The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea--The Forgotten War of the South Pacific (2 page)

P
ROLOGUE

Dearest Lover:

Is it ever grand out—you know, honey, you’ve read in stories about the tropical evenings, a warm, sultry night with a slight breeze…and a moon peaking thru the clouds. Well, that’s the way it was to-night. I stood there for a long time, watching and most of all wishing to have you standing along side of me, and that we could really take advantage of the “Romantic Atmosphere”…the stillness of the night—Just two things missing—First and most of all, My Mandy, and then some sweet, faint dance music. Well, we’ll just have to postpone it for the present…until another night. Give Muriel and Ann my love—I think about you all so often. What a great day it will be when we can be together again.

Goodbye Sweetheart—All my heart’s love always—Yours forever, Sam

Thursday Nite 6:00 PM.
July 30, 1942

My Sweetheart:

And how’s my Mandy this evening? Let me see, right now it is three oclock in the morning in Grand Rapids, so you should be sound asleep—wish I could tip toe in on you right at this moment honey, and take a peep in at you, I’d carefully put a kiss on your lips, your cheeks, your eyes, and your hair, and then rest my cheek against yours for awhile without awakening you, then take a good long look at you again and tip toe out.

Yours Forever, Sam

Wednesday Nite 7:50 PM.
Sept. 9, 1942

To “My One and Only:”

I’ll try my best to get my thoughts on paper, but it’s not like being with you darling, sitting across from you, watching the smile on your face, the touch of your legs under the table…I miss you love, oh God! How I miss you sometimes…All these things I’ve wanted to tell you, should have told you before I left…I hope you don’t think I’m sacriligeous but if I were offered my choice between heaven and you, I’d choose you…I’m going to say goodbye now…

Always your man, Sam

Later that night: Hello darling, here I am again. I hope the censors will let that letter go thru alright. I started out to write this letter, but wrote that one instead. I have hopes they [the censors] won’t open the previous letter, certainly no military secrets in there unless it’s a military secret…that I’m so very, very much in love with you—I’m sure tho that the japs don’t care about that.

Wed. Nite 8:00 PM.
Somewhere in New Guinea
October 14, 1942

Dearest Lover:

Oct. 14—this is the eve of two years in the army—Two years ago tomorrow we were inducted…Have been under the “weather” a little of late. Been having a little dysentery…There are an enormous amount of flies here…I suppose you wonder all about New Guinea…There are a lot of natives here. Quite a bit of sickness and disease amongst the natives…They have a lot of skin diseases and eye infections. Lot of the small children walk about with “pot” bellies due to malnutrition. Pretty near all have rickets—some have large spleens because of malaria. The men folks wear a cloth about the hips…The women folks wear a tropical grass skirt…The other day I saw a woman nursing a baby on one breast and a small pig on the other—the natives are very much tattooed. They make wonderful boatsmen…Night before last crossed a fast streaming river and two of these natives handled a small boat and took us right straight across like nothing…The women seem to do much of the work—will see a native carrying a spear coming down a path and behind him comes his wife all loaded down with fruit, coconuts, wood, etc. on her back and head, and perhaps a baby sitting on top of that holding on to her hair…

What I’m really looking forward to is the day I step on U.S. soil—what a day that will be…

Goodnight, My Mandy, Lovingly Yours, Sam

Monday Nite
New Guinea
Nov. 2, 1942

Dear Muriel:

And how’s that big daughter of mine getting along—I’ve been wondering about you so much now that you are going to school…Mommie tells me you are a big girl now. How nice you play with Ann. Do you like your baby brother?…I sure miss you Muriel, remember how you and I used to play at night in the house before you went to bed, that was loads of fun, wasn’t it? Am thinking lots about you.

Love, Your Dad

Late November 1942, Buna Coast, New Guinea:

B
EFORE SETTING OUT
, they smeared their faces with green paint. Loaded down with hand grenades, .30 and .45 caliber ammunition, and two days’ rations, the Americans struggled through heavy jungle and dug in just in front of a battalion of Australians. A second American detachment had its sights set on a spot farther north along the trail. Navigating through hip-deep swamps, the soldiers clashed with a Japanese patrol, lost their bearings, and ended up well short of their destination. Having realized that the main advance was falling apart, another company left the banana plantation and pushed forward in a northwesterly direction through nipa and sago palm. Two hundred yards out it was stopped in its tracks by heavy Japanese cross fire. Ordered to dig in, the men worked fast. They had just settled into their trenches when the Japanese attacked. Hundreds of enemy troops bore down on them. They rushed forward like wild Indians, shouting “Banzai!”, crashing through the jungle, their bayonets drawn. The Americans froze. The Japanese soldiers were almost upon them when the Americans finally fired. The forest filled with the smell of gunpowder. Called forward, two Australian companies hurried to help, and together they drove back the Japanese, inflicting heavy losses. At night, as their foxholes filled with water, the soldiers listened to swamp rats feeding on corpses.

Three days later, having patrolled the area and drawn up rudimentary maps, the Americans again prepared to attack. They opened up with artillery and mortars and then moved forward. One detachment pushed straight north, followed by a platoon of Australians and the regimental surgeon, Major Simon “Sam” Warmenhoven and a portion of his staff. To avoid the swamp, the soldiers clung to the main trail. A hundred yards out, they slammed into the Japanese and were halted by a torrent of fire. When a mortar landed among the Australians, Major Warmenhoven ran forward, dashing past enemy fire lanes. Five men lay dead; another eight were alive, but the shrapnel had done its work—they were badly torn up. Warmenhoven jumped from one man to the next as mortars exploded around him. He gave each soldier a half-grain of morphine, cut away their clothes, and dusted their wounds with sulfanilamide powder. Then he dressed the wounds as best he could and waited with the moaning soldiers for litter bearers to arrive. Later he would receive the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism.