Page:My 1102 days of wwii.djvu/30

 it to your mouth and the mosquitos would suck you dry day and night. The Japanese left this island in a terrible mess. There was also a filthy mud hole (lake) on the island that we filled in and had the island sprayed a few times by plane. After that it was ideal as far as the insects were concerned.

The day before we arrived there, a typhoon had gone through this area. It left things in a mess. Large boats were way up on the beach and others sunk. An LST was left standing straight up, resting on its stern with one-third of the bow section protruding out of the water.

It required 18 days to make this most dangerous move of aoutabout [sic] 1700 miles (way the crow flies) from Bougainville to UlitheUlithi [sic]. The slowest cargo ships in the group governed the convoy's speed and it was necessary to pick our safest, and no doubt a much longer route, through that hornet's nest of enemy controlled islands. In avoiding the typhoon by allowing it to pass ahead of the convoy, we also lost considerable time the last two or three days out. This harbor was known as the secret supply base of the Pacific for the famous "58 Task Force", which consisted of battleships, carriers, cruisers, destroyers and all of the smaller support ships.

The Task Force would stay out on a mission for 10 or 15 days; then return for rest and recreation and to replenish their supplies. After approximately 8 or 10 days they would head out to sea again to blast anything and everything that belonged to the enemy. While out on these missions the men were constantly on alert and badly needed the rest.

Some ships returned badly battered up by the enemy. Among them was the "Carrier Franklin" which had lost her complete superstructure. Usually there were a number of dead compatriots on board as we could hear the mournful sound of taps from the bugler as they were being laid to rest on Asor. At times there were up to 1500 ships in the harbor and at night it looked like a lighted city. We had gangs working out there at night and even when