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.

Comments

[David Gunn]

I like your description of Middleburg. I flew into Middleburg on several occasions. We often topped off our tanks on the way to a target or gassed up with enough gas to get back to Biak after hitting the target. When we were fully loaded on the way to a target, I would taxie as far out on the south end of the strip as I could go, set my brakes, and run my engines up to full throttle before I released my brakes. When I got to the other end of the strip and was out over water, I would pull up my wheels, trim back my throttle, and then start climbing. I never really took off; as I ran off the end of the strip, I had about six feet of elevation. I was flying B-25s in the 38th Bomb Group, 405th Bomb Squadron.

[George T. Reed 16027698]

Dear Peter D.Davidson
I think we may have been in contact many months ago, but at that time did not know of your web site.

I was on Middleburg Island (air strip) the day the FIRST airplane landed. It was a P-38. It came in from the east. I was there.

I want to ask you...do you remember a P-38 landing, them crashing into several other P-38's? He was too low and hit the end of the runway, bounced up and out of control, caught fire, died in the fire in his cockpit. I will never forget. I saw the whole thing. If you remember this, I certainly would like to know who this pilot was. It was awful. No words...

I do hope to hear from you when you can.

I was NCOIC of 33 men who set up and operated the 5th Army Airways Communications System (AACS) station on Middleburg. We got hit one night by a Betty and the shrapel went over my head through the trailor. That was about October 1944.
A few other raids. My only problem (physical/mental) was I sobbed and cried. I am now over that, but it took many years...
Hope to hear from you and if you remember the P-38 landing short. (!)

George T Reed 84

[BOB BENNER]

I am writing an historical novel about the war set in the Philipines and Solomons from 1937-1943 and have some questions for anyone interested in answering. First question: what type of non supercharged fighter was the first ARMY plane on Guadalcanal? I know the plane couldn't intercept or mix it up with the Zero because of the height advantage of the Zero, so it was used for ground support instead?? I think?? Which squadron flew this plane? Did they come up from Espiritu Santo? How far was the flight, any refueling on the way, how long did it take, were any lost on the way. Henderson Field, not yet named at the time, was in rough shape and I'm wondering how difficult the landing was on arrival?

[BOB BENNER]

A second letter: Just so you know, I am a serious author and would like to add, I was in Papua New Guinea doing research for a novel in 2001 before going out to the Solomons via Henderson Field. I couldn't get to Biak or Sansapor but I went through Port Moresby, (a tough place today, with rampant unemployment and lots of crime) before flying to Henderson. PNG is a beautiful but scary for anyone not native to the area, especially a white man.

[Larry Brown]

My name is Larry Brown. My grandfather was in A Co 1897th. His name was Lee Roy Huval. I'm trying to locate anyone that could tell me anything about his unit and the things they did during WWII and anyone that may have known him.

[Peter Davidson]

Your copy of my WWII letters is on its way

[George T. Reed]

I am not certain whether or not we may have been in contact several months ago but anyway, you might want to contact Maj. (Ret) Laurance A Rickert. He helped construct the runway on Middleburg Island. (I think Amsterdam Island was where the little Dutch church was).

If you have any problems, pls let me know.

George T. Reed 16027698 T/Sgt I was NCOIC of the 5th Air Force radio station on Middleburg. We had a few raids.

Larry wrote me he left Middleburg the morning after the runway was ready to use.

I live in Delaware. Age 85 3/4

[Otto Ledford Jr.]

By examining my late father Otto Ledford's service records I discovered that he was Air Base Commander at Sansapor from17 Oct to 25 Nov 1944. I think he was a Maj. then. Comments on your site have given me useful insight into his war history.