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

Comments

[Tom Lutz]

Dear David:
I found your recollections of Finschhafen quite interesting. My father served there from April
1944 to April 1945 as billeting officer, yard captain and then executive officer at the Navy Base. His name was Bernard J. Lutz, a tall thin man from the state of Michigan. Does that stir a memory or two?
Curious,
Tom Lutz

[Greg Smith]

Hi Peter,
My father served with the Americans, and talks about Finschhafen. His nickname was Aussie, real name, Geoff Smith. Would you have known of him?
Regards, Greg Smith