Hello to all!

[Terror of the Skies]

First off Jack I wish to thank you for your service during the war. The words cannot express enough of my gratitude towards you and the others who were a part of the greatest generation. I also thank you for the sacrifices you made in order to ensure that people like me could live the good life I have today. None of what I have would have been possible if it wasn't for people like you. Thank you.

Secondly, welcome to the forum. It's great to have a veteran here. I know there are some others here, so I'm sure you'll have some good stories to share with them, and the community in general.

Once again, welcome to the forum, and enjoy your stay!

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello fellas,

Terror, I thank you, the welcome has been quite heart warming.

Skipper, I went ashore with the landings at Hollandia with the 41st, It was in April of '44 I think, we had done some recon landings prior, I remember rejoining with the 112th a month or so later at Aitape.

Skip, if you would like to start by asking some questions, I'll put my thinking cap on and try to remember some details as best as the faded old grey matter can muster.

Take care

[Troglodyte]

Welcome to the Forum Jack!
Great to have you with us!
Thank you for your input during WW2!!!

[Skipper]

Jack,
I started the "Hollandia" thread for you in the Pacific War section. Link here:
HOLLANDIA (JAYAPURA) in 1944
When you have mustered some of the details, I would absolutely love to read them and I believe others too.

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello Trog,

I didn't feel well yesterday, I am sorry I couldn't reply sooner.

Skipper, thank you for the thread, I left a post there, at times I have a bit more to say than my fingers can type in one go.

Take care,

[Skipper]

I will read the Hollandia thread at one Jack. There's no hurry and your health goes obviously first. There are quite a few Dutchies on the Forum who"ll love to read this too.

[Blaster Twins]

Welcome among us!!!

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Thank you blaster,

Skipper, we took care of some wounded Dutch civilians at Darwin back in '42 during the jap air attacks.

Jeff, if you are reading any of this, I do thank you again my friend, I feel at ease speaking of some of this with the caliber of people I have spoken with on your forum. Otto, if you are reading this, I thank you, I hope to share as much as I can remember in an appropriate manner, and get some of this said out in the open once and for all. Forgive me if I misspeak or offend anyone, please let me know if I need to edit or remove anything at all.

Take good care of yourselves,

[Skipper]

It is absolutely excellent to read about your story. I appreciate how straight forward you are beinf and tell these events just as they happened. You won't offend any body by telling your memoirs on the contrary. When you have writtne everything down you"ll know you will leave something behind and also that your story won't be forgotten because there will always be someone on the forum to be interested. Were the Dutch civilians refugees in Darwin from Java after the Japanese invasion? I read quite a lot about the brave resistance of the Dutch in 1942 when Karel Doorman and the allied fleet were eventually overun by the Japanese.

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Skip,

The Dutch civilians in the Feb. '42 air attacks of Darwin were a mix of locals and refugees from what I know of, I was not able to communicate outside of only speaking english myself with more than a few of them in all the noise and confusion. We were dockside of a street that was strafed and bombed by jap planes, I picked up and carried a dark haired Dutch girl of about 10 or 11 who had lost the lower half of her left leg, I found her laying next to a Dutch nun who had been just about cut in half. The little girl was in shock and was whispering something to me, I stayed with her until she was gone, that was a sad day.

[bigfun]

Indeed a sad day. You showed her much kindness that day. Thank you for that.

[Flying Tiger]

hey Jack

Glad to see a Veteran online. i have a grandfather who served as a P-51 pilot in the Europeon theater. I hope you enjoy this forum and all that have joined.

[Skipper]

The Darwin attacks must have been terrible. I can imagine these poor civilians having fled murder or captivity and/or rape by the Japanese and fleeing from places as far as Java and Sumatra , crossing the seas all the way to Australia and die during a stupid straffing, while waiting on a quai. These memories must have branded you for ever Jack. I want to thank you once more for sharing such personnal details with us. It mustn't be easy for you to relive these events. I can also imagine the schock for the Ausies when their territory was physically attacked. It must have been panic.

[Hawkerace]

Welcome to the Forums Sir! Please enjoy as we will love to hear anything you have to say! Its good to have many veterans of the war because it just brings us closer to information and the ideal of what really happened.

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello,

Thank you flying tiger, and thank you hawkerace.

I'm going to answer some things that might not seem appropriate to the mindset of 2007/2008, you all deserve direct answers to your questions, and some things I speak of may be hard to grasp. I don't know of any other way to tell these things to all of you.


Take care,

[Slipdigit]

Do you have a then and now picture of you?

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello Jeff,

My avatar photo shows me on the left at about age 26, I'll see if my daughter can put up something she took a few days ago.

Happy new year my friend,

[Hawkerace]

I really wish to hear about the experience when your willing to share, I will always be willing to send positive feedback! I know so little about the southern pacific. History books seem to miss some of the darker sides and rather just the turning points and the dramatic victories.

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Hello Hawkerace,

I'll tell you as much as I can, at the time, what seemed like a turning point, began a new operation somewhere else that most of us had never heard of before. This may sound ridiculous, but in '41 when we were told we were heading for Australia, we wondered what language they spoke.

Well, here is a little something they won't mention in your history books. Sometime in '43 we were issued little yellow atabrine tablets, to ward off malaria, and we took them like clockwork, everyone that ended up ashore did, they would turn your skin a shade of yellow. I first came down with malaria in '42, I still have bouts of it now and again, the last time put me in hospital for three weeks with pneumonia back in 2002.


Take care,

[Skipper]

Actually I do know about Malaria. Many French veterans and civilian settlers got that in tropical countries in the former colonies too. In fact this is why Kinina was used for. The drink Swcheppes was used as anti malaria medicine in India by the British, the soldiers liked it and it became a famous lemonade. One of my friends has malaria. He will get a terrible fever and his lever will be about to explode and his face will turn yellowish, then after a few days it goes just away the way it started , but it leaves him absolutley exhausted and knocked down for several days. It's a sleeping memory he got in the colonies and it wakes up now and then like a volcano.

[SouthWestPacificVet]

Thank you skip,

I didn't know that about the Schweppes drink, during the war there was a rations drink made from powder that they classified as lemonade beverage, we called it "battery acid".

When I feel a Malaria spell coming on, it starts off as chills, perspiration and shaking of the legs, something like flu symptoms. Most of the time a good nights sleep will fix me up again.

Take care,