The Ghost Mountain Boys - James E. Campbell [153]
I discovered some of Medendorp’s radio messages at the National Archives.
Keast’s endurance is confirmed by veterans who took part in the Wairopi Patrol.
The trail is infested with leeches that crawl up out of the mud and fall from overhanging branches.
Initially the Japanese Imperial army took great care not to alienate the people of New Guinea. Orders were to “make them realise that the Imperial army will protect their lives and property…to ensure that all decisions made in local matters are fair, to respect their women and never approach them, to always pay a proper price for things bought or labor done.”
Those who submitted to the Japanese were to be treated benevolently, but those who displayed hostility were to be “disposed of rigorously and without mercy.” A notebook of Second Lieutenant Hidetada Noda, captured near the village of Menari, contained information regarding treatment of natives: “No work at night. Do not hit them unless the reason for doing it is very obvious…. Treat them as human beings.” Initially, the Japanese were quite egalitarian, certainly more so than the ANGAU masters had been. The Japanese soldiers ate with the native New Guineans, and in some cases, lived with them.
Details on the Jaure reunion can be found in Medendorp’s memoirs.
Descriptions of porters are from Medendorp’s memoirs and Professor Bill McKellin, who lived for two years with the people of Central Papua.
Segal’s complaints were widespread among the Medical Corps. In “The Fight Against Malaria in the Papua and New Guinea Campaigns,” John T. Greenwood writes, “Medical officers could not obtain the level of priority required for the shipment of supplies into or even within the theater.” He describes a puzzling lack of interest by line commanders and theater planners in the malaria threat.
Milner writes of what was called the “Wanigela Operation.” Ivan Champion, a former colonial patrolman, had successfully mapped a channel from Milne Bay to Cape Nelson, up the coast from Wanigela, making the transport of the 128th and its supplies possible.
General George Brett, who was no longer MacArthur’s commander of American forces in Australia, must have been surprised by MacArthur’s sudden faith in the air forces. Previously, according to Brett, he had nothing but “contempt and criticism for them.” In The MacArthur I Knew, Brett recalls a conversation where MacArthur said of the air force, “They lack discipline, organization, purposeful intent.”
Flying over the Owen Stanley “hump,” where cloud banks sometimes reached 40,000 feet in the air, was no easy task.
Chapter 9. One Green Hell
Lutjens’ entries are from his diary and from E. J. Kahn’s article, “The Terrible Days of Company E.”
The engineers who accompanied the 2nd Battalion were from the 114th Engineers, a Massachusetts Guard unit. The 114th Engineers replaced the division’s 107th Engineers who were already on their way to the ETO. The story of the engineers has never really been told. They performed miracles along the trail, which certainly saved lives.
Native carriers were more than happy to pick up whatever equipment and clothing the soldiers left behind. Hare Bore of Gabagaba was one of the carriers for the 2nd Battalion. Remembering how the soldiers suffered in the heat and under the weight of their packs, he says, “I drop tears for them.”
The story of soldiers tearing the buttons off their shirts seemed improbable to me. Veterans of the march, however, insist that they saw men do it.
On my own trek—though our team, including carriers, never amounted to more than twenty-five—I saw how quickly the trail could turn into a path of shin-deep mud.
Accounts of Company G’s march are from personal interviews with the men of Company G, friends who served with Bailey, and Wendell Trogdon’s book on Cladie Bailey.
For an excellent history of malaria and efforts to stamp it out, read Mosquitoes, Malaria and Man by Gordon Harrison, and Mary Ellen Condon-Rall’s books and articles.
A number of other good books