Troop movement Archives

7 April 1945

Dear Folks:

For the first time in the past several days I have some unused time on my hands and also the censor has permitted us to write about what has been happening to me, so there is two good reasons to write. I would like to make this a good long account so you could picture better just what this place is like, but I don’t feel like writing very much, so later perhaps I can explain things more fully (later). In the first place I’m on Okinawa in the Ryukus. Was expecting the same old things as in other Pacific Islands, that is coconut trees, cane fields, and hot sweating days. I was surprised to find it much different. The best way I can think to describe to you what the island is like is by comparing it to the City Park in Denver. From a rise or a hill the landscape looks like broad rolling lawns with green hedges patch working the scenery. Each family has about two acres for a farm and every inch of that two acres is carefully planted in neat little patches no bigger than your own garden. A little plot here has barley, while others have carrots, cabbages, onions, and some cane. Of course we’ve made good use of the fresh vegetables and it is no doubt at all to cook up an evening stew of cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, and lettuce. Everything is in miniature, and all in all the landscape is some of the best I have ever seen. Something else uncommon to anything else I’ve seen, is the tombs used by those people who believe in ancestor worship. The tombs are located on hillsides with a vault opening to the inside and with a small courtyard in the front. They are scattered all over, located near the farm of each family. They remind me of pictures I’ve seen of Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.

And finally after quite a long time some cool weather, at least it seems very cool to us. I guess it seldom gets less than fifty at nights but it takes all I have to keep warm, and the days are hot, the hot humid tropical kind. But it’s invigorating and maybe it accounts for my feeling some better and eating. Well there is a brief description, but as time goes on, I’ll add more to it.

We came here from Leyte in the Philippines and the boat ride was rough, but plenty. In the past I couldn’t mention Leyte, only the Philippines. While on Leyte I visited Dulag, Tarragona, Albuera, Ormoc and Baybay among others. Perhaps you will remember Ormoc as the place where the Japs re-enforced. I guess that is enough about events.

I’m fine myself and feeling perfectly well, and I won’t take any chances I don’t have to, because having come this far I think perhaps the time won’t be too far off when I can see you. Very fortunately and thru the good judgment of our CO I have a cot, and it makes a world of difference. Well we’re cooking our own rations again, and it’s getting about time to warm up the stove. I see the cook has brought in and cleaned some carrots and has a big hunk of garlic.

I’ll write again soon and as often as possible.

Love,

18 July 1944

[Harold types]

Dear Folks:

Dick came down to see me today and I thought while we were laying around we just as well write you a letter – or try to. Right after we had dinner we walked along the beach road from Charan Kanoa to the end of the island looking for an army cemetery but couldn’t find it. While we were looking for the place, Dick showed me the places where his outfit landed and even where he dug his first foxhole. And we found a lot of Jap caves that were well concealed and topped over with a lot of dirt and leaves. They dig in like [illegible] caves are transforming the face of the [illegible] saw several thick walled concrete [illegible] from the point we had a good view of Tinian [illegible] over there must be thinking – if they can see what is going on [illegible] there is (a) sugar factory that stands out on the landscape. It took quite a beating from navy shells and girders and machinery are flung everywhere. From the factory runs a number of narrow gauge railroad lines. The army captured a few locomotives and now you can hear their high pitched whistle as the guys chug along using the cars to haul supplies, etc. The trains are small and look more like oversized toys. We haven’t had a look at Carapan yet and I have been itching to get up there and see what goes. The town is about ten thousand so there must be quite a lot to see. I haven’t seen a newspaper or magazine since I left Oahu and today Dick walked in with a Time magazine. I’m anxious to review it from cover to cover. I was asking Dick what I should write about and he said to mention that we will be sending home some souvenirs soon when the situation permits. I told you about the bayonet and the flag. In addition to those Dick got a wallet with quite a sum of Jap money in it, and many pictures of the officer’s family and what must be his wife. Also he got his insignia of a 2^nd lieutenant. He’ll probably have some more before it is all over. The weather here is about the same as on Oahu but right now is the season when the monsoons begin and the past few nights there have been heavy rainstorms. They say hurricanes strike near the island about once every two years and I hope this isn’t one of them. Today is pretty hot and sultry and the sand all around is hard on the eyes.

We were both wondering about Phil and whether he has come into the army yet. Every once in a while you see a crude handwritten sign over a foxhole saying Frisco 7752 miles, Tokyo 1521, and then we realize just how far away we are. Guam lies about 103 miles to the south and just to the north are the Bonims(?). It’s going to be a long boat ride home someday but we’re ready to accept it any time. And remind us never to take another ocean voyage when we get home. The food was pretty good on the boats but the chow lines are hard to buck, and the accommodations are hardly first class. Well I’m going to turn this over to Dick and let him add a few lines.

[Dick handwrites]

Today being Sunday I went to communion and then to see Harold. We’re taking it easy now after a little uneasiness. I’ll write some time later.

Love,

Dick

15 July 1944

Dear folks:

I should have much to write about this time for the censorship regulations have [been] cut down and now I can tell you some of the many things I have wanted to. As you guessed I am in Saipan on the Mariane Islands, about 3200 miles from Hawaii and I don’t know how far from the house. [illegible] which is the capitol and most heavily populated of the Mariane group. Looks much like the islands of the Hawaiian group. The island is about fifteen miles long with a mountain of 1500 feet in the center, and which was the most fought for point in the battle. Three miles to the south is Tinian which is still swarming with Japs [the rest of this sentence was blacked out by the censor]. The boat ride from Oahu was a long one and a hot one. Each day as we progressed nearer the objective the Chaplain gave a short talk about the islands, the makeup of the naval forces, the enemy strength, the battle plan and so forth. We didn’t know where we were going on leaving Oahu and when we were told it was Saipan I think we were all pretty surprised. I was myself for I thought we wouldn’t take such a big hop quite yet. On our boat were mostly Marines [the rest of this sentence was blacked out by the censor]. Aside from a few submarine alerts and unidentified aircraft warnings the voyage was quite routine. I remember the night before D-Day when we first caught a look at the island. It was about three o’clock in the morning and we could stand on deck and see the battleships, cruisers and destroyers bombarding the island with their big shells. About a half hour later we had breakfast and it was a big one. Ration and a half for each man including steak, potatoes and the rest of it—more like a Sunday dinner. About this time H Hour was coming around and although the artillery doesn’t go in as assault troops, I really said a prayer for the Marines who hit the beach first. The Chaplain also had the boat quiet for a minute and said a few words. From our position on the boat we could watch the battle although we were quite a ways out and could only guess as to how we were making out. A few hours later rumors began to fly—we were going right along, then we were taking a beating and all versions were having their round. Almost every evening on the boat the Japs would send over a few planes and that began my first war experience I guess you’d call it. On the boat you go below and sit in the hot holds listening to the announcer give the location and speed of the enemy planes over the loud speaker and hope to hell they will miss you. One night I remember I was sweating more than usual, our own pom-poms and anti-aircraft started a barrage and I thought if they ever hit us we would go straight to the bottom. The first day after D-Day some of troops were ashore. I wasn’t among them and secretly I wasn’t disappointed. The scenes of battle were everywhere, the effect of the naval shells, the Japs own mortar fire on our troops and many bodies lying around, in all positions and all stages of decomposition. Sights that you hope you will never see again. Along the beach, in and out of the water, were wrecked tanks, alligator debris and a thousand things necessary to the campaign. The smell was terrible and the dust from tanks and vehicles was so thick you could hardly breathe. Well the first thing for the night was dig a foxhole and that first one I built was a stinker. I thought it was all right but when our artillery began to fire the thing almost caved in and the sand was all over me. I couldn’t hardly get out of the thing for fear of being shot and I wasn’t feeling too brave anyway. About the second day after I landed Dick came into camp looking dirty and disheveled. I knew he must be having it pretty tough in his outfit and I was pretty worried, but he had a big grin and I felt better. He had a lot to tell me, he gets up close to them and sees the Japs firsthand. He said he killed two Japs the day before and he had a nice flag taken from one of them. Well a little after dinner he had to leave, and that was about ten days before the battle was over and I felt anxious again, and kept hoping the thing would be over in a few days. Can you imagine Dick doing what he is doing? Every evening without fail the Japs would send over a plane to drop flares and keep a line on the situation, and who came to be known as “Bedcheck Charlie”. Later two began to appear and he was called “Bedpan Charlie”. One night they were circling over and dropped a few bombs, and I was laying in the foxhole hoping he wouldn’t get any closer when we opened up with our anti-aircraft and in a few minutes he was hit squarely and caught fire immediately. He dove to the ground and set off a mighty explosion. When he was hit you could hear the dogfaces for a mile or two around. All gave a big cheer. The guys that knocked him down were big favorites after that. About an hour later they bagged another Jap plane and he made a big flame too. Our jeeps have a radio that can get Frisco and at six o’clock we would listen to the news especially anxious to hear what they had to say about Saipan and hoping you were listening too. But when it came time for the GI programs, an air raid would sound and we would hit for the foxhole. Radio Tokyo is easy to get also and of course we always heard their version too. The reports would be exactly opposite and their reports of casualties about four times what we thought they should be. Tokyo also has a night program called the Zero Hour and dedicated to the American soldiers in the south Pacific. The nerve of the guys. Tokyo Rose speaks perfect English and tries your patience by recalling for you how nice it would be to be home and that sort of stuff. But the music is pretty fair and we don’t mind listening. Well the battle went on and I hadn’t seen Dick for about eight or nine days and I was hoping he would show up. He was in the front lines about five or six miles from our positions and it wasn’t too easy for us to get together, but he showed up with a lot of souvenirs and more dope. Said he killed two more one of them a Jap officer, and from him he got his bayonet, a pretty good one. About this time we were pushing the Japs back over the mountain and getting them cornered in the northern point, and Dick thought it would be over in a day or two so I thought easier about him. In our battery we have a shower and that felt damn good to Dick who hadn’t cleaned up for sometime. Our rations were mostly K-rations, single boxes one for each meal and pretty good. We had plenty of them and nobody lacked enough to eat. Cigarettes and toilet supplies are also issued gratis. On the fourth we celebrated by eating a first meal from the kitchen. By this time Aslito airfield was well in our hands and many of our Thunderbolts were already based there, and they looked mighty good. During the night the Japs from Tinian would send over a little artillery fire but it did not damage [anything] and I believe we knocked them out in short order. The report of the Jap navy being around didn’t make me feel better although I was sure we could stop them. Jap opposition from the boats in the sea was practically nothing as far as Saipan itself is concerned. The Jap soldiers were interned in stockades or wire enclosed areas and separated. I wanted to see them so one day we took a walk down and had a look. There are about forty thousand civilians on the island I believe and there were plenty of them crowded in the wire. The women had nothing on above the waist and they had no modesty at all. They were dirty, thin, bewildered and there was more small children than I ever saw. The Koreans were separated from the Japs. Later we saw the two Jap prisoner soldiers. I get a hell of a hatred when I see them, and I wish they were all dead. About 85 percent of the population is Jap with the balance, Koreans and Chamorros, who are a half Filipino and [half] Spanish. Later things began to quiet down and the battle was coming to an end. At this time the Japs got saked up and made their last ditch stand and were successful for a while. Dick was in on that and told me that he was caught on the beach by the Japs and had to be taken off on an alligator. He has had some close shaves and told me of times he thought sure they would get him, but he just laughs about it. He killed a Jap officer with a grenade and then shot the hell out of him to be sure. He looks very good, and now that the campaign is over we’ll have it easy at least for a little while. He was down yesterday and the day before and it’s mighty swell to have him around.

Well the campaign for Saipan is over and now the island is humming with repair work and defensive installations, but each night we can see flares on the mountain where the Marines are rounding up small pockets of snipers or civilians. Many Jap trucks have been put to use and one of them is a water wagon and that has helped to hold the dust down. One Jap truck was caught in our area, a repair truck and pretty well equipped. Some of the dark boys fixed it up and used the motor for a pump. The Japs had plenty of bikes and you can see them everywhere, many wrecked ones but many in use. Most of the civilian cars are Fords and in Headquarters the boys got a 1940 model in good shape. They have it running in good order now.

It looks like the Japs kept the other nationalities in pretty much servitude from the stories they tell and the looks of their homes. All of the houses I have seen are grass and tree limbs but everyone has a reinforced concrete cellar and stocked with Jap array supplies. In Chalan Kanoa the buildings are thick concrete. Apparently the Japs were making every house a strong point.

Well the biggest part is over now, and twice in the last week have seen a movie—old ones but they looked good. And we even have a little time for a bridge game. Doesn’t seem to add up does it? We are pretty close to the Jap homeland and are set for big things now—from now on it will be the clue chips.

I have written quite a bit (probably the censor is using every profane word in his vocabulary on me) but I know you will be interested and perhaps there are many other things you wonder about. Dick and I are fine and not the least bit worried. The main topic is when will we get home. The rumor is that President Roosevelt made a statement that a surprise was in store for the Saipan soldiers. Have you heard it?

The mail has been coming in good but we haven’t received any papers or packages since leaving Oahu but I can understand that. I am anxious to take those dozen back Free Presses and get together with Dick about that. I think I had best stop now—this has been quite a job.

Love,

10 February 1944

Dear Dad:

I just received another of your inimitable letters and it came at a most welcome time. My head is still going round like a merry go round. I have been very busy the last few days and just now has the volume of work begun to slacken off a little. But working like this makes the time slip by almost unnoticed. When I realize how long it has been since I’ve eaten a Moss meal, I appreciate that fact, more than ever. But maybe that’s because I’m older. I can remember when I couldn’t wait another day until I was old enough to have a bike and then later on to drive an automobile. But now here I am having gone through both and wondering what I’ll be doing when I’m forty or fifty.

I think if I take another look at your letter I can stretch this one out a little longer. Every time you say something about the cold weather and the snow, I have to pause and remember that in some places there actually is weather like that. Every afternoon around three the office knocks off for a little volleyball game on the big rambling lawns that are near our area. We’re getting pretty brown from it and we feel pretty good after sitting down all day. Last night we gathered together our best forces and had a game with some Hawaiian civilian boys and took a good beating. We played after supper with the little gathering there. It reminded me of a twilight softball game like we used to have. There was a few good-sized ‘wahines’ there together with some men playing poker on a little grass mat. They sure take life easy and are so darned good natured and hospitable. They’re pretty fat and look sloppy but you overlook that. The boys beat our pants off – they can hit a ball from any angle.

Dick and I went out together on pass last Wednesday and looked around for the shells but couldn’t find any this trip. But we’ll get them. I bought Mom and Nancy each one of those handkerchief affairs they wear over their heads and better get them mailed tonight. Dick and I are very lucky to be so near to each other but I think your summarizations are pretty correct. What did you think of the Marshalls episode? Boosts your morale up for a while and makes you a little more optimistic. There is a lot of talk around in the papers of troop rotation and furloughs but I don’t put much faith in any of it. All of it is so contingent upon other things that is seems pretty remote. Guess I’m getting used to waiting. I know what the deal on the bond allotment is. I had an allotment for that amount and it was automatically stopped in favor of a new plan so that represents the money not applied on a new bond. Hope you received the sixty bucks instead of the usual thirty-five.

Most of the civilians at home get a pretty good tongue lashing from the fellows – and especially the strikers. Boy what they wouldn’t do for them. I guess that shows that they didn’t realize what a swell place the ‘old country’ was until they had to leave it. Any little old corner of the states would satisfy most of us. But this business of laying off work sure raises the hair on us when we hear of another fifty thousand or so because they can’t get enough to have all they want. I think the situation is pretty lopsided too. Everyone whether he’s over here or back there is in the same kind of job and if he has to take bad breaks that’s just tough.

Well I’m going to do some studying for a while and the evenings are very short so I’m going to throw in the towel about here. The friend in Washington sent me another book a few weeks back and it’s full of interest so got to get busy on it. I have a little room by myself now and can setup books and spend a profitable evening with them. I think your sentiments are the best in the world although they aren’t expressed in the language of Longfellow, which is the least important part.

Love,

24 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Well I’m a long ways from Escondido. This is the third day out and now I’m in Redding in northern California not far from Oregon. The first day we came through Pasadena, Los Angeles, and ended up in Bakersfield and stayed all nite at Minter field; the second day we came through Fresno and stayed at Modesto. Today we came thru Sacramento, Williams here to Redding. Our battalion met up with another outfit of quartermaster so our convoy is a plenty big one—well all three nites we have bivancaced on airports and covered nearly all the field so you see how large it is. They (the trucks) look like a great herd of pachyderms grazing. Here at the Redding airport we are surrounded by snow covered mountains and in the distance can see Mount Shasta. The airport is on sort of a rock covered plateau over which the wind is howling.

I think this trip will be remembered in my future years as one that took plenty of patience and roughing. In the back end of our truck our six men with fourteen barracks bags, rifles and equipment besides wire pharaphenalia. It is one constant effort to keep everything together. The first thing we do upon getting into the nite area is to set up the kitchen and get it going, then put up pup tents, and finally after a cold water shave and bath crawl into our sleeping bags. We get up at 4:45 and have chow at 5:00, pull tents, police up, and leave again at seven. For noon dinner we have two sandwiches but we make up for it with a hot supper meal, and do we eat.

Our ultimate destination is Vancouver, Washington so will be on the road for four more days. Tomorrow we go thru Klamuth Falls stopping at Bend, Oregon. Perhaps you can follow our itinary.

Tonite there is a show at the high school so a few of us are going in and perhaps get a shower and get this letter mailed.

You should see the guys shaving in a truck mirror while the wind dries the lather as fast as it is put on. I was one of the first ones to get to the small waiting room in the airport building, but with about a thousand guys on two sinks that didn’t last long.

Well I better wind this up so I can walk into town a couple of miles away and get back fairly early. Four o’clock comes around early. Remember my address:

Btry C, 222 FA Bn
APO 40, Los Angeles, California

Well goodbye for now, write you tomorrow if I can get to a post office.

Love,

21 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Well this will be my last letter from Escondido. Tomorrow morning we are pulling out for—I believe—Fort Lewis, Washington. The officers intimated it would be a long trip so I believe that is the place. It is around 1,500 miles and we make about 200 (miles) a day so it will be quite a ride. Of course I hate to leave the folks in San Diego behind—I will really miss them. We have been sleeping in pup tents the last two nites so of course it would have to rain continually and on top of that my tent leaked—adding to my consternation.

There seems to be a lot to write about but somehow I can’t think of it. There will be about 700 men in our convoy of seventy or eighty vehicles and they are plenty loaded down.

Gramma sent me a beautiful English made scard today—feels so good.

Hope you have recovered from the phone call—guess it leaves on a little shaken by the miracle of it. Wish I could call you every week.

My new address is:

Pvt. HG Moss
Btry C, 222nd FA Bn
APO 40, Los Angeles, California

You can send the box now—if you send it when you get this, it should hit me about right.

I’ll write you often to let you know everything.

I believe after we get there we may be given furloughs—let’s hope.

This is a pretty gential letter but I’ll have a lot of time to write on the way so you’ll be hearing from me again soon.

Lots of love,

16 April 1942

Dear Folks:

Time to write a few lines while everything is quiet after supper chow. Just got a letter from you that was put in the wrong slot in the mailbox.

Well, well-founded rumors are astir that we are moving out perhaps tonite or tomorrow. In fact all we have been doing today is loading and greasing trucks and getting our personal equipment in shape to pack quietly when the order comes. Where we are going is of course not known but the latrine rumor is to Los Angeles. Whether this is in preparation for something bigger I can only guess. The latest is that we may move after midnite tonite.

Tonite also we are having alittle battery party with talent supplied from our ranks to refreshments from the battery fund. Suppose we will have a lot of fun singing and horsing around.

I wrote Dick a few days ago asking him to come up so we could both talk to you on the phone. However if we move I’ll make the call, if possible, myself. I haven’t been down for three weeks now and would like to see them before we leave but perhaps this won’t be possible. The 19^th will also be the monthly anniversary of my army induction—seven months.

I am sending my mail free, but because I had a little supply of stamps thought I just as well use them for airmail.

Don’t know exactly when our $42.00 will be effective but will probably effect our pay on the first of June. I will send you $20.00 to use in coming out. Wish you could come on the train. I think Dick and I can arrange it that way. If we each donate $20.00 or so you could afford it then. It would be better for you than riding in a car.

Yes, even get to sleep late if we walk at nite—the usual tour is 4 hours on and 8 hours off. We haven’t heard anything about furloughs for our bunch and are not expecting any—at least I’m not. We took all of our shots in the arm and after about three they were nothing.

Right now I’m reading ‘Inside Europe’ and ‘The Green Lights’, but if we move won’t get to finish them and incidentally, I’m wondering how I can return them to the library.

Last Sunday I was on KP and while looking around the kitchen saw a carton of beef from Cook’s Packing Company in Scottsbluff. Kind of surprising.

I gave up my job as assistant battery clerk for lack of anything to do in there so now I’m in the communications detail. We string wire from gun phones to the switchboard to the observation point (OP). From the OP the CO (commanding officer) relays his firing data to the guns which go thru the switchboard hidden in the brush somewhere. It’s a pretty good assignment and more interesting than doing the cannoneer’s hop. Pulling two or three miles of wire by hand is a workhout. One of our trucks has a small gasoline engine for this purpose mounted on the back.

Well guess this is all this time. Will write you all I can about what’s going on.

Love,