Reflections: From Norway Til Now

Japanese that were in Burma had enlisted some of the natives in our area to act as spies to provide information on our military activities. One of the spies was detected by the British and subsequently executed. Some of the radio messages transmitted from Tokyo Rose attempted to discourage us from remaining at this base.

Some pilots and aircraft were finally assigned to our base and a mess sergeant was brought in to modify one of the shacks into a mess hall where we were served corned beef (bully beef) three times a day, which was shipped from Australia. The cook prepared patties for breakfast, meatloaf for lunch and hash for dinner served with side dishes that included native fruit such as breadfruit that grew on trees and was mixed with rice. Bananas, mangos and papaya were also abundant. Our weight declined considerably with this diet and also the perspiration from the heat contributed to a loss of weight.

The natives built a structure with a tank on top for an outdoor shower and the valve was opened at the bottom of the tank by pulling a chain. The shower was a welcome addition but the humidity never permitted us to achieve complete dryness. Our leather items such as belts, wallets and shoes were covered with blue mold from the humidity during the monsoon season that delivered the afternoon rains, which filled the rice paddies and flooded the entire area including the runway, which received approximately a foot and a half of water. The method our pilots used to find their way back to the base was a search for a straight river flowing through a clearing in the jungle. The intensity of the winds would cause extreme damage to our bashas that in some cases would lose roofs and walls.

A native teahouse was located between the British antiaircraft battery and our camp where we would get together in the evenings for tea and teacakes, which had ants crawling over them that required removal before indulging. On the jungle path back to our quarters, we detected some movement in the trees that was a python and after skirting around the area avoided a confrontation. From the observation platform, there was visibility of the wildlife, such as mongoose and cobras that would have an encounter in the under brush with the mongoose always victorious.

Lister bags (a rubberized canvas with a spigot on the lower end) containing chlorinated water were distributed throughout the area with an ample supply of salt tablets. Due to the contamination of most of the surface water, this was the only safe drinking water and canteen cups were used for drinking. There were a couple of GI garbage cans, one with soapy, boiling water for washing and the other with clear water for rinsing located outside of the mess hall for cleaning our mess kits and cups.

There was an excessive amount of famine and cholera all through the area in addition to malaria, which many of the natives succumbed to. Millions of natives were starving and many of them would approach us, in dirty aprons scraping whatever food they could from our mess kits before we washed them. Crows would also dive down over our shoulders to the mess kits attempting to glean a scrap or two. The British soldiers had enamel cups, which they carried on their belts and each afternoon would have their tea served from a container on the rear of a lorry.