South Pacific Historians/researchers

twobarbreak · Feb 26, 2009

I hope this is in the right thread...if not moderators do as you will.

I've been researching specific movements of the South Pacific Theater, specifcally starting with New Guinea, up the coast to the Island of Biak.
which was MacArthur's black eye...thus the military suppressed all news of it, and as I've read, MacArthur demanded it never be mentioned in his presence again.

It's been 2 years of reading and research. Speaking with "Military personal" and the likes but i'm at ends, and so i turn to the Family here at Fedora Lounge who normally has the historians that go the extra mile...

If anyone is willing to tackle a Challenge please, contact me....! thanks, Peter

Story · Feb 26, 2009

Are you looking for primary source material or secondary, like this?

http://www.amazon.com/Hurricane-Biak-MacArthur-Against-Japanese/dp/0738818410

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/...acArthur-Against-the-Japanese/0738818402.html

Norumbega · Feb 26, 2009

I'd be interested in hearing more of your proposal and what it entails. Having spent time in the Pacific, I have fond memories.

bigshoe · Mar 1, 2009

"The Ordnance Department on Beachhead and Battlefront". By Lida Mayo. Office of the Chief of Military History U. S. Army 1968

"Caves of Biak" by Howard Riegelman

"Kuzume Makes the Team" By Col Jack W Randolph Military Review # XXXV, no 2 (may1945)

"Our Jungle Road to Tokyo" by Gen Eichelberger.

Although I could not find one there should be a unit history for the 41st Div. Fighting here seemed to be no worse than many other operations in the New Guinea campaign.
Tom

mclmm · Mar 3, 2009

What's the proposal? I research WWII "stuff" for a living. Mainly Australia, but I do have a lot of info on New Guinea, Borneo and the like, including the same toppo maps the commanders on the ground had.

twobarbreak · Mar 7, 2009

Thanks for the responses and the links...

specifically, what I'm after is information and story of the on the 50th ordnance company.

the commanding officer's name was Bednik

They shipped out on the Lurline which was a converted Matson cruise ship, for troop transport, they did a stop over in Hawaii and then South Pacific to New Guinea and landed at the end of June 1944.

Mid 1945 they were redeployed to Panay Phillipines, and eventually they were part of the occupation of Japan.

that's pretty much the nut and shell of it. This was coming from a member of that ordnance that could not remember much more then that. All other information I've obtained has been through my own research.

There is really nothing about this easily obtainable. I mentioned, through records I discovered they actually landed on Biak. The personal service records were all destoryed by fire as most of you researchers know in the early 1970's.

thanks all of you, truly you all have a passion for history....peter

DutchIndo · Mar 8, 2009

mclmm maybe your the man to answer this question. My father grew up in the then Dutch East Indies. He lived in Djakarta during the war and always mentioned the "British". Were they Brits or Aussies who operated there ? Also maybe just maybe do you know the name of the Airfield there ? My Father recalls playing in the wrecked Japanese bombers there.

mclmm · Mar 8, 2009

G'day DutchIndo,

I'll have to get back to you on that one with more detail. My area of expertise is Australian WWII sites.

Off the top of my head, Java was part of the Dutch East Indies and during the Japanese invasion of early 1942, it was defended by US, British, Australian and NEI troops and air force personnel. Several Australian, British and US ships were lost in the Sunda Straits.

On the ground, the Australian 7th Division which had just been re-routed from the Middle East and landed literally days before the Japanese invasion, was the major ground force in the area. Unfortunately, most of the Aussie personnel were non-infantry soldiers and many had landed without their weapons and equipment which were on other ships still enroute or diverted to other areas.

The Diggers fought a blocking action to buy time for several days but were forced to surrender after the Dutch capitulated. This resulted in over 2500 Aussies ending up under the tender care of the Imperial Japanese Army for the remainder of the war. If they had known what was ahead of them, I'm guessing they would have fought to the death.

The Java Campaign was a disaster all round.

There was large-scale evacuation from Java down south the Northern Western Australia. Civvies and military personnel and colonial troops of all nationalities bugged out in whatever aircraft or boats were available. There are several quite sad stories about flying boats full of refugees making it to the safety of Broome Harbour having run the gauntlet of the Japanese air and sea blockade, only to be strafed by pursuing Zeros after their arrival in Australia.

As for the airfields, I'll get back to you on that.

DutchIndo · Mar 8, 2009

mclmm thanks for that info. My dad remembers the Dutch soldiers running to his house asking him to hide them. The Japanese then showed up capturing them. My Dad vividly remembers the Japanese raiding his 'fridge. They then sat in his front yard drinking my Dads " Liberated " Cokes. The thing my Dad remembers most were the Japanese were sitting there in " Jock Straps ".

Story · Mar 8, 2009

twobarbreak said:
Thanks for the responses and the links...specifically, what I'm after is information and story of the on the 50th ordnance company.

You might have some luck with the National Archives in College Park, MD.
www.archives.gov
www.archives.gov/research/ww2/ww2-participation.pdf

Based on experience, this sort of question really requires someone on the ground to poke through the records as information crops up where you don't expect to find it. For instance, unit records vs. personnel records or digging into the records for whatever higher unit the 50th Ord Co. was attached to during the time period in question.

bigshoe · Mar 8, 2009

If they went to Biak at the end of June they were probably attached to I corp 6th army which moft likely became part of 8th army for Leyte operations.
I have not found a 50th Ord Co. Initial landings on Biak had the 741 Lt maintence Co, the 287 Ord Med MAint. Co, The 649 Ord ammunition co., The 253 Ord Maint Co. AA, the 3608 Ord Heavy Maint. Co Tank, and the 724 Ord Lt Maintence Co. In June when I corp took over from 41 div. they brought in their own attached units many of which shortly became 8th Army units so things get very confused as to who was attached to who.
I have found a 5th ord Battalion and the 49th med maintence and the 53rd, 55th, 57th 58th and 59th Ord ammuniton company.
Tom

Story · Mar 3, 2012

The USS Houston was listing and ablaze when radioman David Flynn heard a chilling order come over the public address system: "Hear this: All hands abandon ship!"

"At that announcement you sort of froze for a second," Flynn said.

"We knew it was the end," said electrician's mate Howard Brooks.

Thursday is the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the USS Houston by a Japanese fleet off the coast of Java during World War II.

A Japanese boat fished him out of the water.

Brooks, unhurt, clung to the side of a life raft for three days. In the raft, several shipmates lay dying, one by one.

"That was really a scary part to see those injured guys and not to be able to do anything and to see the Japanese not care about helping any wounded," he said.

The raft eventually washed ashore, where Brooks was captured by the Japanese.

He and Flynn spent the next 3½ years as prisoners of war. Brooks was among those forced to build the Burma Railway, made famous in the 1957 film "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

"I was average 30 pounds underweight the whole time," Brooks said. "I tell you it was hard work. It was pick and shovel or ax, or sawing by hand. There was nothing with a motor on it … no electricity. We didn't even have a wheelbarrow to move the dirt. We used bags on poles."

http://mobile.chron.com/chron/db_27...eLZ&detailindex=3&pn=0&ps=5&full=true#display

Flynn · Mar 3, 2012

Fascinating. I love hearing about individual stories of vets. Thanks for the info.

Treetopflyer · Mar 4, 2012

The Navy has always been required to submit command histories and ships log books to the Naval Archives in D.C. (even in war time), if the Army has done the same then I am sure that you could find the info wherever the Army maintains its historical records. Good Luck!

Story · Sep 6, 2012

The so-called "Death Railway" and its most famous section - depicted in the film, The Bridge over the River Kwai - was constructed during WWII to link Bangkok and Rangoon as Imperial Japan aimed to conquer and connect the whole of Asia.

Dutch, British and Australian prisoners of war were kept in dreadful conditions and 13,000 died building the railway, along with many more indentured Asian labourers.

Rajan Datar traces the railway's dark history and discovers new plans to unite South East Asia by rail.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/fast_track/9748708.stm

Burton · Sep 13, 2012

Good luck with your research. I've been to Biak on my way to the interior or Irian Jaya a number of times and did not realize it held major WWII signifigance. My earlier trips to the island of new Guinea were to PNG and the war there was more evident especially places I trekked like the Kokoda Track. In any event an interesting place.

filfoster · Sep 13, 2012

This is not 'South Pacific' in the theater, then...

Yeps · Sep 13, 2012

filfoster said:
This is not 'South Pacific' in the theater, then...

That's what brought me into this thread. I am in the middle of a production of it right now.

Burton · Sep 14, 2012

Funny guys! On the other hand oh how I would have enjoyed being transported into a nice production of South Pacific after trekking a few hundred miles in that place! It can be rough country.

Shangas · Sep 14, 2012

filfoster said:
This is not 'South Pacific' in the theater, then...

I, for one, am extremely disappointed! *brandishes fist*

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