Morotai Island, Netherlands East Indies September 15, 1944
When we left Maffin Bay, we joined a large convoy
of ships and landing craft, bound for Morotai Island, lying northwest
of the western tip of New Guinea, just off the larger island of Halamahera,
in the southern portion of the Netherlands East Indies, and located
right on the Equator.
As we moved up he coast, we were joined by other ships
and we were some three days or so enroute. We arrived at Morotai before
dawn on D-Day and the Amphibious Tanks of the Recon Troop were launched
from the LST's well out from the beach, some forty-five minutes before
H-Hour, and we headed for the beach to get a foothold for the first
wave of the assault force.
As we headed in, we were supported by LCI Rocket Ships,
firing banks of rockets over our heads at the beach, lifting their fire
just as we reached the beach. There had not been much pre-landing bombing
activity by the Air Force, due to the fact that Morotai was fairly heavily
populated by friendly natives.
All three of the platoons of the Recon Troop got to
the beach and headed for the airstrip. At the point where we came ashore,
a grove of coconut trees lay between the beach and the airstrip and
we proceeded through this grove, firing canister rounds in the 37 mm
cannon mounted in the turret of the amphib and spraying the overhead
branches with machine gun fire from the waist guns.
All at once we had a backfire from the breach of the
cannon in the turret. A canister round had stuck in the barrel. Being
new to the amphibs, I asked what had to be done to clear it. Someone
had to get outside, on the front of the tank, in an exposed position,
and use a big ramrod, similar to a gun cleaning rod used on shotguns,
to clear the barrel. This procedure offered some hazards, under the
circumstances.
This was something I could do. I told a couple of
the crew to put the ramrod together and hand it out the hatch to me
when I got outside. From the front of the tank, I rammed the loose round
out through the breach, we were in business again and I scrambled back
into the amphib.
When you have the opportunity to lead a group of men
in combat, there is a period of feeling each other out and developing
mutual respect and trust. This action on my part cemented this relationship.
I was then and there completely accepted as their leader. If a leader
has to depend on rank or designated authority to get the job done, he
is in tough shape. The trust and respect of your men, and your trust
and respect for them, is the answer to successful leadership, in combat
or otherwise.
We made it to Pitoe Airstrip without further incident.
Resistance at this point was very light, most of the Japanese having
taken to the hills. The airstrip was shortly secured, with the Recon
Troop spread out along the near edge.
While we were waiting for the other rest of the landing
force to catch up to us, a startling, but humorous thing happened. A
Japanese plane, apparently unaware of the change in management, tried
to land on the airstrip and almost made it down before the pilot saw
his mistake.
The Troop Headquarters personnel, coming in a little
later, had talked the Navy out of a quantity of boneless steaks, and
we had quite a feast when things quieted down. The Navy always thought
the men in the Troop were crazy to do what we did, and were very gracious
and hospitable in sharing what they had with us.
The Morotai invasion was the first move by MacArthur's
forces above the equator. On this same date, the First Marine Division,
supported by sea and air elements of the Fifth Fleet, under command
of Admiral Chester Nimitz, struck Peleliu Island. That operation involved
a great number of casualties and the island was not so readily secured
as was Morotai. Roy Johns participated in the Peleliu operation.
After securing the beachhead and after the Division
had established a perimeter, we moved up the coast a few miles to the
site where we would establish our base camp, located on the beach in
a large coconut grove, not too far from Division Headquarters. We were
told that the coconut groves on the island had belonged to the Colgate
soap company. It was a fine site for what turned out to be a long term
base camp for the Troop. The perimeter line, a small stream coming down
to the ocean, was just beyond our Troop area. In due course, we had
pyramidal tents for all the troops, an open air mess hall, a couple
of wide troop streets running back from the beach to the rear of the
Troop area and, all in all, a very nice base camp.
Having no immediate further use for the amphibs, we
set up a tank park in the rear of the area and parked them there until
needed. Our patrols and missions now were to involve small groups of
ten to twelve men, put ashore from landing craft behind the Japanese,
or worked out on foot from our established positions. When we were put
ashore from the sea, we would usually be picked up later at a pre-arranged
point and time on the coast. When we went out on foot, we usually worked
our way back the same way. Most of our missions involved some three
or four days behind the Japanese, but we made a couple of longer ones,
in greater force, which will be discussed herein.
The terrain on Morotai was fairly level along the
coast, rising to high hills and ridges as you moved inland. Numerous
small streams and rivers flowed from the higher ground and hills, between
the high ridges, to the coast. Our usual procedure was to patrol up
one of these streams from the coast to some point in the foothills,
then cross over the intervening ridge to the next river or stream and
follow it back to the coast. We would then follow and scout out the
coast to the next stream and repeat the process, until we had covered
the desired area.
On a couple of occasions, when we had a large or unfamiliar
area to patrol, I had one of the artillery spotter planes fly me over
the route, to get a look at the terrain before we set out. On our normal
missions, we carried light field packs, with a poncho, change of socks,
a "jungle sweater", a light fatigue type pullover, to sleep
in, canteen, and personal weapons of individual choice. Most chose the
lightweight M-1 Carbine, as it was very accurate, easy to handle and
a good supply of ammunition did not offer a weight problem. A couple
of the men would carry machetes for cutting our way through underbrush
and jungle growth when required. We wore fatigue caps instead of helmets.
In our work, helmets were too heavy and adversely affected your ability
to hear in the jungle. We also carried such maps as were available,
but most of the time we were in unmapped areas, one of our purposes
being to find out what was beyond the mapped terrain.
We were equipped with "jungle boots", actually
high top tennis shoes, light green in color, with tops that came up
over the calf. Most of us cut down the tops to about ten inches, as
this was much more comfortable and cooler. This was good footgear, provided
good traction, both on land and in crossing streams and rivers, and
dried in fairly short order when wet. The Japanese had jungle boots
also, theirs having a squared toe, with the big toe separated from the
other four toes, to accommodate feet that had toes spread from years
of wearing sandals. The footprint from these boots was distinctive and
easily distinguishable.
For food, we carried K and D rations. The K ration
was a dry ration, packaged in a heavily waxed box about the size and
shape of a box of Crackerjack, with an outer cardboard cover. This made
for a lot of jokes about finding a whistle or toy inside the box. The
breakfast ration had a small can of scrambled eggs with bacon, crackers,
instant coffee, sugar, cigarettes, and toilet paper. The lunch ration
had a small can of cheddar cheese, crackers, lemonade powder, candy
and cigarettes. Supper brought a small can of meat, crackers, bouillon
powder, candy and cigarettes. The D ration was a dark, thick chocolate
bar, highly nutritious, which specially formulated to resist melting
at temperatures up to one hundred twenty degrees and to not deteriorate
when under water for several hours. It was a very good ration and could
be eaten on the run without preparation or being overly filling.
Through experience, we found that the wax carton of
the K ration could be torn into strips and burned a strip at a time,
without giving off any smoke, generating enough heat to boil water in
a canteen cup for coffee or bouillon. Fire without smoke was a big advantage
to us.
On many occasions, we were able to supplement our
rations with native corn and taro, a native potato, shaped like a sweet
potato, with a purple skin and white meat, which we picked up out of
native gardens in the patrol area. From natives in villages along the
coast, we were usually able to trade for fresh fish, cigarettes being
the accepted medium of exchange. All of these items were roasted in
coals, the corn in its shucks and the taro and fish wrapped in banana
leaves. Bouillon powder from the K rations flavored the fish for a real
treat. When we would come across a Japanese supply dump, we would sometimes
pick up raw rice and green tea, packaged in rolls of cloth, similar
to a roll of sausage. Both were very good fare.
On extended patrols into new areas, we would go into
the nearest village and engage a native guide. In time, we learned to
speak enough of the Malayan dialect to make our selves understood. "Jalon
American patrolee?" meant, "Do you want to go on an American
patrol?" "Tita bagoose!" meant, "No good!"
Before taking on a guide, you always, with appropriate emphasis, made
sure that all agreed "Japanese tita bagoose!" We never found
a dissenter.
Security precautions when bedding down at night on
patrol was a consideration that we recognized at the outset, but experience
was our best teacher and we gradually worked out systems that allowed
us to get the rest we needed.
We would normally attempt to time our progress to
put us either inland at a point from which we would the next day cross
over the hills and ridges from one river or stream to the next, or at
a point on the coast, preferably at or near a native village. Security
along the coast really did not offer too many problems, as the Japanese
were mostly inland and the natives took good care of us. Safety at night
inland called for greater precautions.
At first, we followed the normal procedure of posting
guards inland. However, we would always be on the bank of a stream or
river and the bank, normally covered with thick undergrowth, usually
rose quickly a short way back from the water. We found that, just before
dark, after we had washed up, gotten rid of the leeches which we always
picked up in the streams, and eaten our evening meal, we could cut our
way into the brush on the stream bank, pull the brush in behind us and
all go to sleep, with a good chance of not being surprised by the Japanese.
It worked.
Most of patrols on Morotai were made up twelve to
fourteen men and were information gathering or intelligence patrols,
as opposed to purely combat patrols. We were always subject to combat,
of course, but we were there to "see and not be seen", if
possible. That size patrol was just not big enough to attack a large
force. One patrol, however, did have as its mission the seeking out
and evaluating what had been reported as a Japanese strong point in
the hilly country up one of the rivers, about a one-day's run inland.
For this patrol, we took the better part of two of
the Recon platoons, with my platoon, as usual, leading. Our plan was
to get close to the reported position the first day, then move in fresh
the next day.
One the way in, I had the misfortune to step in a
hole while making a river crossing and twisted my knee rather painfully.
I continued on, but was not in much shape for what we had planned for
the second day. We did not plan to send the whole patrol forward the
next morning and when I woke up, I knew it would slow everybody down
for me to try to forward with the smaller group, so I stayed to the
rear to await developments.
In the late afternoon, the men who had gone forward
came back, reporting that they had been engaged in a fire fight and
had one man, a Sergeant Guidry, with an arm wound. The Japanese position
had been too strong for that size group and they had broken off the
engagement and brought Guidry out to our position on the river. Our
position was relatively secure, but Guidry had to be evacuated without
delay.
Choosing six of my men, we improvised a stretcher
out of two bamboo poles and a couple of blankets put Guidry on it and
started down the river to the coast. I felt that I could make it with
my twisted knee and that my patrol experience gave us a better chance
of making it. When we had made it a short way down the river, which
was fortunately shallow at that point, a spotter plane, in response
to a radio message, dropped a one-man rubber raft to us. Unfortunately,
the raft landed on some rocks and sustained a small puncture, but we
were able to plug the hole with a repair kit that was in the raft. We
put the stretcher on the raft and proceeded down river, sometimes walking
and sometimes swimming, depending on the depth of the water.
Daylight faded before we had gone too far, and we
were moving down the river through territory that we did not hold and
with which we were not too familiar. The river was our only hope, however,
so we kept going, being very cautious and making a s little noise as
possible.
After some eight hours in the river, we made it to
the coast just about mid-night and to an outpost of one of the American
units in the area. Here we were able to get help in getting Guidry to
the field hospital to the rear. His wound got him a ticket home; he
recovered in good shape.
This story somehow came to the attention of the national
press and my folks got copies of newspaper write-ups from all over the
country, telling about this particular adventure. In November, my platoon
was assigned the mission of spearheading the invasion of the Mapia Islands,
located some one thousand miles to the southeast of Mototai, by a Regimental
Task Force of the 167th Infantry Regiment of the 31st Division.
Preamble | Part
1 | Part 2 | Part
3 | Part 4 | Part
5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part
8 | Part 9 | Part
10 | Part 11
