Leonard's Story: April 26, 1945

The Times Pony edition was printed for members of the U.S. Armed Forces overseas beginning at the end of 1942. Div CP would mean Division Command Post.

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                                                                                               Philippines

                                                                                               26th April

Dear Arnold,

     Received your V-mail of 6th April.  After what campaign?  We were

going to get a rest, but the situation changed  and here  we are kicking

the Japs around with everything or anything.  They are about as hard to exterminate

[ARROW] as cockroaches in a good old Calif home.  I am going up to work with the

Guerrillas, as an intelligence officer.  It should prove interesting.

[from ARROW above in margin]

but we are just the guys who can and are liquidating them

     Although the rest did'nt pan out we did get ten days of perishable

rations, and have had fresh meat and eggs for breakfast practically every day

day now for the last seven days.  However, it will soon be back to bully

beef and spam again.

     At present we ar set up in a coconut grove, near an ex-town ( completely

destroyed by the Japs).  The weather is hot and muggy, but it is better this

way than if it was raining all the time.  I sure hope we finish this deal

up before the rainy season starts.  I don't want to have to go through another

nightmare like we had on Leyte.  Of course we would be there during the

typhoon season, and I have never been wet so much for so long in my life.

We use to have to stand in ankle deep mud even in the chow line, and keeping

dry feet was just impossible, in fact keeping dry was impossible.

     We have had a little rain here, and I can see that this place will be a

regular mud hole too, when the rains come.  It rained just as much or more

on Bougainville, but the ground quickly absorbed the water.  Also it would

usually rain about the same time every day for a week or so, and then change

the schedule.  In Leyte is just rained all the time every day.

     Say I want to thank you again for the pen and pencil set, it is now one

of my prized possessions.  I don't know how I got along without it before.

Also thanks for the Air mail edition of TIMES Pony, that is something that

is hard to find around here, and they are always read to death.

     I have lost a lot of weight, and you probably would'nt recognize me now.

Things have been rough, and I am glad that you won't have to got through any-

thing like this.  It is no fun, believe me.

     A while back when we were at a certain extown, we had a bit of excitement

right in the center of the Div CP.  It so happened that I was duty officer

this particular morning, when I heard the guards open fire.  Now this in its

self is not uncommon, in fact I was cussing tthem out, because the bullets

were wanging around, and the only things they seem to hit are horses or dogs,

or just the ozone.  Suddenly a man came running up and said that they wanted

me to go over and search a Jap that they had killed only about a hundred yards

down the road from the G-2 office.  Now the interesting thing is that this Jap

was armed with a US .30 caliber carbine, and upon checking the number it was

discovered that it belonged to one of our men, and had been stolen from the side

of his sack while he was asleep earlier in the morning.  In the dim pre-dawn

light this Jap was thought to be a guerrilla, and was finally killed walking

down one of the main roads only about 100 yds from the center of town.

     Well I'd better close now, write soon.

                                                            love

                                                  [signed] Leonard

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Leonard's Story: April 13, 1945

[written in: 4/13/45. In 2018 I sent the prayer flag to the Obon Society for repatriation with the family of the fallen Japanese soldier, HOKA Kenichi, but I never heard back from them. — JNyF]

Arnold,

     Here is a flag that I picked up one fateful day for its

owner, a Jap by the name of HOKA Kenichi.  I have given Mother

and Dad each one.  You can do what you want with the flag.  I

could get fifty dollars for it anytime, and sailors and merchant marine

men overhere will pay $75-$100 on on up depending upon how bad

they want it.  This is one of the better silk flags, and are

hard to find.  I have been lucky I guess, because I have found

about ten of these flags.  I have given four away to the General,

Colonel, and a major (the General pulled a fast one and got two,

damnit), however I kept the best ones.  About four have been

cotton, torn and bloody, and I gave them to the GIs that were

with me and did not yet have one.  Inclosed is a translation.

                                                Leonard

[Written nearly vertically in the margin is seminary seminary, probably Arnie's handwriting after having received the note, since he was the one interested in becoming a missionary.]

Prayer Flag of HOKA Kenichi

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Leonard's Story: April 11, 1945

                                                                             Philippines

                                                                           11th Apr

Dear Arnold,

     Glad to hear from you, I have been waiting for a letter

from you for some time now, although I realize that to a large

extent I am the guilty one.  We are still kicking the Japs around

with the gong, and tomorrow we tie the theater record for number

of consecutive days or straight combat.  I guess you know from

the papers that we have been at this business for along time

now.  It becomes very boring and tiresome, and you get sick of

the whole thing.  I remember back in Leyte that it seemed a bit

shocking when somebody would come in and say that so-and-so had

been killed, but now it is accepted as a matter of fact and

eventuality or I should say with in the logical realms of possibil-

ity.  Spent the day guiding a party around who was making an

official report and investigation on some Japanese atrocities.

Perhaps you would be interested in them.  The spot I took them

too (I had been out there before) was near a little barrio up

in the mountains. There were over a hundred Filipino men,

women, and children that had been butchered by the Japs.

Most of them had been tossed into a little gully that ran down

into a ravine.  On the ledge of the gully there were hats, both

men and womens, and shoes strewn around.  In the gully there were

a pile of decomposing cadavers or parts of them.  Heads had been

bashed in, hands, arms, legs, and occasionally even a head had

been cut off.  Some of the bodies were just generally mutilated.

Here was a small head sticking up through pile, and over there

would be a little arm or leg protruding from the mass of former

human beings.  Around the edges there were bodies of male Filipinos

with their hands still tied behind their bodies.  Some of those

bodies looked as though the Japs had poured oil or gasoline over

them as part of the body had been burned, usually the upper portion.

About fifty yards away from this massacre behind bushes were the

bodies of women singularly located.  In every case the dresses

had either been torn off the body and were lying nearby, or

they had been pulled up exposing the lower half of the body.

Several women had apparently been killed by having their heads

bashed in, one had her leg cut off just below the knee, several

of her teeth had been knocked out, and there was a big hole down where

her vagina had been, of course part of this was due to decomposition.

One women's torso had been completely burned, her head and hair

had been severely seared, and her limbs, which were scattered

around nearby, looked as though they had been neatly severed from

the body.  The next place we visited consisted of an estimated

500 bodies, which had been thrown over the steep sloping bank

of a stream.  They had suffered the same fate as those above,

and were all male Filipinos.  The bodies ran from the top all

the way down to the bed of the stream 150 feet away.  About 100yds

away were and estimated 500 more (at least) bodies in the same

state.  We could not find empty cartridges around any of these

places, nor could we find evidence of bullet wounds.  In Leyte

I once found about fifteen bodies of women and children in a

gully, and about fifty yards away the nude bodies of four wo-

men in a large fox hole.  We are allowed to tell about atrocities

that we have seen, now, and there are plenty others that I could

tell you about.

[page 2]

                                                                                    12 Apr

          I feal rather cut down, and generally tired.  I have

     lost a lot of weight.  My waist now measures 30 1/2 inches as

     compared to its former 33 or 34 inches.  My ribs, hip bones,

     and shoulder bones actually stick out.  I guess I look alot

     older too, as a matter of fact one of the other officers

     asked me tonight if I was about thirty-five years old.

     A little rest and I will be back to my old self, only I

     hope I can keep down around this weight.

     I don't know if I disscussed it with you before, but I am

going to try to transfer out of this outfit, or at least  out

of this section.  It is a matter of personalities, and I might

add that there are three (there were four, but one got out) other

officers that have also or intend to make transfers.  This thing

has practically made a nervous wreck of out of me.  I have been a

2nd Lt for almost two years now, and I have always gotten ex-

cellent before, and then this son-of-a-bitch here screws me up.

Well thats life.  I don't like to leave this outfit, as I have

made a lot of friends and we have been through a lot together.

Also its a good outfit, I think the toughest, roughest bunch

of fighters out here, bar none.  Then of course there is a small

matter of $100 jump pay, which is'nt hay.  But I would'nt take

this shit for twice that sum, it is wrecking me.  If I can't

get another job somewhere in MI, I can always go down to one of

the line outfits here, but the big problem would be getting

transferred out of MI, which I understand is a pretty hard thing

to do unless one really screws up.

     Boy its really warm tonight, in fact its been that way all

day.  It rained like hell this afternoon for an hour or two, but

it did'nt abate the heat.  A couple more months and the rainy

season will be setting in.  I sure hope we are'nt in combat then,

as it is a rough deal.  On Leyte I would go week at a time wearing

wet shoes, and I used to dry my feet off, powder them, and put

on dry socks and shoes (if I had them), although I knew that in

fifteen minutes they would be soaking wet again.  The mud makes

transportation a major problem, it was an effort to walk 100

yards, and I have run across mud so deep that you could'nt walk

through it, in fact once you got far enough into it you would

have to get somebody to pull you out.  But here it has been pretty

dry here, except for several storms in the last couple of weeks. It

will rain in patches xxxx, that is it may be raining like hell in

one spot but 1/2 mile away the sun will be shining.  In fact in a

couple of hundred yards you can go from bone dryness to a torrential

downpour.

     Well Bud, how are things with you?  You did'nt have much to

say in your last letter.  What are you doing now?  When do you

expect to come over here?  I had several friends at Ritchie that

had had overseas duty before, and they did not want to go back over.

I could'nt understand this then, and in a few cases I actually

thought that maybe they were shall we say "a bit overcautious".

I understand their reasons now.  However when the time can for

them to got over again they reluctantly went, although in two cases

the parties could have gotten out of the army and had threatened

to do so if they were sent overseas again.  So when I tell you to

stay in the states as long as possible, I doubt if you can see why.

Don't worry you still get over here soon enough.

     I am sending you a silk Jap flag.  It is yours to do what you

please with it.  It is genuine, in fact I think it still has a spot

of blood on it.  If you want to get it cleaned I would send it to

the cleaners, as some of them fade when washed.  I am sorry that this

one has the center sewed in instead of just painted, however it is

a good job of sewing.  Well I am tired and think I will close now.

Write soon.

                                            love,

                                  [signed] Leonard

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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.

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                                                                                   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

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Leonard's Story: February 16, 1945

BC scope may be Battery Commander's scope.  Jap MG could be a Japanese machine gunner.

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[written on Japanese paper with vertical lines and some vertical Japanese print in the lower right margin.]

                                                     Philippines

                                                     16 Feb

Dear Arnold,

     Well here we are at it again, I have in-

creased my combat quite a bit since the last

place.  I have been out on quite a few missions

to the front lines.  One day I got alot of

artillery fire, not that there has'nt been any

around here.  In fact the closest burst to me

was right here at Div Hqs, when a five-incher

hit a limb of a tree outside only thirty yards

away.  The Japs are lousy shots, and when I

was forwarded with an artillery observer they

were xxxx plunking them in at fifty to one-hun-

dred yards away.  These Japs shells sound very

realistic, almost like the movie shells.  You

first hear that characteristic wailing scream

which increases in pitch then bang or rather

boom.  Xx Up to a certain pitch if the shell

starts to decrease in sound vibrations then

you know you are safe and that it is passing

over to the right or left and going beyond you

(Doppler's effect).  Now if the shell keeps

increasing in pitch and intensity pass this

certain point then you had best hit the ground.

This technique of evaluation of sound waves can

only be obtained by experience.  Now I can't

tell what a shell sounds like when it comes

directly down on top of you, because I have

yet to have that happen.

     This same day I watched some Japs that

were only about 100 to 1200 yards away.  When

using some captured Jap glasses of 20 power I

could almost see the expressions on their faces.

We could see one joker who was standing up in

plain sight ( I think he was a comm man as he

used semaphore flags once in a while), and had

the same type of BC scope that we did.  If one

of us stood up too high and was observed then

they would throw over a few rounds.  But it

was'nt long before the artillery was thru with

a target in another sector, and the artillery

observer zeroed in on these Japs.  It is getting

dark I will move outside.

                                    -1-

[page 2]

     The next day I went out again to examine

some captured equipment with a signal man.  I

know you would have been interested in it.  The

setup was out at the forward elements of the right

flank, and the enemy was only 500 yards away in

pplaces.  We were looking over one hunk of stuff,

which was in a cut that opened out to the right,

when a Jap MG xxxxxxxxx on a ridge that was only

500 yards away opened up on us.  Fortunately the

MG was situated slightly forward of the ay the

entranced opened out, and by getting back to-

wards the rear he could'nt get us.  However the

dirt was being sprayed all over us, and once in

a while a few bullets would hit inside up against

the side of the cut-out at an angle.  Up near the

entrance was a dead American who had been hit by

a MG and who was holding part of his intestines

in his hand of his outflung arm.  We were pinned

down for almost an hour.  This Jap MG gave us a

lot of trouble, he nicked some of the men (not

badly though) and pinned us down five times at

various places on this ridge.  After it had been

quiet for a half-an-hour and we were crouching

in stead of crawling, I got up on my knees to

observe some of the artillery fire and the bastard

saw me with my field glasses and opened up.  There

was concrete mount on my left, and the bullets

really sprayed into it about a foot and a half

behind my head.  A man three feet to me left

in line with me was nicked by a fragment, however

it turned out to be a scratch or a little grove

in his head.  I guess that was the closest call

I had.  Although later on that same day I was

standing only 25 yards from a jeep when it ran

over a 500lb mine.  It blew the jeep to hell.

The biggest piece was part of the read axle and

some of the twisted chasis, which was found about

100 yards away.  The rider was found (what was

left of him) 150 years away, and the driver even

farther.  I did'nt see the reamins of the driver,

as they had not found his body when I had to go

somewhere else.  The crater was 20 feet across

and ten feet deep.  I just happened to be looking,

at the jeep when it hit the mine.  it is too

dark to see I will have to finish this tomorrow.

                                      -2-

[page 3]

                                                         17 Feb

     The jeep went up over 150 feet in the air,

and we were all showered with dirt clods up to

six inches in diameter.  However all we got were

a few little bruises.  Some men were only 15-20

feet from the jeep (believe it or not) and were

blown back away from the mine, but were not hurt

except for slight shock.  The jeep parts all

landed in an area where everyone had just cleared,

and no one was hit by flying pieces.

     I finally wrote the folks and told them that

I am in an Airborne Division, although this is

a hell of a time to say that I am in the 11th

A/B Division.  I hope they won't worry too much.

Send me some clippings of us, as I wonder what

they say about us.  Frankly a lot of crap that

is pure propaganda is flung at the public.  In

other words (and all we get to read of the stuff

that is for home comsumption are the communiques)

somethings that are little are made to sound big,

held up for a quiet period and then released, are

words which imply another meaning, are coated before

release, are not released, are overemphasized while

something more important but not so favorable to

our condition are played down.

     Well Bud, I have got to get back to work.

Take care of yourself and write soon.

                                      love,

                           [signed] Leonard

Inclosed are some souvenirs

    4 postcards

  50 sen

100 pesos

    5 photos

     more stuff coming up

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Leonard's Story: February 5, 1945

Probably the censored location in the first paragraph is MANILA since he says they will start for it soon (and the taking of Manila starts about February 3 and continues into March. In the second paragraph the censored location would have been LEYTE. In this letter he may be describing the invasion of the Lingayen Gulf in the second week of January 1945 (his letter of January 15 says "its all over now" and he is now able to sit back and relax, so it was written nearly a week after the landing on January 9. Also, on the 15th there is a new-found passion for cock fighting, so I suppose that was on Luzon rather than Leyte. CP might mean command post.

 ________________________________________________________

[single page, no salution, no signature at the bottom, so perhaps rest of letter is missing]

                                                                                         5th Feb 45

     I don't know when I will be able to mail this, but since I now

have a little time before we start for [CENSORED] I will take advantage

of it and knock out a few lines.  First I will go back a few days

to the landing.  At H-60 on D day the Navy opened up with a barrage

on the enemy shore.  The Landing Craft Infantry that I was on was

about six thousand yards off shore, and although we were too far

out to get a detail view of the reults, we could see that the

shell were really ripping hell out of the beach.  Some seconds after

a volley was fired, we could see the flashes of the shells as they

tore into landing zone.  After ten minutes of fire, which sounded

like a prolonged thunder storm, smoke from the shells and burning

buildings practically obscured the shore.  The Navy continued to

shift its fire, nuetralizing enemy gun and infantry positions.  At

H-10 (minutes) they cut loose with over 1800 rockets, and the dim was

terrific, it sounded like an ammunition dump of five inch shells

were exploding like firecrackers.  By this time we could even smell

the cordite out where we were and a heavy bank of white smoke hung

over the shore.  At H-hour the infantry started to go in, this was

heralded by machine gun and rifle fire.  During all this time the

wave that we were in had been drifting slowly towards shore, but

because of the heavy bombardment we could see very little through

the haze of the shell and now small arms fire.  However we could

tracer fire of both sides and the enemy artillary feebly trying

to shell the beach with their one remaining artillary piece.  A

destroyer opened up with all its five inchers and knocked out this

small but deadly menace.  It was almost four hours after the initial

bombardment that I waded ashore.  Our casualties weere very light

and most of the enemy had withdrawn under the heavy bombardment.

There were still a couple of machine guns over on a point, but our

troops were effectively knocking out.

     We headed straight for the nearby town, and upon entering it

were greetted by the cheers and shouts of civilian Filipinos.  These

people were better educated and of a generally higher class than

those on [CENSORED], and they were very happy to see us.  In fact they

were almost crying for joy.  They invited us into their homes, and

gave us food and drinks, they almost gave us anything we asked for.

Where ever you would walk or ride the Filipinos would wave and shout

to you.  The girls put on their best dresses and some put on lipstick

that I imagine they had been hoarding for three years.  The men also

were slicked up, and put on some sort of demonstration in the city

square.  Most of them can speak English, and many are quite educated.

In fact they were trying so hard to make us feel at home that they

acted as "american" as possible, and in some cases I sort of felt

that their mannerisms were acquired not through contact mainly with

Americans, but with american films.  We all appreciated their going

out of their way even in this manner for such a warm welcome.

     For the first time since I have been down here, I was in a

building of brick with a hardwood floor, in fact I was not only in

it but we used it as our CP for a while.  This terrain is a real

pleasure to travel and flight in for a change.  In fact it is so

impressive that later on [ARROW] I will devote an entire paragraph to describ-

ing it.  For the first time in many months I also had the

pleasure, and after being hot so long it was a pleasure, of being

cold, yes nice and chilly, just like California up occassion.

[ARROW] "later on"

       has'nt come yet

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