My father recorded several tapes of his memories of World War II. This was the last one he did, and includes some stories I had never heard before. This transcript will be updated periodically when I have access to a transcription machine and/or time to transcribe it. For now, this is only part of the tape…

Dad's War Memories (Gordon Short)

…It took us two or three days to scare this area. The Japs were very well entrenched; we had to use every bit of our fighting power to make them retreat or seal them up by using bulldozers whenever we could….and the use of grenade, rifle power, flame throwers and mortars when possible. The casualty rate was not as high as we expected. There was enough of us that we lived through the battle to fight another day. Thank God for that.

I must tell you of one of our famous hills. Number 502 up on a very high mountain. There was a trail on the hill called Villa Verde trail and it was cut out of the mountainside by our troops of the engineer corps. Using bulldozers, etc. They really risked their lives against the sharpshooters of the enemy. I shall describe it a little bit…The Villa Verde trail twists its way up 24 miles from the Linguam Plain to the mile high mountain peaks of Luzon's Pera Bella mountains. That was the Jap's chosen grounds. Every mountain a fortress. Every hill a pillbox as the sixth army pushed its way north the veteran doughboys of the 32nd red arrow division fought for 119 consecutive days killing more than 8,000 Japs to secure this approach to the Tagion Valley. Just one more part of the action we saw.

I drove my 6x6 truck up this mountain several times hauling equipment, ammo, and kitchen supplies, and food. Sometimes us drivers would be alone, some in small convoys. Sometimes on these lone trips we would stop and pick up men and women in uniforms - the Filipinos looked so much like Japs, we never knew for sure if it was a Jap in a Filipino uniform or not. Many a time we would drive down the hills or mountains at night just using our blackout lights and it was very dangerous driving because you couldn't see very much. Just had to follow the guy ahead of you. Sometimes I would be the lead driver with an officer in the front with me, and that was worse as you had no one to follow and with very little light you had to go by sheer luck and was sometimes loaded with weapons or personnel. One time we got orders to go up on this trail to the top of the mountain to bring the kitchen and all of its personnel. I had my truck loaded real full with equipment and men. It was a nice day and we were traveling a little too fast I think, but the officers said the enemy was close by so we kept up to pace. Everyone once and awhile the guys would holler out, "Take it easy on the curves!" We made it OK. Another time we were ordered to haul a lot of troops from the kitchen units to the front lines and it rained to beat the dickens and it got awfully slippery. Well when we got up to the mountains several hundred feet we had some curves to go around and one time we were going real slow and the truck ahead of me stopped and caused me to stop. Right on a curve. And I started sliding backwards. The guys on my truck were hollering like the blazes. Well the truck behind me came up to me and touched my bumper and stopped me and held me as I was very close to a few hundred-foot drop. We were in a heck of a position until the officer said, "Take a heavy-duty chain and put it on the truck next to the last one and chain it to the last one." He then ordered everyone to start out together and push each other up the mountain. The ones in front would be pulling also. That way the last truck would not be left alone and slide off the trail. We finally made it and were bloody relieved.

The engineers with the heavy-duty equipment were a blessing. They took some awfully dangerous risks to use the bulldozers. One time when I was in the walking infantry, we were stopped on another hill with Japs in front of us and on the side of us. We could see the Japs in front of us quite well and the ones on our side gave us more trouble. They were entrenched quite solid and it was really annoying us with the rifle fire and the mortar shells. One time I was standing alongside of a foxhole and a round came in and whistled right by me, and landed right in the foxhole between two guys talking to each other. What a mighty close call for all 3 of us. The office close by called back to the engineer who had a 'dozer with them. He sent out a patrol and found out where the firing was coming from. The bulldozer came up and was told where the cave was. And as he started forward the Japs opened up with small ammunition fire. He raised a blade on the 'dozer and stopped all shells and bullets coming at him. In a short while we got near the cave and sealed it shut. That was the end of that skirmish and we left the next day as the Japs ahead of us moved out during the night.

I forgot one of the most important part of our experiences at the front lines was mail call. We SURE loved that! Believe it or not we had visitations by the Red Cross ladies and some men would also come up and give us [not sure…cookies?] They were some brave people I would say!

Some more things that happened while I was a foot soldier was we got to a certain area and we were pinned down, as there was quite a concentration of the enemy around us. We soon ran out of water to drink and food to eat. The trees were quite different from the ones we had state-side and what we called 'elephant ears'. When we were pinned down and couldn't get water we would get up early in the morning and licked the dew off of the leaves to get some moisture for our lips and tongues. We did this for two or three days, and the water carriers were not able to get through to us. While we were in that situation, we had very little or no rations. I had a real small can of meat and a portable gas heater I had confiscated from somewhere I won't say. I managed always to get gas from the truckers for it. On the second day my buddy said to me, "Short, you got anything to eat?" I said, "Yes…let's have a one-course meal." So I took out the can of beef meat while he lit the stove, and we took our can of meat and heated it up and gouged ourselves on that meat. Mind you, there was some juice on it and we really welcomed that! Finally after the third day without any more food, we heard a couple of airplanes coming towards us as they started dropping some big food packages to us. As the enemy was close by and we were being fired upon, they came in close, dropped, and left in a hurry. There was supposed to be enough food in each package to last 6 men for 3 days. The Japs never bothered us while we retrieved the containers. There was a big cans of ham, peaches, beans, some K-ration boxes, matches, cigarettes, chocolate candy bars, several cans of bouillon, and several packages of coffee. But I tell you we never had anything but my gas stove to heat up the beans and bouillon. We were so darned hungry that one guy spoke up and said, "Hell, I’m not going to eat my share [can't make out]", and the rest of us did the same.

One good thing that the big elephant ear leaves were good for was when it was raining we could cover our head and most of our body, too. Many a time we had to march in bad weather, and we were carrying full pack [machine gun, ammo and other supplies we had to have] We'd climb up hill, slip back down, and try again. Many a time we had to climb up steep embankments when it was real rainy and muddy. When we weren't doing that we were crossing streams of water which were all the way from knee-deep to shoulder deep. The hardest part was trying to keep our ammo and guns dry and of course any K-rations dry also, and cigarettes…if we had any left! One thing that was taboo on the front lines was alcoholic beverages of any kind. Sometimes if we ran out of good drinking water, we'd be allowed to fill our canteens with the only water we could find while walking but we had to put an anibrant tablet in it so that we'd make it safe to drink and we wouldn't get sick from it. We were supposed to wait for a half hour before drinking, but sometimes we would drink it right away as we were so darned thirsty. I remember one time we were being shifted from one area to the next near the front lines. We did not have enough trucks to haul us so we had to walk in. The distance was some 20-30 miles. We were asked if we could make it and how our feet were. Some had infections in the legs and feet. Most of us were OK, but some were lying about their conditions and wanted to walk and be with their buddies. The bad ones were hauled a different route by truck while the ones, including myself, started out walking. After several miles, the bad ones with bad sores sure gave the medics a busy time trying to keep clean bandages and dressings on the sores. Mine never really got too bad. Towards the end we were carrying a few on stretchers, and had to travel real slow. But we all made it, and thank God for that.

Another time while I was litter-bearer, this was in daylight, we were ordered to go up to the front lines to pick up wounded. We had to go through an opening in the trees and the Japs had the spot zeroed in on us. The officer at this point halted us and said that we would have to make a dash for it while our machine gunner would open fire to our sides and an angle in front of us. We would be sent off one at a time and run like frightened deer. We made it, but we were fired upon, but kept down low. When we got to the place where the wounded were, we helped put a wounded man on a stretcher…he had both legs mangled and twisted around. He wasn't in any pain at the time as he was given morphine or other kinds of medicine that killed the pain. Our sergeant told him he was a lucky guy, that he just bought a one-way ticket home. The man smiled and said, "You betcha…" Well, we picked him up and started out with him over some of the harder terrain you ever did see. We had to carry him down a steep incline and up the other side to very dense underbrush and fallen trees. We came to a point where there was another team awaiting to take him while we went to get another one. We were very lucky because shortly after we gave him to the other team, they came upon a small opening and the Japs seized this opportunity to open fire on them. The wounded man was shot and killed instantly. And so was one of the stretcher bearers.

In another area we were in action quite a bit most of the time, but for a short period of time we were at rest camp. I wasn't feeling good and wasn't eating. One day, one of my sergeants walked by me and he turned around and looked back at me again, and said, "My God, but you sure look yellow all over, especially your hands and eyes. You must have Yellow Jaundice." And he asked me how I felt, and I told him. He said, "I'm going to get on the phone and call the rear medics, and send you in to them for a checkup." The medics checked me over and confirmed it, and called for a small airplane to come and take me to a hospital about 70 miles away. Three planes arrived shortly after as there were enough patients for 3 airplanes. We took off shortly after they arrived and I was assigned a certain cot in the field hospital. Then I started getting shots of medicine. The show lines were double - one was for ones on a liquid diet (that was for me), and the other was for whole food, for others. After a few days I felt better, I'd slip over to the whole food line. I was in the hospital for one whole month, then returned to my outfit. While I was in the hospital that month, our outfit was relieved from duty on the front lines. On the way back to the rest area, the Japanese opened up with mortars and other shelling. Well, my sergeant buddy got hit and got both legs blown off. He asked to be set up against a tree. He lit up a cigarette, took 3 or 4 puffs on it, threw it away, and said, "This is it…", leaned over to one side, and died. The rest of the guys made it OK.

This is something that I read in a magazine that was published and given out about the combat history of the 32nd Division, WWII, published by the public relations office of the 32nd Infantry Division: "The 32nd Infantry Division fought on places such as Buna, Sagadoor, [can't make out], Leyte, and Luzon. Exotic names for strange places infinite signal points on the map of the Pacific plate. Place names of little significance prior to December 7, 1941. Now they are emblazoned on the pages of history. placed there in shining glory by the 32nd Infantry Division. Three years overseas from April 21, 1941 [sounds like this date, but I wonder if it should be 1942???] , 13,030 hours of combat performed, more than by any other division during WWII. They have gone into the record books as having 543 days of death and destruction, of disease and hunger, thirst, of pain and agony, and self-sacrifice. Days of glorious victory, days of heroism and valor. 543 days for Tojo's dream of conquest…" Tojo was the ruler of Japan before and through the war years, and was responsible for Japan being in the war.

Another quote from the same magazine: "Just one bit name given to the heroes of Buna was tagged with the 32nd Infantry Division…The majority of them were Wisconsin and Michigan National Guardsmen inducted into federal service when the 32nd Division was reactivated in October 1940. They trained at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana until February 1941, then moved to newly built Camp Livingston. Troops trains rolled down from the north for these selectees from Wisconsin and Michigan. The field of division ranks three months of maneuvers in Louisiana followed by two months in the Carolinas trained in and toughened them in and developed the division into a team. It was necessary for the 32nd to be ordered to go to a staging camp at Port Devons, Massachusetts. Preparatory to sailing from New York the port of embarkation to an unknown destination, replacements came from every state in the union, which brought the division up to combat strength. This division was also called the Red Arrow Division."

The Japs called the 32nd Division the "Bloody Butchers of Buna". And although the grim, ghastly battle of Papuan [New Guinea] jungle may be dimmed in memory by the latter's success of allied arms, the enemy does not forget it was at Buna that the Japanese fallacy of invincibility was proven. It was Buna where General MacArthur started his return to the Philippines. It was at Buna that the 32nd Infantry Division helped win the first U.S. Army ground campaign over the Japanese in the war. It was not an easy victory. Casualties were numbered more than the total strength of the division when it went into combat. However, nature proved to be the greater enemy. More men were cut down by jungle diseases and fevers than were victims of enemy action. Each day the heat and humidity and disease sapped the strength of the troops that did to fall or were wounded. All through the fighting in New Guinea and in the Philippines, the Australian soldiers played a very important part in all battles. They did not know the meaning of fear. Very courageous and brave, and very good in everything they went to do. Very friendly to talk to and work with. When they did their duties, they did it thoroughly.

I cannot describe each battle that we were in, but it was not a pleasant sight to be walking down the trail in the jungle and see the Japanese soldiers and American soldiers dead, lying in some awful gruesome shape because there had not been time to bury them. There were hordes of maggots on their face and bodies, sometimes you would see a discarded American or Japanese tank with the crewmen dead inside or around the tank. They had been with the tank when it was hit, the shrapnel it them, either dieing from the wounds or burnt real bad from exploding gasoline from the flame throwers that were usually upon them. Towards the end of the war, things began to calm down a bit. I can truthfully say that when we got news that Germany had surrendered, we were really happy and thrilled over it and that we started concentrating on our last enemies, the Japs. On our mop-up duties there was some opposition from the Japanese as they had their food supply cut off and they could only find food from the land, mostly berries. They got so darned weak that they could hardly walk. Not only that but they got sick with dysentery and stunk up the trails. We had to walk on that. One time we walked up on some Japanese soldiers by a stream of water. They were too weak to resist or fight in any way. They immediately surrendered. We took them back and turned them over to the MPs. We thought all along that we would have to invade Japan's homeland and I'm sure glad we didn't have to as we heard afterwards that our outfit was scheduled to go in on attack in the 9th wave, and they figured that the first 15 waves would be annihilated by the Japs' shore batteries of big guns dug in along the shores where we were supposed to land. I'm sure I wouldn't be here writing and recording all of this if this had come about.

I once read that the Japs had over 400,000 and boys listed as military to protect their homeland if need be. Thank God for the Atom bomb that was dropped on the two cities that forced them to surrender and we did not have to invade the mainland of Japan itself. It might have been a cruel thing to do, killing so many civilians, but they never thought or hesitated for a moment when they attacked Pearl Harbor. All these people never had a chance also. Soon after the bombing, Japan surrendered; we truck drivers were with the foot soldiers, out in the jungles and the roadways…our air force dropped leaflets that Japan had surrendered and of course the Japs had been notified by their own side. They came from all over, hardly able to walk and stacked their weapons where they were told. The Japanese soldiers were very obedient to their officers and really minded them well. When we got our trucks full, we would haul them to a place to secure them. They were well-guarded on the trucks and their place of encampment. General Yamashito [not sure of spelling here!] was the Japanese field general and later was tried as a war criminal and hanged in the area where we were at, where the atrocities he allowed the Japanese troops to do against the enemy.

After the surrender of Japan, there really wasn't much need for a lot of us soldiers to remain in that zone, so they placed our unit and several others on ships and sent us to Japan for occupational duty. We would be there until our number was called for return to home to the United States of America. We were placed on big ships and sent to Japan. It didn't take long to get there. Before we unloaded into smaller boats, we got a good look at some of the huge gun emplacements, only a few, because the best weapons were so well-concealed you couldn't see them. When we were unloaded on shore, we were hauled to our assigned barracks, and they were really nice. Our duties were minimal, and we could relax and do most anything we wanted to do. Along with the good food we got there, we were issued three cans of beer daily and if we wanted anything stronger to drink, we could buy a Japanese drink called saki, a very strong Japanese alcohol.

All went well until one morning at reveille, when the lieutenant said to us all that if we were having any of that strong drink that we should turn it in, as they were supposed to have found some that was not good and was poisoned, and making some of the troops very sick. We all had some, and he told us where we were supposed to turn it in. We all did as we were told, and nothing more was said of the issue. Another time at reveille, the first sergeant said that since toilet paper was getting to be of short supply, that when we used it, we should only use 3-4 sheets at a time. Needless to say, there was a lot of hee-haws and some giggling over that remark.

As I was still with the truck driving company, I was assigned certain days to go to the train station and pick up all the mail for the battalion. Of course a lieutenant always went along. He always had a 45 revolver strapped on his hip. It was military regulations, I guess. Before the train came in, I asked the lieutenant, what those openings on the platform were for. Well, he said, you just wait and see…The train soon came in at quite a rapid pace. When they were at the right place, it came to a sudden stop when they applied the brakes. The passengers were packed in solid in the cars. Some in seats, some of them standing. They started to unload rapidly, and the lieutenant said to me, "Now, watch…" The people, mostly the women…it wasn't very long before I found out what the openings on the platform were for. The women got off the train, and ran, some squatting over the holes, and most of them wore dresses, and urinated in the holes. When they finished, they put down their dress and went on their way. It was quite a sight for a country bumpkin to see, and I turned to the lieutenant, and he said, "Now you know", and I said, "Yes, Sir." He laughed. We got the load of mail, and went back to camp with it.

We would often play tricks on one another, like who seen the guy in front of us in the chow line. And when you did this, he would poke the guy in front of him, and when I was right behind a guy that was goosing, I'd touch him and socked a guy ahead of him pretty hard, and he turned around and said, "What in the hell was that for?" The guy that did the goosing or poked him pointed at me, and I told him that I had just stumbled and couldn't help it. The guy took it good-naturedly, and that settled that.

One thing a truck driver didn't have to do was change the tires on his truck as we never had any tire tools. Sometimes I would have all the way from one flat to three flats a day. Not on the same day, of course, but it all depended on the train we were driving in. We really enjoyed our short stay in Japan, with long passes to go into town. When we were not on pass, or on a driving detail, believe it or not we did not even have to stand for reveille. We could sleep as long as we wanted to, eat breakfast when we wanted to, and most of that day we would clean up, do our bed making, do our laundry, play poker, read books, or just shoot the bull. We were not on a strict routine. I remember one time when it wasn't my time to drive for mail. The lieutenant came into our barracks and said to me, "Short, would you take so-and-so's trip today as he wanted off for certain reasons?" I said, "Sure, Lieutenant." And he thanked me for it, as he was the one in charge for that trip that day.

What the soldiers did in other areas I do not know, as I really don't know why we were even sent there. I guess it was just a staging center for us to wait until our number came up to go home. The ones that were in the service the longest overseas were given the highest number and they were called first. I remember when the highest number was 148, and mine was 44. The numbers were called off daily. As they were called off, they would be shipped out the very next day. I can remember Wassing and my numbers were called in the chow line. One of our lieutenants … [TO BE CONTINUED]

Gordon Short (1919)