Monthly Archives: December 2016
Soldiers’s Stories & Kiwi Air Power
Soldier’s Stories
One day I happened across a blog written by Myra Miller and I stopped in for a visit. Ms. Miller and her family were compiling stories from WWII to be published soon. I was invited to submit one of Smitty’s letters – and I most certainly took her up on her offer!
Myra Miller PhD.
Smitty’s Letter X, Jungle Juice was accepted and now, appears on pages 286-288. I received my copy right before Christmas! The timing could not have been better.
The volume: Soldiers stories: A Collection of WWII Memoirs is out on the stands! This 317 page historical collection honors our Greatest Generation veterans, both male and female soldiers, from theaters of operations around the world. They will grab and transport you into the past and once you are there – you witness the tears, the laughs, the success and the failures which created a complete transformation of this world of ours.
The design is by Myra Miller and the illustrations by Ken Miller which make up a handsome edition to anyone’s library. My copy is a welcomed addition to mine.
If you wish a copy for yourself, please visit Myra’s site HERE! It is also available through Barnes and Noble.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Also, I downloaded a copy of Matthew Wright’s Kiwi Air Power, that he was graciously offering to us free of charge [and will be doing so again in the future] and can be found on Amazon. You can also download a copy from Matthew Wright’s blog by clicking on the book cover, located HERE!
Matthew Wright, author
Right up front, Mr. Wright informs the reader that he will show the how and the why of the New Zealand’s Air Force. The rather rough start, their combat and now, their continuation – rather than the what.
Mr. Wright’s writing expertise together with personal remarks from the men themselves, you can visualize all they supplied in men and machines to support England in the war, some airmen serving with the RAF, and on into the Cold War. You read about the political struggles and strength of will that prevailed.
I am enjoying my copy very much and suggest anyone interested in history – quick – get a copy for yourself!
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Holiday Humor – 
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Farewell Salutes –
William Anderson – Jones County, GA; US Navy, WWII, Korea & Vietnam, Sr. Chief (Ret.)
Robert Caplan – Knoxville, TN; US Navy, WWII
The Big Picture…
Thomas Corbett – Dorchester, MA; USMC, WWII, USS Bennington
Kenneth Fransen – Sun City, AZ; US Army, Korea
Thelburn Knepp – Peoria, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, 89th Infantry Division
Bruce Linzy – Gay, FL; US Army, Company C/1st Batt./87th RCT
John Murray – Bronx, NY; US Air Force
Julian Parrish – San Diego, CA; USMC, Vietnam, 1st Force Recon, Colonel
Robert Thamm – NY & FL, US Navy
Don Witherspoon – Lamar, SC; US Army, Korea, 9th Reg./2nd Infantry Division, Silver Star
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Japanese Prime Minister Abe in Hawaii – correction
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe having a moment of silence after the laying of the wreath
Once again – correcting the media……
In May, President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Hiroshima, where the United States dropped an atomic bomb in 1945 and soon compelled Japan’s surrender, ending World War II. It was a historic moment: Obama was the first sitting U.S. president to visit the city.
Now, Abe is repaying the favor. On Tuesday, he will accompany Obama to Pearl Harbor, the site of the Japanese attack 75 years ago that led the United States to join World War II.
But is Abe’s visit quite as historic? When it was announced in early December, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Abe would be the first sitting Japanese leader to visit Pearl Harbor since World War II. News outlets repeated this assertion, including The Washington Post.
But quickly afterward, things began to look a little more complicated. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper soon reported that Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida had stopped in Hawaii, home to Pearl Harbor, in 1951 when flying back home from San Francisco. He made a public visit to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, which honors American war dead, and a more private visit to Pearl Harbor.
Aug. 31, 1951, then-Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida, center right, accompanied by his daughter, Kazuko, is greeted by Adm. Arthur Radford ( l), commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and Joseph R. Farrington, a delegate of the U.S. Congress for the Territory of Hawaii, during an arrival ceremony for Yoshida in Honolulu. The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reported that Yoshida had stopped in Hawaii in 1951.
The Pearl Harbor visit was not noted widely by the U.S. press, but it appeared in the Japanese press.
Yoshida told a reporter from the Yomiuri Shimbun that he had been “moved” by the visit. It also turns out that the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander at the time, Adm. Arthur Radford, was present. Radford later wrote that the visit was awkward for Yoshida and that they mostly discussed his dog.
Now more developments indicate that Abe may not be the second sitting prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor, either. Last week, the Hawaii Hochi — a dual-language Japanese-English newspaper based in Hawaii — suggested that two other Japanese leaders may have visited Pearl Harbor in the 1950s.
The newspaper posted images to its Facebook account that showed two front pages from its archive. One claimed that Ichiro Hatoyama visited the harbor on Oct. 29, 1956, where he was welcomed by a 19-gun salute and a band performing Japan’s national anthem. Another headline says that Nobusuke Kishi, Abe’s grandfather, visited the harbor on June 28, 1957, where he laid a wreath at the flagpole at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The Japanese government has now been forced to change its story. After Yoshida’s visit to Pearl Harbor was made public again, the government asserted that as the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor was not constructed until 1962, Abe will still be the first to visit the most famous monument. “He will also be the first to do so with an American president,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.
Sheila Smith, a senior fellow for Japan studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says she was “taken aback” by the initial mistake.
“If any organization should know its history, its MOFA,” she wrote via email, using an acronym to refer to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. “I’m also surprised that Abe himself or rather his office didn’t correct the record as he is a careful student of his grandfather’s diplomacy towards the U.S.”
Article found in Stars and Stripes magazine; by Adam Taylor | The Washington Post | Published: December 27, 2016
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News Corrections Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Anthony Bossi – Medford, MA; US Army, WWII & Korea
Attilio Cardamone – Pittsburgh, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, Bronze Star
Real DeGuire – Tecumseh, CAN; RC Navy, WWII, ETO, HMCS Hunter Haida & Algonquin
Pat Farwell – Skagway, AK; US Army Air Corps, WWII, ETO, B-17 pilot
John Hayes – Elyria, OH; US Navy, WWII
Thelburn Knepp – Peoria, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO, 89th Infantry Division
Jack Messemer – Phoenix, AZ; US Army Air Corps, WWII, POW / Korea, Sr. Sgt. Major (Ret. 41 years)
Sam Patane – Kirland, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HQS/127th Engineers/11th Airborne Div.
Donald Patterson – Wichita, KA; US Army, Korea
Liz Smith – Lincolnshire, ENG; Women’s Royal Naval Service, WWII, CBI, (beloved actress)
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Working Dogs honored for their service
Sgt. Wes Brown & Isky
WASHINGTON — During a routine perimeter check in the desert of Afghanistan, Isky found a roadside bomb. He had come to a complete stop, sitting near the explosive device, patiently waiting for orders from his best friend, Army Sgt. Wess Brown.
The IED – buried two feet deep – was a 120-pound bomb. Isky, a German shepherd military working dog, had just saved countless lives.
For his service, he was honored on Capitol Hill – along with three other dogs – with the first-ever K-9 Medal of Courage. It is the nation’s highest honor for military dogs, acknowledging their extraordinary valor and service, awarded by the American Humane Association.
Isky found at least five deadly IEDs and 10 weapon caches as an explosive-detection dog deployed with Brown in July 2013. The two spent a year protecting U.S. political leaders, including President Barack Obama.
Isky and Brown were with 100th Military Working Dog Detachment and have been together since October 2011.
“After he came out of training from Lackland – he was about 18 months old – I was his first handler to certify with him,” Brown, now 27, said.
While most military working dogs can have two to seven handlers, Isky has only had one: Brown.
“I didn’t PCS,” Brown said. If he had, the dog would have gone to a new handler.
In May 2014, Isky’s military career came to an end.
“We were on a combat mission, one of many,” Brown said. “To avoid an ambush we had to get into the vehicles fairly quickly. While Isky was running up the stairs, I had a hold of him, but he fell off the side and broke his leg in six different spots.”
The leg had to be amputated.
“Once I knew he got injured and knew what was happening, as soon as his amputation was scheduled and his future with the Army was done,” Brown put in the paperwork to adopt him, he said.
Brown has been separated from Isky for only two weeks, and that was while Isky recovered. Even when Isky isn’t with him, Brown carries his picture.
These days, instead of searching for bombs, Isky suns himself on a porch in Virginia with Brown. He has become Brown’s PTSD service dog, and the two comfort each other.
“I have nightmares, I get night terrors stuff like that,” Brown said. “I’ll wake up, and he’s jumped up in bed with me. He kind of does the same thing. I’ll hear him have bad dreams and I’ll wake him up. For all I know he’s chasing a ball, but it sounds to me like he’s having a pretty rough time in some of these dreams. I’ll wake him up and he jumps right up in bed with me. And we both calm down.”
Brown has been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, and has three crushed discs in his neck. He is currently waiting to be medically retired from the Army.
Isky hasn’t been trained as a PTSD dog. But his bond with Brown is strong enough that when Brown has an anxiety attack, Isky knows.
“When I look at him, I feel safe because of everything we did together in Afghanistan. If it wasn’t for him and doing what we did, there would be a lot more people unable to go home,” Brown said.
More than 200 Congressional staffers and 19 members of Congress attended the event to honor military working dogs. The other dogs who earned the Medal of Courage:
- Matty, a Czech German shepherd, was a bomb-detection dog in Afghanistan. Now retired Army Spc. Brent Grommet, his handler, says that Matty saved his life and the lives of everyone in his unit more than once. The two were wounded together, including being in a truck that was hit by two roadside bombs. They were flown back to the U.S. for treatment, and while Grommet was in surgery, Matty was wrongly given to someone else. The Humane Association helped reunite the two, and now Matty serves as a support dog for Grommet.
- Fieldy, a black Labrador retriever, served four combat tours in Afghanistan, where he worked to detect explosives. Handler Marine Cpl. Nick Caceres spent seven months deployed with Fieldy in 2011 and adopted him three years later when the lab was discharged.
- Bond, a Belgian Malinois, worked 50 combat missions and deployed to Afghanistan three times. He was a multipurpose dog with a special operations unit before he retired. Bond suffers from combat trauma and will be reunited with his handler, who will leave active duty in a few months.
From “Stars and Stripes.”
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Military Canine Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
- Cairo, a Belgian Malinois used by U.S. Navy Seals in Operation Neptune Spear, in which Osama bin Laden was killed.
- Gander – a Newfoundland, was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medall for his feats during the Battle of Hong Kong in WWII.
Civil War mascot memorial
Gunner – Canine air-raid early warning system during the bombing of Darwin in World War II.
- Rags – a Signal Corps mascot during World War I.
- Rifleman Khan – a German Shepherd that won the Dickin Medal for bravery.
- Rip – a Second World War search and rescue dog.
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Sarbi – an Australian special forces explosives detection dog, that spent almost 14 months missing in action (MIA) in Afghanistan before being recovered in 2009.
- Sasha – bomb sniffing dog, posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal
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Smoky – hero war dog of World War II, was a Yorkshire Terrier that served with the 5th Air Force in the Pacific after she was adopted by Corporal William Wynne. Smoky was credited with twelve combat missions and awarded eight battle stars..Sgt. Stubby – a Boston bull terrier, the most decorated war dog of WWI and the only dog to be nominated for rank and then promoted to sergeant through combat.
- Tich – Dickin Medal winner of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, WWII
- Treo – awarded Dickin Medal for work as a Arms and Explosives Search dog in Helmand Province, Afghanistan
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CHRISTMAS
TO ALL THOSE THAT BELIEVE IN FREEDOM AND PEACE: MERRY CHRISTMAS, from THE PACIFIC PARATROOPER !!
PLEASE REMEMBER THOSE THAT FOUGHT FOR US THEN….
AND THOSE THAT PROTECT US TODAY….
TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND NEW READERS – I WISH YOU ALL THE VERY BEST OF HOLIDAY SEASONS!!!
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MILITARY CHRISTMAS HUMOR –
Humor from deployed Marines
Click on images to enlarge.
OOPS !!
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FAREWELL SALUTES –
Loren Abdulla – Fox Lake, IL; USMC, WWII, PTO, Purple Heart (Yankton Sioux)
Robert Boyd – Auckland, NZ; RNZ Army # 136394, WWII, driver
Alfred Chew – Giddings, TX; US Army, Korea, demolition / US Air Force, TSgt. (Ret. 24 yrs.)
Steven Erceg – W.AUS; 3rd & 4th RAR, Vietnam
William Fields – Birmingham, AL; US Army, WWII, PTO
Daniel Martin – Portland, OR; US Army, WWII
Bruce R. Linzy – Gay, FL; US Army, Korea, Co. C/1st Batt./187th RCT
Toby Ortiz – Nambe, NM; US Army, WWII, PTO, 25th Infantry
Fred Persinger – Dover, TN; US Army Air Corps, WWII, (Ret. 28 years)
Ralph Wetmore – Lodi, CA; US Army, WWII, PTO, Sgt., medic
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Personal Note – Please be patient, it’s been very busy around here and it may take me a while to get back to you. I appreciate each and every one of you!!
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Electrical Section, 127 Wing, Christmas, 1943
From Pierre Lagacé, the gentleman who works tirelessly to bring our ancestors home to us!
Was your father, grandfather, uncle, granduncle, or someone you know was with Electrical Section, 127 Wing around Christmas time in 1943?
Well chances are that he is on this picture.
Lorne’s father is.
This picture is probably not precious unless your father, grandfather, uncle, granduncle, or someone you know was with Electrical Section, 127 Wing around Christmas time in 1943.
If you find someone you know, please write a comment and I will get in touch.
USS Alabama – Then and Now
USS Alabama, Cruise book
The USS Alabama (BB-60) is a South Dakota Class Battleship, launched on April 16, 1942. It served during World War II in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The Alabama served in British waters protecting supply convoys to the Soviet Union.
Later it joined U.S. forces fighting in the Pacific. It was involved in the Gilbert Island, Marshall Islands, and Marianas Islands campaigns, and in the Battles of the Philippine Sea and Okinawa.
The Alabama was awarded nine battle stars for her service.
On January 9, 1947, the Alabama was decommissioned. Her last journey under her own power was to the United States Pacific Reserve Fleet at Bremerton, Washington. She remained there until removed from the Naval Vessel Register on June 1, 1962.
US Navy poster
However, that was not the end of her life. Some citizens of the State of Alabama formed a ‘USS Alabama Battleship Commission’ with the aim of raising funds to preserve the Alabama as a memorial to the men and women who served their nation during World War II.
The money, including $100,000 raised by schoolchildren in the form of nickels and dimes, and a $1,000,000 corporate donation, was found, and the Alabama was awarded to the state on June 16, 1964. She was formally handed over at a ceremony in Seattle on July 7.
She was then towed to Mobile Bay, Alabama, where she lies in Battleship Memorial Park. It opened as a museum on January 9, 1965. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
The Alabama is one of the most well-known American ships of World War II. The 1992 movie Under Siege, starring Steven Seagal, featured it, though not by name.
Though the action in the film is supposed to have occurred on board the Missouri, the Alabama is actually shown in most of the battleship scenes.
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Carlton Blackmore – Westfield, NJ; US Army, WWII, Captain
John Cleary Jr. – Bronx, NY; US Army, Korea
Allan Dally – Hawke’s Bay NZ; RNZ Army # 056129, WWII, East Coast Mounted Rifles
Harold Gordon – New Bern, NC; US Merchant Marine, WWII & Korea, radioman
Fred Johnson – Park City, UT; US Navy, WWII, PTO, USS Snowbell (AN-52)
Larry Jordal – Sisseton, SD; US Army, Korea
Stanley Levine – Cincinnati, OH; US Army, WWII
Richard Rose – Battle Creek, MI; US Air Force
William J. Simon Jr. – W.Scranton, PA; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT
Marcey Jack Wilson – Wichita Falls, TX; US Navy, WWII
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THE LAST MAN STANDING
An eye witness account to help bring the history into perspective.
This picture was taken on the island of Guam.
The men you see make up two machine gun squads. Every man in this picture was either killed or wounded before World Two ended, except for the small muscular man on the left. He was the squad leader. He was my father.
Each squad was made up of seven men. There are thirteen men in the picture. The fourteenth man was taking the picture. He was also the squad leader of six of these men. These two squads worked closely together on Guam. That is evident in their body posture.
The night before they set an ambush at an advantageous spot on Harmon Road. The Japanese that had not yet been killed, captured, or surrendered, were completely surrounded and out numbered. The Marines knew some of them would try to break through during the upcoming night. That’s what they would have…
View original post 504 more words
July 1944 (3)
Gen. Hideki Kojo and Cabinet
18 July – Gen. Hideki Kojo, the Japanese Prime Minister and Chief of Staff resigned along with his entire cabinet. The former premiers of Japan as an advisory group had moved the Emperor to form a new government in the wake of the increasing defeats. Gen. Kuniaki and Adm. Mitsumasa Yonai took over the Army and Navy, which Tojo had been running under one office.
For two weeks, the bombardments of Guam in the Marianas had continued. On the 19th, US Navy ships started the 2-day pre-landing attacks, focusing on the Asan and Agat beaches. A Japanese diary of these days read: “On this island, no matter where one goes, the shell follows.”
While Marines crawl onto a beach, an enemy shell explodes a troop-laden amtrac offshore. Survivors from other shelled amtracs are swimming toward the beach. (National Archives)
21 July – The 1st Marine Brigade/3rd Division and the 77th Army Division went ashore on the west coast of Guam. They discovered a sign left for them reading: “WELCOME MARINES.” It was put there by the Navy UDT (Underwater Demolition Team). It would then take 5 days for the two landing teams to link up. A massive frontal attack took place that the men called “New Year’s Eve at the zoo.” But the Japanese were mainly in cliff side sheltered positions. They had not encountered the whole force.
24-25 July – after a 2-week rest, the US 4th Marine Division landed on the Tinian Island northern coast while the 2nd Div. made a feint attack off the southern sector around Sunhanon Harbor. The 4th ran into ferocious resistance from the Japanese as the 2nd moved up the coast to support.
25-29 July – on Guam, the enemy launched a massive attack on the 3rd Marines who lost 1,744 men. It was still considered a defeat for the Japanese who suffered nearly 20,000 casualties and men taken prisoner. Plus, the enemy lost the island’s main airfield, Tiyan, as the Orote Peninsula was taken. MGeneral Geiger then headed north.
Pres. F. D. Roosevelt in conference with Gen. D. MacArthur, Adm. Chester Nimitz, Adm. W. D. Leahy, while on tour in Hawaiian Islands. 1944. (Navy)
NARA FILE #: 080-G-239549
During July, US military leaders, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and FDR met at Pearl Harbor to discuss the Pacific War. The men were basically divided between the MacArthur/Halsey plan of attacking the Philippines and Okinawa and Nimitz/ Admiral King’s idea to by-pass the Philippines and go directly to Formosa and isolate Japan from her resources in the Netherland East Indies.
The Joint Chiefs eventually gave their consent to MacArthur and Halsey mainly because the King/Nimitz plan would leave major Japanese bases in the rear of the Formosa landing.
In the CBI theater, various enemy positions, railroads, shipping, troops garrisons and other areas of opportunity were bombed by both the 10th and 14th Air Forces continually.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Japanese cartoons from the Kunihiko Hisa collection cont’d –
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Farewell Salutes –
Donald Abbott Sr. – Vancouver, WA; US Army Air Corps, WWII
Melvin Bales – Manitoba, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, ETO, 407th Squadron
William Carden Sr. – US Navy, WWII, USS Huntington and Guam
Jim Delligatti – Uniontown, PA; US Army, WWII
Herbert Gilbert – Dryden, VA; US Army, Korea
Sammy Lee – Fresno, CA; US Army, Medical Corps doctor, (Olympic diver)
Allen W. Osborne – Thompsontown, PA; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HQ/127th Engineers/11th Airborne
Alton Phillips – Tampa, FL; US Navy, WWII
Revell ‘Jack’ Sowards – Manassa, CO, US Navy, WWII
Manuel Tabackman – Dayton, OH; US Army Air Corps, WWII
James Williams – Hendersonville, SC; US Army, WWII
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Why Japan’s Air Force failed
Aircraft carrier IJN Kasagi, 1945
From an article written by Shahan Russell
According to Osamu Tagaya, Japan was doomed to lose WWII. A writer for the Smithsonian, Tagaya’s father was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN), so he should know.
Like the other Axis powers, Japan wasn’t prepared for a long war. But just as Germany became overconfident because of the Spanish Civil War, so Japan felt the same because of victories against Russia and China.
What both lacked, however, was the superior manpower, greater industrial capacities, and vast resources that the US and Britain had. The Japanese government knew this, but had gambled on a short war and had badly underestimated the Allied response to their aggression.
Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero
Tagaya takes it a step further by pointing out the tactical and political weaknesses that doomed Japan. The government didn’t control the Armed Forces, so couldn’t effectively unite them. The result was a schism that drained the country’s limited resources and overly-extended industrial capacities.
The Army saw the Soviet Union as its enemy, while the Navy looked to the US. So while Japan was among the first to develop combat aircraft, they were mostly designed for a land war against the Soviets, not for long range operations in the South Pacific.
Not that it stopped them from occupying parts of Southeast Asia. But it made them overconfident, which was why they were slow to develop aerial technologies. Their occupation of the Pacific was another drain since the region was under-developed – forcing them to build landing fields and communications equipment.
Though Japan had contributed to radar technology, they failed to maximize its potential. Their weakness in detecting enemy craft, combined with cramped airfields where planes parked close together, made it easier for the Allies to take more out in a single raid.
And while Japan was the first to develop aircraft carriers, their focus was on combat missions. They therefore failed to understand the strategic value of taking out supply lines, giving the Allies an edge.
Finally, they didn’t have an effective training program for pilots. As more experienced ones died out, that left inexperienced ones who were forced to do kamikaze missions.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Military Humor – From: Kunihiko Hisa’s cartoon album “Zero Fighter 1940-1945
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Farewell Salutes –
In memorandum, today would have been Smitty’s 102nd Birthday – Everett Smith – Broad Channel, NY; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, HQ/187/11th Airborne Division
Carson Grady Bird – Newnan, GA; US Air Force, Captain (Ret.), Afghanistan, communications
David Coates – Toronto, CAN; RC Air Force, WWII, Lancaster bomber navigator
Daniel Davenport – Dayton, OH; US Army, WWII
Maurice Hanson – TX & FL; US Air Force, Medical Corps, Captain
Michael Irish – brn: Lancaster, ENG; R Air Force, pilot
Robert Jones – Albany, NY; US Navy, WWII, PTO
Ronald McLennan – Wallsend, AUS; RA Army, Vietnam
Merrill D. Pack – Louisa, KY; US Army, Korea, 187th RCT
Frederick Schroeder – Newark, NJ; US Army, Korea & Vietnam, 5/1st Cavalry, (Ret.), Purple Heart
Vivian Alda Williams – Alpharetta, GA; US Army WAAC, WWII
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Eye Witness Account – Driniumor River
New Guinea natives evacuate wounded Allies across the Driniumor River near Afua.
By: James D. West, 124th Reg/31st Infantry Division @ Indiana Military, org
After about three weeks of nightly Jap attacks along the Driniumor the situation eased somewhat. The 124th plus one battalion from the 169th was ordered to cross the River and go after the Japs that remained in the area. This group had the code name “Ted Force” after Col. Edward Starr, Commanding Officer of the 124th as well as C.O. of this endeavor. Much has been written about this “Ted Force” but I’ll just touch on it briefly. These four battalions moved in different directions while eventually meeting at a given point. They had to move by use of a compass as maps were not of much use in the jungle. About all you could recognize was the ocean, the river, the mountains and perhaps a stream. It was very slow going, as they had to hack their way through the dense jungle growth with machetes.
This was an extremely difficult endeavor in enemy held territory which lasted from 31 July 1944 to 10 August 1944. It was difficult not only because of enemy soldiers but also from the rough marshy jungle terrain. Torrential rains came every day making footing almost impossible at times, with soldiers slipping and falling everywhere. Under such extreme conditions there was still an enemy out there fighting at every occasion that seemed to offer him an advantage.
Sketch by: William Garbo Sr., Dog Platoon, July 1944
Unfortunately this is war and we had casualties and being so deep in the jungle it’s impossible to get them out at that time. Our litter cases had to be carried along and under these extreme conditions this was not an easy matter. Not having enough litters, some were improvised by using two saplings, with a poncho stretched between them. With such adverse conditions it was extremely tiring on men to carry litters. They would have to trade off and rest awhile which often made it a job for ten men to carry one litter case.
The dead were buried along the trail and when the battle situation permitted details were sent in to bring the bodies out. I often had to send trucks out for the purpose of hauling these bodies. Naturally the odor was unpleasant and the truck drivers hated this detail, even though all they had to do was drive the truck. In spite of such difficult conditions the mission was a success with the destruction of the Japs from the ocean to the mountains while others fled back toward their base at Wewak.
Along the Driniumor River was a totally different environment than these soldiers were accustomed to and this took almost all of their energy just to exist. Yet in spite of this hostile environment, enemy soldiers, dense jungle, torrential rains, terrible heat of the day, cold wet nights, diseases and jungle rot, our foot soldiers prevailed. Being in transportation, I did not have to endure the trials of the foot soldier but the conditions made it a terrible experience for anyone who was there.
As we think about our conditions and the 440 (87 from the 124th) American Soldiers killed in action in this battle; the conditions for the Japanese soldiers were much worse. With little food, hardly any medicine, plus a shortage of arms and ammunition and no hope of any more supplies. The 124th’s first contact with the Japs along the Driniumor River found these soldiers in good physical condition with many being much larger in stature than the typical Japanese man. As time passed the shortage of food and medicine began to take its toll and their physical condition deteriorated rapidly. I have seen estimates that they suffered anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 killed here at Aitape. Don’t know if this includes those who died from disease and starvation but I suspect that it doesn’t. I read in one publication that in all of New Guinea 148,000 Japanese soldiers perished in these jungles. It is my opinion that most of these died of starvation and disease. Many fell dead while attempting to move through the harsh jungle to some hopeless perception of a better condition for them in western New Guinea. In any event the end result of this battle along the Driniumor river here at Aitape was the destruction of the Japanese 18th Army as an effective fighting force.
As we began to prepare for the invasion of Morotai the 43rd Division relieved the troops on the line. Then a few weeks later Australian troops took over and sporadic fighting continued, with casualties on both sides, until the Japanese surrender at the War’s end.
Click on images to enlarge.
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Military Humor –
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Farewell Salutes –
Allan E. Brown – Takoma Park, DC; US Army, Afghanistan, Sgt. 1st Class, 1st Special Troops Batt./1st Cavalry Div.
John Glenn – Cambridge, OH; USMC, WWII, PTO, Korea, Colonel, pilot, Astronaut, Senator
Andrew ‘Holly’ Hollingsworth – SC; US Navy (Ret. 20 years)
Michael Kinneary, Broad Channel, NY; US Navy, Korea
Parker Mosley Jr. – Humble, TX; US Army Air Corps, WWII, PTO, 1th Airborne Division
Janice Olson – Victor Valley, CA; VV College Foundation President, instrumental in locating lost B-17’s of WWII, PTO
Peter Pergunas – Ballina, AUS; RA Navy
Steve Reese – Bartlesville, OK; USMC, Vietnam
William Schaefer – Chicago, IL; US Navy
William Wyatt – Tauranga, NZ; RNZ Navy # 2056, WWII & Korea
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Pacific Paratrooper 