History’s Storyteller: The Life of WWII Marine Ed Bearss

 

US Marine Corps Corporal Edwin Cole Bearss wearing his Purple Heart Medal circa 1945.  Photograph archivingwheeling.org.

 

Edwin (Ed) Cole Bearss (pronounced ‘bars’) was born June 26, 1923, in Billings, Montana, to Omar and Virginia Bearss.  He grew up on a 10,000 acre ranch, the B bar S, located 90 miles west of Billings.  The Little Bighorn Battlefield was 35 miles southwest of the ranch.  He had a younger brother, Pat, and there was a time Ed and Pat would ride together on horseback to and from the Sarpy Creek School a distance of six miles from the ranch.

 

Ed and Pat on horseback.  Photograph courtesy of the Bearss Family, Robert Desourdis, and Nova Science Publishers, Inc. 

 

Ed Bearss was born into a lineage of family members who served in the United States (US) Marine Corps.  His father, Omar, was a Marine in WWI. Omar’s cousin Hiram “Hiking Hiram” Bearss was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1901 for extraordinary heroism during the Philippine-American War (February 4, 1899 – July 2, 1902); Hiram Bearss was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1918 for his valor in WWI (1914 -1918).

Omar Bearss would read history books to his boys on subjects including WWI, the American Civil War, and the US Marine Corps.  Ed developed an intense interest in history that infused his life. Charles Crawford of the Georgia Battlefields Association said about Ed, “There was a Marine in Ed before Ed was ever in the Marines.”

On December 7, 1941, the National Football League was finishing its season. Three games were played that day:  the Chicago Bears (34) against the Chicago Cardinals (24), the Brooklyn Dodgers (21) versus the New York Giants (7), and the Washington Redskins (20) played against the Philadelphia Eagles (14).  During these three games public address announcers broadcast early reports of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, or paged government and military personnel to report to their units.

The Bearss family on December 7, 1941, was listening to the Chicago Bears playing against the Chicago Cardinals at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois.  

On April 28, 1942, Ed Bearss enlisted in the US Marine Corps.

Ed arrived at the US Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California, on April 30, 1942.  After seven weeks training in Boot Camp Platoon 369,  he was assigned to the newly activated 22nd Marine Regiment (22nd Marines).  On June 18 the 22nd Marines began deployment to the WWII Pacific Theater of Operations.  In September 1942 Ed requested and was assigned to the 3rd Raider Battalion which was being formed in the Samoas.  [The Samoan Islands are an archipelago in the central South Pacific Ocean.]

In April 1943 when the 3rd Raider Battalion was based in New Hebrides (an island group off the northern coast of Australia now called Vanuatu), Ed was diagnosed with malaria and sent to New Zealand for six weeks to recuperate.

Ed didn’t return to the 3rd Raiders after convalescence but was assigned to the 2nd Platoon of  L Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.  The 1st Marine Division would deploy to New Guinea to plan the assault on Cape Gloucester in New Britain, Territory of New Guinea.

 

The island of New Britain, Territory of New Guinea, is to the east of mainland New Guinea. Ed Bearss would land at Cape Gloucester with the 1st Marine Division on December 26, 1943.  Map commons.wikimedia.org.

 

[The Battle of Cape Gloucester (December 26, 1943 – January 16, 1944) codenamed Operation Backhander had the objective to capture a major Japanese airstrip near Cape Gloucester and to defeat elements of the Japanese 17th Division in control of the area.  The battle was in support of Operation Cartwheel (1943 – 1944).  

Operation Cartwheel was a major Allied plan to neutralize and then to isolate and bypass Rabaul (far eastern end of island of New Britain) as the Allies moved northward towards Japan. 

Rabaul was a Australian naval base that was captured by the Japanese in 1942.  It became a major Japanese air and naval installation and was the most heavily defended Japanese fortification in the South Pacific.  It was also the assembly point for convoys of ships, known as the “Tokyo Express,” that would race south to bring troops and supplies to areas of conflict in the Solomon Islands.] 

On December 26, 1943, the 1st Marine Division would spearhead an attack at Cape Gloucester.

January 2, 1944, the Marines were driving eastward through dense jungle terrain.  Corporal Bearss’ platoon was advancing through the jungle — Ed was walking point — when they approached a creek that would become known as Suicide Creek.

 

Medium tank crosses Suicide Creek to blast Japanese emplacements holding up the Marine advance.  Photograph US Marine Corps January 1944.

 

In  the 2003 book Edwin Cole Bearss History’s Pied Piper by John C. Waugh,  Ed tells of being wounded as the Japanese, dug into the bank on the other side of Suicide Creek, opened fire:

“I was on my knees when the first bullet struck.  It hit me in my left arm just below the elbow, and the arm went numb.  It felt like being hit with a sledgehammer.  It jerked me sideways and then I was hit again, another sledgehammer blow to my right shoulder.  I fell, both arms shattered, and my helmet slipped down over my eyes.  I couldn’t see.  But there were now dead men  lying all around me.

It seemed a long time that I lay there, in fierce pain, pinned down by Japanese fire… Unable to stand it any longer and afraid of bleeding to death, I decided to risk getting up; the Japanese gun just in front of me was firing off to the right.  As I wiggled around trying to rise, another bullet grazed my butt and another hit my foot.  I quit moving…”

After lying in an area without possible rescue for what seemed like hours, bleeding, and afraid he was going to die, Ed decided to try to move again.  

“They [the Japanese] saw me [move] but couldn’t get their gun depressed fast enough before, without the use of either arm, I went over the lip of a knoll and slid down the other side, … I still don’t know how I did it.  If that ground had been level, I would be dead.  I realized then how important terrain was in a battle.” 

Having moved to a different position,  Lieutenant Thomas J. O’Leary and a US Navy corpsman named Hartman, crawled over to Ed and pulled him back behind the lines far enough so stretcher bearers could reach him and carry him to the battalion aid station.

Ed received medical treatment at military facilities in the South Pacific and would eventually arrive back in the US for continued medical care and rehabilitation.  During his hospitalization Ed would spend countless hours reading history books.  After 26 months recovering from his war wounds, Edwin Cole Bearss was discharged from the US Marine Corps on March 15, 1946.  [But for those of us who have known a US Marine, “Once a Marine always a Marine.”]

Ed Bearss graduated from Georgetown University in 1949 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Foreign Service Studies.  In 1955 he would earn a Master of Arts Degree in History from Indiana University.

After working at the Naval Hydrographic Office and the Office of the Chief of Military History, in 1955 Ed sought a position working for the National Park Service.  He was assigned to the Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi, as a historian.  

In 1957 a young schoolteacher born in Brandon, Mississippi, arrived at the Vicksburg National Military Park with a US Civil War question about Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Meridian Campaign.  Her name was Margie Riddle.  Her question and their discussion involved a campaign “cannonball,” and she was proved correct on the issue.  Ed and Margie were married July 30, 1958, and they would be a formidable team in the field of American Civil War history.

In 1958 Ed would be promoted to Regional Historian for the Southeast Region of the National Park Service working out of Vicksburg.

While at Vicksburg, Ed studied Civil War maps and located what he thought was the sunken Union gunboat United States Ship (USS) Cairo (named after Cairo, Illinois).  A ironclad warship,  she was sunk on December 12, 1862, when clearing mines in the Yazoo River for the planned attack on Haynes Bluff, Mississippi.  [It was the first ship sunk by a mine that was remotely detonated.]  Along with Don Jacks, a maintenance man at the Vicksburg National Military Park, and Warren Grabau, US Army engineer and geologist, the USS Cairo was located buried in Yazoo River mud.

 

USS Cairo.  US Naval Historical Center photograph.

 

With support from the State of Mississippi the ship was salvaged and can now be viewed at the USS Cairo Museum at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

In 1966, Ed, Margie, and their three children moved to Washington, D.C.,  where he became the Historian for the National Park Service’s historical sites.  In 1981 he was named Chief Historian of the National Park Service.  He held the position until 1994. 

In the 1990 Ken Burns miniseries The Civil War, Ed Bearss was featured as one of the Civil War historians.

After retiring from the National Park Service Ed Bearss continues to share his love for history and vast knowledge by leading battlefield tours, writing, lecturing, participating in Civil War Roundtables, and encouraging remembrance of our national history.  He has received numerous awards and has been called by many “A National Treasure.”

 

Ed Bearss leads a tour in 2011 about the US Civil War Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), Pennsylvania, with South Mountain Expeditions.  Photograph S. O’Konski Collection.

 

Ed leads the Battle of Gettysburg tour members across the July 3, 1863, “Pickett’s Charge” field in 2011.  Photograph S. O’Konski Collection.

 

In an earlier quote from Ed Bearss in this story about his wounding and survival at the 1944 Battle of Suicide Creek, he said, “I realized then how important terrain was in a battle.”  On his battlefield tours today he says, “You can’t describe a battlefield unless you walk it.”  

 

 

 

Thank you to the Bearss family, Robert Desourdis, and Nova Science Publishers, Inc., for use of the Bearss family photograph.

Thank you to the US Marine Corps University Research Center for assistance in the research for this story.

Thank you to Dr. Vernon L. Williams, Military Historian and Professor Emeritus of History, at Abiliene Christian University, Abilene, Texas.  He is the Director of the East Anglia Air War Project.

I first met Ed Bearss on a 2006 History America Tours cruise  “Invasion of Italy.”  The tour started in Valletta, Malta.  We sailed on the Clipper Adventurer to Sicily where we walked WWII Allied invasion beaches and visited battle sites.  The ship then sailed from Messina, Sicily, to the mainland of Italy, and the tour travelled north with excursions to the WWII battle sites of Salerno, Monte Cassino, Anzio, the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, and other WWII history locations.

After daily trip excursions with Ed,  I was filled with information about WWII.  I became a member of the “Ed Bearss Fan Club.”   I learned a great deal about WWII from him and was motivated to pass on the history I learned to others interested in WWII history.  In 2015 I started my website World War 2 History Short Stories and named Chief Historian Emeritus of the National Park Service Ed Bearss as one of the people who inspired me to undertake the project.

Dinner onboard the Clipper Adventurer in 2006.  Left to right: Ed Bearss, this story’s author Susan O’Konski, and History America Tours company owner Peter Brown.

A Canadian in the US Army: The Story of WWII Nurse May Buelow Alm

 

First Lieutenant May Buelow standing next to a US Army 104th Evacuation Hospital tent in France 1944.  Alm Family photograph.

 

May Albertine Buelow was born March 21, 1916, near Mirror, Province of Alberta, Canada.  She was born at home on the family farm.  Her mother died in the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918.  After high school she attended the Royal Alexandra School of Nursing in Edmonton, Alberta, and graduated in 1937.  In 1939 May travelled to the United States (US) to visit her grandparents in the State of Washington.  She decided to stay in the US, completed exams for a State of Washington nursing license, and worked as a nurse.  May was visiting an aunt in Tacoma, Washington, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, when she heard on the radio that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii.

On April 10, 1942, May applied to the US Army Nurse Corps through the American Red Cross since her application for US citizenship was not yet completed.  She was sworn in as a Second Lieutenant on October 30, 1942.

On February 27, 1944, First Lieutenant (1st Lt.) Buelow with the US Army 104th Evacuation Hospital sailed from New York City, New York, on the British ship Samaria and docked in Liverpool, England, on March 10, 1944.

The nurses travelled by truck from Liverpool to Southport where they were billeted in the homes of local British civilians.  Military housing for the large number of Allied military personnel arriving in England was limited.  Local families opened their homes to the troops.

1st Lt. Buelow was billeted with the Fisher family in Southport.  A Fisher family member is photographed with her in front of the Bibby Road home.  Alm Family photograph.

The 104th Evacuation Hospital remained in the Southport and Churchtown area for four months.

The Allied D-Day Invasion of Normandy, France, was June 6, 1944.  After the successful landing on French beaches troops and equipment began moving from England to France.

The 104th Evacuation Hospital landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy on July 12, 1944.  Upon landing and moving inland they saw the debris on the beach, sunken ships, damaged buildings, destroyed vehicles, and dead bodies in varying states of decomposition.

The 104th Evacuation Hospital was attached to General George S. Patton’s Third Army.

The first evacuation hospital setup was Sainte-Mère-Église, France.  1st Lt. Buelow was assigned to Central Supply, a part of surgery, and one of her responsibilities was to insure that sterile supplies were ready for surgery and patient care.

 And then the war began for the US Army 104th Evacuation Hospital.

The hospital treated military and civilian casualties both men and women. There were times casualties exceeded bed capacity.  After the beds were filled  litters were placed on sawhorses and on the ground after that.

A duty day often included watching for landmines in the area and the sound of German 88 mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery fired nearby.

One night they were alerted of possible capture by the Germans.  Unit personnel were moved by truck to a secure area until it was safe to return.

At night they often heard US reconnaissance planes overhead trying to locate German positions.  They nicknamed the aircraft “Bed Check Charlie.”

There were times German prisoners of war would help in the hospital.  May recalled they were generally helpful, but the German nurse prisoners of war could be uncooperative.   

The average stay of military casualties was three days.  They would then be moved to a medical unit further behind the front lines or flown to England.

Hospital setups could be in tents or in already existing buildings.  On October 7, 1944, when the 104th moved to Nancy, France, they were in a former mental hospital.  On December 16 they were told about the German breakthrough in a battle that became known as the Battle of the Bulge.

On December 24, 1944, the evacuation hospital moved from Nancy to Luxembourg.  Christmas Eve for the hospital staff that year was C-rations (military packaged meals) by flashlights.  The building they used at this location had been occupied by the elderly and orphans who were moved to a safe location.  May said casualties “poured in” by ambulances and litters tied to jeeps on Sunday, December 25, Christmas Day.

They would be in Luxembourg for three months before moving to their next  setup in Trier, Germany, on March 14, 1945.  The casualties by then were fewer, and May and other unit personnel were given time for a three-day pass to Paris.

The last 104th Evacuation Hospital tent setup was April 22, 1945, in Erlangen, Germany.  On May 8 the unit heard about the declaration of Victory in Europe (V-E) Day. 

1st Lt. Buelow had applied for US citizenship before the war began, but the process was not completed before she left for Europe with the US Army.  On May 10, two days after V-E Day, she and other non-citizen military members received an order to report to unit headquarters where they took the US Oath of Citizenship.  May left the US as a Canadian, officially became a US citizen in Germany, and would return to the US as a US citizen.

The last 104th Evacuation Hospital setup was in Bad Wiesse, Germany, on May 22, 1945.

The 104th began the journey back to the US on September 8.  After stops along the way and periods of waiting for further orders the unit reached Marseille, France.  On October 27, 1945, they boarded the Liberty ship USS Hermitage* at Marseille and would arrive at Pier 88 in New York City, New York, on November 6.  

May travelled from New York City to her grandparents home in Addy, Washington.  She was home in time for Thanksgiving.

May Buelow was officially discharged from the US Army on January 26, 1946.  She was awarded the American Defense Service Medal and the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with five Bronze Service Stars for the Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Central Europe, and Rhineland Campaigns.  She was also awarded the World War II Victory Medal, and the US Army 104th Evacuation Hospital received a Presidential Unit Citation Award.

 

When May left for duty in WWII she, like her friends, would communicate through letter writing.  One of the people she wrote to was a friend from Washington named Maurice Alm, also known as “Swede” to his friends.  They had dated before the war began.

 

Bernhardt Maurice Alm was born December 1, 1916, in Chewelah, Washington.  He enlisted in the US Army Air Force in 1942.  He trained as a Flying Fortress B-17 armorer.  [An armorer was responsible for airplane maintenance and loading bombs.]

1943 photograph of Sergeant Maurice Alm.  Alm Family photograph.

Sergeant Alm was assigned to the 307th Bombardment Group (BG) in the Pacific Theater.  The BG flew multiple long distance missions, hence the nickname “The Long Rangers.”  One bombing mission on October 3, 1944, to Baltkapapan, Borneo, oil refineries** was 17 1/2 hours long; the mission was a round trip of 2,610 miles, and the bombing raid caused extensive damage to an important Japanese fuel source in the South Pacific.

While in New Guinea (an island north of Australia) Maurice developed rheumatic fever that damaged his heart.

 

After WWII Maurice returned to his hometown.  He and May were married  on June 2, 1946, in Chewelah, Washington.

Maurice and May Alm wedding picture June 2, 1946.  Alm Family photograph.

They had three children and were married for 10 years before his heart condition would take his life on May 27, 1956.

May returned to her nursing career to support herself and their children.  She retired in 1981.

 

May never married again.  She led an active life in retirement and would return to Normandy for the 40th, 50th, 60th, and 70th D-Day Anniversaries.  In 2004 she met the actor from the film Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks, who attended the ceremony.

Tom Hanks and May Alm in 2004 at the 60th Anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, France.  Marie Alm photograph.

May passed away on September 30, 2019, at the age of 103.  She was buried with full military honors next to her husband, Maurice, at the Chewelah Memorial Park Cemetery in Chewelah, Washington.

 

 

 

*The USS Hermitage (AP-54) was a US Navy troop transport ship in WWII.  But before Italy declared war on Britain and France on June 10, 1941, the ship had sailed as the SS Conte Biancamano, an Italian luxury liner.  When Italy declared war, the ship was moored at the Panamanian port of Cristóbal, and it was interned there.  When the US entered the war in December 1941 the ship was seized by the US and converted to a troop ship by Cramp Shipbuilding of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and commissioned  the USS Hermitage on August 14, 1942.  The ship would sail in both the European and Pacific Theaters of Operation and was returned to Italy after WWII in 1947.  It was refitted, renamed the SS Conte Biancamano, and again sailed as a luxury liner until 1960.

**Borneo is a large island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.  Before WWII it was divided into Dutch Borneo and British Borneo.  The island was quickly captured by the Japanese in the opening weeks of war in the Pacific.  The Baltkapanan oil refineries on Borneo were of significant value to the Japanese for wartime fuel supplies.  The oil refineries were of important strategic value to Japan just as the Ploesti (now spelled Ploiești), Romania, oil fields were to Germany.

Thank you to Maurice and May’s daughter, Marie, for her help in the research for this story and for permission to use family photographs.  For further information on the WWII experiences of Maurice Alm and May Buelow Alm email wwii@crytalsw.com.

Thank you to historian Dr. Vernon L. Williams, Director of the East Anglia Air War Project, for his research assistance.

The book Voices of WWII Veterans: A Kaleidoscope of Memories edited by Rae Dalton Hight tells of May Buelow Alm’s life and WWII experiences as well as the lives and experiences of other WWII veterans.

I met May in 2004 at the 60th Anniversary of D-Day.  We kept in touch over the years.  It was an honor to know her.

Left to right: Marie Alm, May Alm, and this story’s author Susan O’Konski on Omaha Beach, Normandy, France, in 2004.  Marie Alm photograph.

 

 

WWII Japanese “Hell Ships”: And the Story of US Army Private First Class Albert Deets

US Army Private First Class Albert Donaldson Deets.

 

Albert “Ab” Donaldson Deets was born September 22, 1919, in Dodd City, Fannin County, Texas.  He was the last of eleven children born to John and Mary Deets who farmed in the area.  He was delivered by Doctor J. M. Donaldson, and Ab received his middle name from the physician.

Ab graduated from Ector (Texas) High School.  He was tall for his day at 6 feet 4 inches.  On December 2, 1939, he enlisted in the United States (US) Army.  He already had two brothers in the US military.

 

Photograph given by US Army Sergeant John Deets (L) and US Navy Petty Officer Clifford Deets to their mother for her birthday.

 

Ab’s brother John Deets enlisted in the US Army in 1935.  His skill in baseball was noticed by a baseball scout, and the Cincinnati Reds bought out John’s US Army contract in 1937.  “Tex Deets” would spend the next three years pitching with several Cincinnati minor league teams including the Durham Bulls.  On September 27, 1940, he reenlisted in the US Army.  After the US entered WWII John transferred to the US Army Air Force and became a gunner on a B-17 Flying Fortress.  He flew with the 8th Air Force, 306th Bombardment Group (BG), 369th Bombardment Squadron (BS) based at Thurleigh, Bedfordshire, England.  He completed the required 25 missions over Europe and was sent back to the US in December 1943.  In November 1944 John volunteered to fly again with a combat crew and was assigned to the 15th Air Force, 2nd BG, 429th BS, and flew 31 combat missions from Amendola Airbase near Foggia, Italy.

Clifford Deets, another of Ab’s brothers, enlisted in the US Navy on September 8, 1935.  He served on a number of ships and was temporarily attached to the United States Ship (USS) Drayton in July 1937 to search for Amelia Earhart after her plane disappeared on a flight over the Pacific Ocean.  During the Battle of Okinawa (April 1 – June 22, 1945) Clifford was assigned to the USS Neshoba that landed the US Army 96th Infantry Division in the first wave of beach landings on the island.  By the end of WWII he had attained the US Navy rank of Lieutenant.

In WWII many families had more than one child in the conflict.  John and Clifford Deets returned home after the war.

Ab did not come home.  His grave site is officially recorded as latitude 20 degrees and 41 minutes north and longitude 118 degrees 27 minutes east in the Bashi Straits of the South China Sea.

Ab’s story.

After Ab trained at Fort D. A. Russell located in Marfa, Texas, he was sent to Fort Mills a US Army post located on the island of Corregidor in the Philippine Islands.  Private First Class (PFC) Albert Deets was assigned to the US Army 60th Coast Artillery Regiment, Battery K.

[The Philippines were part of the Spanish Colonial Empire for over 300 years until Spain’s defeat in the 1898 Spanish – American War.  After the war the Philippines became a territory of the US.

The Japanese attacked the Philippines nine hours after the December 7, 1941, surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.  

As the Japanese advanced through the Philippines General Douglas A. MacArthur, Commander of the US Army Forces in the Far East, consolidated US and Filipino forces in a defensive position on the Bataan Peninsula.  The Battle of Bataan (January 7 – April 9, 1942) ended with the surrender of approximately 75,000 Filipino and American defenders.  The prisoners were marched an estimated 65 miles (104 kilometers) in what became known as the Bataan Death March. Estimates of casualties and losses during the march range from 5,650 to 18,000 Filipinos and Americans.

Corregidor was the largest of four fortified islands guarding the entrance to Manila Bay and was the last stronghold in the Philippines to fall to the Japanese in 1942.  It is from this island that General MacArthur escaped to Australia in March 1942 and famously vowed “I shall return” to the Philippines.  The final battle for Corregidor (May 5 – 6, 1942) ended with the capitulation of approximately 11,000 Filipinos and Americans including US Army and US Navy nurses.] 

PFC Deets was one of the 11,000 who became a Japanese prisoner of war (POW) when Corregidor fell.  He was sent to POW Camp Cabanatuan near Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija, Philippines.

Cabanatuan was the largest Japanese POW camp in the Far East.  At its peak it held 8,000 prisoners.  Most prisoners were Americans, but some Allies and civilians were imprisoned there also.  On May 26, 1941, the first captured Americans from the Bataan Death March arrived.  On May 29, 6,000 POWs captured at Corregidor arrived.  More followed.  The camp had poor sanitation, limited water and food, and primitive medical care.  Dysentery, malaria, and cholera were common.  Reports from prisoners noted mistreatment and torture.  Ab was a prisoner there for almost 2 1/2 years.

 [Japan signed but did not ratify the Geneva Convention of 1929 so was not bound by the laws.]

In May 1942 the Japanese started transferring POWs by sea to places such as Japan, Manchuria, and other locations to be used as slave labor.  The ships had no markings or flag indicating they were carrying POWs.  Many ships were sunk unknowingly by US submarines and military aircraft.  It is estimated that over 21,000 Allied POWs died at sea during transport by the Japanese.

POW survivors report being shoulder to shoulder in the extremely hot cargo holds of “Hell Ships” without adequate water, food, and ventilation while standing in their excrement.  Some men died, and others lost their sanity.

In October 1944 1,600 POWs including PFC Albert Deets were taken from Cabanatuan to be transported and then to be used as slave labor in industries needed to meet Imperial Japan’s war demands for things such as coal and zinc.

On October 24, 1944, the Japanese freighter Arisan Maru carrying nearly 1,800 POWs was sunk by a US submarine.  According to US Navy records, the USS Shark II or the USS Snook may have been responsible for the sinking of the Arisan Maru in the Bashi Straits of the South China Sea.  Only nine POWs survived the sinking.

 

6,886-ton Japanese freighter Arisan Maru.

 

The Arisan Maru was torpedoed at approximately 5 pm and sank about two hours later.  Japanese destroyers picked up Japanese survivors, but no attempt was made to rescue the POWs.  The official grave site of PFC Albert Deets and the others lost in the sinking became latitude 20 degrees and 41 miles north and 118 degrees and 27 miles east in the South China Sea.  Ab was 25 years old.

Three months after Ab and the other POWs were taken from Cabanatuan US Army soldiers from the 6th Ranger Battalion and Alamo Scouts with 250 – 280 Filipino guerrillas liberated the remaining prisoners at the POW camp on January 30, 1945.

General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore on the Philippine island of Leyte on October 20, 1944, fulfilling his vow “I shall return.”

 

 

 

 

A memorial to those lost in the sinking of the Arisan Maru was dedicated on October, 24, 1999, in the Memorial Courtyard at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

 

The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, currently has an exhibit “Prisoners Under the Rising Sun.”  Link to information on the exhibit which ends September 3, 2018, is http://www.pacificwarmuseum.org/news-events/.

Thank you to Clifford Deets, nephew of Albert “Ab” Deets, for sharing the story of his uncles and father.  Family photographs are used with his permission.

The story of the WWII liberation of Cabanatuan was the plot of a 2005 movie The Great Raid.

Memories of War Never Forgotten: The Story of WWII US Navy Hospital Corpsman Jack Miller Fletcher

 

Map indicating the Mariana Islands, Guam, and Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean.

 

Jack Miller Fletcher was born September 21, 1925, in Spur, Texas (240 miles west of Dallas, Texas).  After the December 7, 1941, surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Jack went to Dallas to join the United States (US) military.  After the train with new recruits left Dallas with a destination of California for military training, Jack’s father stopped the train at Sweetwater, Texas (212 miles west of Dallas), told the military authorities that Jack was underage to enlist, and took him home.  Later in 1942 after Jack turned 17 years old, his father signed the paperwork permitting him to enlist.  Jack left high school a semester before graduating and joined the US Navy.  [Jack had three older brothers who also served in WWII].

[While in California training, Jack learned a young lady he dated in Texas was in Los Angeles.  Her name was Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell.  They spent a night dancing the jitterbug to the Les Brown Band of Renown Orchestra at the Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium.  Gypsie would change her name to Phyllis Coates and became the first Lois Lane in the television series Adventures of Superman.]

Jack trained as a US Navy hospital corpsman and was assigned to the US 3rd Marine Division.

Second Battle of Guam (July 21 – August 10, 1944).  The island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean Mariana Islands had been a US possession since 1898.  The Japanese captured the island in the First Battle of Guam (December 8 – 10, 1941).

Jack landed on Guam several days after the initial US assault on July 21, 1944.  

While on Guam Jack tells the story of a local family who asked his help to deliver a baby.  He hadn’t received training in that area, and all he knew was what he had seen in American movies when an actor would say  “tear up the sheets and boil some water.”  The family followed Jack’s instructions.  Jack was organizing his torn sheets and boiling water when a family member delivered the baby.  The sheets that were torn up were never needed, and Jack learned that they were the family’s best ones that had been buried with other valuables in December 1941 so the Japanese could not confiscate them.

After the US capture of Guam, the island was used for training exercises in preparation for the Battle of Iwo Jima.

In Jack’s 2013 oral history interview with the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, he tells a story of the unimaginable bravery and courage of a fellow hospital corpsman who died in a training accident on Guam on December 3, 1944.  The hospital corpsman’s name was David L. Demarest.  He was 20 years old.  During the training exercise the shell of an anti-tank 105mm gun fell short and landed in the midst of the marines.  David Demarest’s jaw was blown off in the explosion.  In an attempt to prevent himself from swallowing his tongue after the injury,  David took a safety pin and put it through his tongue and then pinned his tongue to his cheek.  In spite of his serious injury he continued to treat the wounded and the dying until he too died.  Jack said 30 – 40 marines were killed or wounded in the exercise.

Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945).  Jack was assigned as a hospital corpsman on a US Navy attack transport ship (APA 89) named the United States Ship (USS) Frederick Funston.  APA 89 had transported troops from Guam to Iwo Jima for the battle.  Her troops were initially held in reserve and landed on Iwo Jima February 27, 1945.

 

USS Frederick Funston

 

Jack spoke of two medical treatments that became available to treat casualties on Iwo Jima; the availability of penicillin and whole blood saved many lives.

He also tells of the unique medical challenge of open wounds that became contaminated with the island’s volcanic ash.  Jack says it could turn a wound gangrenous in 24 hours.  That resulted in many amputations.

Battalion aid stations on the beach became targets for the Japanese.  It was decided to move American medics and casualties as quickly as possible out to ships for treatment.  Jack still gets emotional when he speaks of being surrounded by dying and wounded men as he worked to save lives.

In Jack’s 2013 interview he shared the tragic story of a marine he treated on the USS Frederick Funston.  His name was Sergeant (Sgt) Charles C. Anderson, Jr., who was assigned to the 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division.  His two legs and arms were blown off when a mortar landed between his legs on Yellow Beach.  The young marine remained conscious during part of his medical treatment, and Jack said Charles would make jokes wondering if he could get dates after the war.  The medics were able to keep him alive for 16 hours before he died of his wounds.

The death of Sgt Charles C. Anderson, Jr., was an especially sad one.  In one of WWII’s dramatic ironies, the captain of the USS Frederick Funston was Charles C. Anderson, Sr.  A father signed his own son’s death certificate.

On March 8, 1945, the USS Frederick Funston left Iwo Jima waters to transport the casualties they had on board to Guam for further treatment.

Jack was on Guam when he heard US President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945.  He said he and many of the men “cried like babies” when they heard the news.  

Training had already begun on Guam for the planned Invasion of Japan scheduled for November 1945 when he heard WWII had ended.  Their objective would have been to land on Kyushu, Japan’s third largest island.

After WWII ended it became a priority to transport American military personnel back to the US.  The plan called Operation Magic Carpet (October 1945 – September 1946) returned eight million Americans from the Pacific, European, and Asian Theaters.  Jack was assigned to the operation and made three Pacific crossings with US repatriated military personnel.

Jack was discharged from the US Navy in November 1946.  His three brothers survived WWII and returned home, but his younger 17 year old sister, Joyce Ann, had been killed in an automobile accident in Texas during the war.

Jack spoke of having nightmares for several years after WWII ended.

After WWII Jack used the GI Bill to attend Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.  He graduated in 1949 with a Degree in Agriculture.

 

 

In 2012 Jack was invited back to Spur, Texas, to receive his high school diploma.  After seventy years he officially graduated from high school.

 

Jack Fletcher receives his Spur High School Diploma. May 29, 2012, Spur High School graduation photo courtesy of Spur Independent School District.

 

During WWII Jack learned about Australia when he traded beer rations with Australian soldiers.  He would later move to Australia and began a business that changed the field of agriculture in Western Australia. The Australian government awarded him the Order of Australia Medal for his work.  For more information on Jack’s legendary career in the agriculture industry see http://www.cbs7.com/content/news/Sul-Ross-alum-Jack-Fletcher-receives-Order-of-Australia-medal-416627143.html and https://www.tradeearthmovers.com.au/features/1507/jack-fletcher-the-texan-kimberley-king.

Jack Miller Fletcher’s full interview can be found in the digital archives of the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.  He was interviewed by museum oral historian Floyd Cox.  The link is http://digitalarchive.pacificwarmuseum.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16769coll1/id/4236/rec/1.

Thank you to WWII historian and researcher Sue Moyer.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission: And the Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, Bita Paka War Cemetery

 

Rabaul Bita Paka War Cemetery

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The Bita Paka War Cemetery was established by the Army Graves Service in 1945 and is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  There are 1,120 WWII Commonwealth burials in the cemetery.

 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cares for WWI and WWII cemeteries and memorials in 154 countries in 23,000 locations.  Members of the Commission are Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.

Sir Fabian Ware, the commander of a British Red Cross mobile unit in WWI, had the vision to commemorate the men and women who had sacrificed their lives in WWI.  In 1917 a Royal Charter established the Imperial [now Commonwealth] War Graves Commission.

The Commission established high standards as work began to design and construct memorials and cemeteries.  A literary great of the day, Rudyard Kipling, advised in the selection of inscriptions for the Memorials.

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in Ypres, Belgium, was inaugurated on July 24, 1927, by Field Marshal Lord Plumer.  In his speech to those assembled he said,

“… One of the most tragic features of the Great War was the number of casualties reported as ‘Missing, believed killed’.  To their relatives there must have been added to their grief a tinge of bitterness and a feeling that everything possible had not been done to recover their loved ones’ bodies and give them reverent burial. …

But when peace came and the last ray of hope had been extinguished the void seemed deeper and the outlook more forlorn for those who had no grave to visit, no place where they could lay tokens of loving remembrance. … It was resolved that here at Ypres, where so many of the ‘Missing’ are known to have fallen, there should be erected a memorial worthy of them which should give expression to the nation’s gratitude for their sacrifice and its sympathy with those who mourned them.  A memorial has been erected which, in its simple grandeur, fulfils this object, and now it can be said of each one in whose honour we are assembled here today:  ‘He is not missing; he is here’.”

Over 54,000 names of the missing are engraved on panels of the Memorial.  

The CWGC later extended its responsibility to include the war dead of WWII.

The CWGC has ensured that 1,700,000 men and women lost in WWI and WWII will not be forgotten.  

In the United States there are 1,026 graves in 47 States that are commemorated by the Commission. 

 

For more information about the Commonwealth War Graves Commission visit website http://www.cwgc.org/about-us.aspx.

Rabaul, a town in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, was a Australian naval base that was captured by the Japanese in 1942.  It became a major Japanese air and naval installation and was the most heavily defended Japanese fortification in the South Pacific.  It was the assembly point for convoys of ships, known as the “Tokyo Express,” that would race south to bring troops and supplies to areas of conflict in the Solomon Islands such as Guadalcanal.  

Operation Cartwheel (1943 – 1944) was a major Allied plan to neutralize and then to isolate and bypass Rabaul as the Allies moved northward towards Japan.  Allied bombers and fighters first attacked Rabaul in December 1943.  Continuous Allied air attacks on Rabaul rendered it essentially useless in February 1944.  Bombing runs over Rabaul continued until August 1945 when Japan surrendered.  

 

In Memory Of … Don Jones WWII US 2nd Marine Division

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Private First Class James Donald Jones, US Marine Corps.

 

On a 2005 WWII in the Pacific cruise I met many WWII veterans who shared their personal experiences in conversations, lectures, and veteran round table discussions.  The trip began in Honolulu, Hawaii, made stops at Midway Island, Majuro, Guadalcanal, Rabaul, Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Nagasaki, and ended in China.  This post is about one of the WWII veterans I met on that trip.

 

James Donald “Don” Jones was born in Eastland County, Texas, on November 14, 1923.  He enlisted in the United States (US) Marine Corps days after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.  By the end of WWII Don was a veteran of Tulagi (August 7- 9, 1942), Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942 – February 9, 1943), Tarawa (November 20-23, 1943), Saipan (June 15 – July 9, 1944), and Tinian (July 24 – August 1, 1944).

These are some of the stories Don shared on the trip.  

 

Tulagi, Guadalcanal, and Savo Island, Solomon Islands

Background.  On August 9, 1942, in the aftermath of the catastrophic defeat of the US Navy at the Battle of Savo Island, US transport ships carrying men, rations, ammunition, gasoline, and other supplies left for safer waters to protect US carriers.  Supply lines to US troops on Guadalcanal were cut off for months as a result.

After first landing on the island of Tulagi, Don and the 2nd Marine Division were sent to Guadalcanal to defend a ridge perimeter around the airfield. 

Don spoke of the hardships on Guadalcanal due to malaria, dysentery, tropical diseases, jungle rot, and malnutrition.  The Marines nicknamed the island “Survival Island.”  Before US supplies began arriving again, they were surviving on rice stolen from the Japanese and native island food sources such as heart of palm.  Don said he never ate heart of palm again after that.  

Don spent much of his time on Guadalcanal in a foxhole on Bloody Ridge (also known as Edson’s Ridge) overlooking the airfield (Henderson Field).  The extreme heat and humidity resulted in leather boots rotting off the feet of some Marines.  While in his foxhole Don made a promise to himself;  if he lived through the war, one day he would return to Guadalcanal and smoke a cigar on Bloody Ridge.

 

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June 9, 2005, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. Don smokes a cigar on Bloody Ridge.

 

Saipan, Mariana Islands 

 

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June 16, 2005, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Don and his daughter, Nancy, at the American Memorial Park. During the stop in Saipan there was a program at the Memorial honoring WWII veterans. Don spoke at the ceremony and afterwards was interviewed by a Japanese news crew.

 

On June 15, 1944, Don landed with the 2nd Marine Division on “Green Beach” along the southwest coast of Saipan.

When moving up the west side of the island, while crawling on his stomach across a field, Don found a watermelon.  He ate the entire thing while bullets flew overhead.  His thought at the time was, “Nothing ever tasted so good.”

Continuing north Don saw the overwhelming aftermath of the largest Japanese Banzai charge (suicide attack) of WWII on July 7, 1944.  He said there were thousands of dead Japanese soldiers.  The flies there were so thick that a plane had to spray DDT over the area.  

On the northern tip of Saipan at Marpi Point Don witnessed civilian men, women, and children commit suicide jumping off the cliffs.

 

Tinian, Mariana Islands

The island of Tinian is visible from Saipan.  Don landed there in July 1944.

When Don landed on Tinian, he had three 2nd Marine Division replacements with him.  He told them, “Don’t get out of the sugar cane. Cross the field in the cane.”  Two of the replacements were killed by Japanese machine gun fire when they stepped out on a road.  At a Marine reunion years later the third replacement told Don, “For days I only followed you.  You knew what to do.”

Don was wounded on Tinian and evacuated to a battalion aid station.  He said the flies were so bad there that he asked to return to the front lines.

By the time Don left Saipan and Tinian, he had seen civilians jump to their deaths on both the northern cliffs of Saipan and the southern cliffs of Tinian.

 

Back in the US 

After three years in the Pacific Theater, Don was stationed in Washington, DC, standing guard outside the office of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations in WWII.  Don was in Washington, DC, when the war ended. 

Nancy, Don’s daughter, wrote, “James D. Jones was discharged in October 1945.  On his way to the bus stop he nearly cried.  He had only been a Marine.  For the last four years it wasn’t easy, but everything you needed, they provided.  He had a wife and baby waiting in Texas.  What would he do now?”  It was a shared sentiment felt by many who survived the war and were returning to the challenge of reentering civilian life.

 

A Last Tour in the Pacific

Don Jones went on a second WWII in the Pacific cruise in 2008 with his son-in-law, Joe.  Nancy wrote, “For my dad it is more a matter of saying goodbye this time to memories he has lived with for 60 years.  Last time it was an emotional reliving of his war experiences.”

 

James Donald “Don” Jones died in 2008 and is buried in his hometown of Eastland, Texas.  He was a proud Marine his entire life.

Semper Fi, Marine.

 

 

“Midway Atoll:  WWII and Present Day,” a story about the first stop on a 2005 WWII in the Pacific cruise, was posted on this website in November 2015.  Story link is https://www.ww2history.org/war-in-the-pacific/midway-atoll-wwii-and-present-day/ .

 

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Our Valor Tours group at dinner table 32 on the Pacific Princess cruise ship. We were strangers when we started the trip in Honolulu, Hawaii, and family when we disembarked in China.