[Spridgets] gone - WWII

Tim Collins thcollin at mtu.edu
Thu Oct 28 18:25:08 MDT 2010


My dad was in the Coastal Artillery and was in New Guinea for the 
battle of Milne Bay or just after the battle. (The battle of Milne 
Bay (25 August-7 September 1942) was the first defeat suffered by 
Japanese land forces during the war in the Pacific, and prevented 
them from establishing a base at the eastern tip of New Guinea.) The 
Aussies are the real heros of this battle. Anyhow, the men lived in 
tent like structures there. One day one of his buddies shot dad's 
boot first thing in the morning. Turns out there was a snake in the 
boot. Sure wish I could pin down exactly when dad was there, but 
records went up in smoke at the government repository years ago. 
Supposedly, dad's men were harassed by 5 O'Clock Charlie, but as I 
study these things there were either a bunch of 5 O'Clock Charlies in 
different parts of the war or Charlie was one busy guy. I was only 16 
when dad passed - there's lot's I would like to know. The worst 
critters in New G were the skeeters. Dad ended up with dengue fever 
as did many of the GI's.

What's the name of the book you are reading?


At 07:16 PM 10/28/2010, BJNoSHOV8 wrote:
>I was reading a book about army air corps flight crews on the little 
>islands in the Pacific during WWII.  Apparently the barracks had a 
>group of men sleeping in a big room.  One night they woke up to a 
>very loud noise.  It seems that a rat was nibbling on dried skin on 
>one of the men's feet.  He woke up, grabbed his .45 Auto, and got 
>the rat before it escaped.

Tim Collins
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12702006@N07/sets/ 


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