Peter D. Davidson Letters

Introduction

Aviation Engineering Battalions

The primary purpose of an Aviation Engineering Battalion was to build airfields. The secondary purpose was to construct any facilities required by the Air Corps (there was no Air Force yet) or the Army. The 1897th was normally attached to a large organization such as an Air Corps or an Army.

The largest engineering organization is usually the battalion. The battalion was commanded by a lieutenant colonel with a major as executive officer. Each of the four companies; Headquarters, A,B and C; had a captain and four lieutenants. The headquarters (HQ) company included an administration group with a warrant officer and a master sergeant, a medical group with a doctor and dentist and an engineering planning group with civil engineers (one lieutenant and one tech sergeant), surveyors and draftsmen. The HQ company contained most of the experienced heavy equipment operators, mechanics, electricians and the machine shop.

For weapons each company had a 37mm cannon (later replaced with bazookas), 50 caliber water cooled anti-aircraft machine guns, a half-track with 30 caliber machine guns. The enlisted men were armed with M-1s and the officers and top non-coms with 45 caliber automatics or 30 caliber carbines. There were some 45 caliber grease guns available.

Most of the heavy construction equipment was assigned to the HQ company. Caterpillar D-8 and D-7 tractors were the most used earthmoving equipment. All of the tractors except one hydraulic D-8 were cable operated and could be connected to a blade or a carryall as required (12 cubic yards for the D-8s and 8 cubic yards for D-7s). HQ company had two LeTourneau Turnapulls (10 cubic yards) for long distance dirt moving. Other major dirt movers were a two cubic yard power shovel and five ton dump trucks.

For finishing, grading and material handling there were Caterpillar motor graders, one ditching machine, a tow grader, a truck crane and a Turnacrane. Paving was with steel landing mat initially. Depending on materials available and the weather the preferred final surface for landing strips and taxi ways was compacted coral sealed with asphalt. The battalion had an asphalt plant consisting of two tank trailers with heating coils, a 125-psig steam boiler and a tank truck asphalt distributor. The asphalt was melted and cutback with diesel for spraying as a seal coat.

Finschhafen

Letter from New Guinea of July 2, 1944

This is the first letter that survived of my letters written from the Pacific Theater in WW-II. These letters were censured and mentioning the exact location or the activities of the 1897th Aviation Engineering Battalion was not permitted. At some locations even giving the date was forbidden. Therefore for each letter I have included a paragraph describing the location with a map and giving an overall view of the battalion activities at this location.

Dear Warren,
At last it looks like I am going to have a tent with a floor. I’ll probably move before, however. I’ll miss the familiar squish-squish when I roll out of my cot.
In the column you sent on New Guinea I noticed that a place with which I am very familiar was underlined in red.
I have been running a ditch digger at the hospital where there are lot of New Britain casualties. After seeing some of the arm-less, leg-less and faceless inmates I am glad I am not in the infantry. There were a couple of tall Sikhs there with red turbans who were amazed by the ditch digger. They had been released by the Japs on Los Negros.
For lack of anything better I shall relate a couple of stories about Jap fighting ability that an Aussie told me. He said that during the battle of Sattelberg they had a Jap detachment cornered in a large patch of kunai grass. It would have been suicide to go in after them but while they were trying to decide what to do the Jap bugler came out and blew “charge”. The Japs came out and were mowed down by machine gun cross fire. The Aussie captain bellowed to his men that he would shoot the first man who shot the bugler. The bugler repeated his performance twice again - Japs wiped out, Aussies - one man wounded.
Another time the Japs pulled a sneak raid on a beach in landing barges. The landing would have been a complete surprise if the bugler hadn’t sounded “charge” waking up every Aussie in the neighborhood. Forty Japs were killed on the beach without an Aussie casualty. There is a sign there to verify this not to mention the remains of landing barges.
Peter

Finschhafen Background

Finschhafen

Finschhafen was founded as a German mission before World War I. It does not appear on current maps but with a harbor and coconut groves there must still be a community at this location.

Finschhafen was taken from the Japs by the Aussies in October of 1943. When the 1897th landed April 11, 1944 the Japs had been pushed back to Madang. We had a few air raid alarms but no actual air attacks while we were there. As related in my letter of July 2, 1944 the Japs attempted to take back Finschhafen but were repulsed. I remember the wrecked landing barges on the shore.

At Finschhafen we were guests of the Aussies. We used Australian money and were welcome at the Aussie PX with its large tea urn full of hot, sweet, black tea available twenty four hours a day. The Aussies were quite a contrast to the Americans. We lived in a tent city back in the jungle with company streets and drainage ditches laid out according prescribed dimensions. We slept on cots with mosquito bars and the inside of each tent was sprayed twice a day for insects. The Aussies lived under trees next to shore where there was a cool breeze. They used any kind of tent or piece of canvas with no pretence of company streets. They hung their hammocks where ever it was convenient with or without mosquito netting.

MacArthur rigidly enforced his health rules for protection against malaria which included fatigues or coveralls buttoned at the neck, laced leggings and cap or helmet. The Aussies ran around in shorts, usually with no shirt with whatever head covering, if any, they thought suitable. We drank only treated, chlorinated water. The Aussies drank beer. I do not know what the malaria rate was with the Aussies but I am convinced that MacArthur’s rules made sense.

I have only two pictures from Finschhafen. One showing native houses in the river and one showing some of the 1897th with natives. We did not associate with the natives and especially we avoided the villages. The local custom was to leave the dead on a platform in the community house in the village. The stench was unbelievable. The color picture is a current picture from the internet of a community house. These houses now contain souvenirs for tourists and their use for the storing the bodies of relatives and the heads of enemies is not mentioned.

Cape Sansapor

Dear Warren,

This place is slowly becoming civilized. Pretty soon the signs "Speed Limit 20 miles" and MPs will appear.
Last night I attempted to see my first movie in a couple of months. After fully clothing myself, loading my rifle and slinging it over my shoulder and tucking a bottle of insect repellant into my pocket, I was fully prepared per regulations for attending our theater. The show was "East Side of Heaven" with Bing Crosby and Joan Blondell. After the film breaking a few times, things were going smoothly and bingo - an airraid. That ended, we sat down again, another airraid. The allclear came and it started pouring rain. It was approaching 11 o'clock and only one reel had been shown, so I gave it up. Tomorrow we have another show.
So far in this war I have seen only one dead Jap. He was floating in a river - well aged. I have smelt a number, though.
One of our lieutenants had his carbine being taken for shooting an anteater. The meatballs were unusually good that evening. I've been running cat lately on the graveyard shift. (We only work 8 hours now.) It's a D-8 and weighs 20 some odd tons. Nice machine. Fortunately I have not had to knock down trees. That is bad business, especially at night. No one has been killed yet, though. The "Time" would certainly be appreciated. Most of my news is word of mouth from what somebody heard the first sargeant say he heard on the radio. Everyone grabs up the "Time" magazines two and three months old. I have enclosed a New Guinea shilling. They are rather rare. Peter

Cape Sansapor Background

Cape Sansapor

MacArthur, adhering to the principle of avoiding massed enemy concentrations where feasible, advanced to Cape Sansapor and Middleburg and Amsterdam islands 200 miles to the west of Biak and Noemfoor islands which had been subdued by July 22. This advance bypassed 25000 Japs at Manokwari on the Vogelkop Peninsula. The air strips at Sansapor and Middleburg Island not only helped isolate the enemy at Manokwari where the Japs would die of starvation and disease but these strips provided air cover for the next advance to Morotai, one of the Halmahera islands.

Initial unopposed landings were on Middleburg and Amsterdam on July 29. July 30 at the crack of dawn we landed at Cape Sansapor. There was no preliminary bombardment because supposedly there was only empty jungle. The LST was deadly quiet as we approached shore in the dim pre-dawn light. Our memories of Maffin Bay were fresh in our mind. Everyone had a clip in his rifle and a few hand grenades hung on his fatigues. The landing was smooth and uneventful. We quickly set up camp under trees that offered camouflage from air raids.

Part of the 1897th went to work with another Aviation Engineering Battalion to build the air strip on Middleburg Island. This island was a coconut grove on a coral reef. The area was limited but obviously a strip could be quickly constructed by bulldozing off the palm trees and leveling the coral. A larger strip was needed for large bombers that required the space available at Cape Sansapor. This location was flat but in a swamp covered with large trees. While the work was rushed on the Middleburg strip for the P-38 fighters our part of the 1897th started clearing jungle at Sansapor.
Clearing Jungle

This is where I learned to operate a bulldozer. The sergeant woke me in the middle of the night and said I was going to run Joe’s D-8. I asked where Joe was. A tree fell on him and fractured his skull.

The usual procedure for knocking down a large tree with a bulldozer is to first excavate a hole under the down side roots. Then push the dirt to the opposite side of the tree to make a ramp. The you run the bulldozer up the ramp at full speed with the blade raised high to hit as high up the trunk as possible. If the downside hole is deep enough and the upside ramp is high enough the tree goes down.

There are hazards to this, especially at night. The impact of the tractor may break off a limb high up in the tree. A ten inch limb falling from a height can be lethal. Another hazard is the vines connecting the trees. An eight or ten inch vine connected to the tree behind you can be strong enough to pull this tree on top of you as you push over the tree in front of your blade. When the tree starts to fall, you kick the tractor into reverse and back down the ramp as quickly as possible. It is possible for the roots of the falling tree to burst through the ground under the bulldozer and hold it suspended with the tracks whirling in the air. The only way down is to have another tractor pull you off.

Some trees were too large for even a D-8 to knock down. These required tunneling under and blasting down with ammonium nitrate satchel charges ignited with TNT blocks.

One night I clipped the side of a rotten tree about four feet in diameter and it fell over on the tractor. The grade foreman yelled a warning to me and I hit the floor of the D-8. The tree disintegrated on hitting the head ache bar overhead. The tree was an ant nest, one inch long ants and I was covered from head to foot. Then I was thankful for my long sleeved coveralls buttoned down around the neck. When washing our coveralls we gave them a final rinse in a dimethyl phthalate insect repellent and then hung them up to dry. I did not have a single bite.
Jungle Life

Cape Sansapor is a long way from civilization but life was bearable and we only worked eight hours a day, seven days a week. The air raids were never serious and ceased after the first few weeks. Our camp was on the edge of the beach concealed in the trees. For recreation we had movies, volley ball, baseball and swimming in the ocean. I especially liked the swimming although one encounter with jelly fish made a lasting impression on me. I went dashing through the camp in the nude to the medics.

We had fresh water, showers and soon had a six drum washing machine hooked to the power-take-off of a Ford tractor. Our mechanics and welders made washing machines from oil drums with various sources of power. I remember one powered by a Jap bicycle and another used a propeller and wind power. Some required manually squooshing a plunger up and down. Not a popular design.

We saw few animals in the jungle except birds but the animals were shy and there may have been more than we realized. One day we spotted a cuscus up a tree. Not a very active or exciting animal. We were forbidden to shoot animals although you will notice in the August 14 letter that a lieutenant shot an anteater. There were lots of rats of the type in California we call pack rats. They are large and built nests in the trees of twigs. They came in our tents at night and one night an annoyed inmate shot a rat under a tent-mates cot with a Tommy gun. He caught hell for that.

We did not venture into the jungle much but we go if we heard of banana trees or a papaya tree that had not been stripped. With spurs I learned to climb coconut trees for fresh coconuts. The meat of the fallen coconuts is good but the fresh coconuts have the only drinkable milk.

One night we had a band play a concert around a big bonfire. Out of the darkness came the natives to squat around the band and beat their hands in rhythm. They had come right through our perimeter without being seen. When the concert was over they disappeared again into the darkness. There were natives in this area that had never seen white men before and believed airplanes were gods.
Airfield Construction

This page of pictures shows airfield construction out of a jungle. The strip on Middleburg Island was usable in only two weeks because it was flat, covered only with a coconut plantation and there was lots of coral available, close. The Dutch plantation owners house was on Amsterdam Island, also a coconut plantation.

The Sansapor location had the advantage of being flat with plenty of room to expand into a bomber base. One problem was the large trees, some too large for the bulldozers to handle without being blasted down and sawed into smaller pieces. Sometimes we would line up D-8s and D-7s along a large tree trunk and move it off in one piece. The other problem was the sandy, swampy terrain. The water was handled with drainage ditches but you cannot build a bomber strip on sand. Steel landing mat will not last long if not laid on a firm sub-grade. Hauling the coral gravel in for the strip and taxiway sub-grade required all the trucks, Turnapulls and carryalls available. After the trees had been cleared we removed the blades from most of the D-8s and D-7 tractors and hooked them to carryalls for hauling coral.

In the large picture you can see the strip is dark color because the steel matting is laid over asphalt sealed coral with dark aprons on each side of asphalt sealed coral. Parallel to the strip is the first taxiway with hard stands of asphalt sealed coral but no landing mat. Beyond the first taxiway is another taxi way with hard stands under construction. These are of white coral that has not been sealed yet.

Sansapor was an important base for P-38 fighters and B-25 and B-24 bombers. With the elimination of nearby Jap zero fighters the P-38 fighters were used mostly as bombers against Jap shipping in the East Indies and the Philippines. B-25s, some with 75mm cannon in the nose also went after shipping. The B-24 heavy bombers concentrated on enemy airfields and helped prepare the way for the landings on Morotai in the Halmahera group of islands.

We had a sawmill but most of the local trees were softwood that was not strong and rotted within weeks. For good timbers to build bridges we looked for mahogany trees. This was my introduction to the use of a chain saw. Mahogany trees grow individually in the jungle, not in groves. I would go through the jungle with my machete until I found a tree one or two feet in diameter. I would cut this down and find someone with a bulldozer to drag the tree to the sawmill. We used green logs, we did not have time to let them cure. A mahogany bridge is a substantial structure.
Time to Move

Life at Cape Sansapor was becoming too easy. The air strip, taxiways and hard stands were built and in use. We had some beer rations, not much work to do and suddenly we were rifle practicing, using bazookas and practicing with mortars. Obviously something was going to happen soon.

The bazooka practice was unnerving. The electrical firing system of a bazooka was not designed to last very long in hot, humid climate. I used the test light on my bazooka and it appeared OK. I tried firing and nothing happened. I kept trying to fire and nothing happened. I unwound the firing wire and laid the bazooka down. The rocket went off, skittering and bouncing over the ground. Fortunately it did not hit anything to set it off.

The 60mm mortars are a professional weapon. It is obvious that with practice a team can learn to place a shell accurately on target. Using a mortar in the jungle can be tricky. The shell must have a clear field of fire because if it hits even a leaf on the way up it will explode. The infantry is welcome to their toys.

Move to Sansapor

The Move to Sansapor

The middle of July 1944 the 1897th moved from Finschhafen to Cape Sansapor. As usual in the Army the order to move came without warning and we were to be ready to go instantly. We worked for 48 hours stopping occasionally for quick meals. It was raining continuously and we packed while calf deep in mud. Loading construction equipment on trailers requires tying down with heavy chains and come-alongs, all slippery with water and mud. Our night time illumination was acetylene construction lights. By the time we were loaded aboard a Liberty ship and had everything secure I was so exhausted I crawled under a truck and fell asleep without taking my boots off. Eighteen hours later I woke so hungry I could have eaten my boots.

Four days later we landed at our staging area, Maffin Bay on Wakde Island, in the middle of the night. By some miscalculation the damned infantry had not cleared out the Japs holed up in caves in the cliffs overlooking the beach. The Japs had mountain howitzers pull back in the caves and would periodically run one to the mouth of the cave, fire a shell and then pull back into the cave. The Navy shelled the cliffs but the Japs kept digging out.

In pitch darkness we were somehow guided to a reasonably flat area to pitch our pup tents in the rain and set up a perimeter. It was an uneasy night as some idiot would now and then fire his M-1 at nothing. It was dangerous to stand up to urinate.

At day break we moved back to the Liberty ships to offload to LCVTs, Ducks and LCTs to shore and from shore to LSTs. We worked twenty four hours a day but the merchant seamen did not. When the merchant seamen knocked off we manned the ship winches. We would unhook one corner of the cargo net, and signal the winch operator to hoist away. This would dump the net contents into the boat. Into something small like a Duck some of the contents would spill into the deep.

There is one picture of offloading from a Liberty ship into a LCT with the ship’s heavy duty crane. This crane could offload our bulldozers and other heavy equipment into an LCT but it was scary.

After a day and a half we were loaded onto LST’s and happy to be on our way, away from the Jap howitzers.

Moving Into Action

Moving into Action

Moving a heavy equipment battalion is a major operation. Four, six thousand ton Landing Ship Tanks (LSTs), were normally the means by which the battalion was moved from island to island. Maximum speed was about eight knots. LSTs are motor driven, flat bottomed and roll alarmingly in a moderate sea. They were armed with 40mm and 20mm cannon. A LST hit the beach, bow on, with anchors trailing the stern for pulling off. There were two decks with a retractable ramp to load the upper deck from the lower. Lighter vehicles and equipment were carried on the upper deck. The decks contained cleats for tying down the equipment with chains.

On an invasion, the first piece of equipment ashore from an LST was a bulldozer that had been waterproofed to run under water for a minute or two. This D-8 would drive off the LST bow ramp as soon as lowered and make it to shore even in seven or eight feet of water. Once ashore the bulldozer pushed sand and coral to form a causeway to the lowered bow ramp of the LST. This ensured that subsequent vehicles did not drop into deep water, shell holes or bomb craters.

All four companies had enough two and a half ton 6x6 trucks for moving personnel, food, fuel and supplies. Moving the larger equipment required low-bed trailers towed by a heavy truck. With careful planning all the trucks and equipment were located in the LSTs so that the battalion could be moving to the job site within minutes after landing.

Jungle Juice!

Living in the Jungle

Living in the jungle was not like living in France or Italy.  Certain soldier basic interests did not exist such as beer halls or laundry facilities.  Making jungle juice was the answer to the lack of beer halls.

 1.Fermentation Vat.  Half of a 55 gallon oil drum is enough for a single batch,  Notice the sticks for stirring.  What is not shown is the cloth covering to keep out the insects that converge on anything fermenting. The insects do not affect the flavor but they are unattractive and may promote the fermentation of vinegar. The essential ingredients are sugar and water and then fruit, raisins, papayas, coconut juice and any fruit, canned or fresh, to supply the necessary enzymes, acid and yeast to initiate fermentation.  A bit of baker’s yeast is a big help.  In tropical climates ten days fermentation is enough before distillation.  

2. Boiler. A five gallon jerry can.  Looks like this is a gasoline jerry can with a screw top and a small vent for attaching the copper tube vapor line.

3. The source of heat appears to be a regular army stove  of the type used to boil water and coffee in 30 gallon garbage cans.

4. The overhead vapor line appears to be a piece of ¼ inch copper tubing.  This would have been difficult to obtain in New Guinea. After the 1897^th inherited a Japanese truck supply caravan the infantry captured on Route 2 from Dulag, Leyte an assortment of hardware was available.

5. Half of a 55 gallon oil drum with the copper line coiled inside makes an adequate condenser.  The water must be manually replace to keep it cool.  Note the water can over to the left for this purpose.

6. Spigot on end of copper coil protruding from side of condenser drum.

7. Coke bottle to receive juice from condenser.8.

8. First sample of “juice” hot from condenser.

The fermentation yield of alcohol from these primitive facilities was probably 8 to 9 percent (16 to 18 proof) .  Thus a five gallon batch would contain about 100 liquid ounces of 100 proof alcohol.  80% of this would come over in the first two gallons distilled to give a liquid 31 proof.  The first few ounces of alcohol distilled packed quite a wallop and contained various aldehydes and esters that promote blindness and other afflictions.  The “first run” two gallons needed redistilling to produce about 100 ounces ( about 3 quarts) of 80 proof alcohol after discarding the first few ounces containing the aldehydes.  This yield sounds high for these facilities.  Maybe you could produce two quarts of drinkable stuff from five gallons of mash.

The above equipment was often unattainable so we would settle for a simple fermentation.  The simplest was to drill a hole in a green coconut, stuff in sugar, raisons, papaya or canned fruit.  Plug and place under your cot.  When the plug blew out it was ready to drink. 

The best material for wine was canned pie cherries.  A couple of gallon cans of pie cherries in a water jerry can with sugar and water would produce drinkable wine, especially if was aged a month or more.  The only time our wine was permitted to age was during the confusion of the Leyte invasion.  We placed the jerry can in the tool box of the ditching machine and did not have access to the ditching machine for six weeks.