Photos 6
A Co. 188th GIR, 1944. "Bones" is 5th from the left on the front row.
The Called Him Bones.
(Dad's Story)
Written by Jeff Plavier as remembered by Henry Plavier.
My dad is 85 now and not in the best of health. However, many of the stories of his experiences serving with the 11th Airborne during World War 2 are still with him,
having been burned into the memory of a much younger man. Most of his war stories had been recounted to me when I was in adolescence and again in my early teens when dad was still in his fifties. At that time, while his stories would keep me willingly glued at the kitchen table when he was in the mood to reminisce, in my youth I listened to them with an undisciplined mind and did not think to record them on tape or get them down in print. They were more entertainment than import to me then and the stories could
always be taken down, later. Now soon to turn fifty myself an at about the age he was when he first told them to me, I am concerned that these oral stories recounted to me in my early years are becoming blurred and distorted through my own life experiences and I hope to reach out and grab them again and get them right again while there's still time. I'm more concerned at this point in getting the stories than with fitting them to the documented facts. Not that the stories are not factual, but it's more important for me what dad has to say then to challenge, correct or debate him on ever place name, or dates of events in the recorded histories (for instance dad remembered the mountain overlooking Lake Taal on Luzon as Mt. Mohonag which is in fact a peak and area of conflict for the 511th PIR on Leyte). To stop him only stops the flow and maybe
holds back another story because it bothers him that time may have eroded a name, date or place from his memories. Let the stories flow; they can be fit into the documented history in time. I hope to add bits and pieces of dad's stories as he tells them to me. The memories are still there, but the delivery system works differently now and they come back to him in a more random sequence these days and not at the times of our choosing. “They come as they come,” dads says and that's OK with me.
Henry W. Plavier (my dad) had grown up in Paterson NJ, one of two boys and five girls raised up during the great depression (his older brother Norman would fight in Europe with the US Third Army). He was the youngest child of Nicholas and Rose Plavier. As a depression era child, dad had been almost perpetually underweight as the family made due with the meager resources they had. Also, by the age of 17 he had a partial dental plate to replace teeth lost during the course of growing up in hard times. Dad graduated from Paterson's Central high school in 1939 and was Drafted into the United States Army shortly after his 21st birthday. In early February of 1943 dad was bused down to Fort Dix NJ for 2 days of initial processing and then sent by train down to Hoffman NC and Camp MacKall. He was assigned to A Company of the 1st Battalion of the 188th Glider Infantry Regiment; 11th Airborne Division. Due to his being extremely thin in build (even among other thin young men) he picked up the nick name of Bones.
Bones began to be trained as a gunner on the 60mm mortar. While training, he saw a number of his buddies make PFC in short order while he remained a buck private. In an attempt to make rank faster, Bones got himself switched to kitchen duty as it gave him almost unlimited access to food and in hopes that skills learned there would lead to much desired stripes. He found he had a real enjoyment in cooking which he would carry on in later years. However, he found the seemingly endless hours of KP duty even less attractive than being a buck private in a rifle platoon. Within a short amount of time
he was back with A Company and back on a 60mm mortar crew, but he would continue to cook and work in the kitchens as the need arose. Basic and then Glider training training continued throughout 1943 and into 1944. This would include an overnight 25 mile hike from Camp MacKall to Fort Bragg to train in Gliders. “There was not enough
C-47s for use as tow aircraft” dad said “and some of the Waco Gliders were towed by Lockheed Hudsons.” In January 1944 the 11th Airborne moved for a brief time to Camp Polk Louisiana. At Camp Polk the 11th Airborne would train in large scale maneuvers often in the water logged Louisiana swamps. Bones arrived at Camp Polk as part of an advance party which moved several weeks ahead of the rest of the division to ready barracks for the 1st battalion of the 188th. In a party of junior officers and senior NCOs he was the lone private. Barracks vacated by the 8th or 9th Armored Division had
been left in a terrible state and Bones had three barracks on his own to make ready. Supplies left behind by the armored troops were meager, but with what was on had Bones had stew for a 150 men ready on the night of the company's arrival. The company commander was not pleased to arrive to a meal of stew, but it was a hot meal and it fed everyone that came in that night. NCOs could motivate men or drive them and Bones would meet those he both liked and hated. One NCO he had admired was A Company Tech. Sgt. Belajack. I recently found a photograph of this Sgt.
my father must have sent home to family. On the back he had written: 3rd Platoon Sgt., Tech. Sgt. Belajack “Dan” to the boys. Another swell fella.” At Camp Polk Sgt. Belajack had helped Bones get two furloughs home to Paterson NJ to see his mom, even loaning him the money the second time to make the trip. Dad doesn't recall what happened to Tech. Sgt. Belajack and lost track of him in or around the time of the relocation to Camp Stoneman CA. He thinks he may have been transferred as training cadre prior to shipping overseas, but he never forgot Dan's kindness. In April of '44 the 11 Airborne was moved to Camp Stoneman CA for embarkation overseas.
The 188th would ship out on a liberty ship called the Cape Cleare for New Guinea. My dad states that the Cape Cleare would sail fast at nights, but still the trip took 30 days. Written histories state the trip took 21 days, but the conditions on broad may have altered dad's memory to feel the trip lasted much longer. The Cape Cleare had been a US liberty ship, but according to dad had been running supplies to the Australians in action on New Guinea and the rations for the troops on board were Australian. “The Aussie rations were just horrible, lumps of meat fat in cans and that's all we had to eat on the ship for 30 days” he told me with a sour face. The 188th landed in New Guinea at Oro Bay on June 12, 1944. There was still a Japanese presence on New Guinea in June and July of '44, but the remaining pockets were isolated, starving did not pose a major treat to training operations for the 11th Airborne. The 188th would set up camp at the former Australian airfield called Soputa. A tent city was set up and the 188th would set up the tents onto steel grates used to make airplane run ways. My dad stated that the ground was so soft that trying to set up tent poles and drive stakes was difficult. They would use the steel runway matting and drive the stakes through the grate holes and this way the battalion camp was set up strait with even rows of tenting. From the camp at Soputa Bones and others would travel the short distance to the larger airfields at Dobodura. Dad never became a licensed pilot and had already been introduced to C-47 transports and Waco Gliders during training in the states, but I think It was while watching planes fly in and out of runways at Dobodura that the fascination for planes which he has carried the rest of his life was established. His absolute favorite was the P-61 Black Widow which he saw there for the first time. When Bones and the other guys had time of there own they would go to Cape Endaiadere and Giropa Point to swim and then up to Buna Mission to trade with the Australians. The Australians were tough fighters and made due with even less then the American had, but they had good pipe tobacco and the Glider guys would trade them American cigarettes for it. “Never call an Aussie a Limey!” dad once told us. Apparently as a young man he made this mistake and whatever the result of that error was it was important enough for him to warn his two son many years later never to repeat. At Soputa, the 188th would conduct jungle and mountain training. For Bones this included a 3 day march into the Owen Stanley range. Bones would go on this march with light gear including a poncho and two canteens of water, a pound of peanuts and as much dried fruit as he could stuff into his pockets. Dad also carried a box worth of matches in a water tight container. During the march the matches inside this container would ignite blowing up the water tight container in his pocket! Returning from the mountain march Bones saw a group of local natives emerging from the tree line near the airstrip carrying what he at first though was a telephone pole based on it's size and the number of natives (15 to 18) required to carry it. As he got closer he saw the lifeless head slumped over the lead natives shoulder and the largest snake he would ever see in his life; he never found out what kind it was. The anaconda of South American is the worlds heaviest snake, but the reticulated python is known as the longest snake in the world. It is found throughout the jungles of Southeast Asia (being even more common in the Philippines), they have been reported up to 33ft. in length. Dad said this one was at least 20 feet long. The natives of New Guinea started to become a common site in and around the camps. They would help supplement the tent city by helping to make grass huts which were used as mess halls. The structures would be open air without walls using bamboo frame work and roofs of long grass and palm leaves. They were a welcome change to GI tents which retained heat and troopers would only enter the tents during midday at their own peril. While in camp Bones would assist the cooks and set up the mess kit washing line. This was a series of 55 gallon drums, the first one with soap was placed over gas burners to provide a hot water wash, the next to drums provided the rinse. Sometimes troopers would still have to go down the the creek bank to further rub sand in the mess kits to get the grease out. The worst thing they ever got as a food stuff was a butter substitute that would not spread, would not melt and would not breakdown as it passed through your digestive track. “The first stuff we got was not too bad and then later we got this stuff called Carter-Spread which came in gallon drum cans and was just awful.” In camp at Soputa Bones would make extra money washing faded suntans for other troops. “On New Guinea we always wore the suntans as daily wear and as fatigues during training. The green HBTs we had been issued were not to be used so they would be in good condition for pending invasion. Troops would get paid in Australian pounds while on New Guinea and 10 pounds Aussie was about 33 dollars US currency. Bones would do his only glider landing outside of the United States while on a training mission in New Guinea. A flight would be take the troops up the coast to the Aussie airfield at Nadzab. Bones was allowed to ride up with the glider pilot for the trip north. Above Nadzab the tow line was released from the tow aircraft and a panel of the plastic wind shield then blew out. The Waco glider was brought safely to the ground to ex spell it's safe, but extremely shaken cargo. “The gliders could not be trusted,” dad said, “not only were they impractical in the dense jungle, but the tropical conditions quickly rotted the canvas skin and the ships would start to break apart rapidly.” While in New Guinea jump training and training for amphibious landing was always on going. Divisional Commander Joseph Swing would begin the process of having all troops of the 11th Airborne jump trained, but this was still a voluntary process at this time. Divisional engineers had constructed wooden jump towers and it seemed that they had located the highest tree on New Guinea to rig with steel cable which the troops would ride down to a pile of saw dust. Bones had initially volunteered for jump training at this time, but his general uneasiness with climbing the wooden ladders and the damage incurred on his dental partial caused by the repeated jump impacts caused increasing hesitancy. Dad would have repeated troubles with his upper partial. It would break a number of times and had to be patched in the jungle as best as possible, this would include the use of Bunsen burners and available machine tools at hand. Bone's hesitancy would quickly invoke the wrath of a 1st Sgt. Named Claffey (Claffee?). When the 1st Sgt. Threatened Bones he would counter that since the training was voluntary he would just unvolunteer himself. This so enraged Claffey that he struck Bones sending him flying into and out the back wall of the five man tent which in turn brought the tent down on the 1st Sgt. While dad had mixed results with NCOs during his time in the 188th he generally felt the regiment's officers had all been the
best one could hope come across and this would include 1st Lt. Lawler (Lawry?). Bones was on his way to battalion to report being struck by the 1st Sgt. when he was intercepted by Lt. Lawler who listened to his story. The Lt. advised Bones not to take this issue to battalion, as whatever came of it, he would still remain a private under Claffey while going into combat. Bones did not take the incident higher and as a result he discontinued jump training at this time without any repercussions. He and
about 20 other members of the regiment would make it through the rest of the war as only a glider trained trooper. Bones would complete jump training after the war while stationed in Sendai Japan.
October 1944 with Leyte Landings at D-Day plus 12, Bones and A Company of the 188th moved inland to a place call Bugho “Somebody called it Bug Hole and the name stuck” he said. From Bug Hole the 1st battalion of the 188th moved south along an Ormoc trail protecting the flank of the 511th while the 188th was also on search and destroy missions of there own. They would march the jungle trail over the mountains to the west coast at Baybay (pronounced bye-bye). From Baybay the 1st battalion was trucked along the south coast back north to Bug Hole. During times of inaction, dad would switch duties from a mortar man to his second job as an unofficial A Company cook. Sick of C rations and 10 in 1 meals, Guys would scrounge for whatever fish, foul and vegetables they could come up with for dad to turn into a fresh meal. Bananas were always eaten, so much so that dad would ever touch them again after the war. Troops would watch what the locals would eat and a meal of pot roasted monkey was not unheard of. Dad told me of one instance when guys brought him back a huge pig that was just too impractical for him to work on. The seemly prize hog has traded with a local farmer for several smaller piglets that would be easier to work with. He spend most of a night under rain ponchos with eight burning mountain stoves to roast the little pigs. At or about this time the Japanese were still landing troops and supplies further north above Dulag. In early December the Japanese committed their own paratroops to assaults on airstrips in the San Palo-Buri and Burauen areas. The 187th and elements of the divisional headquarters defended the airstrips and eliminated the enemy force in airborne to airborne engagements. With the 187th pushing the Japanese airborne assaults out of the Buri area, the 188th was sent back into the mountains to intercept and block enemy activity coming down the mountain trails above Dulag During this time the 2nd Battalion of the 188th engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese who were defending there supply routes and dug into caves and bamboo machine gun emplacements. The 1st Battalion was in forward reserve during this action, but causalities in the fighting began to mount and reserve for Bones meant retrieving bodies and burial details. It got passed around fast the the Japanese would booby trap the American dead, but the task was already horrific due the jungle heat the would rapidly decay the bodies. This could cause the spread of disease and infection which Bones would soon find out for himself. In the mountains the 188th had graded a kamote patch (local sweet potato sometimes purplish in color) to create at dog leg airstrip for resupply and medical evacuations. “It was only a little strip, maybe 175 yards one way and 250 yards at the l corner, but you could get an L-4 Grasshopper or an L-5 Sentinel in and out of there,” dad said. This was very fortunate for Bones because gravely ill while at the 188th mountain camp. “I came down with malaria and yellow jaundice and had to be air lifted out to a hospital,” dad said. “they put me in the back of this L-5 with a mermite can full of whole blood supplies on my lap and a bunch of guys lifted up the back end of the little Stinson aircraft until the engine had built up enough power to take her down the dirt runway. Bones was flown into a station hospital where the doctors took a look at him and had him relocated to a bigger area hospital along the Leyte coast. In addition to the jaundice and malaria Bones had contracted hepatitis. It had been close, but the evacuation by way of the jungle airstrip had saved his life.
Here I should also point out that while I had heard stories of his illness and the air lift when I as a boy, l had no idea as to the time frame of these events. In more recent years, as I developed a greater interest in history, I'd incorrectly assumed my dad was at both the Leyte landing and the Luzon landing at Nasugbu. The talk about fighting in the jungles with the Japanese entrenched in caves also (I thought) included his involvement in actions along Tagaytay Ridge. I now know his illness would keep him in Leyte and out of action until after the enemies organized resistance in the fight for Manila had
finally bled out and the city had been retaken. This is the folly of not capturing an oral history when it's offered to you. Dad's illness was severe and while it doesn't match the scope or volume of the 11th Airborne struggle in the liberation of Manila, as his son it is of no less importance. For me, he traded a frenzied, difficult and documented battle on the Genko line for a personal and quiet one in a theater hospital. I'm pleased have the story right this time. As Bone's condition began to improve with hospital care, he would be given light duty as he continued to recuperate. Guard duty was often the task at hand. Sometimes this could be down right pleasant as when he pulled duty guarding the nurse's encampment near the hospital were he was being treated. Other times guard duty could be a more serious business. Japanese prisoners were rare as surrender was considered dishonorable. Most preferred to fight to the death or take their own lives by pistol, grenade or bayonet. Others would avoid capture and take to the jungle (some evading surrender for more than 25 years). Still, prisoners where occasionally taken. At one time Bones was watching about a half dozen prisoners awaiting transfer. The group was temporarily being held in a large exploded shell crater in a clearing and Bones was watching them. This was one of the earliest of dad's war stories told to me and I remember it well as it always came up if we were talking about or watching a movie which included an M1 Carbine which he held in general disgust. "I was watching this group of Japs and then one off them makes a break for the tree line which was just beyond a small rise. I brought the carbine up and proceeded to empty the thing taking aimed shots all the while. The Jap fell to his knees twice and each time got up and kept running up the rise and into the jungle. We had both full and folding stock carbines, but they had no stopping power and couldn't kill a Jap who wasn't willing to die,” he would say. Nearing the end of his time at the Hospital, guard duty would include guarding Nurses from internment camps that had recently been liberated on Luzon. When Bones was declared fit to return to active duty, he boarded a C-47 for a flight to Nichols Field and Manila. By the middle of February 1945 the 11th Airborne had broken the Japanese main line of resistance to the south of Manila at the Genko line, with the taking of Nichols Field and Fort McKinley. The 11th Airborne had entered Manila from the south with the 37th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions having moved in from the north. Most of the city had been secured, although hard fighting would continue in some sectors of the city until the 1st week of March. Bones flew into Nichols to rejoin A Company of
the 1st of the 188th. While organized resistance had been crushed after intense fighting, the Japanese has drug extensive tunnels around and under Nichols Field and sporadic gunfire would continue from residual surviving enemy that held out in the hidden tunnels and dugouts harassing troop, aircraft and vehicle movement. “The plane landed and before anyone got off, the crew told passengers once we put are feet on the ground to run for cover as enemy stragglers would lie in the glass and try to snipe
at anyone who deplaned in hopes of getting an officer.” Once out, Bones bolted off the runway as quickly as possible. 1st Battalion of the 188th was not in the immediate area of Nichols Field when Bones flew into Luzon having been given the task of support and flank protection for elements of the 511th committed to the Los Banos Raid and Rescue. Temporarily without a unit and still recovering from his illnesses Bones volunteered for additional guard duty. The fighting for Manila had damaged all of the city's infrastructure and utilities. Water supplies had to be delivered by truck. Bones was given an M1 rifle and spent a few days riding up on top of the tank of a water truck. In retrospect, presenting a high profile on the back of the water tanker as it traveled from Nichols Field through various parts of Manila while random enemy troops still took pot shots may not have been the most ideal assignment, but it provided Bones a chance to view much of the city including the Intramuros (ancient walled city) and see
the results of urban combat for the first time. Shortly after the Los Banos Raid Bones was reunited with A Company of the 1st of the 188th. Tasked with various assignments to engage and destroy Japanese units in Southern Luzon, General Swing tasked the battalions of his division with several different missions. The 1st of the 188th was tasked with locating and destroying enemy positions in and around the Terante-Pico de Loro Hill area. This would include routing out hidden gun emplacements that could shell shipping out in Manila Bay and capturing Q boats which were Japanese fast boats rigged with explosives as suicide craft to ram other vessels. Bones would remember incidents during this time as actions which took place in the Maragondon River Area. A Company made camp near the river at a church (perhaps the village of Maragondon itself). “At night your eyes would play tricks on you. You would peer out and think you saw Japs coming out of the river. Sleeping at night became difficult”. As it happened, one Japanese reinforced squad would attempt night raids and harass A Company with hit and run grenade attacks. “One night we were ready for them and chased them across a field into an area of thick brush. A big NCO from Alabama who used to carry his folding stock carbine under his arm like a sawed-off shotgun walked up to the edge of the thicket to see if the enemy squad was still in hiding there. For his curiosity he got a Jap grenade lobbed at him. The grenade didn't get him and he cursed has he brought his little carbine up to spray the brush to no effect. The big sergeant yelled back to me to go back to camp and bring back some white phosphorous grenades. I ran about a mile round trip with a bag of WP grenades and the guys tossed them into the thicket which finished off the enemy raiding party.” dad said. Bones and the men of A Company would cross the Maragondon a number of times with small rubber boats. Always with one leg in the boat and one hanging out into the river, that way they could carry more men and equipment per boat load. It was during this time that Bones can recalls with certainty
that he was targeted and fire upon. “With one of the river crossings I was tasked with setting up the 60mm mortar in an open field to put fire on higher ground ahead of us. As I set up the mortar I first heard the zipping sound passing nearby and over my head, then dirt, grass and leaves began kicking up all around me. Unknowingly they had me setting up directly in the line of fire of a Japanese machine gun nest made of bamboo and covered in leaves and brush. Either by divine intervention or the aim of the worst gunner in the Imperial Army, I gabbed my mortar tube and beat it back fast to the river without getting hit.” Latter that day the bamboo nest was taken out by a guy who walked up and drained a flamethrower into it. “They were looking for a volunteer and the guy who stepped would only do it if he could get liquored up first. Rumor had it that he was absolutely hammered before going in”. The destruction of the nest accounted for 27 Japs in the proper and the dug out tunnel behind it. Like on Leyte the Japanese made extensive use of caves in the mountains and tunneled everywhere in the lower areas near the river. Tunnels would lead to big rooms dug out of the clay embankments. The 11th Airborne was spread thin. By the time the division was tasked with assignments in southern Luzon it was nearly half the the troop strength of similar airborne divisions fighting in Europe. Battalions of the division would supplement there strength by working with local guerrilla forces. The guerrilla forces could vary in reliability. “Some guerrillas units were very good, hard fighters and well
disciplined having been populated with military ROTC cadets and Philippine officers would had taken to the jungles rather than surrender to the Japanese when their country fell to the enemy in early '42. “ dad said. “Others were a rag-tag bunch that would show up for food and supplies, but disappear during combat actions.” A number of suicide boats would be seized at the mouth of the Maragondon before they could be used by their former owners. About this time Bones and a number of A Company troopers would load into a couple of naval LCTs to be taken out into the bay to search Fort Drum for an enemy presence. “The fort was like a huge concrete box jutting out of the water with several gun emplacements in the walls and turrets on top. There was no enemy presence and no sign of hasty retreat. If the Japanese had occupied it, they must have decided to abandon it before the invasion in favor of the hidden gun emplacements in the hills and the large island of Corregidor which had not been yet been attacked by
the 503rd PIR.” The Japanese guns in the hills ranged in sizes, however most could reach targets in Manila Bay and all were well hidden. Most of these big guns were hidden in camouflaged caves or tunnels and could only be pin pointed when the guns fired. Bones recalled one artillery piece was mounted on a truck bed. “They had this gun on a truck frame, there was no cab or engine on the frame. At night you could hear the clomping of feet of enemy troops as they would march the thing out of its hiding place to fire into the bay and then march it back out of site before we could put accurate fire on it” The 188th was supported with pack 75mm guns from the 457th PFAB, but the often caves were hard to get at and the 75mm howitzers could not inflict enough damage to the reinforced caves. The 457th was itself was supported by harder hitting 105mm guns of the 472 PFAB and fire support was also provided by air strikes and XIV Corp assets firing 155mm Long Tom field guns to blow the caves shut. “When the big shells came in, even at distance they would lift you off the ground”. At night in the hills the cat and mouse game with the Japanese would continue. Bones would set up his 60mm mortar on the top of a little knolls for infantry fire support. In the cut outs and ravines below and between the hills Japanese would light little oil lanterns in attempts to draw fire. They would also call out to the Americans taunting them to fire and reveal their positions. To do so could subject them to enemy counter-fire. “When I did fire at night it was never more than three rounds out and then we would displace the tube and set up in another part of the defense position. Guys on the belt fed machine guns would always check their ammo belts before nightfall to be sure to replace tracer rounds with ammo that did give away their positions way easily by allowing the Japs to follow the line of fire created by the tracers back to the machine gun team's location.” Enemy artillery positions were defended by machine gun and infantry infantry positions also dug out of the side of the hills and also hidden until the troops were fired upon. By day the 188th would press on
with attacks and the number of casualties (wounded and KIA) would mount. “Some of the enemy were using wooden bullets which could inflict horrific wounds.” One guy took a wooden bullet to his leg which shattered inside upon impact. The bullet went in and made the expect entrance wound on the outside of his leg, but had completely torn up and blew out the inside of his leg while exiting out the
other side.” After one hill engagement a number of stretcher bearer details were put together using some of the guerrillas less inclined to combat to carry back the dead and wounded while A Company troopers went along to provide fire support if needed. “We had to cross this little valley between hills to get up where the guys the had been hit had to be retrieved. The guerrillas I was covering fearing ambush stopped, refusing to cross the open valley area to get up where our dead and wounded had fallen. There ability to understand and follow commands was suddenly been lost.” Bones took the carbine he was carrying and forcibly positioned the muzzle of the weapon is a sensitive area of the more resistant of the two stretcher bearers to drive home the importance of the mission. With communication reestablished casualties were returned from the hill.
Sadly one of the causalities brought down that day was A Company commander Captain Raymond Lee, KIA. Captain Lee was deeply admired among his men. While at Camp Polk Louisiana Captain Lee had ordered up 3 trucks to drive the boys of his outfit to Lake Charles. The story goes that the Captain had rented a dance hall and got a band for the night paid for with his own money. He further made arrangements with a unit of Air Corp. WACs to met the boys of A Company for an evening of dancing and social interaction. Only one member of the party got out of line which was a junior officer
who had recently transferred to the 188th. He had gotten too drunk too fast and went into the town of Lake Charles and smashed a store front window. The Captain saw to it that the glass breaker was transferred out the next day. “Other than the one guy who got out of line, it was a fantastic night. It was a warm dry night and I slept until daylight on a grass lawn outside of the Lake Charles Jail House, having spent most of the night with this pretty redheaded WAC. Everybody who had been at Camp Polk remembered what Raymond Lee had done for us and it was the lowest point of morale for a lot of us when we brought him down off that hill.” Fighting, silencing the guns and securing the hills above the Maragondon River would take the 1st Battalion and it's support elements a month and cost the 1st of the 188th 143 men, 40 of them KIA and one of them being the A Company commander. By early April both battalions of the 188th would be reunited in the move east. The 2nd Battalion had been tasked with mopping up actions south of Manila. During this month they moved back down to Tagaytay Ridge to keep the highways open and free of Japanese ambush as these were the main routes of supply for all the other units within the 11th Airborne Division. Bones would began to feel the longer you remanded alive the more signs you could pick up on that would keep you that way. “While sweeping to the east and south of Lake Taal we came upon this small village with a burned out church. Around this church there were tall palm trees. You could tell these trees had been used by Japanese snipers. The snipers would tie themselves up in high trees camouflaged for days, but they could not stop all bodily functions. Human waste around the base of trees was a sure sign of snipers and you would act accordingly.” The division would begin the reform around the town of Lipa and it's airfield east of Mt. Macolod and Lake Taal. There would be sporadic fighting with smaller cut off Japanese units during mopping up actions. The last combat assignment during the war for the 11th Airborne would be the joint paratroop and glider landings to the far north of Luzon at Aparri, but A Company of the 188th was not committed
to that action. Bones did take part in a road trip from Lipa down to the coastal town of Batangas City. With the enemy action becoming less of a threat some American units were tasked with reestablishing order. Guerrilla units less involved in fighting the Japanese would begin retribution against Filipinos who had been Japanese sympathizers and known by the term, Makapili. “Nobody had any love lost for Filipinos who had turned on Americans and there own countrymen, but civilians were going around killing other civilians and there was always the chance that some would be falsely accused of being
makapili and murdered without proof or trail. About 20 troopers and a few forward artillery observers trucked down to Batangas City until a larger force could be gathered to handle the issue. When we got close the the town we had to stop and walk the rest of the way in as the road was cut out of a mountain ridge and the Japanese had managed to blow enough of the road away to make truck travel impossible without road repair. Batangas City was a city in name only. It was a lot of huts with a cock fighting ring in the center of the village. At lot of the Filipino towns had these fighting rings as it was a custom of the men of this region to raise and fight chickens. We got into town and with the help of some locals the individuals that were or were suspected of being makapili were rounded up. The best place to hold them all was in the cock fighting ring until they could be handed over to proper authorities. Bones would also catch rides North from Lipa along Highway One to Manila Bay. He would then get a ride over to supply ships and barter with the merchant marines in cash or Jap souvenirs for hard to
come buy items like a bottle of Three Feathers Whiskey which would help pass the time while the clock ran out on the war. From May 1945 11th Airborne would rest and refit on Luzon at Lipa waiting on their next mission. On August 6th an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima followed by a second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th. Japan would move to surrender the following day and on the 14th Emperor Hirohito would address his nation and say that surrender terms were accepted and the war was over. The 11th Airborne's next mission would be as General Douglas
MacArthur's lead element in the Army of Occupation. Bones never made a jump or combat glider landing during the war (his invasion action was a beach landing on Leyte) yet from Camp MacKall in North Carolina to Atsugi Aerodrome in Japan his entire
WW2 experience was linked through a series of airfields and airstrips. Two days after the second atomic bomb was dropped the 11th Airborne was reading itself making preparations for divisional airlifts to Okinawa and then onto Japan. The airfield at Lipa and other airfields on Luzon became a beehive of activity. C-46 and C-47 transports were flying in to load up men and equipment and fly back out again. Even B-24 Bombers were used as troop transports. “Nobody really liked the idea of flying out in the B-24s as they crammed guys into the bomb bays which were both uncomfortable and not
reassuring (sitting on top of a trap door meant to open in flight to release payloads). One of the B-24s had a mishap on take off and crashed killing a number of guys on board”. The crashed B-24 is one of three air mishaps referenced in Lt. Gen. E.M. Flanagan's book “THE ANGELS A history of the 11th Airborne Division” which lists 11 men had died in this crash. A fourth mishap which may or may not have happened at this time (it is not mentioned as part of the Okinawa airlifts in the General's book),
but was witness by my dad was the loss of a C-46 Commando during its take off. “The plane had been too heavily overloaded and ran out of runway before it could achieve lift. The C-46 went into a garbage dump loosing everyone on board.” While the C-46 crash could have been witnessed at any number of jungle airstrips during his time on New Guinea or the Philippines, to the best of dad's recollection it occurred at Lipa. With all due respect to the General and his excellent book, in the writing of this story, my dad outranks him. Dad does recall that he and A Company guys he knew flew north to Okinawa in two C-47s. One was painted with the nose art name “Toonerville Trolley” and the other was named “The Jungle Skipper.” The 11th Airborne would remain on Okinawa for two weeks while terms of the surrender were ratified and wait for new transport aircraft. The C-46 and C-47 transports that bought the division to Okinawa could not be used for the flight into the Tokyo Bay area. Because of the uncertainty of Japanese
reactions or true intent. The planes had to be able to abort the mission and return to safe territory without the need to land and refuel should the surrender turn out to be an elaborate ambush. The 11th Airborne needed larger transport with greater range and the division had to wait for enough C-54 Skymasters to be gathered together and flown onto Okinawa to make the flight into Japan. Provisions had not been made to billet and feed the entire airborne division for a two week layover. “We had flown in with our combat gear as that was the plan for the flight into Japan. We had no tents other than our shelter haves and there was no other cover, but caves or family tombs dug into the side of hills at graveyards. Any other suitable shelter was already taken up by units already occupying the island. The rations we got were pre-war dated from the mid-30's which no other units wanted. One of the guys griped that these were the same canned rations he was fed in the 30's while in depression era work camps with the WPA and the CCC,” Dad goes on, “You had to use your shelter half during the day like a lean to so you could get out of the hot sun otherwise their was no shade. Putting two shelter haves together to make a pup tent was useless with the heavy rains and it you didn't have cover under ground you just stood out in the open and got drenched. After a couple a days we figured out the routines of the other units on Okinawa and did what we could to better our lot. The Marine Corp. units on Okinawa were getting steady supplies off the Navy by this time. We would sneak around there camps and steal food from them including bags of sweet potatoes and several canned hams. They must have had enough and never missed it or thought the regular infantry units had done
the raiding cause we never clashed with them while on the island. On August 30th 1945 Bones and the rest of the 11th Airborne began flying into Atsugi Aerodrome. General Swing with his and lead party had gone in first, but the 188th was the first US Army combat regiment on the ground in Japan (elements Admiral Haley's Third Fleet Marine and Naval Landing forces had made some initial landings as early as the 29th for American and British prisoner rescue at Omari and Ofuna POW camps and Naval UDT detachments had performed preliminary landing site inspections in preparation for landings by the 4th Marine Division at Yokosuka), the188th was directly followed by the 187th and 511th regiments and divisional elements would continue to fly in until
September 7th. General MacArthur's Honor Guard would be made up of troopers from the 11th Airborne and they would stand guard at the General's temporary headquarters at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama prior to the signing of surrender documents on board the USS Missouri. Once the aerodrome was secured the 188th was trucked through Yokohama south of the city to Fujisawa to set up at regimental command post and patrol the southern border of the 11th Airborne area of occupation and make contact with the 4th Marine Division which secured a sector of occupation in and around the
Imperial Naval Base at Yokosuka (which would be site of command for Admiral Chester Nimitz). Dad recounts, “A Company was given billets in an old Naval cadet barracks. The place was in a sorry state and infested with bugs. Guys who slept on the ground would wake up the next morning their legs red from bug bites. We began to pull any solid wood doors out of frames and lay them across the exposed ceiling beams to sleep unmolested by the little vermin”. Part of A Company's duties were to
immediately fan out and search for weapons caches. On one of his first days of weapons collection duty, Bone's unit would search for weapons in and around a bombed out factory which had been staffed almost entirely with women labor while it was operational. In a small cave just outside of the factory, a weapons cache was found and out of it Bones would obtain a Belgian FN made Browning semi-auto 12 gauge shotgun which remains with our family today. During the war Japanese factory laborers were also mobilized as a homeland defense force, given basic drill and weapons training. This would include female laborers and the women of this factory. Arms would include civilian and
private purchase weapons and a number of shotguns had been issued to these women and found in this cache. “You could tell by the fact that the rear stock had been cut short, even for the average Japanese adult male, that this shotgun had been intended for use by someone small in stature”. Soon after the air landing of the 11th Airborne, the 11th was joined by the 27th Infantry Division that would take up an area of Occupation west of Atsugi. By coincidence, a large number of NCOs that had formed the cadre of the 188th during its formation at Camp MacKall had come from the ranks of the
27th. “I remember going in at MacKall these were the old guys of the unit, men between 30 and 35 years of age who had been career army. These would be the first guys to rotate out of the 188th and back to the states.” While at Lipa in the Philippines awaiting their next missions, the 187th and 188th had been reassigned as parachute infantry regiments (they would often be referred to as para-glider infantry regiments) and would each receive an additional third battalion of troopers. With the increase in the regiment's size and with many combat experienced men soon to leave the outfit, many original unit members would see fast promotions. “I had been a buck private all through training in the states and in New Guinea having made Private First Class prior to taking ill on Leyte. Now before the division moved north to new stations, I went from PFC to Sergeant (T-4) in three days”. By mid September of '45 the US Americal (23rd)Infantry division would take over the 11th Airborne zone of occupation in the Yokohama area (General MacArthur by this time had already relocated his headquarters location to Tokyo). The 11th Airborne would move north securing an area of occupation that would include the northern section of the Japanese main island of Honshu and the island of Hokkaido. The 188th PGIR would be stationed at the city of Sendai. Bones would travel north to Sendai
by train passing through the ruined city of Tokyo. If Manila have been scared by war then Tokyo had been pulverized by it. “As far as the eyes could see the city had been flattened with only the occasional ruined building or chimney stack was remaining”. Bones would see similar devastation upon reaching Sendai. “Sendai is a coastal city and the Hirosegawa River runs through it. The city was often flown over as part of the return leg for Army Air Corp bombing missions. B-29 bombers that had not been able to drop their bombs on intended primary targets would expend their payloads over Sendai on their return trips to base. North of the river had seen some bomb damage, but south of the river the city had been leveled and no longer existed.” Within the Sendai area, there had been a number of Japanese military arsenals and the 188th's mission to seize weapons and munitions would continue in even greater earnest (dad would also return home with two Arasaka rifles, but unlike the shotgun he did not retain them throughout the years). A Company at this time was more in need of a cook than a mortar man and Bones would take the position having held it unofficially a number of times during his service. This duty would give him the excuse to roam freely when not actually cooking as he would travel the surrounding area supplementing issued food supplies by buying local produce and going down to the fishing docks to select fresh fish for the company mess. “I had this guy assigned as my assistant cook and he followed me everywhere like my shadow, he's in one of the portrait photos that were taken in Sendai. To this day I can't remember his name. It looks in the picture like we're best buddies, but honestly I didn't really like the guy as he was sort of an oddball which could explain why I forgot his name.” Shortly after it's relocation north the 11th Airborne would establish another jump school in early fall of 1945 near a town called Yanome, only a short distance from Sendai. Having officially been reassigned as a parachute regiment, jump training was now a requirement and Bones would exchange his glider wings for para-glider wings shortly before his return home. By December of 1945 Bones had earned enough points for his return to the states and discharge. By Christmas '45 arrangements were made and he boarded a converted troop ship named the USS Grant for the trip home. If the journey to New Guinea had been unpleasant due to man made conditions, the trip back to the states was made unpleasant by forces of nature. The Grant traveled east and kept pace with a winter storm. A turbulent Pacific Ocean would make sea sickness a daily routine on board. The storm would play havoc with the ships ability to put into port once the ocean had been crossed. “Originally the Grant was supposed to pull in at Vancouver and we would travel by train across Canada, but the waters were too rough to make harbor and we continue down the west coast as did the storm, Seattle and Oakland were also, skipped and we were finally able to make safe harbor at Los Angeles. In Los Angeles Bones was seen at a Naval Hospital as his foot had become infected (an occurrence
which dad feels was linked to his illness on Leyte). From there Bones was taken to another hospital near March Field in Riverside CA to spend several days to recovering before the trip across country and back to New Jersey. “The hospital was near an orange grove and the air was full of the great smell of oranges. Also near March Field there had been a prisoner of war camp that had held German and Italian troops captured in North Africa. I saw a couple of German prisoners that were still wearing their tropical Afrika Corp. uniforms. They were big guys, but I having fought the Japanese I knew a
man's height did not determine how though a fighter was.” Soon Bones was well enough to travel again and the train ride east, except for a lasting memory of crossing over the Royal Gorge in Colorado, was uneventful. Bones would reach Fort Mammoth NJ for processing of his discharge from the United States Army, but he would refuse to sign his discharge papers. “I had been through basic and airborne training in the south, jungle and mountain training in New Guinea, I nearly died from disease and infection and helped fight a determined, brutal enemy in the Philippines and then months of occupation duty against the same humbled enemy in Japan. All with the same broken, patched and re-broken upper partial. The army wasn't getting rid of me yet; not until they fixed my damn teeth!” And that, is dad.
Epilogue
Part I The Enemy Becomes Human
On Leyte, the 11th Airborne had seen for their own eyes that the Japanese could possess an aggressiveness in attack and tenacity in defense. However, with the liberation of starved and tortured prisoners from internment camps on Luzon and the massacre of countless civilians including women and children stabbed to death during the campaign for Manila, any idea of respect for Japanese fighting ability could not be separated from the disgust and anger for their brutality and savagery. They were not mindless animals. An animal kills out of instinct or because it doesn't know any better. These were the acts of an society that prized discipline, unquestioning loyalty and pride of culture above human morality and conscience. This was a fight against an evil enemy.
During his occupation time in Japan, Dad's perceptions of the Japanese would slowly begin to change. In war they had been vicious and brutal beyond any westerner's imagination. In defeat they had shown an almost unanimous passiveness and subservience born out of the humility of national shame. For soldiers expecting conflict from some fringe element or individuals that would resist obedience to the terms of surrender and carry on the fight, it was a welcomed yet settling cultural
phenomenon. In 1956 dad would return to Japan as a service representative of the New Era machine company, there to help direct installation of manufacturing and printing equipment. In ten years the Japan he witnessed was an amazing transformation. Everywhere he visited that had been devastation and ruin in 1945 was now bustling with growth and activity. You could not turn a corner, or travel down a street without seeing construction and industry wherever. Even in his hotel room at night, work on the new
Japan seemed to be going on 24 hours a day. It was still a society that seemed to act more out of a unified sense of purpose than a desire for individual expression. However, the mood had changed. The sense of purpose seemed more to be a tool to achieve collective goals and not the rigid rule of a closed society. People could smile and laugh or argue amongst themselves without concern for loss of face or public perceptions. Construction and industry, like time, seemed to aid in putting distance between the emerging society and the ancient culture of blind obedience that had lead to doom and destruction. There were still differences, but now their humanity was evident,
Part II A Resource of Human Value
In a few short years Americans will loose the veterans of The Great Society. Men and Women who bore the hardships growing up in the great depression only to then share the burdens of fighting and winning a global war against tyranny and oppression. This before any of them could share in the
prosperity of a post war United States. So many of them, never would. These are people whose oral history, if saved, can continue to teach us how to cope with hardships and live through adversity. There are also the veterans of Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and the continuing war on terror. When the Great Society is gone it is these men and women who, regardless of there own motivations, put themselves in harms way in hopes of continued property or an even better future for more than just themselves. If you have a parent or grandparent that served in World War 2 or Korea, if you have friend, relative or co-worker that did there part in Vietnam or Desert Storm, if yours or neighbor's son or daughter has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan and has a story to tell, then reach out to them and listen to their story. And get it down right.