Heavily Redacted WW2 Era Letter Written by African American Serviceman. An interesting first hand account of the war in the Pacific. Invasion details, finding Japanese bayonet, and much more. Details in comments.
Heavily Redacted WW2 Era Letter Written by African American Serviceman. An interesting first hand account of the war in the Pacific. Invasion details, finding Japanese bayonet, and much more. Details in comments.
This letter was written by Billy Scott, an African American who was born on March 15th 1925 in Buffalo, New York. During WW2, he enlisted into the U.S. Army and served with the 313th Port Company, Transportation Corps. Based on the APO, it appears he was stationed on Bougainville at the time of writing this letter. The letter was heavily censored, with parts redacted, but what remains is very interesting and worth the read.
The letter reads:
>“ Dear Mike,
>Received your letter today. And thought I’d better [REDACTED…..]
>So Billy Squire is just killing himself. Do you think I could convince him of the better life of living in mud, sleeping in water, choking on atabrine, being sung to sleep by mosquitoes and vampire bats, reciting the last will and testament after eating the mighty “C’s”, where ice is a mad dream, and water is the stuff they put under boats?? Well you have lived a good bit of that yourself and after we tell him enough of that, he’ll just be “crying to come into the service” (Damn, maybe the heat has got me!)
>Let me tell you a story told by Pep to me when they hit Morotai. When the task force arrived, there was no activity, not a Jap plane in sight and they were lucky because when they jumped off the invasion barges into the water, the water was up to their chins. Imagine that with a combat pack and M1 to carry 100 yards to the shore. Had Jap pilots been around strafing, the whole brigade would have been wiped out. The fellows had to cut their packs off to keep from drowning. About 20 yards from shore the water was waist deep but the mud was 3 feet deep so they were back up to their chins again!! The shore was solid coral and impossible to dig fox holes. The Japs began to wake up and send their planes over and they bombed for 13 days and nights straight. Just think, Doug himself waded ashore, cleared his throat, said something, waded back to his PT Boat which took him to his battle ship and then he went to _____ on furlough after a tough battle at Morotai.
>(These powers that be!!). One fellow is the [REDACTED] told me that he was watching a dog fight while flak was falling all around him when all of a sudden a piece about as large as your hand hit the stock of his M1 and left nothing but the barrel hanging on his back. He couldn’t speak for days but the first thing he said was fu_ _ dog fights! Joe Pep has 4 bronze stars now. I think I have two (I am sure of 1)
>Those pictures that I shall send you, one in the bottom of a brutal pack that I must carry a hell of a ways. When I get “there” I will send them to you.
>Thanks for Dicks address, I’ll write him sometime soon.
>So you can clearly see that _____ awaits you. You mean us. I know it now. Let me tell you something else humorous. Our island is by no means secure. There are Jap patrols around here now. We are all armed.
>A shot was fired into the night about a month ago and one of my best pals here decided to hit the road behind some medium tanks just across the road. He started off about 200 miles / hour. His hat blew off and without losing 1 ounce of speed , turned around and caught it before it hit the ground. Next thing he knew he was on the other side of the tank and he swears that he didn’t go around it. It was “through it” or “over it” all in pitch darkness!! I was in a medium tank not long ago and it is a suicide vessel. The only thing I would ever want in it would be a turret gunner. Other than that, the hell with tanks!
>I found a Jap bayonet sometime ago and it is shaped like this, about 16 inches long and made out of German steel. The hook is used to engage in some part of our rifle and drag away from us. Another friend of mine has a beautiful Jap sword with a pearl handle. And still another has a brand new German Luger. If you go anywhere near where you think you’re going, those things will be a dime a dozen. Back at [REDACTED] when we first landed, Jap rifles were to be found lying on the ground. I actually had one but threw it away because I was too lazy to send it home!!!
>Well Mike pal, it is getting too dark to write and there will be no lights tonight and alas it must be in by morning so until Doug and I are able to write you again, we are cheerfully signing off. Please write soon. Your friend and pal, Bill.
>P.S. Make sure you have plenty of girlfriends to write when you leave for over here – make them promise to write – you see there are no “girls” here anywhere and if there were, the “off limits to enlisted personnel” sign would be on them. Mail will be the only contact you’ll have with civilization because when you step on that boat, you’ll begin to get jungle happy. “
Billy would survive the war and return home. He would pass away on July 26th 2002.
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This letter was written by Billy Scott, an African American who was born on March 15th 1925 in Buffalo, New York. During WW2, he enlisted into the U.S. Army and served with the 313th Port Company, Transportation Corps. Based on the APO, it appears he was stationed on Bougainville at the time of writing this letter. The letter was heavily censored, with parts redacted, but what remains is very interesting and worth the read.
The letter reads:
>“ Dear Mike,
>Received your letter today. And thought I’d better [REDACTED…..]
>So Billy Squire is just killing himself. Do you think I could convince him of the better life of living in mud, sleeping in water, choking on atabrine, being sung to sleep by mosquitoes and vampire bats, reciting the last will and testament after eating the mighty “C’s”, where ice is a mad dream, and water is the stuff they put under boats?? Well you have lived a good bit of that yourself and after we tell him enough of that, he’ll just be “crying to come into the service” (Damn, maybe the heat has got me!)
>Let me tell you a story told by Pep to me when they hit Morotai. When the task force arrived, there was no activity, not a Jap plane in sight and they were lucky because when they jumped off the invasion barges into the water, the water was up to their chins. Imagine that with a combat pack and M1 to carry 100 yards to the shore. Had Jap pilots been around strafing, the whole brigade would have been wiped out. The fellows had to cut their packs off to keep from drowning. About 20 yards from shore the water was waist deep but the mud was 3 feet deep so they were back up to their chins again!! The shore was solid coral and impossible to dig fox holes. The Japs began to wake up and send their planes over and they bombed for 13 days and nights straight. Just think, Doug himself waded ashore, cleared his throat, said something, waded back to his PT Boat which took him to his battle ship and then he went to _____ on furlough after a tough battle at Morotai.
>(These powers that be!!). One fellow is the [REDACTED] told me that he was watching a dog fight while flak was falling all around him when all of a sudden a piece about as large as your hand hit the stock of his M1 and left nothing but the barrel hanging on his back. He couldn’t speak for days but the first thing he said was fu_ _ dog fights! Joe Pep has 4 bronze stars now. I think I have two (I am sure of 1)
>Those pictures that I shall send you, one in the bottom of a brutal pack that I must carry a hell of a ways. When I get “there” I will send them to you.
>Thanks for Dicks address, I’ll write him sometime soon.
>So you can clearly see that _____ awaits you. You mean us. I know it now. Let me tell you something else humorous. Our island is by no means secure. There are Jap patrols around here now. We are all armed.
>A shot was fired into the night about a month ago and one of my best pals here decided to hit the road behind some medium tanks just across the road. He started off about 200 miles / hour. His hat blew off and without losing 1 ounce of speed , turned around and caught it before it hit the ground. Next thing he knew he was on the other side of the tank and he swears that he didn’t go around it. It was “through it” or “over it” all in pitch darkness!! I was in a medium tank not long ago and it is a suicide vessel. The only thing I would ever want in it would be a turret gunner. Other than that, the hell with tanks!
>I found a Jap bayonet sometime ago and it is shaped like this, about 16 inches long and made out of German steel. The hook is used to engage in some part of our rifle and drag away from us. Another friend of mine has a beautiful Jap sword with a pearl handle. And still another has a brand new German Luger. If you go anywhere near where you think you’re going, those things will be a dime a dozen. Back at [REDACTED] when we first landed, Jap rifles were to be found lying on the ground. I actually had one but threw it away because I was too lazy to send it home!!!
>Well Mike pal, it is getting too dark to write and there will be no lights tonight and alas it must be in by morning so until Doug and I are able to write you again, we are cheerfully signing off. Please write soon. Your friend and pal, Bill.
>P.S. Make sure you have plenty of girlfriends to write when you leave for over here – make them promise to write – you see there are no “girls” here anywhere and if there were, the “off limits to enlisted personnel” sign would be on them. Mail will be the only contact you’ll have with civilization because when you step on that boat, you’ll begin to get jungle happy. “
Billy would survive the war and return home. He would pass away on July 26th 2002.