Search This Blog

Showing posts with label jump wings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jump wings. Show all posts

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Leonard's Story: March 24, 1945

OB would be "Order of Battle". Not sure if CBI is "China-Burma-India" theater.  SWPA is South West Pacific Area. Look alike their cousin Edwin died and Len is concerned about Edwin's mother Laura.
___________________________________________________________
                                                                                   Philippines
                                                                                   March 24

Dear Arnold,

     I am sorry I have'nt written you for such a long time, mainly
due to plenty of work.  In addition to being Order of Battle Officer,
my main job, I now go out about every/other day on G-2 liaison work.
This means every night that I come in I have to check over OB stuff,
and by the time I am through I am too tired to write anything else.
I guess you have been reading alot about this unit in the papers
upon occasion, its a damn good outfit, and probably the toughest
fighting unit down here, bar none, including the Rangers.  However
a personal situation has arisen between myself and the G-2, and I
think it best that I try to transfer, as I have the feeling that
a knife is constantly ticking me right between the shoulder blades,
and at the first chance it will slip in.  So far I have'nt offered
him that chance.  If I stay here I will probably get a section 8,
as I am fast becoming a nervous wreck.

     The other day I received the wings you sent me, and today I
received the pen and pencil set (the thing I needed most, as I had
lost mine) and the pajamas and slippers, which will also come in
very handy.  Thanks very much, things like that just can't be had
out here.

     We are still at it, with no breaks.  Its a tough life, especially
for the kids in the Infantry Companies.  I have'nt had any close
calls lately, in fact I am starting to become a little less anxious
about rushing right up and looking at things, too many people are
collecting insurance on deals like that.  Its too bad about Edwin,
he was the type that would get right up there and really mix it up.
I hope Aunt Laura won't take it too hard.

     I guess you will be fixing up to come overhere soon now.  If
you are ask to accept another job in the states, take it.  I guarantee
you won't be crazy about being in CBI or SWPA.  Frankly I am ready
to come home now, who isn't, but that is'nt the way it works. I
guess the best way to figure is this; If you go home now the job
won't be really done, so its best to stay out here until it is
done correctly, even if it takes two more years. [ARROW] The only thing     (What
I am worried about is after we do a good job out here of knocking                 am I
off the Japs to the proper proportion and into the proper attutde,                   saying!)
will the boys in the marble buildings at home do a good job on
the peace?

     I am tired tonight, and I think I will go to bed.  I will try
to finish this tomorrow.

[handwritten]
     Well Bud I am going to wind this
up and get it off you you  Inclosed
you will find a description of our landing
Notice it was written 5th Feb I came
across it straightning up my files, and
found that I never had a chance to mail it.
The censoring was done by me, although
actually what I cut out has been
said in the papers (and more too). Write
soon.
                           love
                              Leonard

P.S. Thanks for the card(s)
     Thanks for the TIME SUBSCRIPTION



Monday, June 9, 2014

Leonard's Story: December 21, 1944

This letter is a retelling of the previous letter but with the details of the Japanese counteroffensive. S-2 refers to military intelligence, as in collecting data on enemy movement and battlefield deployments. Knee mortar is likely a 30 ounce grenade launched from a grenade launcher called a leg mortar. G-2 refers to Army intelligence but it is unclear what a ghoal is. The Lodger is a 1944 horror movie, based on Jack the Ripper and starring Merle Oberon, George Sanders and Laird Cregar. 
_______________________________________________
                                                                       Philippines
                                                                       21st Dec

Dear Arnold,

     I just received your letter of 30 Nov today.  I have
received others since, and I don't know what the mix up
was.  Incidentally your letter and some clippings sent to
the 37th Div on the election, is the first mail I have receiv-
ed in over two weeks.  I hope I get some later mail before
Christmas.

     You mention the snow and the white barreness.  It is
beautiful in a bleak, cold white way, it will give you a
real White Christmas.  I'll never forget one day at Ritchie
when we had to go out on a map problem.  There was about
eight inches of snow on the ground, a sharp bitter wind was
blowing, bringing the temperature down below zero.  I would
take off a glove write a few figures or a few lines of a
sketch and then put it on before my hand froze.  We had on
hoods and masks with only our noses and eyes sticking out,
I thought my nose would freeze and fall outff.  It is hard
to imagine when spring comes that something so beautiful
and green could be so bleak and cold.

     Now it can be told!  At 1838 on the evening of the
6th of Dec, during a customary air raid, about twenty one
or more planes suddenly came roaring over at about 800 ft.
The strange thing was that they were Jap transports.  They
held their formation beautifully, and flew on without a break
or falter through a sky filled with flak.  Then to our rear
and right flank paratroopers came pouring out the doors.  In
less than thirty seconds they were on the ground and the
planes had disappeared in the distance.  Imagine the excite-
ment and confusion.  I will never forget that night.  Only a
few of themen had bothered to dig foxholes, but you should
have seen the scramble for shovels.  We dug them around and
in our G-2 tent.  Three of us were working together on one,
and it is quite an experience to dig one in pitch darkness.
Before we could finish the fireworks started.  Bullets were
wanging around everywhere, mostly our own.  Two men were shot
ten feet from me in the tent by our own fire.  This firing
kept up all night, and it rough spending the night in a
little foxhole with two other men.  There were no Japs
shot right in our immediate area, however the trigger happy
bastards were able to get some of our men, and would quite
a few more.  The next day or I should say that morning I
was assigned as acting S-2 or a mixed regiment formed to
protect a nearby airstrip.

     Once again history repeated itself, but this time there
were actually some Japs around.  The Japs threw over a few

[page 2]
mortar shells not far where I was holed up in a fortress of
stacked steel airstrip matting.  They were not knee mortar
shells, but 60mms, and Bub it is an unpleasant feeling to
hear them exploding around you.  For the few they/shot over
we dumped back a hundred fold so they finally decided it did'nt
pay and quit.  The main shooting was across the strip from
where I was situated, but the men around us did'nt let that
phase them.  I guess they thought it was the fourth of July
or something.  Every time out own troops would have somthing
to shoot at across the strip, the boys on my side would hear
the firing and would open up in any direction just for the
hell of it.  They shot one of their own men about fifty feet
from where I was.  These GIs are good shots and consequently
they usually kill what they hit.  About 0130 the Colonel sent
me out to find out why they were throwing grenades, and I'll
be damned if they did'nt almost get me.  About every ten or
fifteen minutes they would decide they needed some extra pro-
tection so some joker would toss a hand frenade out in front of
his hole.  The next morning they knocked off some snipers
nearby, but at that time I only had a .45 and they were out
of my range.  Shortly afterwards I drew a carbine.

     I have been out on four special patrols now, but I have'nt
gotten any more Japs since the first one - patrol.  In fact I
just came in from one tonight.  We went up to where one of
the transports crashed, to get some equipment.  The plane was
up on a cliff and the bodies were two undred feet below
in and on the banks of a river.  While we were up on the
cliff some of the men below got two Japs, but all I could
do was listen to the firing, I could'nt even see what was
happening.  I don't mind so much searching freshly killed
Japs, but when they get a week or two old, the odor gets
pretty bad.  I am fast becoming the official G-2 Ghoal.
I thought I was getting hardened until I heard about some
of the GIs digging the gold fillings out of the teeth of
rotting Japs.

     Well tonight we had a show, the first one I've seen for
a long time.  It was THE LODGER, fair for out here.  The sun
has come out a little in the last few days, I ate down at
another ourfit tonight and walked away with the wrinkles (not many now)
taken out of my stomach for a change, the action is going
along swell here, in fact things are almost looking up a
little.  Inclosed you will find a Jap major's insignia taken
off one of the deceased at the plane.  Write soon.

                                                  love,
                                        [signed] Leonard

P.S. Thanks for the wings, but I have'nt received them yet.



Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Leonard's Story: November 1, 1944

The Curtiss C-46 Commando was a twin-engine transport aircraft employed in World War II, introduced in 1942 but mass produced in 1944-1945.  Now sure what M.I. is -- perhaps military intelligence?
____________________________________________________________________

                                                                             Wed, Nov 1st

Dear Arnold,

     Well your big brother is now a regular qualified paratrooper.
I finished or rather made my last qualifying jump this morning.
However, I expect to get several more jumps in, in the next three
or four days, just for the hell of it.  I am still doing M. I.
work, and the jumping is just a means of getting around.  It makes
my work much more interesting and exciting.  This looks like a
hot division, they're a wild assed bunch of boys.  The officers
in headquarters  seem like a swell bunch of fellows.  I get all
the cooperation I want, and I think this is going to be a swell
assignment, I only hope that I stay with them for a long time.

     As I know your are unfamiliar with the jumping procedure,
I am going to give you a blow by blow description of a jump.
Each man is assigned a position, and a group of men go out the
door at one time and are called a "stick".  A plane may carry
one or more sticks depending upon the number of men in a stick.
It is SOP for an officer to go first, so in all except my first
jump I went first in the stick I was in.  I was suppose to go
first in the first jump, but they increased it by two men at the
last minute, and I went out last.  After you are assigned your
number, you go over to the packing sheds and pick up your chutes.
A main chute of twenty-eight feet in diameter, which is of the
back pack type, and an emergency chute of twenty-two feet in
diameter, which is of the chest pack type, are the types we use.
You then put them on, and it is really fitted tightly and securely.
You march over to the ship, and then get a check for adjustment
and fit.  You climb into the ship and it takes off.  This is
the point where you start to "sweat it out".  The old timers
say they sweat it out.   By that term I mean you become a
little nervous.  You have that funny tingling in your stomach.
Although it may be a greater or less degree, depending upon
a number of circumstances, it is always there.

     In the first load or plane a man jumps first alone, and
is known as the wind dummy.  He neither slips or twists around,
but goes down to see which way the wind is drifting.  The plane
circles around again for the first stick to jump.  We jumped
two sticks in a place of six men each.  The door has been removed,
and since I was first man in the second stick, I was sitting quite
near and opposite the door, and had a wonderful view of the
ground 1200 feet below.  Some of the men make a small joke to try
to relieve the tension, other smoke or chew gum.  Some have tense
faces, while others look like they are merely riding home on the
street car. You look at one another and wink or smile, but you
know that no matter how the men look or what they do, they are
all sweating it out.

[page 2]
     As we approach the field, the jumpmaster shouts "Stand up
and hook up".  Each man jumps to his feet, and hooks his "static
line" to the steel cable that is suspended down the center of the
ship.  Next he gives the command, " Check equipment".  You look
at the harness on the back of the man in front of you, and check
the front of your harness.  "Sound off for equipment check", the
last man shouts six OK, etc down to one OK.  Then "Close up",
you all shuffle with your left foot forward and your right foot
to the rear something like a boxer might move forward.  The
shuffling sounds like a subdued tone version of the marching feet
in the old Gangbusters program.  The jumpmaster then shouts,
" stand in the door and prepare to jump".  Number one man steps
forward with his right foot, pivots on it, and places his left
foot on the edge of the door.  At the same time he throws his
static line towards the rear of the ship and grasps the outer
edges of the door wtih his hands.  He is crouched slightly with
his body perpendicular to the floor, and his eyes on the horizon.
He stands tensed for the jump.  The jumpmaster slaps him on the
ass and he jumps out into space, throwing his right leg forward
so the slip stream of the props will catch it and give his body
a quarter turn, so that he faces the rear.  As you sail  through
the air you bend your head forward, keep your feet together, cross
your arms over your chest so that you can quuickly grab the ring
of your emergency chute if necessary, and count one thousand,
two thousand, and usually before you can say three, there is a
loud wham and a jerking snap that seems to almost stop you in
midair.  Incidentally, I usually forget to count.  If you go past
three thousand you should pull your emergency chute.  Once you
leave the door the tingling in your stomach stops.  There is no
sensation of falling through the air, but for just an instant you
seem to be suspended in space.

     You grab the risers and look up and check your canopy.  It
is a beautiful sight to see that white or sometimes camouflaged
canopy billowed out above you.  Your are usually swing back and
forth gently, and if you are ocillating too much, you and stop
it by roughly jerking down on the risers.  There are four of these
risers which are strong web belts which are fastened onto your
suspenion lines by a ring.  You can slip in any direction by
merely pulling down on the pair of risers in the direction that
you want to slip.

     You float down silently and gently, and you look over and
see your commrads coming down nearby.  You may call over and
talk to them if you wish.  The objects on the ground begin to
grow rapidly larger and larger.  You look down and pick the
spot you think you are going to land at and then reach up and
grab the risers above your heads.  You look up at the horizon,
and allow your legs to hang down in a relazed and natural postion.
A second later you hit the ground with a thump, and roll over
on your side, shoulder, or back depending upon the direction
you landed.  You jump to your feet and dump the air out of your
chute if necessary.  And there you stand, amazed that you are
all in one piece, unhurt, and that it was so easy.

[page 3]

     The men behind number one man follow the same procedure
that he [arrow #1] does, but do not wait to be slapped in the fanny.
When I was the last man, there seemed to be a confused wild
rush and the next thing I knew I was out.  In an operation they
usually jump one eighteen man stick per plane, but we now have
some new C-46s and you'd be amazed at the number of men they can
jump, I don't think I'd better say it because of military security.
Your not the only boy who is now drawing extra pay.  This extra
$100 I get a month is a soft racket.  I am not going to tell the
folks because I think that they would worry too much, so don't
you say anything to them.  I only have one set of wings, so would
you mind buying about two more wings and send them to me, because
they are hard to get out here, and be sure to get silver ones and
send me the bill, thanks.

     Enough of this dribble about myself.  How are you and the
Air Corps coming?  How soon will you be through at Harvard, and
are you going to MIT, I hope?  This move has mixed up my mail,
and I have'nt had a letter for over a week, or is it two weeks!
Write more about your luxuries, I like to hear about them it is
nice to go to sleep and dream about them.  And brother stay with
them as long as possible, you will be over here soon enough, and
I think you will become just as tired of canned rations, no place
to go, less to drink, and corny shows as I am.  Oh how I wish
I could have been at this Larconia Lodge with you, it must have
been swell.  Were there plenty of cute babes around?  I am now
dreaming about the luxuries of Manila, I only hope the Japs leave
a few joints standing.

     Well Bud, time for chow and I am out of breath.  Write
soon.

                                        love,
                              [signed] Leonard