Hero of the Pacific_ The Life of Marine Legend John Basilone - James Brady [28]
The scuttlebutt was that the division was headed for Australia, which, with its “people like us,” the girls, the cold beer, and especially the temperate climate, sounded to the Marines like Eden, and especially to Manila John with his tour in the Philippines and memorable R&R in neighboring New Zealand, where the young Americans fell in love with the people and the land. As Basilone waited to ship out, away from the ’Canal and its horrors, he sounded pensive, waxing philosophic, which would be something new for him, a facet of his makeup not previously remarked on at Raritan, the Philippines, or in his Marine experience. Combat can do that.
Listen to Basilone in his sister’s account as the troopship carried him and his unit out of the war zone and toward what they expected to be a period of rest, refitting, and getting well: “Looking about me during the long voyage to Australia was heart-rending. Where only a few short months ago they were only boys in their teens, now they appeared old, far beyond their years. Their sunken eyes reflected the pain and misery they had been subjected to. I was no different. My family on seeing me at this moment wouldn’t even recognize me. The only thing that kept us from just collapsing on the deck and going into a shell was the gratifying thought we had met the feared enemy, defeated him on his own ground, and poured the flower of his troops back into the earth and sea.”
This sounds a bit poetic for Basilone, but his sister goes on with his description: “After a long trip during which we soaked up the sunshine and fresh sea air, with nary a Jap sub to bother us, we dropped anchor off Brisbane, Australia, the city we had been told would be our rest camp.” Located on the northeast coast of the continent, it was hundreds of miles closer to the tropics than the other big Aussie cities of Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, with their more moderate climate in the country’s south. It was hardly the cooler, healthier “temperate” rest camp area Vandegrift had requested.
Some rest. Some camp.
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Down Under, the Marines might have expected to go “Waltzing Matilda,” but Australia turned out to be a shock to men you’d think were beyond shock.
“None of us realized the weakened condition we were in, and that the camp set up outside Brisbane was only temporary,” Basilone is reported to have said. Instead of a rollicking good liberty or a more extended leave, the Marines were marched to a hastily thrown-up military tent city. “We soon learned we were supposed to set up permanent defense positions along the Australian coast.” Where they would presumably confront a Japanese invasion, if and when. And this would be along the hot, fevered, mosquito-blown northern Australian coast, only a hundred miles from New Guinea where the enemy was already established. In the inverted world of the Southern Hemisphere, the south was cool, dry, and moderate, while the north was hot and pestilential like the ’Canal. On top of that, Australia both needed the Americans and resented them.
Here is John’s account of that first, disillusioning view the Marines would have of their new home, as recorded by Phyllis Cutter: “Coming all that distance cramped in transports, we could hardly believe our eyes when we finally marched and were carried into our rest camp. If we bitched about ‘tent city’ we were sorry. This was even worse. Guadalcanal was paradise compared to this swamp [surely this is typical Gyrene hyperbole!]. Goony birds and mosquitoes made sleep impossible. Our breaking point was not far off. General Vandegrift was furious and after having southern Australia scouted for a more suitable location, he proposed the Division be moved to Melbourne where the climate was cooler and free of the giant mosquitoes. Having decided on the new location, Vandegrift found that the