Guadalcanal Marine

17. Going Back to War

[17] Going Back toWar On August 19, 1943, the first contingent of Marines sailed toward Goodenough Island and Oro Bay,some 2000 miles to the north. Here in the remote jungle boondocks of New Guinea, the men would put the finishing touches to training for their role in Operation Cartwheel. One weeklater, my unit, the 2nd Pioneer Battalion of the i/th Marines, moved by train to Brisbane, and then departed for Goodenough Island on September 11. I was allowed to remain behind in order to complete a course of instruction at the Royal Australian Bomb Disposal School at Wagga Wagga,NewSouth Wales.Here Iwould learn the deadly art of defusing unexploded (dud-fired) ordnance including bombs, rockets, projectiles , and land mines. Some of our instructors had been trained in London and others were veterans of the North Africa campaign. All were highly skilled in the procedures of defusing enemyordnance with an antidisturbing or antiwithdrawal fusing mechanism.1 1rejoined my unit approximately two months later. By October 23,the last contingent of our division had departed from Melbourne. Once again, the ist Marine Division was shoving off to make history . Only the most senior officers in the command knew we would invade Cape Gloucester, an island twice the size of Guadalcanal on the western tip of enemy-held New Britain. The landing beaches were at a point just over the horizon from New Guinea, where powerful Japanese forces were still being assembled. [285] [ 286 ] Guadalcanal American strategists targeted New Britain to provide protection for Gen. Douglas MacArthur's flank in New Guinea. They also hoped to swing control of the important waters between New Guinea and New Britain to the United States. The plan was to seize the strategic Japanese-held airfield at Cape Gloucester on the island's northwestern tip overlooking the waterwaythrough which MacArthur's troops heading for the Philippines would have to pass. The Japanese didn't give much thought to the western end of New Britain until the Allies started marching up the eastern coast of New Guinea, a hundred miles away across the channel. Only then did the Japanese set about fortifying western New Britain. They built a bomber strip at the remote village of Cape Gloucester. The Allies were advancing up the New Guinea mainland because Gen. MacArthur had vowed to return to the Philippines and he wanted help on his flank. He wanted it from the ist Marine Division, and he got it. On December 24,1943, MacArthur dispatched the ist Marine Division, the veterans of Guadalcanal, to capture the strategic Japanese-held airfield at Cape Gloucester, securethe western end of the island, and spearhead his island-hopping campaign across the Pacific. Getting to the staging area was an ordeal. We embarked aboard converted Merchant Marine liberty ships for a miserablefive-daytrip to Goodenough Island, off the southeastern tip of New Guinea.We were packed in like sardines aboard dark, uncomfortable, and plodding ships. I remember looking out in disgust at the crowded decks, wondering why these ships, originally designed to transport cargo, were being loaded with Marines going off to war. No wonder we ended up calling them "rust bucket tubs." The conversion of the liberty ships consisted of constructing a galley and heads on deck. (It was hard to tell which was which.) In strong winds, we fought to keep food in our mess kits and down in our stomachs. Weweren't too happy to find out the only meat wehad aboard was frozen sides of Australian mutton, which we classified Going Back to War [287] immediately as "dead goat." The meat was uniformly disliked by all hands. Weresumed taking our atabrine pills. Aswe arrived at the end of the mess line with our canteen cup in one hand and our mess kit in the other, the routine wasto open up as a medical corpsman flicked a little yellowpill in your mouth. We made our wayup the Australian coast sailing the GreatBarrier Reef. The reef was a natural protective barrier aswe sailed at night.We had no idea where we might be going, certain only that we were headed north and back into the war. Bythat time, the Japanese had been cleared out of the Solomon Islands and most of New Guinea. We had launched our northward island-hopping progress across the Pacific. Conjecture about our destination kept our tongues wagging and our minds occupied during the daysof inactivity...