radar. We also had to
do some calisthenics. Too much sitting around didn’t set too
well with higher up officers. Did a lot of letter writing,
which reminds me of the time I got in trouble with my lieutenant.
I was really grumbling in my letters
about going home, so he called me into his office and told me to
quit writing this about going home, as he had to cut up my letters
so you couldn’t read them. It was something about morale of
the troops. He always told me my replacement hadn’t come in
yet. They were waiting for a sergeant instead of promoting one
of my crew. I heard rumors that this lieutenant wanted to make
captain, and he wanted to keep all the veterans he could together
and convince his superiors what a good battery he had. He
finally let us go on July 20th, 1945, Ed Jorstad, Melvin
Wade and I. The rest were mostly replacements. I wonder
if he made captain.
After Captain Patrick told me I was
to go on LST 460, I didn’t see him again until a reunion after the
war. He said he got sick and got sent home. Captain
Patrick treated me very well. He gave me a higher rating so I
could get higher pay. Evidently he knew I wasn’t going home
for a while, as he was the one that drew names as to when your turn
came.
Katie Plautz wrote me that there was
a member of the army somewhere in Palawan that Frances was writing
to. I somehow found out where his outfit was and went to visit
him. He was a mess sergeant with a gun battery. His name
was Gunderson from Gilmanton, south of Eau Claire. He also
came home with us on the same ship, the “Sacajawea.” The ship
was making its own water, and it was hot when we filled our
canteens. He said if we tie our canteens on a rope and let the
canteens in the ocean water it would cool the water. So we
tied our canteens on a rope and let them down into the water.
When we pulled up the rope and canteens I found that I had no
canteen. Dragging the canteen in the ocean broke the chain on
my canteen. Lucky Gunderson’s didn’t break loose or we
wouldn’t have had any water to drink except when the water was
turned on. I had to depend on getting a drink from his canteen
if I wanted a drink. I was on KP for a week washing pots and
pans, so I got some water that way. We didn’t have to wash
dishes, as they had dish washing machines.
In Palawan, whoever led the
entertainment committee made a place to show movies every night.
Placed downed coconut trees in a circle for seats and built a place
for the transmitter and a stage. Went to a movie nearly every
night, as we never had one air raid all the while I was there.
We had a troop of entertainers come in from the states one night.
Forgot who they were. Wasn’t Bob Hope. Rained hard that
night, but we had our ponchos with us, and they performed through
the rain. The stage had a roof over it, probably from some of
the lumber I didn’t want to tear down a building for (sarcasm).
Our 2nd Platoon left on
March 6th, 1945, from Mindoro for the invasion of
Mindanao. They arrived at Zamboanga on March 10th
and went on shore with the infantry like Mindoro. They were in
a lot more action than we were. They had a lot more problems
with the Japs, as the Jap forces didn’t expect an invasion. We
bypassed a lot of islands, and they either had to get off them
somehow or die of starvation. They put up a serious attempt to
hold this island, but we cut them off from their supplies and
eventually overwhelmed them. This platoon fought the Japs to
the end of the war. On August 17th, Roccati and
more of the old 94th
Coast Artillery got orders to go back to the states.
About July 14th, 1945,
Jorstad, Wade, Gunderson and I finally got our orders to go home.
We boarded a C-46 at Palawan, and it flew us to Taclobin, where the
departure troop ships would be loaded homebound. It was July
18th, 1945, when I finally got on the troop ship
“Sacawajea” for our voyage home. All four of us got on this
ship. We stopped at an island named Kwajelian for water and
fuel. The next stop was in Hawaii. We were there
overnight and left the next evening. The war wasn’t over yet,
but during the night news came that the Japs surrendered. The
lights came on, and the fellows gambling in the unloading hold had
more light. They gambled all the way home until a few lucky
guys had all the money. We arrived at Seattle around August 10th,
1945. We had our first meal on US soil that evening.
German POWs were feeding us all the steaks you could eat. I
saw some put an extra steak in their pocket. I took only one,
as there was other food, too. I couldn’t even eat that, as my
stomach must have shrunk from the GI food we were served.
We were there only four days, and
then they put us on a troop train for Camp McCoy. Meanwhile,
they wouldn’t let us go anywhere, but we jumped a fence beyond the
gates and caught a taxi that took us to a tavern. Had a few
drinks and got sick. I didn’t have a drink of beer since I
left Australia. That was enough of drinking for me.
They, the guards, didn’t stop the taxi driver from going into Fort
Lewis, but he couldn’t take anybody out. They knew from before
we came that others had done that, so they waited there.
Finally got our papers straightened out. We cleaned up real
good. We only had seawater to wash in all the way, and we were
pretty dirty. You couldn’t wash clothes, so you just kept
wearing the same two uniforms all the way to Seattle. I think
we got some washed for the rest of the journey. Took the troop
train four days to get to Camp McCoy. It had four engines on
it, and at times I thought we would have to go out and push it, it
went so slow. After we got over the mountains they took two
engines off, and we made better time. Finally got to Camp
McCoy, and they started giving us physicals and asking questions,
such as whether we wanted to keep our insurance. I had a
$5,000 government insurance policy. They wanted to know if you
wanted to join the reserves, and I think they asked about
re-enlisting, too. I rejected everything. I had enough
army to last me forever.
I called home as soon as I could.
I don’t think I could tell anybody I was leaving for home. I
don’t think I got a very good reception. Nobody came down to
see me or get me. I went to Milwaukee first to see Angie and
Rosie, who were faithfully writing to me all this while.
I got discharged on August 20th,
1945, at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, after three and a half years
overseas and a total of four years, three months and three weeks in
the army. I never went home during the entire time I served.
I see in Roccati’s book, Lieutentant
Willis became our battery commander, so my lieutenant didn’t make
captain.
The Palawan invasion was the first
time I had command of a section. A searchlight and components
called a section. Could include a radar, too. I just
feel like I didn’t accomplish much. Usually in a platoon you
had a platoon sergeant, and in headquarters you had a first
sergeant. I had neither here, so I don’t know if I did a good
job or not. All my orders came from an officer. After
three and a half years overseas and only lighting up one Jap plane,
I feel like I didn’t accomplish much. Well! Anyway, I
was there, and that’s about all I can say.
Sgt. George J. Plautz
The Sinking of LST 460
We arrived at Leyte in the Philippines on the Taclobin city side. MacArthur
landed there October 20th, 1944, and we got there November 3rd. Battery B, 237th
AAA S/L Battery didn't set up in the defense of Leyte. The forces there had
things pretty well in control, so we were relegated to dock work, loading and
unloading ships at the docks.
While there, the word came in we were to be invaded with a paratrooper drop. The
engineers were making an airstrip on the beach, as they had to give up working
on a strip at a town by the name of Dulag. Why I was chosen to take a
searchlight to the new strip to light up the paratroopers and engage them in
combat I don't know. At the time, I was a Sergeant in charge of a light and a
unit of radar. I had 12 men with me, and we set up on an end of the strip and
waited. Were really loaded with ammo. The paratroopers came, but they landed at
the unfinished airstrip at Dulag. Boy, did I heave a sigh of relief! A company
of infantry and the engineers working on that airstrip at Dulag took care of the
Jap paratroopers. One thing about the Japanese soldiers, they died fighting.
They just wouldn't give up.
While waiting for the invasion, there was a big sea battle going on just out of
sight. It sounded like continuous thunder roaring. Our strip wasn't finished
yet, and our fighters couldn't make it back to where they came from for lack of
fuel, so they started to land on what was there. We watched four P47s come in on
various landings. One had only one wheel down, and he landed on that wheel and
then made a sudden turn and collapsed that wheel and landed sideways, skidding
to a halt. One belly-landed in the sand and didn't get upset. Another came in and
hit the steel landing strip and veered off and tipped over. The pilot got
drenched with gas, but they got him out safely. There was one more that
belly-landed and was alright. We stayed there, still waiting, until they
finished the strip and fighters started to take off on missions. At that time
word came to us a typhoon was on its way toward our area. They didn't know
exactly where it was going to hit, so they said prepare to take cover. I and the
crew were very worried, as there was no place to take cover, as we were set up
not far from the beach. The typhoon missed us, but it sure did a lot of damage
to our navy. It's written up in the December 1994 issue of the VFW Magazine,
"Disaster At Sea." We lost three destroyers and 790 men. I wondered a lot what
would have happened to us. In the January and February 1995 issues of the VFW
Magazine, there is a write-up of the Mindoro Invasion, which we in the 94th AAA
Group took part in, and the sinking of LST 460.
Right after this, the paratroopers landed at Dulag, and we were pulled in to
headquarters to prepare for the invasion of Mindoro. The was early in December,
1944. We were now loading the ships we were to take for the invasion of Mindoro.
The first platoon of Battery B 237th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Search Light
Battalion didn't get in on D-Day, which was December 15th, 1944. Our convoy left
a few days later. While loading up for our convoy, it was found there wasn't
enough room for all our equipment, and one light section would have to wait for
the next convoy. Guess who was picked to stay behind?! Captain Patrick came to
me and said, "Sergeant Plautz, we don't seem to have room for all our equipment,
and we have to leave one section behind." I was a little disappointed, but I
said "O.K." He also said they were going to try and find room on some other ship
and spread the light and radar around. He said, "I'll be back and tell you for
sure." When he came back, he said they'd found room, and would I go on LST 460.
My crew was spread around, too. Needless to say, I would have been better off
staying than having to go through what I did, but there were ships in other
convoys that were sunk, too.
On the day after the first night at 4:50 p.m., we were having supper when the
ship's loudspeaker announced there were 40 kamikaze planes coming in at us with
our air force on their tails. As they approached our planes veered off, as every
gun on every ship was blazing away at the Japs. I had just finished eating
supper and washed my mess kit and was going to where I slept under a gun tub on
a stretcher, I got off a Jeep loaded with medical supplies. I stopped part way
under the gun tub and was watching these planes come at us. One LST got hit on
the front of the ship with just the wing. I saw where they shoved the wing
overboard, so they were okay. Another one missed and fell in the water.
And then we got hit. I didn't see this plane coming, as the gun tub and the
ship's bridge was between me and the plane, but the next second I was surrounded
in flames. I was under the tub enough so that the blast of fire and shrapnel
from the explosion of plane and bomb went over and around me. Here I was,
standing in the middle of the fire and sort of dazed and my mess kit still in my
hands, when I said to myself, "I got to get the hell outa here!" I figured I
would burst through the flames and jump overboard. I guessed if I caught on fire
the water would put it out. When I burst through the flames, I found no fire
next to the railing, only a line of mess kits going from the front of the ship
to the cans we washed the kits in. I gently placed mine in line, I looked over
the railing, and the water was full of men that jumped overboard when the plane
hit us.
The back of the ship wasn't burning so I walked to an area where there was a
life raft on a skid. Another man came from somewhere, and we decided to wait for
'abandon ship.' Seems like the ship's crew had a time finding an official. The
plane had hit the bridge and gone down through the mess hall and quarters, all
the officers were having supper and were killed or wounded. Our Lt.. Temple was
down there and got killed. Finally, an ensign gave the order to abandon ship, so
this other guy and I chopped the rope that held the life raft in place, and it
slid down. I watched until it floated away from the ship, because if you jump
too quickly you might hit the raft and get killed that way. I grabbed my life
preserver at the neck and jumped feet first overboard. The life preserver can
break your neck when you hit the water, especially at 40 feet, if you don't hold
it tight. I don't know how far down I went, but I started paddling my arms, and
I popped up, to my amazement.
The raft was moving away at a good clip, and I started swimming toward it, but
couldn't catch up. I stopped and took off my shoes, and then I caught it. When I
got there, it was loaded down with men that jumped over when the plane hit. They
had loaded the raft with so many men that it was a couple feet under the water.
I couldn't see anyone there with a rating higher than mine, so I ordered them to
get off and hang on the outside like I was doing. They obeyed real well, as they
were afraid of sharks, so we got the raft above water. We had two wounded on
board, blood was spurting out of one man's arm. I had a guy take off his belt,
and they put a tourniquet on his arm and stopped the flow of blood. The other
guy wasn't bleeding.
While in the water, planes were still dive-bombing us, and they had a
two-motored fighter escort them to their target. It had its bombs left, and it
made a pass at a liberty ship. It dropped two bombs, and we all cheered as it
missed. One liberty ship got hit, but the plane landed in one hold, and it was
loaded with timber and lumber, and it didn't go through the bottom. We watched
from in the water as the crew put the fire out. The Jap plane that dropped the
two bombs was flying low, and for a minute I thought it was going to get away.
One of our Destroyer escorts finally hit it, and it hit the ocean and sank. I
can still see it doing cartwheels in the water. We cheered then also.
We were in the water until 7:00 o'clock when an LSM small boat came over and
started to pick us up. The seas were rough, and we jumped two by two when the
raft and boat met. We finally got everybody picked up out of that area in two
hours. It was just getting dark. I could see LST 460 burning fiercely as I was
picked up. They took us to another LST, and after climbing up a rope ladder, I
was given a bunk and shot of some kind and something for my burns. Head gunfire
later, and they said they had to sink it so it wouldn't be a beacon for more
attacks. Right after that we started out again for Mindoro. I heard there were
over 100 men killed on LST 460. Battery B lost five men.
We sailed all night. The Japs were tailing us, but didn't attack. We got to a
beach in Mindoro at daybreak, and an air raid was in progress. There were four
LST's beached, ready to unload, when a bomber came our way. The ship's crew told
us to get off the ship as quick as we could and take cover wherever we could. I
ran off in my bare feet and got inland a ways and hid behind a sand drift. The
LSTs were about a hundred feet apart, and the plane came over and dropped four
bombs; each one landed between the ships. If they would have been hit, I
wouldn't be here again. It turned around and started strafing us. Bullets were
hitting the coconut. It finally left. I couldn't figure out where our
anti-aircraft guns were, as not a shot was fired that I could hear. I guess they
weren't set up yet.
I finally got to Battery B 237th Headquarters. Sgt. Johnson had shoes my size,
so I got a pair of shoes and socks from him as well as a towel and soap. Some
soldiers were grumbling about the Red Cross, as to serving certain people, but I
had no gripes. They had a detachment right with us, and I got all my toilet
articles from them. I lost everything I owned except my wristwatch, which didn't
run or work any more. The army called in everybody who had a claim for personal
effects, and I put in for the watch. They wouldn't compensate for the watch
because I still had it. I said, "It doesn't run any more," but they wouldn't
consider it. I had a camera and some Australian money I was keeping for
souvenirs. I got compensated for that when I got discharged.
Part of the equipment that I commanded got sunk with the LST 460, so I didn't
have a command for a while. Sgt. Otto Long was taken to the hospital at the
time, so I took over his searchlight. I stayed at Headquarters for a while,
helping out. T/5 Coffey put salve on my burns and bandaged me up. I was burned
the most on the back of my hands and neck.
I see in the VFW where they say the Japs came in with two cruisers and six
destroyers and shelled us on December 26th, 1944. I sat on the edge of the slit
trench I dug on Christmas Eve with the sky lit up like daylight with flares. We
were guarding a fighter strip at the time, and every plane that could fly took
off. I couldn't see the Jap ships, but I could see the tracer bullets going up
and the ones from our planes going down. Also saw four bright bursts in the air
where our planes got hit. We lost some planes and pilots that night, as they ran
out of fuel trying to get somewhere to land. Next morning, December 25th, the
airstrip was devoid of planes. We couldn't even light up a cigarette that night
or light up any planes. We could hear some go over, but the order was "no
lights." The message we got was that it was a task force, and they had troops
for a landing. The VFW does not say that, so we were preparing for a landing,
but didn't know where, as it was our navy and air force that inflicted so much
damage to them that they retreated.
Soon after that I got to light up my first Jap plane. We had a red alert and
were all in position when the plane came over us. I don't know why I was on the
control station that night as that was the corporal's position, so we lit it up
beautifully, but the gunfire was behind it. I was hollering, "Come on! Catch up
with it! ," but it got away from us. It circled to the B25 strip, and they it
there. That was the only chance I got to light up an enemy plane. We had air
raids in the daylight after that, but we were night fighters and could only
watch the ack ack.
Things quieted down after this except for a few incidents. One afternoon, while
on observation, a Jap plane came in low and dived into a fuel tank. It blew up
with the plane. The pilot was killed. Usually the Japs were small, but they said
this pilot was a bigger man. One evening a group of our planes came in from a
sortie, and one of the planes made six an a half loops, each loop for an enemy
plane downed. Found out quick that it was Major Richard Bong. he was at our air
strip for a while. On the invasion of Corregidor, we watched a group of DC3s
take off with the paratroopers that jumped there.
Soon after, in mid-February 1945, a message was given that six men escaped from
the Island of Palawan. There were a hundred POWS working on an air strip there,
so they loaded the platoon I was in on a ship with other elements of a task
force to invade the island. The infantry was there a few days ahead of us, but
they didn't get there quick enough. They knew we were coming, so they put all
the POWS in a slit trench and poured gas on them and burned them and shot the
ones trying to get out. I set my light and radar close by, but all there was
left of the men were shoes and dog tags. The infantry cleaned up the rest of the
enemy.
There wasn't any action after that. I left for home on July 18th, 1945, after
three and a half years overseas. We arrived in Hawaii the day the Japs
surrendered, so I took in the whole war. Got discharged on August 20th, 1945 at
Camp McCoy, Wisconsin.
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