HOLLANDIA (JAYAPURA) in 1944 - Page 8

lefty · #**176** (**permalink**) March 1st, 2008, 02:45 AM

Jack, did you ever mention which batallion of the 186th you were a member of? I can't locate that information of my dad.

Skipper · #**177** (**permalink**) March 1st, 2008, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthWestPacificVet

Hello Skipper,

I've been at a number of captured jap airfields, bits and pieces of wings, bent and twisted aluminum, oil fires smoldering, ammunition scattered around, walking out in the open ground of a freshly secured area is a good way to get noticed by sniper, find a live one in the wreckage with a weapon, or stumble on to unexploded ordnance. We didn't get all to way to the airstrips, If I remember, I think there were three of them at Hollandia. Our objective was to capture the airfields, we made it inland above the cliffs to the high ground in the hills past the cliffs. We returned to the rear after being ordered back to care for our wounded, as more troops and supplies moved up. We took some very heavy fire from a dozen or so makeshift jap positions while taking the cliffs.

Another nice testimony. I can't have enough Jack, I can imagine you sneaking behind the wreckages and trying to avoid the or unexploded amno.

bigfun · #**178** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 01:07 AM

still sitting here riveted by your words Jack!

thanks.

Hawkerace · #**179** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 01:20 AM

I agree, its good to hear from you. Saluting to you!

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**180** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 03:28 AM

Hello Fellas,

I just read another thread which was concerning Iwo Jima, I was going to reply because it was troubling to me, however I would rather speak my piece here with those of you I have met. The topic if I read it correctly, concerned which battle was bloodier, which one had the higher casualty numbers, it leaves me speechless to consider how some can think a terrible and vicious fight for an Island could be rated as if one could take second place to another. It was not an event, contest, or a game. It took place for me from 1941-1945, and it wasn't getting better, or any easier toward the end, it was getting worse, for those who size things up in the world of statistics.

Most men I knew, would seldom if ever speak the location names after a fight when it came to the worst of them.

I listened to a conversation in the market the other day about how the marines in the Pacific lost 27 out of 100 men compared to the Army's 24 or 26 out of a hundred, he couldn't remember which. Just silent faceless numbers in the past, which is unfortunate.

If you go ashore with 34 men, and there are 5 of you left three days later at Biak for example, or 19 men at Los Negros with three of us alive the next dawn, none of those overall numbers line up for me.

Well, had to get that off my chest, sorry to go on about it, thank you all.

Lefty, I'll say 1st Battalion in reference to the 186th Regiment, for the only reason that a 2nd Battalion does not come to mind. Memory fades, but I can still find my keys in the morning.

Take care,

Skipper · #**181** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 06:50 AM

Well said Jack loosing one buddy or all of them are both events you never remember . Horror can not be quantified. Being in hell is permanent . In your case your had some leaves when you went to Australia to see your fiancée, but even then I'm sure you were followed by the voices of the fallen and the faces of some unknown ennemy trying to ambush you in your sleep.

Slipdigit · #**182** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 06:50 PM

Well spoken, Mr Jack.

TA152 · #**183** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 07:10 PM

I am glad you are here to tell us about things like that. Most of us only have books and TV to tell us about history and for WWII most of that is on the European theater.
Keep posting, because I love reading your posts !

bigfun · #**184** (**permalink**) March 2nd, 2008, 10:18 PM

thank you Jack.

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**185** (**permalink**) March 6th, 2008, 02:42 AM

You are most certainly quite welcome fellas, thank you for listening.

Take care,

lefty · #**186** (**permalink**) March 7th, 2008, 03:37 AM

Jack,
I have heard you speak of using grenades, machettes, rifle.........and I wonder just how often bayonets were used? Seems to me if I had a choice I'd pull the trigger when given that option vs. the bayonet. And of course the bayonet has little range when compared to grenades and your rifle.
Just curious. ??

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**187** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 02:42 AM

Hello Lefty,

Well, bayonets were used as frequently as blows from rifle butts when the fight was close at hand, and the japs were between you and the next fellow in your position, to best answer your question.

The jap 6.5 rifle was about five and a half feet or so long with bayonet fixed, the best defense to that, short of shooting back is a fixed bayonet on a stout rifle like an M1 or an '03, and a man who has become good at using one.

In that kind of fighting, things are happening so quickly, you use your pistol, your machete, you beat them senseless with fists, or what ever is at hand, choke them, break their neck, crack their head, claw at them, put your thumbs in their eyes, use your knife. I don't wish to be graphic, or have you fellas get the wrong idea about me, but that's what one of those deals are like, do what you have to in order to stay alive sort of thing. Also, the type of fight I just mentioned did not only happen in a mass attack, it happened one on one at times, quite out of nowhere, and suddenly.

If I would have had a choice myself, my choice would have been correcting fire on a hand set from 105 batteries walking a barrage across some distant hill top, or the old South Dakota doing the same with her 16" shells roaring overhead.

Skipper · #**188** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 06:55 AM

Thanks once again for telling these vivid details. Nothing is more valuable than a first hand account. Survival instinct combined with a good training, a good leadership and experience increase the chances of survival. Only the luck factor cannot be included. Were you all from the same 1941 generation or did you have to deal with replacements constantly , which means teaching them how to survive and increasing risks ?

TA152 · #**189** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 09:15 AM

If you go to google images you can see alot of pictures of the area during WWII.

HOLLANDIA (JAYAPURA) in 1944 - Google Image Search

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**190** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 02:14 PM

Skipper,

Lacking replacements was more the order of the day, some replacements did not last long enough explain very much to them,some replacements fit right in knowing what they had to do.

Some were shinny and green, you could hear them coming, rattling along, kicking sand and rocks as they walked, while carrying every piece of new gear they had been issued, dripping with sweat, slapping at mosquito's and bugs, you could spot them at a distance, so did the japs.

Slipdigit · #**191** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SouthWestPacificVet

Skipper,

Lacking replacements was more the order of the day, some replacements did not last long enough explain very much to them,some replacements fit right in knowing what they had to do.

Some were shinny and green, you could hear them coming, rattling along, kicking sand and rocks as they walked, while carrying every piece of new gear they had been issued, dripping with sweat, slapping at mosquito's and bugs, you could spot them at a distance, so did the japs.

Could you tell a difference between boys raised in the woods who hunted and those who did not, or did you ever even think about it?

The reason I ask is that I remember reading in Chesty Puller's biography, Marine!, that during training, he finally had to resort to rearranging the companies in his battalion to spread the country boys out because groups of men without them kept getting lost on night exercises that traversed the woods.

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**192** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 02:59 PM

Good morning Jeff,

Yes, I could, I mentioned it back on page 7 of this thread to Lefty. Fellas from the country or the woods back home adapted as well as could be to living outside, being alone, moving quietly as if stalking game, and not unfamiliar with weapons before enlistment.

Slipdigit · #**193** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 04:34 PM

Mr. Jack,

I recently finished reading a book about the ETO. The author was responsible at regimental level for assigning replacements to the various companies. He made mention several times of receiving previously wounded men as infantry replacements who were not fully recovered from their wounds, one still having bandages. Did you ever encounter this with your replacements?

He also mentioned that he could usually tell which men would not make it very long just by their initial behaviors. Did you also find this to be so?

**SouthWestPacificVet** · #**194** (**permalink**) March 8th, 2008, 05:06 PM

Jeff,

The replacements I remember, outside of a bad case of nerves, were for the most part in better overall health than most of us were from time to time. Being healed from previous wounds and considered fit for duty back then was usually determined for you by the medical officer. What may seem odd by today's standards, was having men concealing wounds.

After a time, one develops a feeling that a fellow might not last long by his conduct or behavior, but in the same situation you can watch a seasoned man who has been with you for weeks or months in numerous actions, doing everything right, better than yourself for that matter, then see him take a direct hit from a mortar round and he's gone, just like that.