Continued
By Keith L. Winchenbach
Submitted by Jessica Winchenbach from handwritten notes from her grandfather.
The Philippine Islands
The next day we went to Panoan, a small island off of the tip of Leyte in the Leytean Gulf. There was a battalion of us, roughly about 700 men. There wasn’t much action there. We were bombed a few times, and there were a lot of U.S. PT torpedo boats stationed there. There was a PT boat base there, and we would see them going and coming all of the time. We were there in order to protect the PT boats. These were about 45 feet long. They moved very fast, and fired torpedo’s at larger ships. They really saved the day in the end, as the Hasley ships all went north.
It was here that about 700 of us had a ring side seat to the greatest sea battle in the history of the world. Aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and destroyers were all fighting for control of the water ways. This battle put an end to the Japanese Navy. This was about October, 25, 1944. More ships were sunk in that battle by the American and Japanese Navies than ever before. This constituted the end of Japan as a naval power. Japan had already lost the battle of the air, as most of their planes had been destroyed. I saw quite a few Japanese planes fall into the ocean. One of the first suicide (Kamikaze) attacks was on our lone destroyer in Panoan Harbor that day.
We were supposed to ship off to Leyte at this point, however, we were left with no escort vessel. There were no Japanese on this island. However, they bombed us quite a few times. The only lone gun that we had was a multi 27 mm anti aircraft gun. We left again for Leyte on roughly the last day of October, supposedly to act as occupation troops and to hold the Island there.
I was assigned to a heavy machine gun, so I didn’t have to do too much, outside of sticking close to camp. I didn’t mind being added to a gun crew, but I wasn’t sure how long I would be with them. In the first day that we were there, our company sort of adopted a little Filipino boy. He was about seven years old, and wandered into our camp. He didn’t speak much English, but I remember he could say “machine gun”. He told us that his mother and father were dead, killed by the Japanese, and that he lived with his uncle. His uncle apparently drove him off, and he came to us. He was a nice boy, and though there was a language barrier, we had fun with him, and he with us.
After I left New Guinea, I stopped receiving the mass amounts of mail that I was so used to. In fact, the first fifty-nine days that I was in the Philippines, I didn’t get any mail at all. I finally got a letter from my mother, who I know wrote everyday, on the 1st of December. It was so great to actually hear my name at mail call, that I almost cried! Mail sure did help a lot, especially while I was in combat.
Not long after that, at the end of October and the first weeks of November, 1944, my outfit was placed on the front lines. We were there for over two weeks, and it was pretty tough. The whole time that we were on the front it rained, day and night. So, I suppose that did not make it any easier. They told us that it would probably rain for at least two more months. I was wet and scared, dug into a little three foot fox hole, and seeing my first action of the war. One of the two other boys whom I came into this outfit with were wounded on the front. He was only a few yards away from me when he was hit. It was just an arm wound, so he was all right, but it definitely indoctrinated us into the combat life.
Admiral Hasley was supposed to help defend the straits going to Leyte, but there was a misunderstanding, and he left to pursue some Japanese war ships further up the coast. This left a void in defending the troops in Leyte, and the fight for control of this passage. The fleets that were left did a commendable job defending those straits, with the help of a bunch of converted small air craft carriers. I understand now that those were former Liberty cargo ships. Anyway, they put up a tremendous fight and turned the battle into a victory for us. The Japanese would fire a large artillery shell at these converted air craft carriers, and instead of exploding, as they would against a war ships heavy armor, the shells would push through the light armor and not explode.
We landed on Leyte to be notified that the Japanese had landed 35,000 men at Ormac, Leyte, and that there was a ten mile convoy of men with equipment between two flanks of troops. There were a lot of air strikes by the U.S. after we entered Leyte. One time, a GI was lounging in a hammock, when both of the trees supporting the hammock were cut off by a bomb. Luckily, he lived to walk out of it and tell me the story.
Our only indoctrination to ground fighting was when we saw two Filipinos carrying the head of a Japanese soldier. This transferred any thought that we may have had that war wasn’t all that bad. This instance taught us that it was either us or the enemy. This was quite a dramatic exposure for “green” troops. I think that I matured nearly ten years in that one moment.
Green troops we were. Major Sloan led us against the Armada of Japanese strings. We had gathered up about 60 Filipino guerillas to carry ammunition and supplies. We surprised the Japanese reinforcements by attacking on the flank, after trumping through the jungle quite a ways. That night the Filipino's refused to go any further. They said that they sensed that the Japanese were near by.
Our green major dug our perimeter in the valley, rather than on the hill. That night there was a strong typhoon. It rained and the wind blew, and we were dug in the side of the valley. We had put up some shelter from banana tree leaves. We dug our holes in the sides of this hill, and the storm water ran down our backs, out through the legs of our trousers. We could have cared less whether we would survive or not. The next morning, the Japanese attacked from all sides. Our troops tried to go through to get out of the trap, but, the Japanese had set up machine guns and just kept mowing our men down. We eventually retook the ground that we had lost, but we paid a staggering cost in casualties.
As you may know, the Japanese used a small caliber rifle, and wounded many more than they killed. Each man wounded took four of us off of the front to get the wounded to safety. I believe that we were on the front in Leyte for 14 days, and I know that it rained at least 13 of those days. The ground was soggy and wet, and it was impossible to get your footing. Four men carrying a stretcher usually had at least one man down because of the dense mud. This mud clung to your feet as if it were cement. We were finally relieved after two weeks on the front.
I remember at one point, we were trying to set up a perimeter for the night. The officer in charge asked me to stay in a certain area and to watch for Japanese troops who might cross at this certain trail that I was posted on. I did not feel safe doing this alone. I did not know where, when, or in which direction the Japanese would be coming from. I did not know if I would ever be able to make contact with my outfit. It was getting dark, and I was more than a little bit frightened. I chose a trail and began hiking. Luckily, the trail that I took was the right one, leading me back to my outfit. This was probably one of the most frightening events for me throughout the war, and my whole life for that matter.
Another time, on a gruelingly hot (over 100 degree) day, while we were under attack and trying to stay ahead of our artillery, plus the enemy’s artillery, we would hear gun fire, and dive to the earth until the shell went off. We would then jump back up, run a few yards and hit the ground again when we heard more gunfire. Despite the horror of being gunned down, there was also the feats of diving to the ground.
The land that we were fighting on was covered with hundreds of dead Japanese soldiers. They carpeted the ground, lying head to foot. These corpses were not fresh, to say the least. They must have been there for several days. I cannot even begin to describe the smell in words. It was terrible. However, moving on in the presence of death was something that you learned to do while in the war, despite the difficulty of it. I remember eating a meal amongst a slew of our fellow deceased soldiers, and Japanese soldiers. The problem was that there was no time to bury the dead in decent graves. The war just kept going. It didn’t stop to pay respects to the dead, or to let us help the wounded.
While on Leyte, at one point, my lieutenant was carrying my pack for me, while I helped carry a stretcher with a wounded soldier on it. It just so happened that at that moment a Japanese shot a hole in my pack, worn by my lieutenant. Fortunately, something in my pack stopped the bullet from hitting the officer. What a coincidence that I wasn’t carrying the pack. Perhaps if I had been, things would have turned out much differently.
Another morning in Leyte that I vividly remember, we went down the hill a short distance, and found six Japanese soldiers that had been killed during the night. One American soldier was searching the Japanese corpses for gold teeth. He extracted them using the butt of his rifle. This was all a day in an infantry soldier’s life. Quite repulsive to say the least. We then began trying to dry things out from the severe weather the night before.
The Japanese troops that we were up against in my first induction into the war, were supposedly the best troops that they had. They were definitely a tough bunch, and I couldn’t wait to be back at camp, able to sleep without worrying quite so much. The Japanese were definitely tough customers for us, in this first battle. It was hard to believe that they put up such a fight, after seeing them working as prisoners. They weren’t very strong, and most of them were only boys, younger than I.
When I was on the front, I thought only of the picture of my sisters, Mona and Polly, in my pocket. I didn’t have a snap shot of Lois at that time, but I kept writing asking her for one, which I didn’t get until I was in Japan. In New Guinea, I had gotten a small frame, put their picture in it, with a piece of tape over it to waterproof it. On the front, all my other snap shots got wet, but my water tight frame was still intact and dry! I thought more of that than anything else. I wished that I had one of my parents too, and one of Lois. That picture helped me keep my mind off of the commotion around me.
We had gone up with over 700 men, and come back with only 400 only two weeks later. The Army put the rest of us survivors on Liberty boats unloading cargo, and running winches. The Merchant Marine, who were being paid extra combat pay, refused to do their work. We now had a few decent meals, which was a blessing. I decided that the Navy fed their men better than the Army! We could have all of the food that we wanted, and it actually tasted good! When we were relieved from the front, we were treated really well. The major said that we should have the best food possible and deserved it just coming from the front. We didn’t have to start working right away either, which was nice. We got quite a rest from everything for a while.
While on this boat we saw many Japanese air attacks, but their air fleet was all but totally destroyed. There were planes shooting around all through the sky. They were everywhere, like flocks of birds flying over head. Anti air craft guns were always firing, so there was never a dull moment, even when we came off of the front.
My job on the ship was to unload some of the things that the Filipinos didn’t really need, such as thousands of bags of cement. About seven to ten of us were put down in a hole to load 100 tons of cement into barges. This, we agreed, was far better than what we had just overcome, but not much of a way to recuperate after having the hell kicked out of us. We loaded about 100 to 150 tons of cargo a day, for quite a while. Some break from the fighting!
The Liberty ship that I was on sort of reminded me of home in a funny way. They had a lot of farm animals running around the boat. They had some chickens, which were cross-breeds, and were really small. These chickens laid enormous eggs though. There was even a pig, and we eventually added a monkey to the boat farm while I was on it. One night the chickens managed to get into our bunks, so I felt right at home. At least, all the boys suggested that I should feel at home!
I stayed on in Leyte, in the hospital, when the 24th division went on to Mindoro. I had jungle rot on my body and over my eyes from being on the front. It was some odd skin disease that most all of the boys got who were there, probably because it was such a wet climate. It spread like ringworm all over my body. The jungle rot was apparently caused by the lack of cleanliness. You can imagine that while in battle, in the jungle, keeping clean was the last thing on our minds!
On top of that I had some kind of heat rash, along with all the other boys. It was a real job to get rid of it too!
The doctor at the dispensary put alcohol on it, which didn’t agree with it. The alcohol burnt my skin, and caused the jungle rot to spread more rapidly, and blister. After that they had to send me to the hospital. I didn’t mind much, as I got a big comfy bed, and all I did was lay around. First, I was in a station hospital, and after two days was transferred to the General hospital. The nurses looked after us well, but I still missed the boys in my outfit. I was in the hospital for a little over a week.
After a while, they had me working, going after meals for the bed patients. That was fine too, because I was getting tired of laying in that bed all day. Most of the guys seemed to like it, but I got restless while in there. When I first entered the hospital, I hoped that they would feed the patients extra food, that was better than what the company got. However, the food was generally the same, so I was out of luck.
While I was in the hospital, the rainy season seemed to come to an end, and my division had left Leyte. The sun came out steadily for the first time that I could remember in months. It was mid February at this time, and I was glad to see the sun. The temperature increased as well, which wasn’t so bad. It was much hotter in New Guinea than in the Philippines. After being discharged from the hospital, long after I was well, I had to wait a few days before I could get transportation to catch up with my outfit.
Upon leaving Leyte on the 20th of February, to go to Mindoro to rejoin the 24th, the boat that I was on was attacked, in sight of land, by a Japanese sub, which was broad side in parallel with our LST. The Japanese sub had hit the destroyer that was escorting us, and only 150 feet to our left. We were on deck waiting for lunch, when we saw the destroyer turn into a puff of smoke. They knocked out both engines of the destroyer, and she was dead in the water. But we managed to stay afloat somehow, and I finally made it to Mindoro.
It took me two months before I could catch up with my division. I then got all of my Christmas presents in the end of February, and received 130 pieces of mail. I was the Champion Mail King! It took me eight hours to read all of my mail! I sorted them out according to the post mark dates, and read the oldest first, which dated back to October. I received over 60 letters from my mother alone, and I know that some were still en route to me! It was good to catch up on the news from home, and there was so much of it! I learned of many of my school friends who had been killed in action, some of whom I didn’t even know were in the war.
My division had seen much action while I was cooped up in a hospital bed. Every island that they had gone to, they met resistance, and saw some action. The going was tough, but I always tried to think of how it could be tougher. They told us that if we had made it through our first battle whole, that our chances were much better thereafter. The island that we were on, when I finally caught up to my outfit was called Mindoro. I liked it much better there than I had on Leyte. It was much flatter, and there wasn’t so much rain. It was more developed as well. There were some buildings, and a small train. In fact, that was the first train that I had seen since I left the states.
It was actually quite dusty on the island of Mindoro. The earth was dry and sandy, and so flat that when the wind blew, it was like being in a sand storm. The dust would come right in our tent. Luckily, we had a running stream right out in back of our tent, so we could take baths almost anytime we wanted, and wash our clothes too. The nights were very hot there. I remember it being very difficult to sleep.
While first in Mindoro, we had to stand inspection, just like when we were in the States. It was a wonder that they didn’t do inspection right up on the front line! They told us that things were going to be spit and polish around there from then on. I guess that they felt that we had slacked off for too long, although, it seems odd to be doing inspection when you can hear gunfire in the background, and planes landing and taking off right next to you! I saw more planes while on Mindoro than anywhere else. There was a landing field near by, and all that we could hear, day in and day out was planes landing and taking off.
My jungle rot had gotten a lot better by the time I was on Mindoro. I still had a few sores on my legs, which wouldn’t heal. But they didn’t hurt, and I knew that things were slow healing over there. At least the rot was out of my eyes. That was the worst part, and once it was gone, I felt much better.
(To be continued)
Published U.S. Legacies Jul 2004
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