Christmas in the Philippines - 1944

Christmas in the Philippines

It was on the Eve of Christmas 1944 that we first arrived in the Philippine Islands.  We were anchored in Leyte Gulf for Christmas Eve.  We tried to entertain ourselves on our promenade deck but had little success as we had three air alerts.  This kept us all up until Christmas morning had arrived.

This morning the ship moved north into the mouth of San Pedro By located between the islands of Leyte and Samar.  At one o’clock Christmas afternoon our barge was put over and group of us numbering nine set off for Leyte’s capital Tacloban.

We passed close by the airstrip.  It is situated right on the Beach.  It was covered with planes of all kinds: Army Liberators, Lightnings and Billy Mitchells.  Navy Hellcats, Avengers, and Corsairs.  Navy Mariners and Corinados were lying about the bay.  Along the beach were a number of our own planes that had been wrecked.  Seeing these planes half in the water and half out, all in a badly mangled condition, made me wonder what had become of the pilots that had flown them.

After an hour and fifteen minutes we arrived at Tacloban.  It was a far cry from the jungle of New Guinea we had just left.  We started off on foot to see as much and as many things of interest as possible.  A few paces from the dock was a road intersection.  The mud was terrific.  All about us now were small houses or shall we say shacks because most of them were made of scrap pieces of wood.   There were however some more sturdy buildings.  These were the business houses, churches, and the capital building itself.  There was a doctor’s home with his sign board in front giving his name and office hours.  At nearly all street corners were small shops.  At one point there was a hotel, another a telegraph and postal office, another a Catholic teachers school.

With a little imagination one could see a peaceful, clean and thriving city of prewar days.  But on the other hand it was now a war hardened ramshackle town.  I felt very sorry for these people who through no wish of their own, went through hell.  The buildings looked to be just shells of such, as though the fighting must have been very much a house-to-house affair.

The Filipinos of course were numerous.  Some of their men were in U.S. Army uniforms, some not in uniform but with guns nevertheless.  There were many, many small children all about.  Two called out “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” as we passed them.  Another small boy seemed to want to shake hands as we passed.  Still another boy was throwing a silver coin around in the mud having a fine time retrieving it.  One Pilipino was holding to another.  He must have been blind.  Although their clothes were in a bad way, they were always clean even with all the mud around.  It seemed that the people knew they were through the worst of it and were making their way the best they knew how.

We finally returned to our barge and began our journey of approx. 15 miles back to the ship.

Turning back the clock to Christmas morning, it was then that we first viewed our friends of the Philippines.  They came out in their canoes or outriggers and bargained with the Javanese, our Nurses, E.M., and passengers.  They had woven hats, mats, Japanese invasion money, shells and a whole raft of things.  They wished in return food, clothing, or cigarettes and usually struck a hard bargain.  Many of them could make themselves understood in English. 

Christ Day is now nearing its end.  It’s about 9pm and so far we have had 5 air raid alerts.  That’s how I’ve spent Christmas Day 1944 in the Philippines.