We are lucky enough to have Jack with us, a U.S. veteran who stayed in Hollandia in 1944 .
This area is widely unknown, but it's liberation from the Japanese in 1944 was a major step towards the Liberation of the Pacific area. This Dutch New Guinea colony had farmland that took care of some of the food for over 500.000 U.S. soldiers who fought Japan and was a major logistic platform for the liberation of the Philipines. Natives often volunteered as medics too.
More here:
Western New Guinea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nowadays Hollandia is part of Indonesia and is called Jayapura.

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Hello Skipper,

Finschafen was our stagging area for the landings at Hollandia, our convoy seemed a formidable force at the time. It was also the best organized and supplied, compared to earlier landings we had done in '43. We had air cover from the Navy, which strafed and bombed suspected jap positions ashore, and for the first time I witnessed racks and racks of rockets launched from LCVP's, I can still see that when think about it, the sea air was filled with acrid smoke, something like cordite burning, that seemed a wonder to watch, when one or two of them expended all the rockets, a couple more would launch another barrage, it gave you a good feeling that you were not on the receiving end down range.

A landing on an enemy held position is not something to look forward to at the best of times, I'm trying to remember if we went ashore on an LCI or an LCP. The Navy had a traditional hot breakfast for the troops, at about 04:00 they would serve you up a hot greasy pork chop and coffee, so after pitching around in a crowded landing craft, you were quite ready to go ashore as soon as that bow ramp opened.

Well, fingers are giving out, I'll have to pick this up later.

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All the Best
Jack

An excellent detailled account Jack. Your memory is amazing. You even remember the menu. I really enjoyed reading your story. Can't wait to read about the next.

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I am glad to read your story and would like to read more. I have an airplane book that has lots of pictures of all the aircraft they left behind in Finschafen after the war ended. I think one was a Ford Trimotor that got left by someone.

I look forward to reading more and welcome to the forums !

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I need a bailout of only $500,000

Thanks so much for sharing Jack!
and Skipper, thanks for opening this thread, i'm anxious to learn more!

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Scott

I know you would react on this one Big fun. I hope Stevin will read this one too. TA if you could scan a few pics for us, that would perfectly illustrate this fine thread.

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, yeah you called this one for sure! i'm going to the bookstore Sun. afternoon, maybe I'll gey lucky and find something on it!

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Scott

Hello all,

The landing was supported with some very close range naval gunfire, destroyers and destroyer escorts pounded away with 20mm and 40mm guns along with some respectable broadside salvos from their three and five inch guns. The ships were approaching the shoreline with the landing craft in shallow water and I remember brown water from the screws of one ship churning up the sand and coral from the bottom. Navy fighters were swooping in and over the harbor and making attack runs back and forth.

Once we came ashore on the narrow strip of beach, we found supplies, ammunition crates, weapons and abandoned heavy machine gun positions, uniforms, warm rice in pots, and a few medical items scattered in the debris, it looked like they had no idea we were coming until they saw our transports and all hell broke loose. The japs we did find were in bits and pieces, some in shreds from the tree tops or on the vegetation, we found part of the uniform of a jap Major.

The jungle and palms backed the narrow beach, and behind that lay a swamp of mangrove deep enough to swallow a man whole if he was foolish enough to try and cross it, it ran a few hundred yards across. Beyond that we began running into pockets of japs, leading up to the hills.

Back on the beach supplies were piling up faster than they could be dispersed, on red beach or white beach one or two afternoons after the landings, a few jap planes bombed the ammunition and fuel supplies, and that lit up the night for hours and hours.

All for now, take care

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All the Best
Jack

It really seems like you got them by surprise. You possibly got their leader (the Major) and the survivors must have panicked and fled. I'm amazed that 20mm and 40mm could cause so much damage. You'd think thye used the heavy stuff, but 40mm can do a hell of a lot of damage. To the victor goes the spoils: so free supplies, amno and rice for you. The weather must have been terribly warm and wet and it must have been hard to get fresh air. Did your troops suffer from tropical sickness or was the climate around the beachead more temperate? I suppose the morale after the landing must have been rocket high.

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Hello Skipper,

Well, the heavy guns of the Navy left their mark before we set foot ashore. What we discovered in the debris was of no use to us, it did verify the fact that they left in a hurry or some of it would have been booby trapped. As far as the food items go, we had plenty of our own, I personally had my fill of jap rice, sardines and maggots at Buna, I still can't stand the sight of rice or the smell of sardines.

It was very humid, the smoke from the shelling and gunfire lingered on the ground and hung in the air. As to the question of moral, the men were seasoned and well disciplined, we were cautious and thorough, we were moving quickly, and our objective was to capture the airfields up in the hills and beyond the cliffs inland.

There was much that came later, Aitape, Wakde , Biak.

All for now,

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All the Best
Jack

Excellent Jack. Incredible how the smell of food can be A life lasting (bad) memory. So no more Chinese restaurants or Sardine barbecues for you since Burma. It's incredible that Dutch farmers actually volunteered to go to Hollandia, but I read the conditions were so hard that there were only 50 of them left in the late thirties. I wonder what happened to them when the Japanese arrived. Was there still a local authority when you liberated the area or was it plain jungle with no settlers left?

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Skipper,

I don't recall Dutch civilians where we were operating, to answer your question of what became of them, I would presume the japs executed them, that was quite common and remains one of the unvarnished truths. The natives were the only others that come to mind when I think of who else was ashore at Hollandia.

I remember the New Guinea natives to be quite tough and friendly, they showed the greatest compassion when caring for our wounded, they could carry litters up and down muddy mountain jungle trails, or cross monsoon streams that would make a pack mule think twice about. The japs feared them and they hated the japs, and they were quite good at tracking them. The Aussie bounty I had heard was 10 or so shillings a head, that could be traded for supplies, and that's what I remember them collecting (heads), carried in a bag next to that big curved knife they all wore. Some would carry jap rifles or pistols.

Take care

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All the Best
Jack

I know the Guineans hated the Japs, but I wouldn't have expected they were walking around with heads. It was a good thing to have these natives as friends. I read they were good scouts as well. What was Hollandia like at the time ? Were there stone or brick houses and something that would remind of a city, or was it a small place with bamboo houses and huts and mud on the roads?

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Skipper,

I don't remember much more than the grass and palm huts sitting up on stilts, the jap camps built about the same, I don't recall seeing brick or stone structures, It was a fairly vast and primitive place with heavy vegetation in many areas. Trails were muddy, the roads were dirt as I can remember, until engineers or CB's graded new ones with matting to run supplies.

The New Guinea natives had a long cultural history of tribal head hunting, before we ever came along. They didn't all carry heads with them, usually some of the trackers would be the ones to take heads after the fighting was over.

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All the Best
Jack

This is getting really interesting and I have so many more questions. Did people suffer from malaria or other tropical illnesses? Did the communications go via Australia or directly from the US via Hawaï? Did the surviving Japanese in the hills fight to the end or did they escape? Were there Japanese Pows taken at Finschafen/Hollandia?

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Yes Skipper, this IS very interesting! I have a question as well, what was your daily routine like, although "routine" is probably not the word for it!

Thanks again! Great reading!!

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Scott

Did you get to see or did you know anyone who was bite by a Taipan, black snake, or puff adders ? My book says there were alot of crocodiles around plus pythons.

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I need a bailout of only $500,000

I ran across the following entry on Hollandia in the Today thread

Today in WWII History

Michelle

Haha it seems like Jack is having more fans every day! Thanks for the link Macrusk. TA will probably share a few pics with us as well, so keep the good work going guys.

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TA152 has asked me to download his pics so here there are:
They are little beauties and some color too.

Ford5AT:






Nakajimaki:

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The pictures are from the book Pacific Aircraft Wrecks by Charles Darby.

The Ford Trimotor was originally owned by the Earl of Lovelace in 1930.

The tank is a Type 89

The aircraft is a Nakajima Ki-49 Helen

Papua New Guinea will not allow the export of war relics even though there are many rare Japanese and American planes on the island.

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I need a bailout of only $500,000

Hello all!

Skip, time seemed to take it's toll on everyone, from sickness, lack of food, lack of clean water, malaria, amoebic dysentery, skin ulcers, snake bites, insect bites, razor like cuts from kunai grass, festering wounds, trauma, shock, lack of sleep. Back then when a man was hit, he had to either walk out, limp or crawl out, be found and carried out, or simply die were he fell. We lived and fought at a time when helicopters were not in use, modern drugs and methods were not yet invented.

Bigfun, as far as a daily routine on the line in the jungle goes, imagine sitting up every night watching and listening while trying to stay sharp with your weapons at the ready, getting an hour or two of shut eye in the heat of midday, or a twenty minute nap here and there waking up covered in sweat and insects, hungry, damp and dirty, sores from cuts now infected and swollen, sore blistered feet, jungle rot, dehydration, sunburn, pin sized pieces of shrapnel may begin showing up on your arms, looking like a pimple, and feeling like the something off a wire wheel catching against the sleeve of your uniform.

Then there is something else, the occasional vivid nightmares begin when you do get a chance to sleep,
which is really no sleep at all. You feel rundown most of the time, and considering the amount of energy that may be required at any moment, it's a wonder anyone ever came home.

all for now,

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All the Best
Jack

Wow. Salutes to you! Great story. Please more! Was there any tanks kicking around?

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Time is only enemy you'll never get rid of.

I suspected this but will never be able to imagine the extend of hardships and sufferings you have been through. Incredible that natives actually lived in the jungle permanently. It must have been hell and finding fresh drinking water and decent food (other than army rations and rice) must have been quite an issue for you.

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Hello Skipper,

We were fairly well supplied at Hollandia, potable water, k rations, munitions, and we landed a sizable force, the odds were looking to be in our favor by that point in '44.

The natives lived in villages, many had been abandoned, many had been occupied by the japs. They had killed and mistreated the people of New Guinea, and the natives had a great deal of contempt for them, long before before the Americans or Aussies arrived.




Take care

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All the Best
Jack