JFC: Oh no, there may have been some drunken fights but that was friendly fire.

INT:   Could you tell me some of the more memorable experiences you had down at Australia?

JFC: We moved up to Cairnes where we made our own boats. I was not involved in that. Gen. MacArthur and the Nimitz did not work together. The Army did not use any naval people for landing. They used us. MacArthur said there was going to be and we were it. We took the boats up to the campaign in New Guinea. Some of these boats were made in Cairnes and some were from the United States.

One of the memorable things at that time was getting used to the tropics up in northern Australia. It was a good orientation because it quite warm. This was important and it became more important when we were in New Guinea. We were all ready to go and we took a little tramp steamer. We did not know at the time, but that was a dangerous operation. We could have been shot right out of the water as the Japanese were not that far away.

INT:   After you spent the year in Australia, where did you go?

JFC: We went to New Guinea to a place called Lae. The Laeu operation was successful. We landed with the 9th Australian division. It was a night operation. I stayed on the boat. Then we went up to Finch Island which had just been landed and we went up there for re support. Then we had our first initial landing at New Britain. at the Christmas of 1943 that we went to New Britain. There were some shots fired in anger at that time.

That was our first Christmas overseas. The Chaplain asked us if we wanted to come down for a Christmas service and we all went. It was relatively uneventful, but it was very nice.

INT:    So there weren't any casualties

JFC:  Oh yes as we were securing the beach. They sent the Marines in there. They had to come back and stage a counterattack. It wasn't easy.

At that point they gave us some R&R and sent us to Australia for two weeks. After this, we came back and were assigned to a Survey group. There were 7 people in my group. We would look at the landings and determined if they were adequate. You see there were only German charts at the time and none from the U.S. I stayed with this group for the rest of the war. We went up and down the coast of New Guinea . We went as far north as Dutch New Guinea. That was memorable as we paid in gilders, the Dutch denomination. There was no place to spend this money. We called the currency "Kate Smiths" as it had Queen Julianna on it who we thought looked like Kate Smith.

INT:   When you went down to Australia for R&R what did you do?

JFC: My buddy and I decided that we were going to stick together. W7e had a large bag filled with cigarettes as we knew it was valuable merchandise. We didn't have any money. We had a bag of cigarettes and a bottle of whiskey. The people were all very generous to us and I met a gal down there who I thought a lot of and we kept up correspondence for the rest of the war.

INT:   Did you see her after the war?

JFC: Well, I saw her in 1992.

INT:   How many cigarettes did the Army allocate to you?

JFC: You got a carton a week. You could get two cartons if you took one of the lower brands such as Raleighs. Lucky Strikes were popular. When we found out we were going down to Australia, we rounded up all the cigarettes that no one wanted. We could not trade with the natives in New Guinea at all. They could just kill for the cigarettes so we had to keep away from them.

INT:   What was the relationship between the Army and the natives there?

JFC: We were under Australian administration as they were the ones who controlled the natives in the territory. So we didn't have any contact with them. Sometimes they would come through the camp on the way to someplace, but we were not supposed to even talk to them.

INT:   Did the natives live in large huts in camps?

JFC: There were hundreds of tribes in New Guinea all over the country. Much like you see in Africa. If you went inland, the people were eating each other. There were some very high mountains between us. The terrain was very treacherous.

INT:   Was the climate as humid there as it was in Australia?

JFC: It was more humid, but we were by the water at the shore and the humidity as not as bad. It was cooler, but it could get up to 120 in the daytime.

INT:   Was there any fighting on the island?

JFC: We were there after the big campaign at Lae. As a matter of fact, one night, a Japanese soldier tried to get in our chow line. It was swampy there with no food and supplies. There were some Japanese soldiers that were just left there as Japan had written them off.

One time I was bending over to pick up my laundry and a shot went right above me and hit the boat.

INT:   While you were there, were there any celebrities that came to the island?

JFC: Bob Hope was there one evening and he was wonderful. He was there with Jerry Cologna and Francis Lankford. He was just a magic guy. During his act, some machine gunfire started up behind him in this very narrow perimeter. His adlib remarks had us rolling in the aisles.

Mrs. Roosevelt was there at another time and comedian Joe E. Brown was with her.

INT:   After New Guinea, you said you went to the Philippines?

JFC: Yes, we went on the first landing on the Philippines. The day they landed on October 20,1944.

INT:   And that was the reason they sent you there for that landing?

JFC: The reason they sent us was we were going to a landing survey with our boat. We were armed. We had a twin 50 caliber in the pit in the midship. We had radar and everything we needed for the survey work. We felt pretty comfortable. We were going to put a 37 millimeter camera up , but we didn't know who was going to shoot it. We decided it would be a waste of time.

INT:   When you surveyed the area, did you try to find the best place to put up armaments?

JFC: Basically we had to chart the ocean floor as some things could come up overnight and rip the bottoms out of the LCMS or LCDS. These were landing crafts for the troops. These coral chips that rose up were very dangerous and when we found them, we knew there was no way to use that route.

INT:   Could you move them?

JFC: No, they were much too large. We would take coast watch up the line. We were accompanied by an Australian and a native from New Guinea who knew the coastline and the ways to get back in.

The Japanese had some big encampments on the island. Gen. MacArthur passed up some of big encampments. We went right by them and came up on the other side of them. It was masterful strategy. Not so Nimitz. I think Nimitz was a brutal guy who didn't mind letting the blood flow. Nimitz did have different assignments than MacArthur. If an airstrip was needed, Nimitz had to go right in and capture that area. He had very little latitude. I had an uncle that was killed in one of those encounters.

MacArthur had a little more flexibility in choosing his combats. Generally, Nimitz did not and many of the Marines were killed in those battles. It was a matter of necessity and even though they lost a lot of people, they got the job done.

INT:   It must have been particularly tough on the Marines on that island.

JFC: Well yes. They were the only true volunteer troops we had anyway.

INT:  Now you were in the Philippines for how long?

JFC:  For a year and a month.

INT:  When was your last day in the Philippines?

JFC:  November 2,1944, On the way home, we ran into a typhoon. Then I sat on my butt for a while and then went to law school.

INT:  What was it like when you first came home?

JFC:  When I first got home and my mother saw me, she burst into tears. I was 5'113/4 " and weighed only 138 pounds. I was absolutely racked with malaria. You have that yellow appearance and your eyeballs get yellow. I looked oriental. I had three different fevers of unknown origin and also had jungle rot which was the worst part.

INT:  Did it take you a long time to get over these?

JFC:  I got the jungle rot going home from the Philippines. On the flight home, I met someone from the next town in Michigan. Before we left and were in the hospital, the Lieutenant came by with a clipboard and asked us if we wanted to volunteer for this new drug that could help. I remember asking the fellow next to me, Babcock, if he was going to try the drug. He said, "I am just going home". I said, "I am too".   I looked awful. I had all these sores all over me. I asked him' "What if it makes it worse?' Fie had lost a few toes and suffered from something that looked like leprosy.

So we went to bed. They woke us up at 6:00 in the morning so that we could get our things together. I turned to the bed next to me and the man was dead. I turned to Babcock and said,"Guess what, that man over there is dead." He said, "Oh my God! Where is that guy with that new drug?"  The new drug was penicillin. They had never tried it before. After taking that drug, all my sores dried right up in 48 hours. We took that penicillin and were left behind, but recovered.

INT:  And that was in 1945?

JFC:  That was in early 1945. The Hucks were almost to the outskirts of the hospital. You could hear them shooting at night; for the last three nights. They were part of a guerilla outfit, a revolutionary group.

Our battalion had worked its way up the coast of the Philippines in Manila
Bay working on different projects. We went to a number of islands and found our way to
Manila. We worked our way back down again, engaging the Japanese and landed in
Subic Bay. They sent us to northern Luzon to look for a copper mine. Thenwe went to Batanias.                       

And I was sent to the hospital. I had gotten ahead of myself, but those were some of the adventures we experienced.

At Corregidor, I lost my hearing. We got into a fracas with the Japanese and we were shooting at each other. It was a little naval warfare. We had twin 50s and they just decimated them. They were shooting at us and they had M1s and we had 25 caliber carbines. Peashooters we called them. Those M1s made a lot of noise coming at you. We had holes that went right through the boat. We were lucky we weren't killed. I was just below the twin50s and the fellow that was firing it had it freeze up on him. I couldn't move and there was nothing I could do. At that time my ears began to drain and all I could hear was the ringing in my ears. To this day, I still hear that ringing.

INT:  Did you keep in touch with some of the people you knew over there; such as Babcock?

JFC:  I called him once when I got back home but we never could get together. There was one fellow who was in the regiment who did come through. He was visiting all the people he knew at that time. I think was rich and that allowed him to do this. He stopped by for a visit and we went out to dinner. I saw my roommate at college up at Finch Island. He had a PT boat. I had this fever that made you feel like your bones were breaking. Anyway, Bob took me out on a ride on his PT boat and called it a recovery trip. He told the officers we were going out on a run for something. We went on the ride. We came back, he dropped me off and never did get a chance to see him again.

INT:  What were the circumstances when you saw this woman you met in Austalia during the war and met again in 1992?

JFC:  The Army had promised me that I could go back to Manila and get a discharge. So I went back to Manila and then to Australia. I had been in touch over the years and while I was in Australia, I thought I should just look her up and see if she was still alive. I hired some genealogy people named MacBeth and they found her.

JFC:  These people only knew where she lived during the war. She had a common last name, Mitchell. They notified me the day before my friend and I left for Australia that they located her. She had given the MacBeth people a request that I call her the minute I reach Tasmania. She told me to meet her the Monday next and I met her family including her husband and three kids. Now she and her husband were both ill, but her daughter, Victoria, took care of me and showed me around.

I was in Tasmania a few weeks ago and saw my friend again with her son. We had dinner together and it was so nice to see her again. She is a very sweet lady.

INT:  Did you say that some of the people in your brigade get together from time to time?

JFC:  There are 40 of us left out of 5000 that can stand up. I am going this year to Rapid City(Michigan).

INT:  Where are some of the places you have gone?

JFC:  I used to want to go, but I never got around to it. The guy who was in charge of it, a fellow named Lieberman. I remember him as the Supply Sergeant up in Massachusetts. I will never forget him. He gave us some shoes that were too big. When I went to the reunion in Denver three years ago, he was there and I asked him if I could give him back my shoes.

I was originally sent to the Signal Company for a short time before I joined the 592nd. This was the Shore and Boat Battalion. We landed the people, established communications with whatever organization we were with. This was so they wouldn't have to be bothered.

INT:  How long did it take you to physically recover from your sores and everything once you got home?

JFC:  I don't know about recovering. I had malaria for 10 years and could not give blood during that time.

INT:  Couldn't they give you quanine?

JFC:  We had another drug we took to prevent malaria only when we were there. We weren't given quanine.

INT:  I know it was a long time age, but do you find yourself thinking about the war years often?

JFC:  No, not until it's brought up. Well, when we go to the reunion, we swap lies about how heroic we were. I look at it as I am glad that I did it; proud that I did it and I would not have had it any other way. I wanted to get there even if they shot me. If I had died, I would have been fine with it. My uncle couldn't stand it. His son, my cousin, was a Colonel in the Air Force. My uncle was bound and determined to get into the Navy. He got in, became a Lieutenant Commander, received the Navy Cross, he was killed saving some of the boys. He was on a small carrier in the Macon Islands. He had to be there. I am sure I would have done the same if it came to that(giving my life).

My father was in World War 1 and my mother was in the Naval Department as a translator. My grandmother was a Red Cross nurse in Paris as an aide to Mrs. Roosevelt. Personally, I don't have any tolerance for people who won't serve their country. I just don't understand. I have seen a disintegration of patriotism even since the Vietnam War.

INT:  This concludes the interview with Mr. John F. Cress.