Peter D. Davidson Letters

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.