Letter From T/5 Russell Struble in New Guinea - 1944

Letter from T/5 Russell Struble in New Guinea

Bainbridge News & Republican, October 19, 1944

T/5 Russell W. Struble, of Baltimore, Md., nephew of Arthur Clarke and a former resident of Bainbridge [Chenango Co., NY], writes a descriptive letter of New Guinea to his family.  Excerpts of the letter follow:

 

Well, after two days of hard work we have our tents pretty well set up.  It has been quite a job because we are perched up on the side of a hill.  I don't believe there is one square inch of level ground.  As I sit here in the tent I can look down in a narrow valley to a road which is heavy with traffic, but all military, as you might well expect.  We thought our former location was mountainous, but this is a diller.  There we were right on a bay, but here we are 12 miles back in the hills from the bay, and what a road it is!  You will remember the Storm King Highway, well this is very much like it, only there are no guard rails and it is dirt to boot.  Believe you me when the Yanks move into a place things really hum.  The engineers have done a marvelous job of road building here and all in a short time too.

 

As I said in last night's letter, we are attached to an advance Platoon of another Med. Depot Co.  At present we eat with them but will build our own mess hall, showers and latrine.  As soon as that is completed we will then go to work in the depot, which is what we came up here for.  They tell us there is less rain here.  The days are hot and the night very cool.  Guess that is because we are right in a mountainous jungle.  In fact, I don't believe there is any part of New Guinea but what is mountainous, but maybe there is level ground somewhere back in the interior.  As a matter of fact, we sit up from the valley and right in our rear it is almost straight up.  We only had to dig rain ditches on the upper side of our tents.  We live in squad tents (8 men to a tent) whereas our tents back where the rest of the Co is, are smaller and have 5 men in.  We miss our set-up there because we did have them fixed up almost like a home, but if we stay here long enough and can get lumber, we will have the same thing here.  We were permitted to bring our foot lockers.  We banded them with wire and included them in a shipment of Med. supplies that came here from the 37th Med. Dep. Co., and on the same boat with us.  The boat trip wasn't so good, as it was too crowded with other units, but we did get good food.  In fact, we had no place to sleep so just rolled up in a blanket any place we could find on the deck and then if it rained, which it did a couple of nights, we had to scramble below, which would already be crowded.  Anyhow we could snooze in the day time, play cards, or read, so all in all it wasn't too bad.  I did bring my mattress with me and I'm glad I did, because I don't think they have any of the (morine???) type here in this depot and they do help quite a bit on a cot even though they are nothing more than a thick pad.

 

By being able to bring a locker box, I could crowd it into my duffle bag (the mattress), which, with my box, went into the hold.  We carried only our toilet articles with us.  Didn't have a bath for seven days, but have had three good ones since getting here. We laid in the harbor two days and nights before our ship could get dock space.  Time out--must have some canned pineapple one of the boys swiped on the boat.  Had steak today for dinner.  My appetite has been ravenous these past two days. This outdoor life sure makes a person eat and sleep. Got our generator going today and the tents wired and have one 25 watt bulb tonight but will have more tomorrow. We are veterans now at setting up, so it doesn't take long.  However, we will have to haul our water for washing and all purposes.  I don't know exactly what my job will be here, once we start operating, but expect it will be the same.  Will have to put up warehouses as a lot of the supplies are now outside under tarpaulins.  The warehouses have roofs only and the structure is all cut to size and are part of regular equipment.  Can be executed in a very short period of time--Are put together with bolts and can be taken down in a jiffy--they have corrugated tin roofs.

 

There is a movie down the road a short ways.  I can see the screen from where I sit.  It is connected with a general hospital.  Can also see a stockade from here with lights all around.  It's said there are Jap prisoners there.  Just 300 years to the left and the other side of our mess hall is a cemetery in which are buried Japs as well as Americans and others, but there are no live Japs here unless they are way back in the hills starving to death.

 

Have seen a good bit of the American Navy and plenty else I would like to tell you, but seeing as how I can't give my location, it will have to wait until I see you.

 

Some of the boys lost their duffle bags and lockers.  It took two days and a night to unload the boat I was on, which work of hauling and unloading is done by port battalions and as this place is so big, because there are so many different outfits here, the stuff was mixed in with other unit's and now we can't tell where they have gone.  Everything had our code number on but they seem to have vanished into thin air.  Fortunately my bag and locker arrived here safely, but Plozar lost his locker in which he had a camera, fountain pen and other personal items.  All G.I. stuff will be replaced free, but he will be out his personal stuff unless our officers can locate the outfit that got them.  Incidentally, Plozar and myself were the only ones in our tent that was selected for the advance.  Wade, Zimmerman and Gonzales stayed behind.  I'm glad that I got to come because it was getting pretty monotonous there and they many be stuck there for the duration.  Here it is something new and once we get over the rough spots of setting up and organized, it will be just as good, if not better.  I would like to go to the Philippines, or even China.  Might as well see as much as I can while I am out here.

 

We have three radios with us and one of the fellows just came in and said that the Yanks are 18 miles from the German border.  From what I can judge, it won't be long before it will be over in Europe, and then the heat will really be turned on over here.

 

From 9/9...........This is a quiet evening in New Guinea.  Most of the boys are sitting round shooting the breeze and writing letters.  There is no show down the road and we have no conveyances to go any place such as a Red Cross Center or another movie.  Besides, it hasn't rained for several days and the roads are terrible.  Some of the boys that do have to go out come back literally covered with dust.  I thought I might go up to the airport tomorrow.  Understand there is quite a bit to see, such as bombers going out on missions, etc.  Heard that there was a dance somewhere around but presume there would be about 1,000 men to every WAC.

 

Did I tell you that we just missed Bob Hope?  They left here the day before we arrived.  Did want to see his show.  No doubt he will have something to say about his trip out here when he returns to the air in the States and Jack Benny will no doubt mention it also.  I did see his show back at our base.

 

....Had steak again today and home made cake!  Quite some difference from what we have been accustomed to.

 

....Had an uneventful day.  Watched the engineers excavating and putting up a prefabricated frame.  Those boys sure do know their business.