Image description: The Sea Flasher was the vessel that carried Norman Nigh and the other members of the U.S. Army's 3rd Engineer Special Brigade (ESB) to the Southwest Pacific. Source: Troopships of WWII by the Army Transportation Association, published in 1947. (Accessed via https://history.army.mil/documents/WWII/wwii_Troopships.pdf)
The last decent food Norman Nigh ate for nearly two years was probably the doughnuts and coffee served by the Red Cross ladies that night. It was January 8, 1944. Norman and the rest of the 3rd ESB (minus the 533rd Shore Battalion and the 563rd Boat Maintenance Battalion who were already in New Guinea, the later busily assembling the brigade's landing craft) were at Ft. Mason, the San Francisco Port of Embarkation, on the east side of San Francisco Bay. The men were waiting in the drizzling rain to board the Sea Flasher, the troop transport ship that would carry them across the Pacific Ocean to New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific Area.
Image description: A Red Cross volunteer serves doughnuts and coffee. These "Doughnut Dollies" of the Red Cross were not only dispensing their treats Stateside, but served in the European theater, operating out of "Clubmobiles" to provide refreshment to the troops on the ground. (Image source: https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history.html)
Later that night, Norman and the 3rd ESB soldiers began boarding the Sea Flasher. In order to confuse potential spies lurking, each man carried two bags while boarding the ship- one with warm weather gear; the other suited for cold climates. (No doubt Norman and his shipmates later flung the cold weather gear overboard due to an acute lack of storage space on the ship.) Just after midnight on January 9, 1944, the Sea Flasher departed. As the ship glided its way out of San Francisco Bay and into the Pacific Ocean, the men (I like to think that Norman was among them) standing on deck observed an eerie, blacked out San Francisco. Then, looking up, they would have beheld the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. For those unfortunate men not destined to survive the war, the bridge would be one of their very last visions of the United States of America.
Image description: The Golden Gate Bridge in December 1942. The ship pictured is the USS San Francisco (Source: US Navy Photo 80-G-40093).
More than 5,000 men, along with the crew, crossed the Pacific Ocean aboard the Sea Flasher. The ship was built to accommodate a fraction of that. To compensate for the excess passengers, the military constructed pipe and canvas bunks five to six rows high within the ship's large cargo bays, allowing each bay to sleep about 600 soldiers. The men assigned to the top bunks had to climb up each row disturbing all in his way. Heaven forbid he’d need to visit the lavatory during the night.
Image description: A bunk set-up on a troop transport ship. The photo was taken in 1943 on the SS Pennet while docked in the San Fransico Port of Embarkation, California (from where Norman's ship also left for the Pacific). According to the photo description on the WWII Database: "senior personnel would often receive the top bunk, as during a storm the lower bunks would be showered with vomit. The higher bunks would have a greater roll during heavy seas." (Source: https://worldwar2database.com/gallery/wwii1035 )
Seasickness was rampant. In fact, according to Henry Payne in his book Memoirs of a Frog, it began with the first meal served on the Sea Flasher- salted beef and potatoes. The food was, "deposited in the latrine, floor, or decks of the ship by seasick soldiers within two hours after it was consumed. There was so much of that stuff deposited around the ship that drains couldn't divest itself(sic) of it. When it was necessary for a person to use the latrine, it meant a wade of ankle deep proportions. The stench was unbearable."
The ventilation in the Sea Flasher’s bays was beyond inadequate. The ship's route involved crossing the equator. The heat in the bays was surely unbearable. Luckily (or unluckily), the Army didn’t bother issuing the men any sheets or blankets, and the soldiers slept in their uniforms or less on the hot nights. The Army also didn’t provide pillows. Instead, men relied on their life preservers for head support. These were stuffed with the seed fiber of a tropically-grown tree known as kapok and constructed out of canvas with a blue dye that rubbed off onto the men’s skin. It fit over the head and hung over the chest in two long columns, inspiring the nickname “Mae West” among the G.I.s. Henry Payne described the Mae West as something the men had “with you at all times as if you had been born with the damn thing.”
Image description: A "Mae West" life preserver. The photo was taken by John Collier of the Office of War Information in Bar Harbor, Maine, date unknown. (Source: Library of Congress http://loc.gov/pictures/resource/fsa.8d39102/)
The stench in the Sea Flasher's cargo bays must have been incredible. Hundreds of sweaty young men, many suffering frequent bouts of sea sickness, were crammed into hot, poorly ventilated quarters. To make matters worse, the ship had a very limited fresh water supply, which undoubtedly resulted in abysmal hygiene. Each man was rationed only one helmet-ful of fresh water per day for shaving and bathing. Clothing could not be washed, and proper showers were not available.
Image description: Colorized photo depicting helmet-wearing U.S. Army soldiers landing at Morotai Island (source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Landing_at_Morotai_Island_(34674932072).jpg ) mid-September 1944. (Norman later spent time on Morotai while preparing for the invasion of Borneo.) Army helmets of the World War II era up until the mid-80s were known as the M1 helmet. They comprised an outer shell and a lining, the latter which I presume was removed so that Norman and the other soldiers could fill their helmets daily with water for bathing and shaving while on the ship.
An existential threat also loomed. The Sea Flasher was among the first troop transports sent to the SWPA without an escort ship. As James Pounds noted in his book The Story of Our War, the ship's captain was uneasy about the voyage. He had recently returned Stateside after Japanese submarines torpedoed his previous ship just east of the Christmas Islands (Kiribati), a coral atoll a thousand miles south of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific. Luckily, he survived, but on this voyage, he had to quickly assemble a new and unfamiliar crew for the Sea Flasher, consisting of Merchant Marines and Navy gunners.
In order to mitigate possible attacks on this voyage, the Sea Flasher took a rather circuitous route across the Pacific. After leaving San Francisco, it headed southward through Mexican and Central American waters before turning southwest-ward toward Christmas Island/Kiribati. From there, it headed further west, stopping at the island of New Caledonia east of Australia. Due to engine trouble, the Sea Flasher docked there for three days, January 25th through the 28th, for necessary repairs. For the duration of the stopover, the men were not allowed to leave the ship.
Image description: Norman's route across the Pacific in January/February 1944. He departed San Francisco Bay on January 9, 1944 and arrived at Goodenough Island off the coast of New Guinea on February 2. Along the way, the ship traveled near the Christmas Islands area (Kiritimati), and made stops at New Caledonia and Milne Bay. The live map on Google can be accessed via the following link: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1OjKCagKIM4uKUx_hgvm-JGca438kAlh0&usp=sharing
Finally, on February 6, at 1600 hours, after what must have been an agonizing 9.5 hour stopover at Milne Bay on the eastern tip of New Guinea (during which a small number of troops disembarked), the Sea Flasher traveled just 60 miles further to Goodenough Island. After 24 days at sea among the less-than-luxurious conditions of the Sea Flasher- the heat, the stench, and the seasickness- Norman and the men of the 3rd ESB prepared to disembark.
Image description: Relief map of Goodenough Island, where the 3rd ESB arrived on February 2, 1944. The island lies adjacent to New Guinea's eastern coast. It is one of several islands that comprise the D'Entrecasteaux Archipelago in the Solomon Sea. Goodenough Island is named after the 19th century British explorer James Graham Goodenough. It is about thirteen miles wide and 21 miles long, featuring the 8,000-ft tall Mount Vineuo at its center. The island's coastal areas primarily consist of swamps and grasslands. (Image source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/mapsonline/base-maps/goodenough-island )
Was a salubrious and sunny tropical paradise awaiting Norman and the men of the 3rd ESB after their long journey? Alas, no. They were met with torrential rains. Due to a lack of docks on the island, the Sea Flasher anchored offshore. The men descended rope ladders into landing craft waiting to take them ashore. And weather be damned, Norman and the men still needed to unload equipment and set up their tents. In his book Our Business is Beachheads, Ernest Paquette recalled, "It rained all that day and night. We had to unload our equipment and set up our tents in the pouring rain. It was twenty-four hours before anyone got any rest." Henry Payne noted that during their first experience of rain in the tropics, "The humidity was horrific. Even though we were wearing our ponchos, we were just as wet under the ponchos as we would have been without them." And this was just the beginning...
References:
The above text is a compilation of material gathered from three memoirs written by members of the 593rd Engineer Boat and Shore regiment who experienced the above journey first-hand:
Paquette, Ernest W., Our Business is Beachheads: The 3rd ESB and 593rd EB&SR, (Self-Published, 1993). Mr. Paquette was a member of the 3rd ESB's 593 EBSR, Company B.
Payne, Henry Ross, Memoirs of a Frog, (CSN Books, 2008). Mr. Payne was a member of the 3ESB's 593rd EBSR, Company A.
Pounds, James A., The Story of Our War, (CreateSpace, 2012.) Mr. Pounds was a member of the 3ESB's 593rd EBSR, Company C.
Additional information gleaned from:
Duffy, James P., War at the End of the World: Douglas MacArthur and the Forgotten Fight for New Guinea, 1942-1945, (Dutton Caliber Publishing, 2016)
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