Remembrances of the Maetsuycker and 196th Station Hospital

David Whittlesey has been kind enough, with the help of his son, Scott, to share some of his memories of the Maetsuycker. A fascinating read!Remembrances of the Maetsuycker and 196th Station Hospital
From log/diary kept by David Whittlesey

Basic Training in Brief

Being placed in 1-A Dec 42 I went to the draft board around the first of Feb 43 and asked to be called up earlier than scheduled.

So on Feb 15, which was a snowy blizzard like day, I reported to the West Hartford Town Hall. There, after a short talk and roll call we proceeded by bus to the Hartford Induction Center. Passing the examination, a group of us were sworn into the United States Army.On the 23rd of Feb. we left Hartford with destination Fort Devens, Mass Reception Center.We shipped out of there the 26th of Feb. and arrived at Camp Pickett, Va., Sunday Feb 28th for basic training in the Medical Dept. of the Army.

After 11 weeks of basic training, seven of which I spent in Clerk School, a small group of us numbering seven left Va. to head westward. The following evening, May 18th, we arrived in Camp Breckinridge for so-called Advanced Training. Of the seven leaving Pickett only Mike Phillips and I joined the 196th Station Hospital. The outfit had been formed some time ago.

Previously I had gotten home only once, and that was for only a few hours on Mothers’ Day. At Breckinridge I received two furloughs. The first was over my 19th birthday – June 14th to June 24th. After returning to camp the outfit had an alarm but we failed to move out so in Oct with another alarm being built up, I had my second furlough which was for seven days, for the reason stated above. On returning to camp, preparations were being made to leave Kentucky.

On the morning of Dec 1, 1943 we were all sure that the day had come. During the day we packed our two barracks bags and cleaned the barracks. After evening chow we gathered in an empty barracks on the other side of the 197th which had been sort of a running mate to us. Lt. Henne and Major Reitterman made a last check on what we had in our field packs. About 9:30 we were given orders to fall out of the barracks and into formation. We marched down to the railhead. Without loss of time our names were called and we boarded the train leaving two of our outfit behind and pulled out a couple of minutes later at 10 pm.

The train ride through the west was really nice as I hadn’t been there before. After leaving Kentucky we passed through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Utah, and finally ended up in Camp Stoneman, California early Sunday morning on the 5th of December.

At Stoneman we had a very brief physical, a clothing show-down, some lectures, and a demonstration on emergency equipment used at sea. Our stay was short. After a false alarm on the afternoon of the 9th, we moved out bright and early on the 10th. The day was very windy and I can remember how flustered our new 1st Sgt. got when he tried to give orders. The California weather had been poor and we were riding Charley [Herbert B.] Erdmann, our only Californian.

We marched out of camp under a large bridge which had an enormous echo, through the small town of Pittsburgh and down to a dock on the Sacramento River. Here we boarded a river boat which took us down to the Oakland piers. At about 5:30pm we marched up the gangplanks onto the decks of the troop-carrying “Fred C. Ainsworth”. We stayed at dock until seven the next morning. It wasn’t until 1pm that we moved out under the San Francisco Bridge and into the Pacific Ocean. Our sea-faring travels had begun.

Overseas Duty

We were classed as overseas as soon as we left the coastline of the United States the afternoon of Dec 11, 1943. Our voyage across the Pacific was anything but pleasant. We were very crowded both in the sleeping quarters and on the deck. We had but two meals a day with a sandwich, cup of tea or coffee, and perhaps a piece of fruit thrown in at noontime.

We crossed the equator about 8 am on December the 18th, and on the 22nd we crossed the International Date Line. On Christmas day the Red Cross handed out a small package of miscellaneous articles and a carton of cigarettes. Finally on Dec. 28th we stopped at our first port of call which was Townsville, Australia.

We lay outside the harbor waiting for orders. Some time later we found out that our original orders were to leave the ship at this point and proceed to Sydney by rail. Our orders were either changed or mixed up for we left Townsville on the afternoon of Dec. 31st.

As the sun was going down Jan 2, 1944, we passed through the China Straits, which was pretty that night, and into Milne Bay. The next day, Jan 3rd, we left the “Ainsworth” behind and set up our camp under a coconut grove on the Island of New Guinea which we saw many times in the months following.

During our six week stay on the island, we built up our camp and did detail work for the Base Surgeon such as carrying cement for a Medical Supply warehouse, moving supplies around for the depot, and unloading materials up on a hill to be used for building a General Hospital. We see this hospital every time we come back into Milne Bay.

At the end of January, we had to move our camp site to make room for a larger company. We moved into tents vacated by the 146th Station Hospital which boarded the Hospital Ship “Tasman”. Several days later we learned that we too were to be stationed aboard a hospital ship.

On Feb 13th we boarded the Hospital Ship “Maetsuycker” which would be our home for quite a period of time. We left the bay early Monday morning February 14th, 1944, headed for Oro Bay to pick up our first patients one day later and it took a great deal of work in order to prepare our hospital for patients.

Here is an account of our travels aboard the H.S. Maetsuycker:

[The next several pages in the log contain essentially the same information as the Ship’s Itineraries and are not duplicated in this document, except where items of interest were noted.]

*** 1944***

May 11th, 11am: Arrived Seeadler , Admiralty Islands. Stranded on reef about ten hours. I was in Ward 6 with infection on right leg at the time.

May 15th, 10am: Arrived Aitape, New Guinea. Fierce fighting there; went swimming

June 7th, 7am: Arrived Hollandia. First Air Raid as we lay outside Bay

July 7th, : Arrived Brisbane. 3-day pass Ipswich

Aug 22nd, 8:15pm: Arrived Oro Bay (played softball)

Sept 1st, 11am: Arrived Biak. Second Air Raid (blacked out)

Sept 8th, 5pm: Picked up Jap at sea

Sept 9th, 7am: 3rd air raid – just arriving

Oct 2nd, 7am: Arrived Sydney- 3 day pass

Nov 26th, 7am: Arrived Hollandia (played softball)

Dec 8th, 8:15am: Arrived Milne Bay (played softball)

Dec 14th, 9pm: Arrived Biak (played softball)

Dec 24th, 5pm: Arrived Leyte Gulf, Philippines. Three air alarms

Dec 25th 6 air alarms

Dec 26th 3 air alarms

Dec 27th 1 air alarm

*** 1945 ***

Jan 14th, 11:45am Left Leyte

Jan 15th, 3:00pm: Burial at sea

Jan 24th, 4:00am: Arrived Oro Bay (saw Irving Berlin)

Jan 25th, 7:30 am: Arrived Lae (played softball)

Mar 1st, 12:30pm: Ship left Finschhafen. Stayed ashore to collect supplies until ship comes back from Lae. Ship rammed and damaged dock while turning around in rough sea.

March 2nd, 5:30pm: Ship arrived Finschhafen. Met ship with 5 truckloads of supplies.

Mar 17th, 8:15 am: Arrived Subic Bay (1 Air Alarm)

Mar 18th, 12:00am: Arrived Manila Bay. At 11:30am we turned east into the south channel, getting a close view of Corregidor Island. Continued on into the bay and dropped anchor deep in bay about 2pm. Many ships sunk with only masts showing. The place is really something. Saw Mactan, reported last ship out of Manila before Japs took it.

Mar 27th, 7:00am: Left Hollandia. Ran into bad storm night of March 30th continuing through the 31st. Never want to be in another one. Slightly bruised up. Changed destination from Manila to Leyte.

April 4th, 7AM. Left Leyte. Air alarm night of 8-4-45. Flares & gunfire off port

Apr 11th, 7pm. Left Manila. 1pm 13-4-45 Received news of Pres. Roosevelt’s death – 3:30am EST.

Apr 16th, 2:15pm. Arrived Biak. Played softball game with Tasman. Lost 10-8.

Apr 18th, 1945, 8am. Left Biak. Picked up 14 men from 3 rubber life rafts. Their C-47 was forced down 5am 18-4-45 10:30am. Recovery made 9pm 18-4-45.

Apr 27th, 7am. Arrived Leyte. Saw part of British fleet – counted 8 carriers – two battleships – a number of cruisers and destroyers.

Apr 30th, 11:30am. Arrived Biak. Played ball 1-5 – beat Emily Weder 4-2

June 11th, 7:30am. Arrived Manila. 18-6-45 21st birthday passed without excitement. Received “Science for the Citizen” from Brooks Jenkins.

July 7th, 7pm. Arrived Sydney.

In Sydney received a two-week furlough 31 July 45 to 14 August. Afternoon of 14 August moved to Wentworth Park. Lived there in tent 13 E until 17th Sept. On 3rd Sept began the unloading of our equipment from the Maetsuycker. On the 15th of Sept. the last detail of unloading was completed.

Left Sydney the 17th of Sept at 10:50am on a troop-train.

Left Sydney 10:50am 17th Sept.
Dinner Newcastle 2pm 17th Sept.
Supper Taree 7pm 17th Sept.
Breakfast Casino 5:30am 18th Sept.
Disembarked Clapham 10:25am 18th Sept.

Upon leaving train, rode by truck to Holland Park for dinner. Left shortly for Ekbin by truck where we were put up in barracks. Sept 25 began deactivating the 196th Sta. Hosp. (Eubanks, Fassel, Erdmann, Conner, Warford, myself).

1pm: 11 men left for Ascot to await transport to U.S. Slagh, Lynch, Walters, Neeb, Arnold, Fenton, Pierce, Auguiswicz, Keltner, Brew, Kareores. On 24th, 35-year-olds Ferguson, Rabb, Lancaster, and Ellison left for Victoria Park to await transport for U.S. Bahler, Jones, Masquat left outfit in Sydney. Went to Brisbane to also await ship.

On Oct. 8, Erdmann, Fassel, Ferry, Harmon, Buras, Fetchko, Kort, Cerny, Bienkowski, Connor, Bafya, Wolf, Chaney, Foss transferred to Disposition Center. On 11 Oct Snell, Pullen, Bunch and myself were transferred to Disposition Center, APO 923. On 13 of Oct Beasley transferred to center. On 14th Thompson and Hamous transferred to center. On 17th Oct men who had been transferred to 153rd Station Hospital while we were in Ekbin Reported to Dis. Center. Jacobs, Lamm, Wm. Phillips, Lisenmayer, Long, Bahler, Faverman, *censored*o, Jenkins, Dulgar, Gehoe, Gilbert, Mike Phillips, Wyma.

Homeward Bound

12:15pm 25 Oct 45 Left Camp Ascot. Went by trucks to Brett’s Wharf.

1pm Boarded SS. Matsonia. I was on Medical Detail which was loading patients and their baggage.

12:30pm 26 Oct 45 Left Brisbane headed for home.

Monday 29 Oct For some reason or other I have to write here at this time. Yesterday was Monday the 29th. During the night we passed the International Date Line so today is again Monday the 29th making the longest day I have lived through. The trip home is fine. Three meals a day. Four hours of duty watching over seven mental patients every other day. I have plenty of armed forces books and we have been playing a lot of pinochle.

Oct 30th 12:30pm Arrived Pago Pago, Samoa Islands.

Oct 31st 6am Left Pago Pago

Nov 10th, 1945, 3:15pm. Arrived Seattle, Wash, USA. Debarked from Matsonia around 5:30pm 10-11-45. Went to Camp Lawton by truck arriving 6pm.

Nov 13th, 6:30am. Left Seattle on train. Went through states of Wash, Idaho, Mont., No. Dakota, Minn. Wisconsin, Iowa, Ill, Ind., Ohio, Penn., New Jersey, N.Y., Conn. Arrived in Fort Devens Mass at 1:15pm, 18-11-45 for discharge.