Goodenough Islands
By October of 1943 the First Marine Division was back
to near normal, sassy, fat and testy, primed to go 'mix it up' someplace.
Our many months enjoying Australians welcome, plus fattening foods had
revived the morale of Guadalcanal's vets.
For the trip north, back to reality, we boarded a
group of hastily, massed produced "Liberty" ships which were
pathetic in every way. Designed to replace the many losses of freighters
lost to U-boats in the Atlantic, these offered no conveniences whatever
for troops on board.
Our 'quarters' were cargo holds with bare metal decks
well below the water line. We spread our bedrolls bumper to bumper on
the deck and soon felt the stifling heat of October down-under. Hastily
constructed wooden galleys were located on port, mid-ship, and latrines
were simple wooden sheds located starboard aft where waste was piped
into the sea.
Tokyo Rose had bid us bon voyage on her nightly broadcast,
actually name~ the First Marine Division, and said we had a nice surprise
in store. A group of Japanese submarines were waiting for us along the
way.
A common expression in those days was we would ask
each other, "Are you nervous in the service?" on this trip
north we fully expected to be sunk and really were helplessly nervous!
Australian twin engine Bristol Beaufighters flew submarine patrol around
us the first few days and the air was thick with rumors of sub sightings.
"Nervous in the service-you bet!" We were 'sleeping below
our ships water level and one night the planes dropped a depth charge
nearby and it sounded like we had been torpedoed as that blast reverberated
under water to us.
Eventually, surprisingly, we did sight a group of islands
off the bow that was our destination, Goodenough Island amid a cluster
of smaller bits of land. In single file among the maze of small islands
we slowly edged along and suddenly our ship jolted and lifted starboard
about thirty degrees grinding t~ stop. We had run aground on a coral
reef and were stuck fast. The men below deck ran out horizontally on
what had been our stairway up at thirty degrees.
Other vessels attached cables to pull and tug all
afternoon to no avail. As darkness set in many floodlights were glowing
on the problem ship and it was decided to boat the passengers on into
shore as soon as possible. The Japanese bastion, Rabaul, was not far
away and occasional air raids were sent to harass the folks on Goodenough.
That illuminated ship may attract note.
After dark we were moved ashore and trucked to a remote
area several miles inland. Vehicles departed and left us in total darkness
stomping down kunai grass shoulder high to spread our bedrolls and cover
it with a pup tent. Once settled in the rain began and deluged the whole
area in a steady downpour all night long.
As I surfaced from an exhausted sleep, lying on my
back,water up to my ears with my nose held high like a snorkel allowing
me to breath, I crawled out to see a brilliant, sunlit day with my buddies
also reviving after a miserable night. We looked around to see that
we were on the edge of a jungle with a mountain backdrop displaying
a beautiful white waterfall pour ing down to feed a creek near our bivouac.
This was a very pretty introduction to the tropical
islands and the pleasant sight revived our sagging spirits after the
trip on that pathetic Liberty ship.
Shifting into my tourist mode I began to explore the
jungle along the creek and noted two dark natives walking toward me.
I was a bit apprehensive as they came near, my first encounter with
Melanesians, not knowing their mood or intentions. They stopped nearby
and one said, "Hay, Joe, what time is it?" I said, "Twelve
noon". One said, "Lets break for chow," and they walked
away.
Later explorations farther up the creek revealed a
long abandoned native village with grass huts standing up high off the
ground on poles. A notched log angled up serving as the stairway and
inside I noticed the evidence of hastily abandon ment with eating utensils
with bits of dried food remaining.
Later I learned that Allied planes sank some Japanese
barges nearby and many troops came ashore with some of them still being
there hiding out in the mountains a year or so later. Japanese troops
often raided native gardens for food on many of the is lands.
Near the old village I found a lone 'grave' of a dried
corpse of an old woman, 'buried' American Indian fashion on a platform
high off the ground.
Goodenough was a beautiful and interesting island
but was a very unhealthy place with typhus fever being carried by fleas
and ticks. Pharmacist Mate First Class Knorr was one of our favorite
Navy medics always so smooth and gentle inoculating us tender skinned
'toughs'. He contacted typhus and died in bout two weeks. Many years
later while touring the military cemetery at Hawaii's punchbowl I accidentally
found Knorrs name on a grave marker there.
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