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In Jan., 1944 once again it was moving time. The best part of this one was that I missed the actual move. I had'nt had a leave in over two years and had been granted a 15 day furlough in Melbourne. This particular deal was that we went by surface transportation down and back Altho I did return by air, I was still away from the outfit for a month. In that month they had completed the move, and when I got back I had a tent to move into and the Photo Section was in buiness - even had a slit trench to dive into for those nite time nuisance raids. These two were taken on my fulough in Melbourne. One is of "Earl's Court". It was a dance hall that had three dance floors and had good Big Band music on all three. Did spend some evenings there. The other was taken at St. Kilda's Beach. There were always a lot of fine looking young ladies on that beach, especially on week-ends. Did spend some time at the beach girl-watching, but did my swimming at the local YMCA. Couldn't see investing in swim suit for that short time. |
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Up to this point the Sqs. had always been in different areas, and the offices and living tents would be dispersed with ample room between them. At Nadzab, having pretty much gained control of the air, the Sq.s were all in the same area, and living tents were in Company-like streets. Have a couple photographs of the area taken from a hill, and it looks like a states-side camp ready for a general inspection. And we hadn't had a general inspection since we left Savannah two years before. This is a good place to point out that all work and no play makes anybody dull, even in war time. In times of bad weather or no missions for one reason or another, we did have time on our hands. There were always soft ball and volley ball games in the evenings. Never did care much for soft ball, but played an awful lot of volley ball, my 6'-1" frame did pretty good at the net. |
The Photo Section, Operations Office and Intelligence Section all had chess players, and we had chess tournaments. Then there was the G.I.'s favorite pastime, card playing. Around payday it was poker and black jack -- broke up many a poker game to go to breakfast. After the money all wound up in a few hands and sent home, we would falll back on bridge and pinochle. Then there was the letter writing bit. For myself, I spent many an evening at the Operations office typewriter writing letters to various and sundry people, including a high school sweetheart.
The one event that sticks very prominently in my mind was not a pleasant one. The 90th Bomb Gp.(H) was also stationed at Nadzab with their B-24's. There was about a six day stretch when you could almost set your watch at 7:00 A.M. by an explosion. It would be a B-24 fully loaded with bombs and fuel, exploding on take-off. Never did hear what the problem was, but they made a hell of a racket and a hell of a crater in the runway. And that was a hell of a way for those poor guys to go -- but then there aint no easy way.
Towards the end of our stay at Nadzab we flew air support for the landing at Hollandia. And two weeks after the landing we moved to Hollandia in May of 1944. And that would be our last stop befoe the Phillipines and will be Step No. 4
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