We are all packed and ready to move but the latest is that it won't be until Friday or Saturday. It is alright with us to lay around for a while and take it easy because it isn't going to be easy when we get up to Leyte. The reports have it that our camp is going to be on a beach that was originally chosen for GHQ but that they have gone into Tacloban and we have their spot. I don't know how much is built up or if we have to do it be we'll soon see. They are still having large raids up there and it may be necessary to spend a few nights in foxholes or slit trenches. The Japs haven't given up yet on Leyte and have been successful in landing reinforcements a couple of times at Ormoc and the boys of the 24th say that the entire 21st regiment was wiped out. That is our boys I am talking about and the men that were left behind in the outfit are heartbroken. It is going to be tough even to leave this place. We have things fixed up so good that it is sort of hard to leave New Guinea behind. We opened the NCO's club the other (Friday) night. The club is just like a classy nightclub or something. All the booths are decorated and we have a smooth dance floor. General Kenney came in for a while and gave a very good short speech. He is just one of the boys and everybody appreciates and admires him. He said that he hated to move like anybody else when he got set up but that if we didn't move we could never win the war. I took Phyllis Rodd. I put on my zoot shoes and spent the most of the night jitterbugging. It was a lot of fun. I haven't danced since we left Brisbane. Phyllis is a nice girl but typical of the Wacs here because they can have any man they want. I think she likes me because she knows I love June and that I don't much care whether she comes or goes. Usually she comes up and goes down to the shows with us and I walk her home and sometimes she turns down dates with some good boys for that. I get a jeep so seldom that it wouldn't be worth a girl's time anyway but still she comes up. It makes the time go faster and keeps a man from going crazy to have a Wac, or I should say a girl, to talk to and look at. Men get calloused from working together all the time without no women around. I have seen men come to Australia from the North and have warped personalities that have developed because of the life they had to lead in the islands. Many of them actually fall into the psychoneurosis class and I don't want to become like that. I haven't told June about Phyllis because it isn't important and she would no doubt imagine all sorts of things that would only cause us to get mad at each other and that would never do. I hear of June going out occasionally but I prefer not to. It just burns me up and makes me jealous and all that but I really want her to go out and have fun even though I can't be with her.
Sgt. Gordon is back again from Brisbane and hasn't changed a bit - instead he is a little moreso. While he was gone Walter Teutsch was in command (Chief Clerk) and he being like Joe only more G.I. it was a tough fight all the way through. He starts trying to tell me what to do on the basis of his four stripes and I told him where he could get off. He is a Jewish German refugee that came over in about 1939 and immediately joined the Army. He still talks broken although he is a smart fellow. When he sticks to his report and doesn't bother me everything is alright but I can't take orders from a guy like that any more than I can take orders from Joe. I am developing a very un-Christian-like attitude for the Jews but it is being driven onto me. I have been thinking seriously of asking Colonel Withers for a transfer to the 2nd AAF Photo Intelligence outfit. T/Sgt Jack Strayer who is a very good friend of mine and wants to get me a rating has a good position open in his outfit and wants to get me in. I tried to get out once before although not very hard but this time I am considering making a real effort. I don't know and doubt very much if I will be able to manage it because there isn't anybody to take over my Care of Flyer and Aircraft Accident Reports but the Wacs will be coming up to Leyte soon after us and I am hoping that one of them will be able to take over for me. Anyway, Strayer says that he will be glad to take me in a month or even two if I can make the transfer and I am going to talk to Colonel Withers.
November 7th the American public elected Roosevelt back in as President for his fourth term. I was very disappointed in the result as I think we are heading for disaster on the home front. Roosevelt took over the country in the middle of a depression and with the aid of the powers the congress gave him created a false prosperity that fooled the people into thinking that he had done something wonderful. In 1938 and 1939 when the big business men of the nation told us that actually the country - as far as big business was concerned - was actually at a lower ebb than during the dark days of 1929 - yet the country was apparently prospering. For one reason - and that was because the threat of war had again created a false prosperity and industry was already turning to war even if it was only to the aid of Britain and not for ourselves. Since the war came there has been so much spending that no one can say what condition the country would be in if Roosevelt had been in and there had been no war. We call ourselves a democracy but it is hard to call our country a democracy sometimes. Maybe I am wrong but we will see ten years from now if the war is over.
The war situation on all fronts as near as I can remember is as follows: Over here: The main battle is the air battle over the Philippines and the ground battle taking place on Leyte Island. The Japs landed reinforcements several times at Ormoc bay and have succeeded in putting up some pretty stiff resistance. Apparently - and from what news we get - we are winning the battle, but we know from other sources that we are not winning without paying a terrific price in lives and equipment for whatever we do win. The Navy has pulverized Manila several times with carrier attacks. From all we can tell the island of Leyte should be cleaned up within a couple or three weeks or maybe sooner and unless the Japs have reinforced Samar we should take that without too much trouble. The Japs are still in a good position to give us lots of punishment from the Air because they have lots of air fields around Manila which are just a few minutes time from the islands we are fighting on. We are invading Luzon either today or tomorrow from the rumors that are going around. I have had it from about eight sources and everybody thinks it is the McCoy. We generally get pretty good dope on the invasions as somebody has to know about them. The big invasion of the P.I.'s couldn't have been kept secret no matter what because of the scope of the thing. In Germany they are still pecking away at the Germans just outside of the German border. The Yanks have a line of Armies from Holland down to Switzerland ready to pounce as soon as the Germans give any sign of weakening. Metz is reported to have fallen today. We have air power to pulverize any certain spot with any amount of tons of bombs we want. Cities like Aachen, Metz, Caen, Cassino where the Germans concentrate great amounts of men and arms to stop us can be literally obliterated, and are. The breakthrough hasn't come yet and it is a question now whether the Germans can hold out through the winter or whether they can be conquered by Christmas. It is funny how nobody seems to know what the situation inside Germany is but nobody has a concrete idea on whether the war in Germany will be over in a month or a year. Churchill recently said that with luck we could possibly beat the Germans in six months. That is a statement with "possibly" and "luck" included in it so it may go a year with bad luck. However we all hope that he is just being pessimistic. The Russians are hammering away in East Prussia around Konigsburgh and are closing in on Budapest in Hungary. They should soon break into Austria and then to noose will be pretty tight. With a little luck if we could break into the Rhineland across the Rhine we would have the Germans whipped because it is doubtful if they could then put up the barriers to stop us. The situation in China is appalling. The Japs are driving us out of one city after another and yet the people think all is well with the war. It appears that Chiang Kai Check didn't like the pressure Joseph Stilwell was putting on him to fight a war and asked the President of the United States to do something about it. Stilwell is now relieved of command. The situation came to light when the facts were found out. The Chinese communists have become such a power that Chaing Kai Check is saving all the lend lease and all the Army he can to fight the civil war that he must win to keep control of China. He thinks they are a much greater enemy than Japan because we are going to whip Japan anyway. So he was playing us all for suckers and fighting a sham battle against Japan to keep us satisfied and in the meantime storing up his arms and equipment to use against the communists, which number about 80,000,000 people. It is all very mixed up but maybe it will come out in the watch one of these days. It is not and I must quit not.
No comments:
Post a Comment